Aeiko

www.aeiko.net

Aeiko is the online portfolio of graphic designer, Pete Harrison. Pete is freelance designer who also works in web design, typography and brand identity as well as graphic design. Pete graduated with a BSC Honours degree in Medialab Arts and now works under the creative name of Aeiko. Since graduating he has built up an impressive client list including Dolice and Gabanna, Peugeot, BMW, Sky, Natwest and Fall Out Boy.

I came across Aeiko as I was browsing through Computer Arts and was amazed by his abstract print based based work. He tends to use photographs in his work with unusual shapes, lines and colours surrounding the main focus. I love the composition and layout of all his work and would love to try and create something similar myself because I find his work outstanding.

Hans Brinker Budget Hotel Campaign

www.hans-brinker.com

Hans Brinker Budget Hostel is situated in the heart of Amsterdam. I went on a University trip there in my first year of my degree and loved the place. It was cheap and cheerful but had a great time with my mates.

However the Hans Brinker has a very unusual way of advertising the hostel. We all know that all hostels are dull and dirty but most hostels try and make the place look much cleaner and presentable through advertising. Not the Hans Brinker. Their advertising over the years show over the top images and illustrations that show that the hostel is proud to be dirty.

Their unusual way of advertising gets people talking and makes people curious of what the hostel is actually like. I have found some mixed quotes here on a website...

www.frederiksamuel.com/blog/2006/12/hans-brinker-budget-hotel.html

Deanna Says:

"I don't understand how this sells the hotel at all. Who wants to stay at a cheap hotel where everything is broken? And what does 'Unique Design' have to do with anything? This is terrible.

Although I will say that subtract the fact that it is an advertsising trying to sell something and failing miserably- the layout, colors and images are great".

Zed Says:

"Hi, this ad made me smile, and upon reading the negative comments, it made me smile more, in that it was willing to alienate a portion of the demographic (and possibly customers!) so as not to be condescending- I;m sure they could have "fixed" the ad by clarifying that their furniture and hospitality services aren't actually broken, and added contrasting reference images to show exactly what they're satirizing, but that sort of the audience- hand-holding is far more insulting that helpful. if it fails, at least it fails honorably, Good on them."

I have to agree with the second comment made by Zed, I think the advertisement is genius and when me and my mates looked at the posters before we went we all laughed and couldn't wait to get there and see what it's like. As the hostel is mainly aimed at student like ourselves, I think the advertisements work perfectly.

Welcome To Cloud

www.welcometocloud.com

Welcome To Cloud is the online portfolio of Pierre Nguyen, a 25 year old Graphic Designer from France. Pierre is based in Paris and his illustrated graphic design are both beautiful and unique.

There is not much information about Pierre on the internet but I just find his work remarkable. The way he uses composition, layout, colours and shapes is completely original. His work is like a collage but arranged in an unusual way with objects, colours, shapes and lines being mixed together.

He tends to use lots of black and white with shades of colour on certain shapes and objects. His work has been a huge inspiration for my final major project, as I want to create my own collage style animation using similar layouts and colours. As soon as I seen his work I was amazed, but have always wanted it to be animated in some way. Maybe just subtle movements with music in the background. I will experiment with this style and layout with my final major project and maybe email him my work when I have finished to show him how he's influenced me.

Soemone

www.soemone.com

Soemone is the digital portfolio of Doucin Pierre, a 25 year old freelance graphic designer from Paris, France. He also works on illustrations for prints and web-based images and also creates websites himself. On his website it describes that,

"After about ten years dedicated to the culture of grafiti, Soemone now works with digital format and has developed a personal and dynamic graphic universe. Open to any form of expression, Soemone's work is in the perpetual evolution. He multiplies every experience and has mastered every a unique style and technique of present day design".

Throughout his work you can clearly see his graffiti background with all his images being very abstract and colourful. His work is very unique and he tends to distort each images by adding shapes, lines and objects to them or subtracted them from his image.

As my channel ident will have lots of celebrities on it, this style of distorting an image could be a good idea to represent them on my ident. This is something that I will experiment with.

Brand Nu

www.brandnu.co.uk

Brand Nu is the creative name for the online portfolio of Radim Malinic. Brand Nu create Illustrations, Graphic Design, Typography and Album Artwork for clients such as O2, BBC, Sky Sports, Ministry Of Sound and Orange amongst others.

I came across Brand Nu in the latest edition of Computer Arts and loved the colourful and abstract work that was in their. His work is similar to Welcome To Cloud that I have also been looking at but I feel Brand Nu's work is more commercial and client based driven whilst Welcome To Clouds seems to be his own style completely.

Although I love Brand Nu's work, as a Multimedia student I cant help but want to see the work being animated onto a channel ident, an advertisement or any sort of moving image piece.

Non-Format

www.non-format.com

"Non-Format is the creative team of Kjell Ekhorn (Norwegian) and Jon Forss (British). They work on a range of projects including art direction, design and illustration for arts and culture, music industry and fashion and advertising clients. They also art direct Varoom: the journal of illustration and made images." (www.non-format.com)

I have been a huge fan of the work of non-format for a number of years and their book 'Love Songs' shows the whole range of their beautiful work to date. They tend to work in mainly black and white with a hint of colour in selected pieces of work. Their abstract style is a mixture of shapes, objects, colours, lines, photographs and typography.

Their minimalist approach is something I really admire and as you can see there is a theme of influences throughout my blog of minimalist designers. I feel as if though there is more thought about the layout, composition and colour if it surrounded by lots of white space because this emphasizes the importance of the subject that is shown.

Over the years Non-Format have created work for huge clients such as Nike, Coka, LG and Orange. What influences me so much about this company is that their unique style is reflected in every piece they do, which I feel is important when you can be recognized by the style you work in.

Although I am in an early stage of designing, trying to create my unique style is something that I want to try and incorporate into my future pieces of work starting with my final major project.

Studio AKA Studio Visit

www.studiaka.co.uk

Studio AKA are a BAFTA Award winning animation production company based in London. They produce Commericals for LLyods TSB, Guiness and Bupa and Channel Idents for BBC 2, CBBC, Disney- Recycling and Nick Jnr Idents to name just a few. As well as this, following the success of the short animated film, 'Jo Jo In the Stars they have created the short film, Varmints.

Once arriving at Studio AKA, we were shown into a small seating area by one of the the member of staffs there and were shown a DVD of some their work. This was amazing to be in a studio where they create such beautiful animations in various different styles. One animation really stood out for me, which was the 'Sing Up' campaign which encourages children to become more involved with singing and music. The animation is really simple with lots of positive space around each musical note. The musical notes all had their own personality, including one who seemed to be too shy to sing in front of the others. With some encouragement from his peers, the musical notes joins in with the rest of them as they all sing in tune with each. I just felt the simplistic and humorous advert was beautifully animated and goes to show you don't need to be a technical expert to create a good piece of work.

After watching the various pieces of work on the DVD, we were told some important things about the company such as showreels and employment within the company. We were told to keep our show reels short with just the best pieces of work on it, this seemed to be a common theme throughout all the studio visits. We were also told that they employ students as runners to begin with, who get to learn all the software and technical side. If the runner is then successful in their 'training' period then they will be offered a job at the company. I found this very encouraging that even if you haven't got all the skills in the world, you can still have a chance at such a large company. Another thing that I found interesting about the company is that all the directors pitch against each other when coming to creating a project. I found this quite surprising but understand that if there is lots of competition inside the company, then it will bring the best ideas through.

We then were shown the DVD of Varmints, which is a short animation based on the award winning book. The film is about a create who struggles to preserve a world in danger. The film took over two years to create and I was amazed at the quality of the animtion. It was like a Pixar or Disney film! It was pleasing to see such as quality animation being produced by a relatively small company.

I really enjoyed our visit to Studio AKA, the work that comes out that place is amazing and inspiring to me. I would of liked to maybe be shown around the studio and have a look at the working environment but I understand how busy they are. On the whole I thoroughly enjoyed the visit.