Strong colors, precise curves, Diego is being exploring his sneakers style spirit.

My name is Diego Leal, I’m 28 years old, I’m a designer-illustrator from Bogota - Colombia, at this time I’m working at grupow in Saltillo Mexico as a designer and illustrator, I enjoy a lot what i do.

2/  You’re from Bogota, what about the creative scene in Colombia ?

Well, according to my experience, about the designers, there is a lot of new talent with interesting and new styles, with the will to do a lot of innovating things. If we talk about the clients and agencies, they are looking for a more traditional concept where unfortunately the design is not too important.

Yes i’m working at grupow, an agency with a lot of talent and a great will to create, my position is illustrator, but from time to time I colaborate with some other design related stuff.

4/ Are there any influences from the Colombia arts history ? I’m a big fan of Botero works… been influenced by his graphic works ?

Personally i’m not a Botero’s fan, still, I admire the respect and renown he’s achieved around the world, and the fact that he has put Colombia’s name in the list of good things, not the bad ones. I find the art of David Manzur very interesting, his dramatism and surrealism are inspiring, I love the sort of geometry he applies in his compositions.

5/  You’re moving very “urban” lately  (2 or 4 colors graphics, LaFraise tees..), and that way, your works seem to have more impact, to be more direct..Planning to develop that style ?

Yes, i like that style very much, but to tell you the truth it’s been hard because i was used to use a lot of detail, layers and effects, and when i make an illustration i always want to put something else there, you have to know when to stop, what I like about this style is that it’s more into shapes and colors than into creating distraction or somehow “playing” with different effects and stuff like that.

6/ Tell us about your iconhive project too ?

I worked several years in icon design, so i decided to start mi own stock. Iconhive is a project that I mean to push forward, however I’ve had to go slowly since I invest my spare time on it, and lately it’s been a bit hard.

7/ What’s the “cliché” you have of Europe, and especially France dealing of the graphic scene ?  Watching your works,  we could believe you feel closer to Europe designers, than US ones..

Mi reference for the European design is very good in general, i’ve seen a lot of great designers and illustrators, I had the pleasure of work with a spanish designer, I found indeed his style was very european, elegant, very modern, quite impressive, however, I feel more identified with latin american design.

8/ Thanks for your time,.. any last words ?

merci beaucoup for this interview! to be honest it was an amazing surprise for me! I felt very flattered to have my work recognized, thanks a lot!, well, to finish with a few words, create and enjoy what you do.

1/ Salut Tino qui es-tu ?

Bonjour Anto.
Tout d’abord, merci pour l’intérêt que tu portes à mon travail et pour ta bonne, mais délicate question, que je me pose souvent d’ailleurs… Pour y répondre, voici un petit inventaire à la Prévert, ou à la Questions pour un Champion, (même si de loin je préfère Jacques à Julien)…

Donc je suis:
un habitant de la Terre,
un voyageur dans l’Espace,
un père pour mes enfants,
un mystère pour ma femme,
un dessinateur depuis toujours,
un curieux pour longtemps,
un collectionneur,
un illustrateur,
un ancien DA,
un professeur à Lisaa,
un photographe amateur,
un amateur éclairé,
une ombre sans café,
un rêveur éveillé.
Un petit rien dans le grand tout…

2/ Quels sont tes terrains d’actions ? Préfères tu les projets destinés à l’impression plutôt qu’à l’écran ?

Je pratique sur tous les terrains, avec une préférence pour les terrains de jeux.
Ceux où on peut s’amuser et s’exprimer en toute liberté. Rapport au côté ludique de mon travail.

Quand les contraintes sont nombreuses, j’essaie toujours de jouer avec…

Mais ma préférence va aux projets online pour l’interactivité qu’ils permettent et la communauté d’utilisateurs qu’ils génèrent.
Et parce que c’est le mode de diffusion le plus adapté à l’image numérique,le canal spontané pour une transmission non altérée… Même si l’odeur de l’encre sur le papier me manque parfois…

Les figures implosées, la collection grandissante et ouverte à tous:

Donc mon carnet de croquis et un stylo Bic noir ne me quitte jamais,
je dessine souvent, même si ça ne se voit pas forcément!

3/ Tu fais parti des illustrateurs qui semblent bien “résister” à l’éclosion de toute une génération de jeunes graphistes 100% web, gavés de Sneakers, toys, facebook & myspace.
Ton univers reste toujours “dans le vent”.
Comment explique tu cela ?

C’est un mystère. Je ne l’explique pas, (mais j’espère que le vent soufflera aussi longtemps que possible) Plusieurs hypothèses:

1/ Peut-être est-ce dû à mon ancrage dans la vie réelle, auprès de ma famille et de mes étudiants, et à mon détachement par rapport aux ordinateurs (et à leur usage immodéré)?
Ce sont des outils surpuissants pour mettre en forme les concepts et les diffuser mais ils restent des outils. L’important, c’est l’humain derrière la machine, pas la machine.
Et même si mes amis étaient moins nombreux dans la vie réelle que sur Facebook (si j’en avais un) au moins ils seraient réels!

2/ Peut-être est-ce dû à mon détachement devant les effets de mode?
J’essaie d’être en cohérence avec moi-même et de construire un univers qui me soit personnel et caractéristique, un monde en évolution et en phase avec son temps, mais pas en redondance.

3/ Du sens.

Il me semble important de privilégier le sens aux images, le fond à la forme.
Et de répondre avec des idées, plus qu’avec des effets.

4/ Tu as réalisé quelques typos, dans un style pop ou bauhaus. On dirait que cette notion de grille/structure géométrique est également un des éléments fondateurs de tes dessins.

Te sentirais-tu parfois plus designer qu’illustrateur ?

Tout à fait, Anto. La forme géométrique et la grille sont à la base de mon travail.
Quoi de plus beau et de plus parfait qu’un rond dans Illustrator? (à part peut-être un carré…)
Cette simplicité formelle résonne en moi, et les possibilités de combinaison et d’interaction qu’elle offre m’ouvre chaque jour des horizons nouveaux, voir insoupçonnés!

De plus, elle coîncide avec ma philosophie personnelle du “qui peut le moins peut le plus”.
Less is more!

5/ J’ai l’impression que ton univers visuel se prêterait bien à des livres ou à des séries animées pour la jeunesse…
Tu n’as jamais eu de projets dans ces domaines ?

Moult. Je rêve de donner vie à Monsieur Globo, de créer une collection de tee-shirt,  de dessiner des livres pour les enfants, de développer des applications Flash pour iPhone…
Et bien d’autres choses encore. En 2010 peut-être?

6/ C’est la période des vœux et des bonnes résolutions… quelles sont les tiennes pour 2010 ?

Aucune. En 2011 peut-être?

1/ Who’s behind ThisismyBworld ?

Me! My name is b. and “thisismybworld” is my creative universe.

2/ Tell us about your creative fields ?

I work as an architect and street artist.My work and inspiration fields are in a close relation with the urban environment.

3/ Watching your stuff, it seems you have major influences from primitive/naive art + graffiti arts. How did you build/reach your graphic universe ?

I grew up as a graffiti writer so before i started thinking as a designer, i was already working on my style in a way.That influenced me later in every way i was creatively expressing my inner thoughts.

4/ I could not help thinking of people like Keith Haring, Speedy Graphito, Basquiat, or even Murakami when watching your art.
How do you compare with that kind of artists ? Are you targetting a designer career (doing design for client’s need) or living like an artist selling your raw art ?

That kind of artists were totally influencial for me. It was definitely graffiti and pop art the first images that captured my eye sight.

Everything excites me now. Architecture,design,painting,graphics and my last passion food design. A typical day of mine can be a mix of designing a chair or planning a floorplan to painting on the street or exhibitions.

5/ You’re from Greece, but watching your work, we could think you’re living in a place like NY or London, among designers and trendy places. Since you’re into urban art, what’s the role of your living place according to your production ?

Athens is an ideal city for urban art,since it is chaotic and offers a big variety of abandoned buildings(the places where i usually paint).As a young architect and designer i can see that things are evolving in Greece.

1/ Can you make a brief description about yourself ?

My name is Svetoslav Simov and I am 24 years old, Bulgarian. I was born on the 27th of September in Novi Pazar City and up till 2003 I lived and studied in the city of Shumen. I finished my high school education in the Shumen High School majoring in Biology and Chemistry. I then decided to apply for the Technical University in Sofia.
To achieve my goal, I took intensive courses in drawing and I was eventually placed into the supplementary admission group.
I then moved to Sofia and worked actively as a designer for about three years. My job at Clipart-design.com was a very good foundation and starting point for my career and in the beginning I worked from home on various projects. The work was very intensive and for a very short period of time I accumulated a great deal of valuable knowledge and experience. This was a time when I basically built up the qualities which help me in my work today. My work then involved the design of clipart packages, icons, logos and so on. I was making an average of 100 vector images a day and on certain days, I got as far as creating as many as 250. It was at this point I began to enforce self-discipline and control regarding work habits.
I’ve been working in the “Idea” creative agency in Sofia and deal mainly with the design of fonts for the company and creation of logo brands. I am still piling on experience and am developing strong and steady.

What excites me most about my work is creation of fonts which is a source of great pleasure and inspiration for me.

You will soon have the opportunity of also seeing lots of new stuff from my work.

2/ Is Fontfabric a side project or do you plan the foundry to be your fulltime activity ?

The Fontfabric project was created at the end of 2008. Currently I am working in an advertising agency in Sofia, Bulgaria. I can devote few hours after work to create fonts. Right now I can`t  dedicate all of my time to make the typefaces, but I`m planning to do this as soon as possible, and than I`ll develop the Fontfabric into its full capacity.

3/ What is your font design process? (paper sketch, mac/pc, software)

Creating fonts is very interesting and attractive to me at one hand, and following tight the typography and design rules at the other. The fonts I am making are more conceptual kind of design than holding the boundaries. Everything

I do begins from a circle or a square in Corel Draw and a dose of inspiration, than it finishes just few hours later.

Now the whole process is digital, but when I begin to make classic typography, maybe I`ll use sketches and hand techniques.

4/ Where is your major inspiration coming from ? Other foundries you enjoy ? The design scene in Bulgaria ?

When a designer is in a certain environment, it will surely impact and shape his aesthetics and designs. I don`t remember certain sources of inspiration, but my purpose is to create typefaces, which are distinguishing from everything else and have their own image. In the beginning everything was like much fun to me – I was just playing with vector shapes and letters. Gradually it began to show that it could be a business. One of my favourite font foundries that came to my mind now is the Argentinian`s Sudtipos (http://www.sudtipos.com/). Their works are in different style from my fonts, but I often like to do things in different styles, even unlike my usual manner.
One of my goals is to include more people in the development of Fontfabric, mostly Bulgarian designers. Short time ago there was very good type designers (in Bulgaria), but they never came together in something like a font foundry.

5/ Watching your fonts, it seems you have not only type design skills, but also a special taste for illustration/art directing.
Do you have any other graphic design projects you could tell us more about ?

Till now I had cultivated skills mainly in the graphic design, more certain – developing branding and visionary for companies. This is the other field, where I believe my abilities and experience are strong. Exactly the long hours working as a logo designer had built in me routines, which are irreplaceable in the work with typefaces. At this moment I am collecting and filling my own portfolio, which I`ll publish soon.

Thanks for your time. Be sure we’ll keep our readers tuned with your newest creations.

What striked me when I discovered Space-Jump is the amount of jobs he made in a few months, and the huge energy he demonstrates through lightspeed growing artistic and technical skills.  Birth of a star from Russia, live from Patecreme.

1/Vladimir, please give us a quick description of yourself.

Story :
Hi, my name is Tomin Vladimir, but Internet knows me as Myaka. I’m 26, I have diploma of IT specialist, but those 5 IT years was so hard I basically hate computers so after I finished my education I decided to go different way.
I had a dream: making motion graphics. So I came to local TV station and told them what I want. They took me in, but of course first time I was working for nothing because I had to learn from almost zero. In a few months I handled After Effects well enough to make intro for one of sport programs. In 1 year I became head designer, and after 2 years of work here I leave for world of advert in peppers studio. So now I have 4.5 years of Motion Graphics experience.

Description :
I’m 26, pretty short young man, obsessed with design. . See? Madness in those eyes? No I’m just kidding; I’m not like that in real life.

Love :
I love to sing, had a band once, was making music myself, love to watch tv series, cinema addicted, don’t mind of kicking some asses via my xbox360, love Dance Dance Revolution,
traveling, boxing, programming, spending a lot of time with my girlfriend, my cat, friends, sketching, skateboard (don’t know if I’ll return to it someday thou), rock concerts,
photography (with my old cannon powershot pro), writing stories and BIG letters, well a lot of things you know.

Hate :
When people actions are dictated by their inferiority complex.
Computer hang-ups and all kind of tech malfunctions.
Accidentally dropping food on floor or table. HAAATE it! Really!
When its too hot (+35 C and I’m literally dieing)

Achievements :
Senior member of slashTHREE, worked for some big brands including Reebok and Adidas
(their local representatives), featured at dA, behance, motionographer, designcollector,
designflawr and few other places. My video works was featured at vimeo, behance, at Munich’s GOV.
Worked for some well known musicians as well (Blindone, ELPA music records, Zamza).

2/What techniques are you using ?
Traditionnal / digital / mixed media ?

I personally like to make photomanipulations :

, but because I have to listen what people are saying, I’m using mixed media mostly :

because this is what “stands me out of crowd”. That’s what she said lol! And here is new style I’m trying to develop last few weeks :

No pencil shadowing here, only hand-drawn outline. After outline is created, all texturing and shadowing performed in Photoshop. I really like results of this technique so far.

3/What’s your typical work process?

I start with idea. Main problem is to throw away all crap and choose something really good. After that I’m drawing main elements with pencil, scanning my drawing and integrate them with photos or
other digital design elements.
Best way to see my process is go to www.myaki.ru See those breakdowns? Download any of them (start with K.O.) and you will see all described above. Btw, I updating this section on every Friday so check back soon!

Good piece takes a week. Medicore pieces can be done in 1-2 days.

4/Your major influences/people or companies your like?

1.5 years ago I saw pic of Hejz (it was nike air) and I was stunned by it. This pic was perfect.
After that I found http://www.graphic-exchange.com and after I saw what people doing here I decided to try doing digital art myself.
After half year of photoshopping I found depthcore’s workshop section. Posted pics here, hearing people comments,
tried to improve my work. After dC’s workshop was closed I found www.slashthree.com and applied here as artist.
They took me in and since that time I improved a lot. SlashTHREE is my internet home now.

As for motion graphics, my first love was Shilo Design, and now I like to get motion inspiration from motionographer.com

5/Tell us about the Space-jump project

Space-jump.com is my on-line portfolio. My first portfolio was www.myaki.ru , but my friend Chris Rivera gave me advice to make something more serious. So I decided to move to “COM” domain space and start something new here, and keep myaki as blog. Really not much to say here… Spacejump up for less than 2 months now, but already was featured several times all over internet, including designcollector.ru and motionographer.com .
LOL most people thinks space-jump.com is some sort of art community. No, only my works are here. You can do a lot for 1.5 years, believe me!
And about name of site, I love Battlestar Galactica and I love how “space jump” sounds, and domain was free at moment so there were no second guesses here.

6/The way you see the design world from Russia….
Russia is mother country of constructivism, which influenced Bauhaus itself. Is that important for modern designers like you?

There are not much places in Russia with good teaching of design so most people here are self-taught persons.
As for constructivism, there are a lot more native things besides of that (take our folk decor elements for example, or incredible Russian painters), but most of those are ignored by Russian designers but very well used by foreign colleagues.
You see, Russian people are VERY talented but we forced to invent bicycle too often and it drags us back, because we almost have NO DESIGN CULTURE nowdays, however, there are some really brightly shiny gems in world of Russian design (http://www.zhestkov.com) but sadly it’s not a law, it’s more like exception.

Where you live doesn’t really matter if you love what you’re doing. And I also know that sooner or later Russian design will arise, thanks to big cities and internet.

Thanks Vladimir. For sure the new generation of Russian designers is arising with such Space-Jumpers !

Photos credits : all photos and illustrations by Tomin Vladimir
Interview published by Patecreme - February 2009

Esa has released dozens of electronic projects with worldwide labels like Merck Records, SLSK Records,  U-Cover records, Psychonavigation records,…

During the latest weeks, Esa has striked with new hot projects like The Stationary Trout Ep with Part2Records.

He has also released 40 tracks (!) with two Equaldreams exclusive compilations named Compcomp and RemixComp.  The Remix release includes varied artists as Ilkae, Machinedrum, Kschzt, Blamstrain, Diskreet, RA-X, Keef Baker, 60Nine, Joseph Auer, Kilowatts, HECQ, Aleksi Eeben, Elephant Pixel, Antennae, Strand (CCO) & Non-Genetic (1/3 of Shadowhuntaz!), Hereticks of Disko, Robert Graff and Anne Garner. Various styles to hit your audio device from this perpetual researching mind.

Start the music before reading :

1/ Can you please introduce quickly ?

hi im esa juhani ruoho. im 30, ive lived in the the suburb of eastern helsinki, kontula for the past 20 years. ive lived in dublin (20 months,2004-2005) and in regina,saskatchewan, canada (6 months,2000).. i make tracks.

2/ When did you start music ?
Do you have any other creative fields ?

i started making patterns and sequences of my own around 1994. in 1992 i was a sysop for a music BBS - that ended in 2000, after which it has mostly been fulltime music since 1996. i currently still do the functions of a sysop by gathering together a superb archive of researches into alternative forms of electricity - books, documentaries, lectures and so forth. so you could say that ive focused into one conference now and sometimes pop out to release music - when asked.

3/ It looks you are active with several labels/netlabels, how do you launch/choose projects ?

im active on such labels etc that got in touch with me. but there are a few that i forget about - it takes time to select tracks and most of the time the current opinion of most start-up/newish/hobby labels is that the artist should not get paid anything.. i mostly turn down any thing where the label does not provide actual mastering of the tracks. if the label is enthusiastic and maintains contact, then its different. ive started to wonder if i should send out some demos of records that i am working on, actually, but havent yet gotten around to it.

4/  What’s your creative process ?
Are you working on tracks for months or do you run several shots on the same time in short delays ?

i might do a track, or a remix in a day, and then tune it around for about 2-3 days until im settled with it, … and then just keep listening to the tune for weeks and almost miss the deadline. there have been only few rare occasions that i have picked up an old track from years ago and then polished it and finished it..

5/ What’s your point about the music industry today ?
Do you feel digital is killing physical ? Is it possible to make a living out of digital music only ?

if people listen to digital or physical items loud and get into it and maybe even buy the original flacs from me then im fine with it.  i know some have taken that downloaded digital music of mine and sent it to their favourite festival, thats how i ended up playing in acces-s, 2005, pau, france and it was great! ( http://uk.youtube.com/watch?v=lC1xGaKqFAQ )

6/ Can you provide names of your major influences ?

definitely closest friends, both alive and deceased — and what swapping afx/sq/ae records  and tracks with brothomstates from 1994-1995 onwards was to me is not quite anything that can be described.

7/ Any plans for an upcoming gig in France ?

why yes. i am ready to come and play in france. the process is simple. a few emails come my way, a date is agreed on, a flight is purchased, that info sent to me, i fly over - have a place to stay (preferably private and with safe electricity + functional sound so i can practice and just enjoy myself in a new place — and eat food, then i play the gig and get given a fee and then am later on sorted out to the place with the audio again, then maybe after a while back to the airport. — or taken to the next place in the tour. yes, im ready for this. is france, tho?

Thanks so much for your time Esa.

Photos credits :
Airport picture by Valoku Vaaja

Laptop and portrait picture by Lauri Rauhanen.

“Unity in nature t-shirt” picture by Evgeniy Kazannik