Articles from the Featured Designer category.

This article is part of our “Featured Designer” series. Each week we will bring you closer to a top designer. This week we have the pleasure of presenting you Jon Phillips of SpyreStudios.

If you would like to be featured here, visit our Featured Designer Center (link opens in new window) where you will find all the information you will need.

I am … and I do …

Hi, my name’s Jon, I’m a designer and musician from Montreal, Canada. I run a multi-authored design blog at SpyreStudios which also acts as my portfolio.

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The concept of freelancing is an attractive one: you choose your own hours and set your own schedule, not to mention your own rates. In this article, we talk to 5 top designers (from around the world) to find out how the freelance life is treating them.

Here are the 5 designers we’ve interviewed:

What is the best thing about being a designer?

Aart (USA): I think when it comes to being a designer, no matter what field you work in, one of the best aspects is the freedom it gives you to move around. In this digital age, being a designer has become more of a trade like plumbing or carpentry. It’s a useful skill that can be employed and marketed anywhere in the world. In addition, the power of the Internet enables a global clientele and your office can be pretty much anywhere, as long as it has a decent Internet connection available of course.

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This article is part of our “Featured Designer” series. Each week we will bring you closer to a top designer. This week we have the pleasure of presenting you Luca Molnar.

If you would like to be featured here, visit our Featured Designer Center (link opens in new window) where you will find all the information you will need.

I am … and I do …

My name is Luca Molnar and I am a 20-year old digital artist from Hungary. I’ve been working in the industry in past 5 years and I’m studying illustration at the university. My works have been featured on several design blog and in some magazines (Computer Arts, Advanced Photoshop). I’m also writing tutorials quite often; actually I just finished one for Advanced Photoshop issue 82. I am also a member of KDU, my clients include Ogilvy, Midori and MTV Networks. You can check out my works on my website, www.lucamolnar.com

I got into designing …

When I was in high school a guy held a presentation about web design and Photoshop, so me and my best friend went and I liked it. After that I was starting reading tutorials and stuff, but for about 2 years I only cared about web design, and then realized how horrible boring that was. I started creating illustrations and basically that’s the story.

I get my inspiration from …

From anywhere. More specifically I always listen music while I’m working; I’m crazy about all kinds of arts.  I can stare at pictures for hours; I’m also inspired by nature and by great artists. I have a huge weakness for beautiful music videos, lights and fashion magazines.

In the beginning I promoted myself  … . Now I am marketing myself …

This is probably the hardest question, this is the question every new designer is interested in. At the beginning it was really painful, I mean the money was horrible and the clients were even worse, at the top of it I wasn’t a good illustrator at the time either. Anyway I was sending messages to anyone I thought maybe could give some work, I’m talking about freelance projects. Well, this wasn’t really working. Now I’m represented by an agency, so I get commissions from there and sometimes I’m also working on some projects with the KDU, other times the client just see my works and sends me an email.

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This article is part of our “Featured Designer” series. Each week we will bring you closer to a top designer. This week we have the pleasure of presenting you Andreas Shabelnikov.

If you would like to be featured here, visit our Featured Designer Center (link opens in new window) where you will find all the information you will need.

I am … and I do …

My name is Andreas Shabelnikov, a 26 years old interactive designer and photographer. Originally from Latvia, but now based in South of France. I have around 10 years of experience behind me, as far as I remember, I did my first web site, when I was 14 years old. Yeah, so, 12. Currently I work as a freelancer and run my small ad agency. My portfolio can be seen on andreasworks.com. When I have spare time, I update my inspirational blog on digitalanimate.com

I got into designing …

I was drawing when I was just a kid, so there were plenty of art minds inside me. But then, when I grew up a bit, I started to work on digital playground and expand myself as a web-designer.

I get my inspiration from …

Inspiration comes from everywhere, from movies, from still images, from nature. By speaking about the nature, it’s really important for me, to live in a good surrounding of nature. Sea and the sun is the power for me.

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This article is part of our “Featured Designer” series. Each week we will bring you closer to a top designer. This week we have the pleasure of presenting you Davide Bianca from one of our favorite design companies, Saizen Media Studios.

If you would like to be featured here, visit our Featured Designer Center (link opens in new window) where you will find all the information you will need.

We are … and We do …

My name is Davide Bianca, I am the CEO, co-founder and Exec. Art Director of Saizen Media Studios.

Saizen Media is an internationally acclaimed, award winning Digital Ad Agency focused on high-end cinematic interactive products. Determined  to continuously  push its own  standards and capabilities, Saizen Media attempts to redefine the entire approach to interactive experience, converting  each  product  into a mixture of cutting edge technology and digital entertainment. Our team  of  talented  creatives, programmers, engineers, illustrators, animators, motion graphic artists  and  sound designers is committed  to  deliver  state  of  the  art  products  and creative solutions that will satisfy our clients’ needs regardless of the style, medium or format.  Interactive experience websites, mobile applications, illustrations, concept art, TV Ads, advert-games, 2D / 3D animation…  YOU WANT IT? WE GOT IT!

You can view a full list of featured projects services and clients directly on our website at Saizen Media Studios.

We got into designing …

Back in 2007 me and my business partner Constantine Yarosh, who currently directs the Moscow division of Saizen Media, were amazed at how bland and repetitive most of the internet websites and advertising campaigns were, and at the high volume of non-effective and aesthetically poor works; being highly influenced by the movie, comic book, and video game realm, we embarked into a journey to start our own business together, focusing on transforming the interactive experience into entertainment, while still delivering  information in an effective fashion, but spicing things up with a visually stimulating environment and a high focus on story-telling. Most people think that this applies only to a specific set of products, but we believe that anything can be turned into a
movie if done properly, and therefore engaging the viewers into what is supposed to be “interactive” and not just window shopping. Of course the formats, style, approach and concepts vary from client to client, and from project to project, but that is what agencies are for.

From there on it was all about show and proof, and we have had the privilege, in less than three years, to work with clients of the likes of Disney, Square Enix, Toshiba, FOX, Renault, Campari, Sony and Warner Bros. just to name a few, and very excited about what will come next, now that we are finally approaching the true era of total integration; it no longer makes sense to talk about on-line, off-line, integrated, traditional… there is just one “medium”, and that’s PEOPLE, and the different ways in which they communicate.

We get our inspiration from …

Movies, books, games, life in general, and what has not yet been invented. We are all day-dreamers with peter pan syndrome .

In the beginning We promoted ourselves … . Now We are marketing ourselves …

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This article is part of our “Featured Designer” series. Each week we will bring you closer to a top designer. This week we have the pleasure of presenting you Marko Prljić.

If you would like to be featured here, visit our Featured Designer Center (link opens in new window) where you will find all the information you will need.

I am … and I do …

My name is Marko Prljić and I’m a web design professional from Croatia. I’m very passionate about all things web so I spend most of my time either designing, coding or managing web projects. You can see some of my recent work at www.markoprljic.com, which I redesigned lately. I’m also co-founder and creative director of a web agency called Twinkle Tap. We’re still working on our web presence but you can check and bookmark the site anyway www.twinkletap.com. Thanks for stopping by

I got into designing …

I studied electronics in Vienna and Split and was heavily into producing music, which is also a way of creative expression right? I remember when I was in 8th grade of primary school, friend of mine was doing a funny photomontage in Photoshop for his Hip-Hop band. I was really excited to be seeing this as it was the first time I saw a software capable of doing this! After my short career as a DJ I got my first computer and started using Photoshop. I got hired in a print shop where I did some design work but nothing remarkable. One hot summer my school mate and I decided to build our first website, and we did! I had so much fun doing that so I decided I’ll stop with my music production and switch to web design. Obviously it was the right choice as I’m still doing it and I’m having more fun then ever!

I get my inspiration from …

One and only who inspires me is Mr.God Almighty. He’s the best, really is! You can’t “get” inspiration. Surely you can be inspired by something you see or experience but you can’t “get” inspiration. It just comes out if the blue and you can’t tell where it came from, can you? I do have a huge RSS feed and I follow what’s happening in our industry. I follow interesting design blogs like From up north, Grain edit, Thinking for living, Paper crave among others. I observe a lot, observe everything that surrounds me, from people, architecture, cars, nature to human behaviors and experiences, everything. You have to allow yourself to be inspired.

In the beginning I promoted myself  … . Now I am marketing myself …

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