Designers Who Are Better Than Me

Luka Va is a Lithuanian illustrator and designer (now living in Adelaide or is that Melbourne now?) who I’ve been meaning to feature since I bought a print of hers on Etsy a few months back. I first became aware of her from her prize winning entry for the National Parks of South Australia t-shirt competition. Her illustrations are intricate and full of whimsy, staying on the right side of both – plus, she draws lots of cats and bunnies, always a good thing in my book. She has lots of nice prints for sale at he Etsy shop, as well as selling her wares at local craft and art fares.

The Beards by Chris Edser

The Beards are an Adelaide band that have beards and sing songs about beards, their profile has been rising in recent times due to some airplay on national ‘alternative’ station Triple J and the fact that they are pretty good and have Beards. Some of that rise in recognition no doubt should be attributed to the fantastic graphic representation they have received over the years from uber illustrator and designer Chris Edser. It’s a great playful and consistent system that has played out over the years which has culminated in the latest Beards album release Having a beard is the new not having a beard beautifully detailed and majestic in it’s illustrative representation of all things ‘beard’. Check out Chris’ site for the full scope of work he has done for the band over the years, there’s also some nice stuff, non beard related there as well.

Voice Updates

The clever chaps at Voice have updated their website with a new look and lots of new work to gawp at.

Designers Who Are Better Than Me

Ben Shacklton produces some pretty spectacular design and illustration for the music industry, and seeing as though he has relocated himself to the humble environs of Adelaide, I’m happy to claim him as ‘one of us’. He’s also the Co-Director of record label Rice Is Nice who release some pretty sweet music such as personal favourites Seja and Straight Arrows, and is available for freelance work. Take a gander at his talents on his Studio Little George site.

Designers Who Are Better Than Me

I’ve been watching the development of illustrator/designer Joel Van Der Knaap by stalking his website for a little while now. It’s been interesting to watch the development of his style to where he is just really hitting it out of the park, so to speak. I’m loving his pop/1970s style illustration interpreted through a modern day street aesthetic such as the above piece designed for Mondayjazz.com. I’m happy to see that he’s working on a project with Kim Seppelt-Deakin of Sherpa/The Inkroom, another local Adelaide design dynamo, on  a project for for D’Angelo Coffee, the snippet I’ve seen so far looks spectacular, I can’t wait to see the final product. Adelaide is producing some amazing illustration talent at the moment.

Designers Who Are Better Than Me

Toolbox Graphic Design have been a part of the local design scene since 2006, I’ve been waiting until they had some work up on their site before I featured them though. Started by Adam Carpenter with Nathan Fuller, Toolbox Graphic Design is now a team of six, producing some very nice ‘real world’ design work from their fantastically looking renovated church studios. Adam has a good pedigree, having worked previously at John Nowland’s studio, it looks as though he is continuing to produce the goods as far as excellent design solutions go. The interior of the studio looks great, If I’m not mistaken, I also spy an old 80s style tabletop video game, if it has Galaxian on it I might have to consider sending them my CV.

New Paul Sahre Website

Ask me to list the ten all time creative individuals I admire the most and Paul Sahre’s name would be pretty high up on that list. Now you can see a heap of his illustration work stretching back to the late 90s on his just launched site illoops (Illustration Office of Paul Sahre). There’s lots to inspire you here, the site itself is pretty straight forward as far as layout, but when the work is this good it speaks for itself. I saw the bare bones of this site when I was in New York earlier this year, glad to see it has come out so brilliantly!

Designers Who Are Better Than Me

Bri Hammond is a photographer and graphic designer from Adelaide who is currently working in the Visual Communication department of Fabrica in Treviso, Italy, lucky her. I have lots of respect for anyone who can produce the goods as both a fantastic designer and photographer and Bri covers both those categories spectacularly. There’s a lot of individual character in her work, her design pieces come across as very personable and there’s a quirky sort of melancholy happening in the photos she takes. It’s a cliché that every picture tells a story, but there seems to be a lot going on in each of her pieces, I would happily frame any of these and hang them on my walls. Be sure to check out Bri’s blog ‘Not Cheese’ where she updates her work and muses on the lovely time she is having in Treviso.

Cul-de-sac Prints

These prints from Adelaide design firm Cul-de-sac seem to be getting a lot of attention from various design and decorating blogs. Rightly so as well, beautifully designed in all their minimal goodness, they would make a fine addition to any studio wall or design savvy lounge room. Check out Cul-de-sac’s website as well, not only will you discover some very fine work indeed, it’s probably the best application of the Cargo Collective website template I have come across.

Sticks & Stones

I’m really loving this typographic mural on the Morphett Street Bridge in Adelaide produced by local artists Chris Edser ,Tristan Kerr, Ankles  and USA artist Above. The project was organised by Josh Fanning of Maga Zine Gallery, together with  ArtsSA and the Adelaide City Council who brought Above to Adelaide to mentor the project. From Chris’ site: ‘The challenges included a rough stone encrusted surface to work on, the sheer size of the piece and Above actually breaking a bone early in the project. Our message reflects these challenges and the mural also happens to be the site of the first ever school in Adelaide and opposite a  church, so the positive message of words saving could be interpreted positively in many ways relative to the site and personal opinions of the viewer’. My favourite part is probably the ‘Sticks’ typography, constructed from different bits and pieces. Hopefully we’ll see more of this type of project brightening up the nooks and crannies of Adelaide. You can see a video of the whole wall here.