This is my Weekly Design Inspiration, this is a space where I share some design work that has either inspired me or caught my attention for its execution or concept. The things I feature on here can include (but not limited to) branding, web design, app design, illustration, typography, video games or anything that shows creativity in a unique way.
A few years ago I was getting really inspired by digital fantasy art, perhaps this was fueled by years of playing Magic The Gathering and Hearthstone. There was something about the amount of character and charm these still images could bestow. The use of colour and atmosphere is something that is captured in such a unique way and I haven’t really seen another art style that presents a similar aesthetic.
An illustrator who I feel embodies the best traits of digital fantasy art is Max Grecke. Max is an illustrator based in Sweden whose style blurs the lines between digital and traditional art. His artwork is clearly digital but there’s something about it that has a hand crafted feeling to it, possibly this can be attributed to the textures and strokes used. Looking at Max’s work you can see a distinct style that breathes dynamism and energy by using angular shapes and exaggerated features to create characters you’ve seen before, but not as you know them. Something I find crazy about his work is that he manages to find a way of having several styles that all fit under one unifying atheistic, almost as though each artwork is created by different artists under the same brand guidelines. Very few artists have this ability to be so varied in their execution yet maintain a consistent and recognisable style.
I first stumbled across Max’s work when I was looking into the artists behind some of Blizzard’s work (the likes of World of Warcraft, Hearthstone and Overwatch). I found that Max had created many artworks that both feature in the games themselves (namely Hearthstone) and have been entered into a handful of Blizzard’s competitions. His style lends itself beautifully to the wacky fantasy worlds Blizzard creates and it feels at home while maintaining that distinct individuality.
Something else from Max’s portfolio of work that caught my attention was a personal project he was working on with some local friends, a card game called UNIMO. This game adopts his unique style to create a multitude of creatures from a variety of realms including fire, rock, ice, storm and undead. You can tell that this is a real passion project as the character designs are so outrageously creative and embody nothing less than pure energy and charisma. Not a single monster looks half baked or shoehorned in, they all have something about them that makes them unique and interesting. It's no easy feet to achieve this when mass producing characters for a fantasy world.
Max has also collaborated with Level52 Studios to create a collectable statue called 'Bones' as part of a new project called FillMeIn. This particular figure was designed by Max and sculpted by Ted Lockwood. It's amazing to see Max's work in a three dimensional space and see how well it lends itself to this platform. All the charisma and charm of the illustration is transferred across perfectly and shows the versatility of his work. It really is inspiring to see a concept artist push their skills into new worlds, like 3D and sculpture, and I'm really looking forward to seeing more from Max's 3D outcomes in the future.
Max is an illustrator whose work helped encourage me to try my hand at digital art. Now, I’m by no means as expressive as Max, but I try to capture the same blend of traditional and digital which I love about his work. I did struggle with these artworks (below), partly because I was using a pad tablet as opposed to a display tablet (bad workman blames his tools and all that) but also because it’s almost like there are two things at play when creating these characters. Firstly, you need the technical skills to even execute the idea you have. Secondly, you need to have an idea that makes the character that little bit more interesting or a little bit more exaggerated or a little bit more charismatic. It’s almost as though you need to push the character to the very limit of what’s acceptable and then that’s where you achieve these amazing character designs. Digital art is something I haven’t played with in a while and is something I want to come back to and really try and push the character designs further and be more brave with the outcomes.
Honourable mentions
As part of my Weekly Design Inspiration I also like to share some bits and pieces that I have seen which have inspired me in the last week. I have captioned each image with some info and relevant links so you can find out more.
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