Our good pal Denise Rashidi released her new book entitled: Daydreaming in Japan. It's not any kind of book, it's a coloring book! This book utilizes her stylish, 'pastel-ish' and detailed illustrations of the hidden backstreets of Japan. You know my love for the country of Japan, Denise does a remarkable job to illustrate its authenticity and by also adding her own signature.
Aga Lut is a freelance graphic designer. To ease her mind and to relax after her commercial work, she started to illustrate. “I used to illustrate people a lot, but I’ve grown bored of it.” - she says. One of the main reasons was that she felt she was lacking her own unique style; many illustrators do something similar, and maybe it’s a good opportunity to experiment. So she said goodbye to digital painting and started her adventure with vectors. Quite a rewarding one, she adds.
Germán Reina Carmona shared a super stylish set of illustrations titled Ipad Comics. There is not much information about it but I really like them. From the colors to the themes. It mixes cartoon style illustrations but with a more textured look (for lack of better word).
Ada Zielińska is an artist based in Warszawa, Poland. She has shared a series of commissioned & personal illustrations from the past year until now. These illustrations caught my attention of its retro aesthetics that would trigger memories from the 'Omni Magazine' days. Where science and fiction came together to combine and share knowledge for its readers. This is pure futurism and I really dig them. What do you think?
Mateusz Urbanowicz is back with more of his Tokyo Storefonts, a series of illustrations that would imagine a creative and unique shops on the streets of Tokyo. We have featured his first series on abdz. a few years back, it's really great to see a comeback that would carry the same appealing, charming and detailed results. Each storefront shares its own story, from an optician's salon, typewriter, photo studio, and more.
If there’s something good about 2020 is the time back I got from the commute and change of context. Staying home is daunting indeed, especially with a global pandemic. I also want to acknowledge everyone that had to keep going to work and our heroes, doctors and nurses. For the rest of us, that could stay home, nothing better than using the extra time to learn something new. Al Power, an illustrator from Dublin, Ireland shared some super awesome videos teaching us to exercise our illustration skills in Procreate.
Daniel Escudeiro shared a really beautiful project on Behance that brought me back some good memories of the 90s and early 2000s. The project is a set of two collage illustrations for a short story by Raphael Montes, published in the Brazilian magazine Superinteressante (May 2017). The work has that deconstructivist look, mixing different photogs and textures.
Amrit Pal Singh has been creating a really creative and unique initiative. Titled: 'Toy Faces Library', it's a series of 3D avatars that you can use for your mockups, UIs and/or personal use. The part where it gets very unique is that Amrit puts in a great effort to provide the most diverse library possible with over 70+ unique 3D avatars and that library keeps growing and growing.
Markos Kay is an visual artist based on London, United Kingdom, he shared a project that we wanted to feature on abdz. via his Behance profile. It's a series of intriguing illustrations for the Hemaware magazine to raise awareness of bleeding disorders, new treatments, and research. I would definitely push you guys to read the entire case study, there are some great explanations and videos. I personally love the style that Markos explores in this series and particularly like the color palette.
A homage to the work of William Morris’ floral designs and illustrations of the 19th Century. Here, the real-time growth of flowers is used to form a modern illuminated letter, highlighting the slower quality of manual creation. Morris used illuminated letters in his own publications as a rebellion against the uniformity of the new industrial world. Morris used illuminated letters in his own publications as a rebellion against the uniformity of the new industrial world.
Shruti Singh, amongst many designers and illustrators, created project is themed around Covid19. Her series of self-portraits reflects an expression of feelings and thoughts that crossed her mind during this critical time. It is a very challenging time, mentally and physically. These portraits are an expression of the changing times and the emotional toll it is taking on our minds. Like Shruti, I have been going through ups and downs. Anxiety is always a by-product and it’s important for us to find ways to express the feeling.
Times are definitely changing, we all live in a pandemic and hopefully soon a post-pandemic reality. Economically things will be difficult initially but eventually things will get better. I know this sounds super grim, but in order to help everyone to promote their work, we will start featuring designers from all over the world in a series we call Designer Spotlight. For this one brings to you the amazing work of Kasia Bojanowska.
Alex G. aka. CranioDsgn Studio ™ shared a compilation of illustrations that he’s done in his free time, during the isolation at home, to develop and experience new styles, challenges and paths. The outcome is really incredible and I can say, mission accomplished.
We have featured the work of Lena Vargas before on abdz., if you haven't seen this feature yet, check it out here. Ever since it's always amazing and inspiring to follow her progress. For those who doesn't know Lena, she is a talented illustrator based in Santo Domingo, Dominican Republic. I just adore how her work is full of life, creative, colorful and diverse in terms of style. Inside this feauture, you will see her collaboration work and for 'Increment Magazine', Los Angeles Times, Popular Science Magazine, and more.
Shantell Martin is an artist based in New York, NY, USA; she recently shared a project where she collaborate with the Oculus. Even though this project has been produced last year, I think with the moments we are currently living. This is the appropriate time to do so.
It’s a bit of an old project by Sean Lewis but I thought it was perfectly suited for ABDZ. During these pandemic times, we had to find ways to be more creative with our daily lives. I think we all did somehow. For my case, now I am currently living in Switzerland, I still remember the simple walks that I would take with the family especially early in the morning.
When I was surfing on Twitter today, I stumbled across this 'tweet' shared by our good friend James White who was reminiscing the early days of 'design internet' and how everything used to be about the pixels and the little details. We became so standardized in our principles that we tend to forget what the 'internet' used to be. Inspired by this moment of nostalgia, I decided to feature the work of Pixel Jeff, a pixel art who has been making magic for more than 10 years.
Times are definitely changing, we all live in a pandemic and hopefully soon a post-pandemic reality. Economically things will be difficult initially but eventually things will get better. I know this sounds super grim, but in order to help everyone to promote their work, we will start featuring designers from all over the world in a series we call Designer Spotlight. For this one brings to you the amazing work of Maryanne Nguyen.
Yuliia Lobodiuchenko is a transportation designer and illustration based in Turin, Italy. She created a series of illustrations dedicated to the most iconic, unusual and memorable cars in the automotive design history.
For some reason I forgot to share this. Probably you already saw, read it or downloaded it. For parents this is amazing. Not a parent, that's OKAY, you will definitely enjoy wasting some time. What is it?