Featured Artist: Cuypi
Today we feature an artist who loves music and typography – meet Cuypi!
Hey Cuypi, nice to meet you! Would you like to introduce yourself? Like who you are, where do you live, what are you doing?
Hi, nice to meet you too! My name is Sébastien Cuypers, I’m 29 years old, I’m a graphic designer from France, near Paris, actually I’ve been working in an advertising agency for 6 years now.
‘I love brain’
What’s your usual way to find ideas for a design? How do you work?
I search for an idea or sometimes the idea comes to me. Then I make some sketches, do research… and if the inspiration is with me, I start it. Sometimes I’m not sure about the result, so I stop and restart many months later, and often the result is better than I hoped for. I think the most ripe ideas are the most successful.
And what do you use as a source for ideas? What inspires you?
The most important is MUSIC. It’s the rhythm of my life, and my life is the rhythm of my music. Before I start drawing an illustration, I put my headphones on and choose a playlist which matches my mood. Then I try to translate feelings into images. I’m also influenced by movies, comics, street culture, and artists like Alex Trochut, Zeloot, Jeff Soto, Jeremyville, Steven Harrington and many more…
Cuypi vs Headliner
Talking of music, you also did the new VKMP3-shirt and it seems that you are doing a lot of shirt-design? What do you like about that? And is there any difference between doing a design for shirts and other works?
Yes, tee-shirt is my first love, I really like working on it. I like the way shirts are a living support, because many people can see it and we can play with it, according to the place, situation, transmit a message, a mood… There are many differences between doing a design for shirts and other works, not the same situation, place and public. Many designs work very well on a screen or poster… but not on a shirt, and many designs work very well on tee and don’t work on posters… I can’t explain it.
Shirt for VKMP3
These typographical elements are prevalent in your designs – I like the way the design of the front is supporting the work as a whole.
Yes me too, I really like typography – Alex Trochut is a master for me. It’s hard to found a good text to illustrate which works alone, so I often put drawings on my designs to support typography works.
‘Nothing to say’
And is this your first gallery exhibition? Or have you had one before?
Not yet. But maybe one day I will do another one.
I’m pretty sure you will have another one soon, stay tuned for that ;). All that’s left to say now is: Thank you very much Cuypi, and good luck for the future!
Thanks to you, and excuse me for my poor english!
No one will mind about your english, we just love your designs! Check more of Cuypi’s work on his blog.
Featured Artist: Niark
Meet the aliens with Niark :)
‘We come in peace’
Hello Niark, nice to meet you! Please introduce yourself – where do you live, what are you doing?
Hey there! I’m Niark1 but you can call me Seb. I’m a freelance Graphic Designer / Illustrator based in Paris (France). I do graphics for a lot of different clients all around the globe like communication agencies, music labels, street wear brands, etc…
What are your sources of inspiration?
I have a lot of inspiration sources.
Living in Paris I have many opportunities to see exhibitions in galleries and museums. This allows me to examine the work of ‘others’ and that gives me some motivation. Of course the internet is the most important source of inspiration for me since the time I spend behind my computer screen ;). Furthermore I find some cool stuff in art books, street arts, magazines, movies, video clips, documentaries, etc… Music has a big role in my life too and is a big source of inspiration for sure.
Wallpainting
And can you describe your working process?
I don’t follow a specific working process. It depends on my inspirations, the customer, etc… I can start with some sketches, drawings or paintings and rework the graphics on my computer or I start directly on my computer. There is not just ONE good way to make art.
Your work is often based on plane, strongly colored elements and geometric patterns– does this feature have its roots in graphic design?
For some time I have been changing my style, trying to create graphics with simple shapes, but complex in their accumulation. I am very inspired by logos and vector illustrations. I like the potential impact of simple shapes and a limited color choices. Obviously sometimes I work with textures, especially in my paintings. Colors have an important role in my compositions and are an essential element in most of my work. I spend a lot of time to find the right color combinations although mostly black is the one that predominates.
‘Run 4 ur life’
I was wondering about the many aliens in your work. Are these aliens dangerous for the mankind? Can we trust them saying ‚We come in peace’?
The monsters that I represent in my illustrations are not really different from us after all. They are rather what we are on the inside. Things really dark, vices, or the madness that it is in us and in our thoughts, what one wants to hide. They are not really dangerous because they are only pictorial representations, but I can not say the same for the human race. Finally they are not coming in peace. But this is just a stupid message like ‘this is the end’ that I like to write on my artwork ;).
There’s a lot of character design in your portfolio, you’ve even designed Toys.
I have already been contacted by industries that manufacture toys. I would love to have a lot of my characters in volume. That would be great! But this requires hard work and the selection is pretty rough. However I have several times been invited to produce designs on existing toy shapes or make some hand-made customs for exhibitions.
You are part of the ‚Blood Sweat Vector’ collective. Can you tell me about what that means for you or your work?
‘Blood Sweat Vector’ is a good way to make connections with other artists and see or discover their work. It also helps to show your new work, while having some feedback and advice. I love the concept and I think I will send from other visual pending future upcoming events organized by Jared aka J3Concepts.
Just to let you know, folks: We will have a big ‘Blood Sweat Vector’ group show here at West Berlin Gallery in November!! And Niark will take part of course. Watch out for more informations coming soon!
I suppose the laFraise 15K exhibition is not your first show in a gallery. Where did you show your work before?
Yes I have already taken part in some gallery exhibitions before for collective shows. Recently I participated in a group show called ‘Battle’ at the Gallery Chappe in Paris with some guy from the 9eme concept crew and other artists. And I have already done some other exhibitions in Paris (with C215 at the Heart Gallery, at Artoyz with my buddy Bunka, Dadawan Madturnip, …) and in some other places in France with Customania. Also I had group shows in Belgium, UK, Australia, Singapore etc…
Thank you very much, Niark, and good luck for the future!
Thanks to you and for your interest in my work!
Take your time and browse through Niark’s portfolio and blog until there’s the next chance to see his works in living colour at West Berlin Gallery ;)
West Berlin Gallery Opening
Thank you so much to everybody who came around last night to celebrate the opening with us!
We had a really good time last night with about 300 guests. Just a great evening – enjoying the designs of the laFraise 15K Contest Exhibition, having a nice chat and some tasty drinks as well. Special thanks to the whole laFraise-Team, 42below and the great barkeepers, who did a really good job serving the crowd with fresh and boozy cocktails.
See more pictures of the opening on our flickr.
Tomorrow: Opening of the laFraise 15K Contest Exhibition
Come around and celebrate with us!
laFraise 15K Exhibition
We are busy working to prepare everything for the opening of the laFraise 15K Exhibition.
Contestants were asked to do a creative shirtdesign, and it turned out to be one of the biggest online-design contests in Europe ever. laFraise received almost 4000 designs from which they chose 12 finalists and then 1 winner. You can check all the finalists here. These designs (along 40 other chosen works) got printed on canvas and we are really proud to exhibit them.
The winning design ‘Elefant Gum’ by Piu Piu will be printed on 120×120 cm. Sweet and bubbely as a candycoated Bollywood movie, what do you think?
So, we really would like to invite you to the opening on September 10th, starting at 7pm. Come around and enjoy the designs, we will have some free drinks (provided by 42below) and good music ready waiting for you :)! Please rsvp!
The exhibition runs from September 11th to October 10th, open daily from 12-7pm.
Created in 2004, laFraise is now Europe’s largest t-shirt design competition and receives over 100 daily submissions from graphic designers and illustrators all over the world.
After a design is approved, it appears on the laFraise site for a week for the community to vote and comment on it. Each week, laFraise selects new designs and prints them in limited editions of 500 t-shirts.
2011 West Berlin Gallery