Interview: Pete Harrison (aeiko)

A few days ago i posted an article about Desktopography, a website with awesome desktop wallpapers. Here's an interview with the creative head behind this website. Please visit his personal website aeiko.net or his fashion label Funkrush.com 1.First of all we would like to thank you for taking the time to provide abduzeedo.com with this interview. Please tell us more about your art and design background and what made you become an artist and designer? I have been interested in graphic design from a very young age, and quickly realized this is the career path that I wanted to follow, so I could tailor my studies towards this. At secondary school I studied art and design, and then digital art at university specializing in design. To be honest I was mostly self taught, my studies just helped me set briefs that I could work around. I started creating digital images just for fun and it seemed interesting around 2003. Over the next few years I set up a website to showcase my creations, and expanded my online presence. I got posted on a few blogs and linked from my other designer friends websites. Clients started contacting me after that to do freelance work, and getting paid for doing something I enjoyed, which was a dream come true really. After working fulltime in London for a while I decided to go freelance and that is what I currently pursue. 2.Your work is pretty unique and full of creativity. Where does your inspiration come from? Inspiration is hard to pin down, its quite a broad subject I see design inspiration everywhere I go. Some comes from personal experiences and my own imagination, it could be anything. Recently fashion and clothing labels, and music is one of my biggest inspirations. Whilst designing anything can inspire me and change the thoughts / design process behind an image. My work is always changing though, I got stuck doing the same sort of thing for a while as that is what clients wanted, but am starting to experiment a little more now. 3.Could you describe for us your typical 'start to finish' workflow when working on a design? When working on a personal piece, I have loads of doodles and ideas in my sketchbook for pieces, so its just a case of creating it digitally. Normally finding stock photography, creating digital elements to add to the piece and blending it all together. If it’s a client work it might work the same way, but it depends on what they want, what kind of style and design. 4.What are your tools of the trade, both hardware and software? I have a very nice PC, with 4GB ram and 2 monitors, and a good sound system with lots of hard drive space. Software for working is Photoshop, I use this everyday. Illustrator also for importing elements and things into Photoshop. 5.What, for you personally are the pros and cons of being a designer? I guess it depends if you work in an agency or if you are freelance. At the moment im freelance so I can work when I want (normally I have a irregular sleeping pattern). In general terms I have quite a lot of creative freedom on projects, that’s definitely a pro. Cons? Umm…tight deadlines can be annoying sometimes, interpreting some of the more harder briefs, and paying too much for stock photography haha 6.How does your job as an artist and designer influence your life? Do you feel that you see things around you differently for example? Im always on the lookout for design, and recently having my own clothing company I am always looking at fashion, walking down the street or anywhere seeing what people are wearing. Design and fashion are interlinked pretty well obviously. Design is my life now, I live for design. It keeps me alive and im happy with that, we get along well ;-) 7.What are your favourite 5 websites? That’s a pretty tough question, I guess it would have to be 5 website’s I visit quite a lot. Lets see.. Deviantart.com – This has helped my career a lot! Getting advice from people starting up, and growing with other designers..very good for networking too. DepthCore.com – One of the collectives I belong too, that has helped me expand and develop as a designer, bunch of great people there, all very talented producing great work. Original-Linkage.blogspot.com - Good source of inspiration, updated regularly with lots of nice content and interesting things! Facebook.com – Helps me keep in touch with friends, and share experiences / photos etc, good for networking with other designers too Funkrush.com – Haha, go visit! Some nice tshirts that will make you smile ;-) 8.Once again , thank you very much for the interview. As a final word, do you have any tips for upcoming artists and designers? Try and find the right balance between work and play, its quite important and something I still need to work on, so start early. Please visit his homepage aeiko.net