Interview with Graphic Designer Strange Program

Today I would like to share with you an interview I've done with designer StrangeProgram, an artist with an extensive gallery on deviantART that shows a colorful and interesting style. Check out the interview! 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? Hi, no problem! I started doing art because my mom did a lot of art. She was constantly doing either watercolor painting, or sketching, or anything, really. So early on in my life, my greatest artistic inspiration was her. As time went on I began to explore interests in graphics design, particularly forum board signatures, and began trying to make them. I constantly wanted to expand my technique and eventually I shifted to larger canvas sizes to improve the potential I could do with the work. I think what made me do it at first was just the excitement of learning new techniques and expanding on styles. 2 How did you come up with your style, what made you explore more this style and what in your opinion is the main characteristic of it? Well, I really wanted to create a style where the true stars of the show were the colors, the textures, and the contrasts. To create something pleasing to the eye using these utilities as your main device is a lot of fun! So eventually I started coming up with more and more ways that I could use them to my adventure to sync with my techniques. As time has gone on, I've been able to develop more interesting techiques to apply. I like expressing myself using the color, the texture, and the contrasts - it isn't so obvious that it is my emotion expression, but that is a good thing to me. I think the main characteristic to my work is how comfortable I am with expressing myself using it - It always flows so naturally with how I feel and what I am thinking. 3. How's your workflow for your projects? How would you break down your workflow in steps? As my mom has been doing artwork for her entire life she's always stressed the importance of defining your values with your darks and lights and balancing them in the piece of artwork. I always try to begin with some brainstorming, trying to get some idea of where the light source is going to be, what the values are going to be and how I am going to distribute the light shades and dark shades evenly in the piece, and where the negative space is going to go and how I am going to use it. I'll come up with a basic idea of what and then slowly work my way up, distributing detailing evenly. I like to decide where the real impactful stuff is going to be early on, and plan what I'm going to do to separate this piece from the last. I always begin with which colors I am going to use in mind. I would say that my main resource for planning is my imagination. I try my best to visualize what is going to happen. 4. What's the importance of the computer in the creative process? Really the greatest advantage of the digital age for the artist to me is just the sheer amount of directions that you can go with it, and how much different things you can work with to create one piece. The ability to illustrate in one program, 3D model in another, and paint in another and then put it all together really is a phenomenal combination of different techniques that the artist has chosen to apply into the completion of one single project. The capability that an artist has to utilize all these different programs and all the different tools available in them is limitless. 5. Apart from the profits, what type of satisfaction do you get from your work? And how much this matter in your life? The satisfaction of expression is one thing. It is my favorite way to communicate, without ever having to tell anybody anything. It feels like a release sometimes. In a less abstract way it also just keeps me interested and gives me something to pay attention to. There is a lot of enjoyment to be had completing something and being proud of it. The way it helps me express myself is important to my life - it's a craft that I have come to build up and enjoy working with. 6. What are your favourite 5 websites, and why? Google.com - This is probably the most important and took for granted. For research, just looking at pictures of things (Not using them!), or researching something that has to do with the work that I am doing. Having a search engine available is also a great advantage of the computer in the creative process. Deviantart.com - There are a lot of resources here, in the resource and stock images part of the website. It is also where I upload a lot of my artwork. Also a great way to keep track of other artists whos work I enjoy. sxc.hu - Free stock image site. A lot of good stock photos here. Depthcore.com - Essentially an inspiration portal for me - a lot of very inspiring and talented artists who release artworks on a regular basis together as a collective. Kular.adobe.com - I was a little hard pressed to think of another one, but even though I don't use this website very often, I have used it before and it is no doubt very useful for coming up with combinations of colors that work well together in design. 7. Advice for those who are starting out their career. What kind of references are important for those who want to work with this kind of style? The best advice I can probably give is to really get comfortable with your tools. Get comfortable with the tools in all the programs you use. You can do this through tutorials, or, you can do like I did, where I essentially just always kept trying to use a new tool with every new project I made. Sometimes the results aren't in your favor, but once you come to learn and master a lot of the tools in the programs you use that'll be your greatest asset in really developing a comfortable relationship with the work you do. I use a lot of geometric references and have been trying to introduce some perspective based techniques into my work, so I guess the best starting point for someone trying to work with a style like mine is to try to come to some technical foundation that you can apply your creativity to. Where to find this artist http://strangeprogram.deviantart.com/ More work of this artist