One of the most unique designers in the industry, his emotional and bright illustrations are drawn with attention to detail. Adam Spizak started his professional development in the 90-s and now his works are full of inspiration and visual stimulation that make you feel something special every time you look at them and admire.
In his exclusive interview for WP Daddy, Adam speaks on his background, education, the things that inspire him the most, and much more. He gives a very useful advice for the beginners in design, so let’s have a chat with Adam.
1. Will you please say a few words about yourself and share some passions that got you into design?
I’m a visual designer and illustrator, I first got into design in mid 1990 by following (what was called at the time) “Demo Scene”, where artist and developers would work to produce non-interactive demos. I was so impressed that I wanted to try myself.
2. There’s no doubt your illustrations are emotional, and when I look at them it makes me think of a storyline referring to each of them. Please say a few words about a couple of your latest illustrations and the story of their creation. Will you please showcase a few of them to our readers?
They are very personally driven by emotion or inspiration of various things – a lot of it comes from movies, music and video games. Some work like “rAnimals” is deeply ecological and it’s using the mechanical look and feel to evoke questions of animal cruelty and place that nature have in our live.
3. What are the things that inspire you?
Pretty much everything, I love pop-culture and all things related to “Geek” culture and in that sense the inspiration comes from music, video games and music. As I do game a lot – video games are big part of keeping me motivated – both from art direction perspective, but also as I’m a tech geek when it comes to how games are made.
4. Sedna, Mortal Combat, Star Wars – these are the latest pictures I saw on your website, why do you choose only popular movies, games and characters?
Pop-culture is a big part of my inspiration and as many of my projects are things I do for fun hence they are often based on things I enjoy as my pastime activities. It’s also because of my style that my clients contact me.
5. Were you attending any design school? What is your education? Is it connected with design?
I didn’t attend a design school, at least not in the traditional sense, I hold an IT degree with specialisation in multimedia.
6. Do you think it is compulsory to get a professional design education or a talented self-taught designer can become a reputable one easily?
I think it’s all about your passion – there’s times when a traditional education can be very helpful and in most cases it will benefit you to have good grasp of basics. It’s all about your passion at the end of the day and wanting to learn, technical skills are less important today than they were few years back as most knowledge is available free on-online. Most successful designers I know are people that are not traditionally trained.
7. What are the most notable projects in your portfolio and what ones are you proud of the most?
In a way I try not to look at my portfolio too much and wonder, I always think you are as good as your last project. I think def my mechanical style is something I enjoy exploring.
8. Is there any advice you can give to a beginner in design and illustration?
Make sure you enjoy it, it can be a hard job and one that is very frustrating at times – so making sure you’re enjoying yourself is very important. On technical level I’m often asked how and where to start – start small, try small project – don’t start from big projects as the long time to finish makes them easy to get tired and quit.
Many thanks to Adam for such an inspiring and informative chat.
