Maciej Hajnrich also known as Valp is a graphic designer and digital artist whose style is a combination of his interests in digital painting, concept art, and graphic design mixed together. His works remind a shattered rainbow, a free flow and some kind of a unique balance between chaos and color combined into an inсredible consistency.
Valp’s creative works are appreciated by a lot of famous brands and we can bravely say those brands succeed in their fields not just thanks to their efforts and experience but also thanks to brilliant designs that identify their image and allow them speak to their audience with the help of color. Maciej has got lots of his own self-initiated projects and a good deal of colorful and impressive illustrations you can check out in his portfolio and on Behance.
And now it’s time to have a chat with Valp and find out really stunning facts from his creative life. Enjoy!
1. Will you please say a few words about yourself and your key fields of expertise?
My name is Valp, while my real name is Maciej Hajnrich. I’m an art director, graphic designer and digital artist with over 10 years of experience.
2. What made you get interested in the art of illustration?
It was that magic for creating from scratch with digital tools that gives so much freedom in choosing the way I can create. And ease to experiment with digital painting made me do it! I have never thought I can bring things to life other way, especially that I wasn’t good (and I am still quite poor) in traditional, you could say ‘analogue’, painting. Lot of my works are more or less experimental and that makes me enjoying digital art all over again. For me there is no room for boredom in the world of art.
3. Your illustrations are full of vibrant colors, how would you explain such choice of style and how would you briefly describe it?
I’m playing with different styles so not even sure if I had a chance to choose any particular one. My style is a result of my interests in digital painting, concept art, graphic design and mixing all those together. But colour express my creations so even with static compositions they are having that dynamic and energetic feeling.
4. I’ve heard you’ve been collaborating with Warner Bros, Craft Foods, and more well-known brands, and will you name some notable customers you are proud of working with the most? Are there any specific challenges you can admit about collaboration with globally known companies?
Working for well-known brands is always challenging because you can feel that pressure. I mean, you want to make the best you can, you want to make your client happy and sometimes can forget about the goal – which is successful campaign. So I would say, for an artist it may be quite hard to hold the horses. So finding balance between over-deliver and pushing too far is my personal biggest challenge.
I’m super proud of every single project I’ve been involved in, from Western Digital branding to Lord of the Rings: Collectors Edition. But my favourite projects are those I created for music – it will be cover art for Pendulum band; and sport – I created cover illustration for ESPN The Magazine.
5. Your Valp moniker is associated with the wallpaper and it’s true, your brilliant works I personally would choose as awesome backgrounds of website pages, music album covers, and more. And what were your reasons for naming yourself this way? Will you please share?
This story is very simple. I used ‘Valpurgius’ nickname playing Diablo and Quake online. It was ages ago but I really liked that name from beginning and realized that building my own brand based on that will be unique and personal at the same time.
6. Will you please try to describe your vision on what direction do you think graphic design is going towards?
Simplicity and minimalism affects graphic design so it gets more experimental, sometimes even chaotic. I can imagine rules will be broken and folded again in this process of evolution. If we can see 10 years ahead we would say graphic design will be divided and merged like puzzles built in dark room, and it will be amazing! 🙂
7. Are there any fresh projects you don’t mind to showcase to our readers?
At this moment I’m an art director and designer creating graphic visuals for WKND
2017 music festival WKND and Weekend Baltic. I haven’t got much time to complete my personal works (and I have several self-initiated projects started, as always) in recent weeks but here is one of my recent illustrations called “Curiossa”.
8. Will you please give a small piece of advice to a beginner in graphic design?
Have fun, no matter what. I repeat this to myself every single day. This work is about learning all the time, beating challenges, not giving up, getting paid, being better artist or designer. But above this it’s about enjoying it and having fun. Be kind for yourself, scratch fear and put curiosity in that place!
We’d like to say thanks to Maciej for his time and for such a “saturated” conversation.
