Helen Dardik grew up around the world, creating art all along the way. The talented illustrator and designer now calls Canada her home where she lives with her three little girls. Her exuberant and vibrant work is praised throughout the industry for it’s combination of retro whimsy and modern panache and pattern. Her designs have shown up in a multitude of mediums from patterns, editorial illustrations, book covers & illustration, cards, products and even temporary tattoos. Her client list is already impressive and is constantly expanding. Stay up to date with her projects on her blog Orange You Lucky.
Jennifer Daniel
Jennifer Daniel isn’t sure whether she should be considered an illustrator or a designer; but, regardless of the label, the Brooklyn based creator has a bevy of wit and sass that only matches her creativity. Her work has appeared regularly in many publications including The New York Times, Print, Seed, and Heeb Magazine. She was highlighted in Print Magazine’s “20 Under 30 New Visual Artists” issue in 2009 and was named an Art Director’s Club Young Guns 8 winner. As a talented designer as she is, she mostly considers herself to be funny person who loves to express her subversive wit in her work, which is probably what makes her work stand out so fabulously.
Christopher David Ryan
Christopher David Ryan is a graphic artist and illustrator who also describes himself as a daydreamer, pseudo-scientist, wanna-be astronaut and untrained intellectual. His wide variety of interests span science, the universe, the human condition and any natural phenomena that occurs in art and design. All of these factors have a major influence on his work, which is easy to see when looking through his expansive and abundantly diverse portfolio. His work has attracted the eye and commissions of Victoria’s Secret, Nike, Gap, Osh Kosh, Howies, SixPack France, Ubiquity Records, Element Skateboards, Obedient Sons, Graniph, New York Times Magazine, Kate Spade, MiH Jeans and The San Francisco Sketch Comedy Festival among others.
With all of the bold, imaginative and intelligent work he does under his own CDR moniker, as well the more progressive graphic work he does through his one-man studio Atmostheory, the collaborative studio More & Co. and as a partner and founder of Monolathe Recordings, it becomes incredibly difficult to pick a grouping of favorites that cover his diverse spectrum of work. We picked out a selection for you to peruse, and urge you to dive into the creative rabbit hole of his site to get the full effect of all he can do.
Meg Hunt
Illustrator Meg Hunt considers herself a jack-of-all-trades and with good reason. With a list of passions that include printmaking, cartooning, an avid zest for exploring new things and continuously branching out from her comfort zone, it’s no wonder she’s an interesting person who likes to get her hands dirty. Fortunately, she has heaps of talent to back up her passions, and her work has shown up in a variety of print and product mediums with clients such as The Disneyland Resort, Cartoon Network, Plansponsor, Radiolab/WNYC, Monoblock, Storey Publishing, Oxford University Press, Junior Scholastic, HOW Magazine, Jamie Magazine, Utah Valley University, BeerAdvocate, Vegetarian Times, BUST, Brown Alumni Magazine, Fantagraphics Books, Image Comics, Brand New School, Las Vegas Weekly, Portland Mercury, Seattle Metropolitan, the Stranger, Threadless, Time Out New York/TONY Kids, Utne, the Washington Post, and Yale Alumni Magazine.
Her goals are “to fill the world with my creations, and make people happy in the process.” With her beautifully exuberant creations and ever growing portfolio and skill-set, we’d say she’s well on her way to accomplishing just that.
Kevin Van Aelst
The talented and innovative artist, illustrator and photographer Kevin Van Aelst creates extraordinary images out of everyday objects. It wasn’t until his B.A. studies in psychology at Cornell University when he began exploring his artistic side. Taking a gamble on his burgeoning love for photography, he went on to complete a M.F.A. in photography from the University of Hartford, where his work flourished.
Van Aelst is a 2008 recipient of the Connecticut Commission on Culture and Tourism fellowship grant, and has been commissioned to create art for such publications as Time, Men’s Health, GQ, Business Week, Fast Company, and Scientific American. His photo illustrations can be seen every week in the New York Times Magazine. He has taught photography courses at the Hartford Art School, Middlesex Community College, and currently at Quinnipiac University and the ACES/Educational Center for the Arts in New Haven, Connecticut.
“My artwork is an attempt to reconcile my physical surroundings with the fears, fascinations, curiosities, and daydreams occupying my mind. The photographs and constructions consist of common artifacts, materials, and scenes from everyday life, which have been rearranged and reassembled into various forms, patterns, and illustrations. The images aim to examine the distance between where my mind wanders to and the material objects that inspire those fixations. Equally important to this work are the “big picture” and the “little things” — the mundane and relatable artifacts of our daily lives, and more mysterious notions of life and existence. This work is about creating order where we expect to find randomness, and also hints that the minutiae all around us is capable of communicating much larger ideas.”
Leslie Friedman
Leslie Friedman was born in Providence, and while she currently lives in Philly, she still considers RI her home. During the summer of 2002, Leslie learned how to silk-screen at the basement printmaking workshop of the lauded arts non-profit, AS220. She received a BA in Political Science from Brown University in 2005 where she concentrated her studies in political theory and civil liberties. From 2005 to 2007, Friedman lived in Buenos Aires, Argentina, and built a printmaking studio in the historic neighborhood of San Telmo. She describes these years as fundamental to her maturation from poster maker to print artist. In the Fall of 2009, she began an MFA program in printmaking at the Tyler School of Art in Philadelphia.
Friedman’s alter-ego, LesliePVD, embodies the values embedded in Providence’s printmaking culture: the appreciation of industrial craft, the belief in DIY/punk ethos and the acknowledgment of the political and social historical significance of prints in promoting civil liberties. By blurring the line between rock n’ roll posters and fine art, LesliePVD aims to inspire spontaneous discussion and debate over complex contemporary environmental and social issues. Through humor, bold colors and collage, her serigraphs are funny, awkward, honest, expressive combinations of texture that awaken the democratic spirit.