Scanning through the world of the most renowned graphic artists of the moment, if you want to meet the non-standard artist and the most down to earth and professional thinking artist, well, I guess that would be Hydro74. Hydro has passed over the word “freelance”, giving it the connotation that it deserves, so that along with work, goals and professionalism, it has become a way of living.
He shares his reason that he believes it made him so popular: his goals. He also encourages every designer to set goals, for a month, a year and so on, because without goals, you can’t reach higher than you are right now. Secondly, a strong portfolio is absolutely crucial, but that still means little you don’t get in touch with powerful companies that can get you the ticket to be known. He chose the name Hydro because it was so easy to spell and had nice resonance, and 74 is his birth year. So the association became personal, easy to remember, and almost turned into a trend, because many people have the tendency to name their sites with a simple name followed by a number.
Hydro74 does designs for a wide variety of things, like CD covers, magazine illustrations and snowboards. His work can be found all over the world, in most famous brands out there, even if they are clothing brands, bands or game companies. Here are some of them: Nike, Osiris, Vans, Electric, Ezekiel, DCMA, XGames, Smashing Pumpkins, Tribal Gear, Scion, etc. He is also the founder and co-curator of the t-shirt exhibit, “Back in Black”.
He gets his inspiration first of all from outer world, after inspecting what are the new trends and by guessing in which directions those trends will go further. He also can find inspiration in anything, like old books, graffiti digital art and Japanese culture. Actually, the anime style is very familiar to him, because at the beginnings, his style was anime, and he declares that he still keeps influences. But, as many artists from all kinds of domains and arts, the process of creating is the one that sets the passion free, because after his piece of art is completed, he already hates it. And that is because he thinks he could do better.
He has decided to stay away from what “artist” may mean to some (chaotic, weird thinking, tattoos that may be out of fashion someday, ego-centrism) and chose to remain connected to his high standard principles that granted him the popularity he has today.
Usually I do not post on blogs, but I would like to say that this article really forced me to do so! Thanks, really nice article.
great, i love it
I love his works
his typos are ok, but I think his other works are a little too symmetrical, and they lack a little inventivity
Thanks so much for sharing, I love HYDRO’s works so much!
A good post is always fun to read. Yours was fun and educative so thank you for posting it.
For reasons uknown i’m getting a blank page while i attempt post a comment,do you recognize reasons why its encountering?i’m implementing oprea web-browser
Your articles are very inspiring indeed. I keep coming back! There are so many things I agree on. I hope we can exhange ideas in the future.