MacDirectory Magazine

Stijn Grooten

MacDirectory magazine is the premiere creative lifestyle magazine for Apple enthusiasts featuring interviews, in-depth tech reviews, Apple news, insights, latest Apple patents, apps, market analysis, entertainment and more.

Issue link: https://digital.macdirectory.com/i/1436922

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What types of clients do you work with? I work with clients across a range of industries, from large corporations to small businesses. I tend to get a lot of repeat work in the music industry, working with musicians and bands to design their album covers and merchandise. One of my favorite clients is CorelDRAW. The first time I ever created a digital design was using this software and it’s been my go-to for vector illustrating ever since. To have CorelDRAW as an official client promoting my work is a dream come true. What design styles and artists have influenced your signature style? Like classic and nouveau design styles, which I admire, my artwork has a lot of detail. But I prefer clean lines and punchy colors and am not one to use many gradients. My style is inspired by some of my favorite artists like Dan Mumford, Ken Taylor, Aaron Horkey, God Machine, Hydro 74 and Sweyda. What is your process for taking artwork from an idea to completion? It all starts with my imagination. To turn my ideas into something tangible, I sketch what I’m thinking on paper, making observations about the composition and refining as I go. My next steps are scanning the sketch to digitize it, and then bringing it into CorelDRAW to vectorize. I start in CorelDRAW by tracing my sketch, connecting lines to create closed objects that can then be filled with color and further manipulated to add detail. And that’s the fun part — building on the design, playing with colors, and tweaking elements until I am happy with the result. Check out my process in this speed drawing! (https://youtu.be/RyQ43KuXTC0) What types of projects are you most proud of that you’ve worked on in the past? I am particularly proud of my “Queen of Vector” piece, featuring a woman with sunglasses, wings, and a crown, holding physical and digital illustration tools. This artwork won me an International Design Contest in 2019 and became the face of CorelDRAW Graphic Suite’s 2020 launch campaign. It was rewarding to see my work represented in a year-long, multi-faced global campaign, comprised of print, digital and video.

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