If you have been a Graphic Designer since the very end of the 90’s or early Noughties, you will probably of heard of ‘The Attik’.
No? If not, then let me educate you a little bit as I remember this special design house from my early college years and who had an influence on me throughout my studies for a design diploma.
Read this great blog post on the history of The Attik here.
It was the time when computers, Apple Macs and Photoshop were really coming to an age. Whilst we were getting taught the traditional skills by hand and thought processes required to provide solutions to problems as a designer, computer aided design was taking off especially Adobe Photoshop and this peaked my interest.
This was when I invested in my computer at home leading me onto wanting to know more about computer design and digital image processing. This lead me onto subscribing to Computer Arts which opened my world to The Attik. It was in that magazine I found out about this brave, fresh design style which I now view as art.
The Attik’s history was inspiring at the time – two budding designers set up in an Attik or loft in Huddersfield with a computer or two and the rest is history. Just what you wanted to read when you were starting off on the same path. But it wasn’t just the history that inspired me, it was the blend of digital art and design that they produced which excited me. The way you could layer so many different forms of digital imagery, photos and text or typefaces to create a work of art within Photoshop blew my mind. That’s when I found their ‘Noise’ books…
“The Noise experiments let us stretch ourselves and get the attention of bigger companies like national music labels, mtv London, Sony PlayStation, Nintendo.” – The Attik
The Attik ‘Noise’ Books are very limited experimental portfolio’s of digital art. Owning one of these books is still a goal of mine and can be found (not cheap) on Amazon or eBay. You can see how unique they were and you must know that now those two early designers have probably had one of the best start-up successes of current times. The Attik eventually joined the Dentsu network with Simon Needham still the Exec Creative Director, but his old partner James Sommerville is now VP Global Design at Coca Cola.
They are the main inspiration towards how I approach my mural design. A mural by Steven James is not just a copy of an image onto a wall, it is a piece of unique art ‘designed’ to suit your interior (or exterior) needs and topic selection. With the use of an iPad, computer, photographs and sourced imagery I can apply my graphic design skills to produce bespoke mural design ideas that will be seen as works of art – all hand painted.