We have already featured Alexis Marcou‘s unique-style illustrations on Inspirationist in the past, here and here. He is an international artist who graduated in Photomedia and Design Communication from Plymouth University. He returned from the UK to Greece in 2007, where he has since been doing freelance work for a wide range of clients, such as Cisco, Atomic Skis, Acco Brands, Hewlett Packard, Gatorade, Air Jordan and Nike. Passionate about fine and contemporary art, he uses a minimal amount of color, tries to avoid repetition, his works being defined by more than one meaning.
Here’s a short Q&A with the artist, exclusively for Inspirationist, on his sources of inspiration, what characterizes his style and his workflow.
INSPIRATIONIST: How did you become interested in drawing/illustrating? Does the love for the arts run in the family?
Alexis Marcou: I was interested in drawing for as long as I can remember.
INSPIRATIONIST: What characterizes your style? What techniques do you use in creating your pieces?
A.M.: I believe my style is in many cases aggressive with the use of angular shapes. I use mixed media such as ink, paint, charcoal, Photoshop, but in most cases I work with graphite.
INSPIRATIONIST: What inspires your work?
A.M.: I get inspired from many sources, such as blog inspiration websites like yours.
INSPIRATIONIST: How does a piece come to life? What are the steps of your creative process?
A.M.: It all starts from a concept and with a lot of time spent and patience, it gets where it needs and deserves to be.
INSPIRATIONIST: Do you have a favorite client or piece you worked on?
A.M.: I have no favorite client, I try and not distinguish between them.
INSPIRATIONIST: Tell us a bit about your ‘Iconic’ project. What led you to it?
A.M.: ‘Iconic’ is a self initiated project that I started in 2011 and I managed to finish it in 2013 due to lot of work I had. The idea behind this project was to create a style bold enough to fit any music artist without distorting his/her identity.
INSPIRATIONIST: Can you tell us what are you working on now?
A.M.: I am working on a few projects for Nike, one of which is being directed by Julian Alexander from Slang Inc. I am also working with Derwent pencils in creating a series of illustrations to go on their products.
