A slightly delayed Monday Muse, but never-the-less, that doesn't take away from the man that I'm about to talk about, in illustrator and designer Zach Johnsen.
I first came across Zach's work when I was scouting for collaborators for Concrete Operational, instantly falling for his use of graphite and watercolour on some of his earlier works of last year, highlighted at the ever brilliant Beautiful / Decay magazine.
Now, having realised that although Zach is an immense talent, he is based State Side, I knew he couldn't be one of the artists to collaborate on the project, however, I did ask him if we could work together on designing a front cover for the novel. The images of heads exploding with colour and life from such mundane attire and although beautifully rendered, grey and static bodies, made them sequence perfectly with some particularly important parts of the novel.
Unfortunately, as I had predicted, Zach was too busy with current project to take on something pro-bono, although he was very nice about the situation, and having tracked his work for well over a year now, I can see how much of a busy bunny he as been.
Expanding into a whole range of products, his illustrations have just gone from strength to strength, and with some really cool corporate commissions under his belt, some amazing collaborative projects done and dusted, his own line of Skateboards and some absolutely brilliant sculptural projects finished, he is a creative force to be reconned with.
What I find so ingenius about Zach's work is the considerable level of detail and the vibrancy of it all, they're literal explosions of colour on the page, but controlled explosions, to the point that although they are a wash with colour, they are contained within detailed illustrations of all sorts of different bodies.
So, all I can add really, is if you're lacking a dose of colour in your inspiration, sign up to his newsletter, subscribe to his blog, buy some prints and enjoy everything Zach has to offer.
