We, as the Designer Interviews ("DI") had the distinct pleasure and opportunity to interview award-winning, most creative and innovative Emi Haze ("EH").
Graduated from the Institute Design Palladio in Verona with a degree in Graphic Design and Advertising Design, Emi Haze is an italian independent digital artist and illustrator with a strongest passion for art and painting connected to technology. His digital works are a mixture of graphic elements and hand-drawn ink marks, acrylic or watercolour stains. In his recent works he tried to merge the human body with nature or rather with the four elements of fire, air, water and earth. Piles of tree branches, clouds forming hair, faces that melt with air and sky, human silhouettes that arise from expanses of earth and roots... The result is the vision of his imaginative world hanging between reality and fantasy, dream and utopia and in which colour and sensitivity have the predominant role. He usually works for several clients and big agencies like Adobe, Wacom, Penguin Random House, Getty Images, etc. Recently, he collaborated with the agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco and Adobe to be part of the Adobe Photoshop 25th anniversary "Dream On" Oscars Spot which was featured during the Academy Award Oscars 2015 ceremony and was part of an international bigger campaign. His works have been published on digital arts magazines and specialized websites and are on sale in many art galleries.
Emi Haze Designs
We are pleased to share with you original and innovative design work by Emi Haze.
Designer Interview of Emi Haze:
DI: Could you please tell us more about your art and design background? What made you become an artist/designer? Have you always wanted to be a designer?
EH : I began with painting and drawing, when I was attending the art high school. Then I discovered the digital art and I connected this great passion of mine with technology, taking a degree in graphic design and commercial art at the Design Institute Palladio in Verona. I always loved the gesture and the warmth of the sign in a sketch, in stroke with acrylic or oil color, in the splashes of watercoloor or ink. All the art world is the fundamental source of inspiration in the creative process, and I’m referring not only to pictorial art but also to music, filmmaking, photography and fashion. In my opinion everything in every moment has an artistic side, the aesthetics of things, people around me... For me everything has its own importance, images, textures, sounds, fragrances, my creativity is constantly stimulated.
DI: What kinds of works do you like designing most?
EH : Portraits are the works that I enjoy creating the most.
DI: What is your most favorite design, could you please tell more about it?
EH : “Cosmogony Reloaded” is one of my artworks that I think fully represents my style, my world, my sensitivity. In this artwork I wanted to give my representation of the origin of the universe. A girl that comes out and materialize herself from the sky, through an heap of clouds and an explosion of colors. Also it is the work that allowed me to make myself known to the general public because is on the Adobe Photoshop 25th anniversary "Dream On" Oscars Spot which was featured during the Academy Award Oscars 2015 ceremony and was also used in other media as part of an international bigger campaign.
DI: What was the first thing you designed for a company?
EH : I have been approached by Safarà Editore to create an intriguing and visually appealing cover illustration for Vanishing Girls Italian edition book, the last young adult novel by New York Times bestselling author Lauren Oliver.
DI: What is your favorite material / platform / technology?
EH : My favorite medium is a mix of digital art, watercolors and photography. Watercolor, acrylic paints and ink are some traditional tools that I always combine with my digital artworks. I have a big collection of different brush strokes, ink marks, spray painting, acrylic paints, washes of watercolor created by hand on textured papers, which I have built up over time and scanned at a high dpi ready to be used during the digital process.
DI: When do you feel the most creative?
EH : The best moment to develop my works is at night…no sounds, no distractions…it is perfect time for my creative phase.
DI: How do you think the "design field" is evolving? What is the future of design?
EH : Digital art is nowadays becoming increasingly important and it will exponentially grow in the future. The potentials offered by technology are endless and they can perfectly fuse with our manual skills. The only limit is our imagination.
DI: When was your last exhibition and where was it? And when do you want to hold your next exhibition?
EH : My first exhibition will be in October at the Mediolanum Art Gallery in Padova for NowArt’s exhibition circuit.
DI: Where does the design inspiration for your works come from? How do you feed your creativity? What are your sources of inspirations?
EH : I love Impressionism for the use of color and Surrealism for the subjects. I could name many artists, painters and digital artists that have influenced me, at first in my painting and later in my digital art. Mentioning only few of them would be reductive, because all the art world is the fundamental source of inspiration in the creative process, and I’m referring not only to pictorial art but also to music, filmmaking, photography and fashion. In my opinion everything in every moment has an artistic side, the aesthetics of things, people around me... For me everything has its own importance, images, textures, sounds, fragrances, my creativity is constantly stimulated. Music is one of the key of my creative process. Listening to my favorite artists like Sigur Rós, Radiohead, Bjork, helps me to immerse myself in my creative world and to have a right inspiration mood to develop a new work.
DI: How would you describe your design style? What made you explore more this style and what are the main characteristics of your style? What's your approach to design?
EH : Ethereal, imaginative, dreamy, colorful, eternal… In my works the human being melts with nature and its four elements to give birth to my inner world, ethereal and imaginative, hanging in balance between reality, dream and fantasy, in which color and sensitivity have the predominant role. A harmony that binds man and nature in a perfect way and which unfortunately nowadays seems to be a utopia. Piles of tree branches, clouds forming hair, faces that melt with air and sky, human silhouettes that arise from expanses of earth and roots... this is my visionary world.
DI: How do you work with companies?
EH : Most of my clients leaves me free to develop the work, others give me detailed guidelines.
DI: Can you talk a little about your design process?
EH : My artwork starts from a photo and the first phase is its retouching. Afterwards I digitally import various hand-made elements such as scratches, ink marks, acrylic or watercolor stains. All the Blending Modes, layer masks, Adjustments layers I use make the starting image less digital and more similar to a painting or a drawing. This phase of manual elaboration is then merged with the strictly digital one. Selecting parts of different photo images (like trees, plants, leaves, clouds, etc.) I try to blend with the double exposure technique the human body with nature and its four elements, fire, air, water and earth. Many among Photoshop tools are capital in my artworks. I very often use Blending Modes - Multiply, Overlay, Soft Light - to obtain peculiar effects in the combination of different layers and textures, for instance the double exposures. Adjustments layers are another essential tool. Color is an element of primary importance for the final perception of the artwork. I can have in any time the complete control of the color throughout every phase of my work.
DI: Could you please share some pearls of wisdom for young designers? What are your suggestions to young, up and coming designers?
EH : The advices I would give is to have patience but be persistent, have an open mind and try to always inspire your creativity.
DI: Which tools do you use during design? What is inside your toolbox? Such as software, application, hardware, books, sources of inspiration etc.?
EH : Photoshop is my main working software. If it had’t exist my works wouldn’t have probably been real and would have existed only in my mind or, at least, they couldn’t have been as they appear today. I use an iMac with an external display in my studio but my favorite and best tool is Wacom Cintiq. It’s my digital canvas, the place where my ideas come true, drawing directly on a display makes a more natural and speedier workflow.
DI: Designing can sometimes be a really time consuming task, how do you manage your time?
EH : Sometimes it is not easy but I try to keep a balance between my job and my private life.
DI: How long does it take to design an object from beginning to end?
EH : For the entire workflow I usually spend some days maybe one week.
DI: What is the most frequently asked question to you, as a designer?
EH : One of the most frequently question is: How do you realize your artworks?
DI: What was your most important job experience?
EH : I collaborated with the agency Goodby, Silverstein & Partners of San Francisco to be part of the Photoshop 25th Anniversary special advertising campaign commissioned by Adobe. They licensed two of my artworks and one of them “Cosmogony Reloaded” is on the Adobe Photoshop 25th anniversary "Dream On" Oscars Spot which was featured during the Academy Award Oscars 2015 ceremony and was also used in other media as part of an international bigger campaign. Today it has been watched over 2 million times on YouTube and recently has achieved three awards at Cannes Lions International Festival of Creativity 2015, a Graphite Pencil D&AD Award, two AICP Awards and a nomination for Outstanding Commercial at Emmy Awards 2015. Taking part to this big event is a huge honour and representing my main working tool is a great personal satisfaction. It makes me proud to see my work on all promotional content Adobe is creating for this special 25th anniversary.
DI: Who are some of your clients?
EH : Adobe, Wacom, Goodby, Silverstein & Partners, Penguin Random House, Getty Images and many other big and small agencies and studios.
DI: What type of design work do you enjoy the most and why?
EH : Planning and designing the cover of a book is always a big challenge and responsibility as you tend to represent with one image the content and the soul of the book. At the same time it must be intriguing and attractive in order to catch the attention of readers who usually read other genres.
DI: What are your future plans? What is next for you?
EH : I have many ideas to be tested in the future. My style is in constant evolution. I hope to work and collaborate with new and important clients and agencies.
DI: Do you work as a team, or do you develop your designs yourself?
EH : All of my works are developed by myself.
DI: Do you have any works-in-progress being designed that you would like to talk about?
EH : I just finished to draw for Penguin Random House of New York the cover jacket of “Glitter” the new novel by New York Times bestselling author Aprilynne Pike. The book will be released in October.
DI: How can people contact you?
EH : You can send me an email at hello@emihaze.com or a message through my socials: Behance (www.behance.net/endalaust) Facebook (www.facebook.com/EmiHazeOfficialPage) Twitter (www.twitter.com/emihaze) Instagram (www.instagram.com/emi.haze)