El Mac

Miles MacGregor, or as he goes by, El Mac, is a fairly young artist. There wasn't a lof of information on him since he is young and upcoming. But I do know that, he was born in 1980 to an engineer and an artist in Los Angeles. El Mac started creating and studying art independently since he was a little kid. During his teenaged years he started to graffiti. However, he is most well know for his huge murals that he paints on buildings and walls throughout cities. In 1998 he began painting technicolor aerosol interpretations of classic paintings by old European masters. Because of this, in 2003 he was paid by the Groeninge Museum in Brugge, Belgium to paint interpretations of classic Flemish Primitive paintings in the museum's collection. A few years later in 2007 he designed the poster for the Broadway production of Xanadu. He has also been paid to paint his muruals across the U.S., Mexico, Denmark, Sweden, Canada, South Korea, Belgium, Italy, Netherlands, Puerto Rico, Spain, France, Singapore, Germany, Ireland and Vietnam. He usually collaborates with another artist by the name of "Retna." His inspiration comes from Mexican and Chicano culture of Phoenix and the American Southwest. El Mac mainly focuses on human faces, figures and the public. His intent is to upflit and inspire through renderings of the sublime and humble. Some of his murals have been used in music videos. El Mac is a member of the Seventh Letter artist collective. He currently lives and works in downtown Phoenix in an old house filled with records, books, and art.

MacGregor, Miles. "Miles 'Mac' MacGregor." ELMAC. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. http://elmac.net/bio/
"Artist Bio: Miles 'Mac' Macgregor." Escape into Life. 7 May 2010. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. http://www.escapeintolife.com/artist-watch/el-mac/#

Piet Zwart

Piet Zwart was a Dutch photographer, typographer and industrial designer. However, he started his career off as an architect. Throughout Zwart's work he used basic principles of constructivism, primary colors, geometric shapes and repeated word patterns. He used repetition to strengthen his message. He despised every notion of "individualism, self-adulation, vanity and the picturesque" in his designs (people.ku.edu). He was also ahead of his time with his use of photo montages (he was born in 1885). While working for NKF (cable company), he created 275 designs in ten years and most of those designs were typographical works. At about age 48 he resigned to become and interior, industrial and furniture designer. He lived till he was 92 and currently has an academy named after him, The Piet Zwart Institute of the WIllem de Kooning Academy Rotterdam. Zwart happened to be a professor at this school too.

"Piet Zwart."  Wikipedia. 19 Nov. 2010. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Piet_Zwart
Kim, Allison. "Piet Zwart (Typographer)." Web. 21 Jan. 2011. http://people.ku.edu/~askim/pietzwart.html

Tom Muller

Tom Muller is from London and received his MA in Graphic and Advertising Design from the Royal Academy for Fine Arts in Antwerp. He has a modernist style infused with a contemporary design. He started his career in interactive design but specializes in typography, identity design, illustration, moving image and publication art direction for print and screen media. He was recently feature in this past November's issue of WIRED. He has designed websites for music artists Lily Allen, ACDC, Dido and The Script. He worked in the comic industry for awhile and also even did a little bit of animation work. When asked about working in the comic industry full time he said, "...too much of one thing, no matter how much you love it is ultimately going to become a drag" (comicblog).

Muller, Tom. "Information." Designed by Muller. Web. 20 Jan. 2011. http://www.hellomuller.com

Defina, Phillip. "The Work of Graphic Designer Tom Muller." Septagon Studios Comic Blog. 20 Aug. 2010. Web. 21 Jan. 2011. http://comicblog.septagonstudios.com