Alexis Marcou

Alexis Marcou
Alexis Marcou's studio in 2015
Born	(1984-03-24)March 24, 1984 Larissa, Greece
Nationality	British
Known for	Drawing, illustration, digital art, new media art
Website	alexismarcou.com

Alexis Marcou /ɑːlɛksismærkʊ/ is a visual artist and illustrator known for his commercial and self initiated work.

His best known works have been for Nike, Cisco, BMW and Acco Brands. His digital design methods and practices have led to Marcou having multiple interviews with Adobe and he has appeared in a number of their magazines.

As an artist, he has also been known for the design of many notable music artworks, including the album cover for Phase's The Wait.

Early life and education

Marcou was born in Greece and was raised in Larissa. He went on to be educated in Britain, where he was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Photomedia and Design Communication in 2006 at the Plymouth College of Art. In 2007 he started doing freelance work and since has been steadily working as a commercial visual artist. After his studies in 2006 he began to merge his drawing with the use of digital software. A notable example of this style is the Panda series of images that he created in 2008 and which were sold as limited edition prints. In 2009, Marcou designed the album cover for the Mau band's album, backseat love songs.

Career

2010-2013

After completing a small initiated project called Cocaine, Marcou was approached by Nike in 2010. This resulted in Marcou designing an illustration for the company. The project focused on the recreation of the Just Do It slogan, and the Swoosh logo in his own signature style. During the same period, Marcou worked on a total of 3 separate projects for Designers Against Child Slavery. The non-profit went on to host a number of art exhibitions in the United States, where Marcou's work was displayed. This included two major exhibitions in New York City and Columbia, South Carolina. His non-profit work continued into 2011, when he did work for Pencils of Promise.

Marcou worked on a self-commissioned piece called Noire during 2011. The piece was included in the International Contemporary Masters Seven. During an interview Marcou stated, "Noire is an illustration mainly created by hand. Photography was also used for its completion. Numerous photos of crystals were taken and then digitally composed onto the original piece to create the cold crystal mode".

After working for both Pencils of Promise and Designers Against Child Slavery, he was commissioned by Hewlett Packard to design a number of illustrations. The illustrations were used as the companies official desktop backgrounds in 2012. Later that year he was again commissioned by Nike to create the Nike Lion for Galatasaray football club. The design was showcased as part of the Nike Graphic Studio Show in 2013. In late 2011, Marcou had his first major venture into clothing design. He worked alongside the Indian textile company, Crusoe.

Marcou was commissioned through Slang Inc, to design for Foot Locker on behalf of Nike. The commissioned work was for wall graphics to be used in Foot Locker stores and was known as the House of Hoops. Following the implementation of the design, Kevin Durant signed Marcou's wall graphic in the Foot Locker store in Harlem, New York City, as part of the fifth anniversary of the House of Hoops.

Marcou's first major portrait work came in June 2012, when he was commissioned to produce four portraits of members of the Animal Collective band and a portrait of Christian Louboutin for the Nylon Guys September issue. During the summer of 2012, he created a futuristic trade fair stand for BMW. His designs for Endeavor Snowboards went on to feature in The Telegraph and were listed as the one of the best intermediate or advanced snowboards to buy. He also worked with Atomic Skis during the same period, creating their Atomic Automatic which went on to be released a year later.

Later that year he also featured in Complex, following the creation of the font he called Defender for Nike and Major League Baseball. He also went on to create a portrait of Philip Glass for the November issue of Nylon Guys towards the end of 2012.

The Phase album cover for The Wait was designed by Marcou in 2013, and also the artwork for the band's single, Point of You. He was commissioned by Freefly Systems to design their NAB Show trade stand for the Las Vegas show. Mccann Erickson commissioned Marcou to design seven separate illustrations for Boehringer Ingelheim. His work for the Derwent Cumberland Pencil Company went on to be used as part of their product packaging for limited edition pencil cases.

In September 2013, after working with Atomic Skis for little over a year on the Atomic Automatic product, it featured on the cover of Powder Magazine. From this point onwards Marcou worked closely with the company, and went on to design graphics for their Vantage series. Marcou's work was featured during the Adobe Max keynotes in late 2013.

2014-present

Marcou's work featured in the Adobe Max 2014 keynote, with a focus on the work he carried out for Derwent Pencils. One of the common techniques he uses on Photoshop appeared in the magazine Advanced Photoshop.

Early in 2015 one of Marcou's techniques was featured in issue 131 of the magazine Advanced Photoshop. In February 2015 Digital Abstracts announced that Marcou will be amongst 53 other artists participating in Playing Arts 2, a design project for a deck of playing cards. In spring 2015 Jordan Brand released new clothing with Marcou's design on. The design has the letters 'Lucky No 7's' written on the clothing and the style was influenced by Tinker Hatfield tribal design of the original AJ VII Hare basketball shoe.

In late 2015, Marcou was the responsible for the design of large wall graphics at the Nike offices in Oregon. The artwork included sketches of Maria Sharapova and Serena Williams.

Style

Marcou's style often uses intricate shading and geometric lines for his illustrations. The effects are usually created using graphite. The techniques he uses, combine a mixture of traditional methods and digital art, but have regularly been referred to as an unusual style.

Marcou is also known for using improvisations in his work to solve design problems he encounters.

Computer Arts magazine stated "there's a visceral quality to Alexis Marcou's sketch-style illustration work that really speaks of his ability to capture a living moment with his pencil", when discussing Marcou's style and works. Marcou says his style has "evolved gradually into a more cubic and expressive style." Another unique style he is known to use is to use makeup brushes to blend graphite and charcoal.

Bibliography

2

See also

• AIGA
• Artwork (graphic arts)
• Fine Art
• Design
• Digital Art
• Artmedia
• Juxtapoz
• Core77
• Future plc
• Art Directors Club of New York

External links

• Alexis Marcou – Official site (related)
• Alexis Marcou on Hypocrite Design Featured on May 28, 2014.
• Alexis Marcou on Lifo Interviewed by Alkisti Georgiou on March 19, 2014.
• Alexis Marcou on Fubiz Interviewed by Baptiste Bourgain on September 5, 2011.