AIGA/NY Small Talk No. 1 featured Ian Wright, a London designer and artist currently based in New York. The talk was held on September 22, 2010 at the Bumble and Bumble auditorium.

Ian Wright gave a chronological presentation of his work, starting with his biggest inspiration: the album cover of Revolver by The Beatles. The illustration–part line drawing, part collage–was created by German artist Klaus Voormann in 1966 and inspired Ian Wright to think, “All portraits should be like this,” he said.

Wright draws a lot of inspiration from his love of music. Growing up in England, he loved listening to The Beatles, Jimi Hendrix, and The Who.

For his first commissioned projects, Ian Wright used a rubber stamp, a tool that he continues to use today.

For an early portrait of Grandmaster Flash, Wright created the illustration entirely with salt to replicate cocaine as a reference to the track, White Lines.

His recent illustrations included the cover portrait for T.I.’s current album called Paper Trail, for which Ian Wright used strips of paper to create the portrait.

The uniquely collaged portrait for Paper Trail later inspired Wright to create portrait illustrations for Nike using pieces of paper. Wright allows the materials to influence the outcome of his artwork.

Wright’s pixel-based artwork relies on a variety of different materials. For example, this London storefront, he created the butterfly image with cut pieces of ribbon. His former student and now collaborator, Riitta Ikonen, briefly joined Wright on stage to share her work.

Audience Q&A concluded the presentation. A PostScript gathering at the Brass Monkey followed the talk.

For more information, visit

Ian Wright http://www.mrianwright.co.uk/

Riitta Ikonen http://www.riittaikonen.com

To view event details, visit

AIGA/NY SMALL TALK NO. 1: IAN WRIGHT

http://2006.aigany.org/events/details/11S1/

To view additional photos, please visit our Flickr photostream. We encourage our members to contribute their photos to the AIGA New York Flickr group.