I have seen and admired Jim Starr‘s work on the Net before, and was meaning to get around to reviewing his work, but with my panic about setting up my own studio (I will write more about this soon), time constraints as they are have made me put a lot of things to the side I’d rather not. However I’ve just received an email from Arien Signs (a definite future resource for my hand printed A0 screen prints) and a friendly guy Steve who works there told me Jim Starr had talked favourably about my work. I want to repay the guy for his kindness and tell you all about Jim Starr’s amazing talents as a graffiti artist, graphic designer, illustrator, photographer, in fact the list is endless, this guy has the world of arts all wrapped up, he has a killer style and a unique knack for crossing mediums which is very rare in today’s arts market.

You can find Jim’s work at his portfolio site www.jamesstarr.co.uk and his design studio site at www.inchbyinchdesign.co.uk – this guy is both a perfectionist and prolific in his work (which is no mean feat), he’s worked for all sorts of big names including TopMan (Arcadia Group), Levis, Lever Faberge and The Elton John Aids Foundation, The Times, The Economist, Formula One and many more. He produces an amazing range of unique and challenging art works across the board, and even prints many of his smaller prints from his tiny studio based in Bristol. This is truly a one man band artist on a mission. Just take a look at some of these amazing works by Jim, I’m sure you will agree, his work is rather dazzling.

 

Doris Day

An amazingly eclectic composition that explodes on contact, I’d always seen Doris as a rather tame icon in the annals of Hollywood’s history but this design really does jump off the page.

Final Bikini Eagle

I love this design, the combination of weathered torn typography and a fantastic spectrum of colour across the figure, and my favourite, a very subtle inclusion of an American Eagle, not clumsily attached as many artists would be tempted to compose this work, but simply and confidently arranged to flit between fantasy and reality. The eagle merely sits behind the bathing beauty, no she has wings, no she doesn’t…

British Airways

The great thing about printing is you can experiment, be it colours, design, composition, and even materials. My point is proven here by Jim’s design for a British Airways project, this is beautiful, in essence hyperrealist ephemera, a record of a journey that never was (but always could be). I can imagine a great deal of trial and error went into this work, creating such a composition takes a great deal of skill, experience and illustrative balance. What’s more it’s rubbed away that corporate edge I expect from commissions of this nature. Excellent resolution to what I imagine was a difficult brief.

I’d have loved to have featured some of Jim’s illustrations from his portfolio site as well, however it’s a Flash site (a very flash site!) and so I wholeheartedly recommend you take a look at some of his more personal works there – www.jamesstarr.co.uk.

James Star has travelled the world on expeditions for BSES, creating art works in the USA, South Africa, Iceland and Arctic Norway. His unique combination of painting, screen printing, collage and illustration earned him a feature in Clin D’oell magazine in 2004. He is available for commission work and is certainly worth considering for any major commercial campaign requiring a more creative resolution to your brief.

 

 

This post is tagged artist, commercial arts, illustration, illustrator, james starr, jim starr, screen print, screen printing, UK arts