As a professional illustrator in the 1980s and 1990’s clients required original artwork mounted on board with an acetate cover. If revisions need to be made the artwork was shipped back. Looking back this was quite an expensive and laborious task. Fortunately, with advancements in technology, things are a lot less convoluted. Previously, I’ve always favoured traditional mediums like oil paints. However, producing a large painting involves a lot of time and effort. For that reason producing artwork digitally on an iPad is a very attractive proposition indeed.
Recently I launched an exclusive leather jacket brand (using cutting edge technology) called ‘Morley Rose’. As a peripheral project, I am working on a series of supporting digital artwork. For my latest piece, I wanted to create a futuristic landscape featuring a chrome avatar wearing one of my jackets. Simultaneously I became aware of a wonderful bike concept from acclaimed designer Harald Georg Belker. Very kindly he consented to me incorporating this machine in the composition.
Harald Georg Belker is an acclaimed German automotive designer who is an advocate of ergonomic user-friendly product design. He is renowned for his work on Hollywood blockbusters like ‘Batman & Robin and ‘Minority Report’. When I recently spoke with Harald he stated the bike design is “a combination of chopper and speed bike modelled to be clean, minimalistic and a touch futuristic. My design philosophy has been to have shapes and cutlines” Certainly, it was exactly the aesthetic I needed for my latest artwork.
NFTs (Non-Fungible Tokens) are becoming big business very popular with exclusive brands. Effectively they are unique cryptographic tokens that exist on a blockchain and cannot be replicated. Within the ‘Metaverse’ real estate, artwork and fashion garments seem to be popular. Interestingly luxury watchmaker Louis Moinet enjoyed enormous success with a virtual version of their phenomenal ‘Space Revolution’. For that reason, I feel Harald Georg Belker’s decision to release the bike as an NFT is an inspired touch.
