Frequently Asked Questions

Im happy to get emails from people about my work and lifestyle, study and school projects, sometimes I get asked the same questions, so I have put together a list of questions and answers, please check these before emailing me :)


Where did you get the name aeiko?
My friend gave it too me, its actually an old japanese sword!

Can I use your artwork for my project / flyer / website?
No, sorry..all artwork here is copyrighted to me and I reserve all rights, you can always commission a new illustration from me or ask about how much it will be to license an already created image. I do have people stealing and ripping my work, and it does not make me happy..I will take legal procedings if I need too :(

Where Can I find tutorials of your work?
I have done a variety of tutorials for advanced photoshop, computer arts, digital arts and other creative magazines, you can find some other tutorials online here and here and here and also another one here no I dont have the files for them so please dont email me that..

Where do you get your brushes? What brushes do you use?
I rarely use brushes, and if I do then it will be a brush that I have created myself, I dont use any other brushes. I have no idea where you can get brushes, or any brush websites, and I wont share my custom made brushes either :)

Ive seen your work on a flyer, or somewhere I dont think got your permission, what should I do?
Please email me using the contact form and provide details..

How much would it be to commission you?
Each project is different, if you would like a quote, please use the contact form, and give details about the project your interested in me to work on..

Can you give me some background information and some history so far about your career?
Im Pete Harrison, and go by the alias ‘aeiko’ which is pronounced ‘eye-ko’. Ever since I was younger I was creative and wanted to follow this direction in life, When I was 12 I wanted to be a graphic designer. Knowing this I was able to tailor my education around what I wanted to become. At school I studied art and design, same at A-Level. I went to University and studied MediaLab Arts. This 4 years of my life can best be described as a metaphor...

MediaLab arts is a car crash between two vehicles travelling at extraordinary speeds that takes four years to happen. In one car are internationally recognised computer scientists able to teach programming and control of visual media. In the other are artists, musicians, theorists and designers who are determined to reinvent how art, language and human beings are represented in the 21st century. Miraculously everyone walks away from the crash unscarred, and from the wreckage emerges a software artist able to operate at an exceptionally creative level in both corporate and cultural industries.

So I knew I wanted a career in the creative industries.. during University I started creating digital art, and by the time I had finished I had quite a few artworks to show, so I set up a website to showcase these. I began posting on a few community and social sites and networking with other designers and illustrators. I was featured in a few magazines and books and exposure started to grow. I took a fulltime job in London working at an agency, and while I was here I set up a clothing label as a hobby, I called this Funkrush, and commissioned a bunch of friends to do some designs for me.

Funkrush developed very fast and now showcase’s designs by some of today’s top illustrators and designers as well as being stocked in shops all over the UK and Europe. Alongside this (and my fulltime job) I decided to take up freelance and gained some high end clients in the fields of graphic design, web and interactive media, my online presence was still expanding. I was recognized by Computer Arts magazine as one in ten internationally recognised designers in the year 2006.

As you can imagine I was super busy, I was getting more freelance projects and funkrush was expanding even bigger, so I decided to quit my agency job and take up freelance full time. I moved back to Devon, southwest UK - this is where I grew up, although I loved London I think this place suits my lifestyle more. In between all of this I set up the Desktopography project and got loads of friends involved in that too. So this is what I currently do..im a freelance graphic designer running a few creative projects on the side, you can read more about them on my website, also feel free to check out my blog for updates and other fun things! Enjoy!

Can I come and do work experience with you?
Im not a big company, in fact I work from my bedroom studio, so cant really offer work experience. If you want to come round and watch a movie or play xbox, then yeah I guess you could!

When did you start Aeiko and how long have you been designing and freelancing?
Ive been designing around 6 years now, since 2003..thats when I got my first copy of photoshop. I have been freelancing fulltime since 2007, Aeiko was set up in 2006.

I need some advice about how to get into the design industry, please help?
There are resources online that can better help you with this, and books. In my experience you need to work pretty hard at first, do some research, set up a good portfolio and market yourself a little..join some design communities and check blogs, portals etc..become involved.

How do you get your jobs and such good clients?
Most of my work comes through this website, I dont email around asking for work, it comes to me..and I also have an agent.

Where can I network / connect with you?
See the contact me and network page, it has links to my behance, deviantart, facebook, twitter and all those social networking sites etc :)

Is it true you play Halo?
Yeah, my gamertag is 'Aeiko on Phire' and 'aeiko' During christmas periods I play on 'Santa on Phire' If you wanna hook up and play and talk about the creative industry or anything random just hit me up. Shout out to my boys Tiger and Scar...rape!

What car do you drive?
Mitsubish Lancer Evo VI

Did you enjoy school or think it was a waste of time?
Well I didnt really learn too much, and these days in the creative industry it all goes by your portfolio and skillset rather than your education, I had 6 interviews in London when I took that agency job, none of them really cared about my grades..school and uni were fun, but didnt help at all..in fact most people now are self taught :)

What programs do you use?
All I use is Adobe Photoshop and Adobe illustrator

So you have a clothing company, FunkRush. Did you always wanted to get involved in fashion?
Not really, just kind of stumbled accross it, originally set it up as a hobby but its developed ever since!

Does fashion and music provide some inspiration in your work? What music genre and bands are you digging right now?
Yeah of course, I listen to a bit of everything really but my favourite genre is drum and bass...probably netsky is my favourite artist right now!

As far as the art process goes, do you mainly sketch out your ideas or work on them digitally from the start?
It all depends on the piece really, sometimes I sketch out an idea, and sometimes I just start digitally

Where do you see your work going? What are your plans for future projects?
I want to evolve it more, im pretty busy with client work at the moment, but once I get time I will work on some more personal pieces..perhaps do more traditional art too, and mix that into my work

How did you land your first customer and get started freelancing?
Once I had started to create digital art, I posted it on forums and communities etc..my first customer saw some of my earlier works, and thought I could create something for one of their websites, so they got in touch with me and I did, we were both pleased with how it turned out, and I realised that it was easier than I thought and had fun doing it at the same time, I just had got paid for something I enjoyed doing..surely that's everyone's dream job. If one customer liked this, then i am sure other's would too, so that's when I started to take designing a little more seriously, and set up a website to showcase my artwork..

When you started freelancing, what were your goals? Do they differ to what they are now?
I had several goals on the road to freelancing, I think most of all I wanted to enjoy what I was doing, and what I was working on, I set goals like to evolve my work, and make new websites, set up projects and do more networking too. I dont think differ too much now, although at the beginning I was less picky and took pretty much most jobs, even with low budgets just to broaden my portfolio as I was breaking through into the industry.

What was the most important thing that allowed you to grow your business?
The most important thing I think was setting up my website. This was a key factor in looking more professional and getting more clients. Most of my clients now email me from finding my website actually. My business definitely grew from here, and now I will set up a website for each project, and always update current one's to keep things fresh.

You have also created an ecommerce shop (Funkrush), could you tell me how that came about?
Funkrush originally started out as a hobby as I was developing and bringing myself into the creative industries. I had made a lot of contact with illustrators and designers via networking and in person. So I got friends to design shirts, found a printer and set up a quick website and started selling! See the projects section for more info!

How do you balance your time between selling tshirts and freelancing?
Well to be honest, I think its about 50/50...although recently I have started designing more and have spent less time on Funkrush. Ideally I will get people to run Funkrush for me so I can concentrate on designing more and not have to worry about things like order fulfillment, which is actually starting to annoy me, however sales have grown its still enough for me to handle. It would be great to market and advertise Funkrush more, actually..im pretty busy, so organising time between the two is pretty hard, but I am a pretty laid back kind of guy so I dont let it stress me too much :)

How does freelancing work compare with an agency environment? Are there dominant pros or cons of either?
Well as you know I worked in an agency for a while, it was a big agency and im sure it would have been different from a smaller one, however I much prefer freelancing. For a start I dont have to get up in the mornings, Im definitely not a morning person..Its more freedom, I sleep when im tired, eat when im hungry and have lots more free time..today is sunny and im going for a drive, then for some drinks at a bar next to the beach..fair enough I havent got that much work on at the moment, but I couldnt just do that if I worked at a fulltime job! Besides that I prefer working at night :)

Is there a particular piece of work that stands out for you? A design that really made you feel proud of your talent?
There are pieces of work that along my career have stood out yeah, and ive been proud of a few pieces of work, but mostly proud of the projects I have started, desktopography and funkrush mainly!

What do you spend the most time doing?
Playing xbox...haha well this used to be the case, probably now I spent the most time answering emails, checking facebook and networking...catching up with whats going on in the creative industries and procrastinating, but when I have a project on then im dedicated to that, I think I need to sort out my time better, which is something im working on!

Do you read any magazines or blogs? Which ones and why?
Umm..not really any magazines, apart from the one's which im in..I think I should read more though, im a bit out of date with current affairs! I regularly check blogs though, just all the usual design blogs and portals and some others..OL, format, R&R, BSV, swissmiss, surfstation, september industry, visuelle, bitique, aisleone, dirty mouse, iso50..even stuff like digg, and my own blog duoform! which I will try and keep more updated!

Do you have a favorite design tool? (whether that be in software of not)
Photoshop of course, but im moving towards the pencil today :)

What do you generally do on a Friday or Saturday night?
In one word, party! haha...im a sociable person, so the weekend is just spent doing fun stuff..mainly going around the country to different nights out, getting drunk and meeting new people, my hometown is torquay so if im not out in a different city you can find me in the bars and clubs in the english riviera!

How important is music to you and your work?
Very important, always have music on while designing! Cant live without it! Big up hospital records right now..

Can you describe two or three designers that have really had an impact on your work or has really inspired you in some way?
I thought about this for a while, and its a tough question, I couldnt pick three, If I can give a shoutout to all my depthcore family that would be great, constantly inspiring :

If you could leave me with one great piece of advice, what would it be?
You need a website, most of my clients contact me through it...make it nice and have some sexy portfolio pieces and the work will come to you!

Where do you get the tshirts from to print on, and how do you print them?
I have a supplier, not hard to find...and we use screen printing! I would avoid things like cafe press etc..we print ours in house..

Where does your inspiration come from?
Inspiration is hard to pin down, its quite a broad subject I see design inspiration everywhere I go. Some comes from personal experiences and my own imagination, it could be anything. Recently fashion and clothing labels, and music is one of my biggest inspirations. Whilst designing anything can inspire me and change the thoughts / design process behind an image. My work is always changing though, I got stuck doing the same sort of thing for a while as that is what clients wanted, but am starting to experiment a little more now. I have a folder on my desktop I save inspiring images too as well :)

Could you explain your design style and discuss some of your typical workflow stages when working on a project?
My design style I guess at the moment you could say it was photo manipulation with lighting effects, I use similar elements and the way I work that now people recognise a piece and can put my name on it, the workflow of each project is different, normally if its a personal piece, I will get the concept down, then sketch an idea and then go straight into photoshop. If its a client piece well they might have an idea of what they want so I will work to that..or sometimes if im experimenting I just go straight into digital!

When you are in the process of creating a new design, is there something you do that saves you time?
Sometimes I skip on the original sketches and go straight into the digital design if I know exactly what im creating, otherwise I would sketch it out before hand. I try and use all the shortcuts I can though from finding stock rather than creating something from sketch right up to using the shortcut keys on the keyboard.

A few years ago you've written of the most popular tutorial of the recent history. Your Diffuse technique has been labeled as Aeiko style and spawned tons of recreations. At what point did you feel you had to ditch the technique and start from fresh?
I think I created an image back in 2004 and at the time was just experimenting and playing around with the different tools and filters in Photoshop. I stumbled on the diffuse technique and used it in a fashion shot, I don't think this had been done before, but I sent it in for the Computer Arts graduate showcase and it won an excellence award. I also submitted it on the deviantart community which was really popular at the time and it got a lot of recognition there. Then computer arts asked me to write a tutorial showcasing the technique, it did spawn a lot of pieces and people re-creating the technique, but then my style started to evolve.

What is the current evolution of Aeiko style and your future plan to push your signature style?
After the diffuse technique I started looking into light effects and styles, I guess this was an evolution of my style, I was using photos and creating light effects all with the tools in photoshop like the brushes etc..It got to the point where people would be able to recognise my work just by looking at it and the techniques that I used, and yes I also inspired a lot of people, which was kinda cool to see how they used my style in their own ways. My style is still evolving, in fact in some recent pieces I have tried to strip it back a bit and create something a little more minimalistic.

After a few years working in London you moved back home to Devon. Any particular reason why? What are the work benefits of being away from the capital?
London was a great experience and I miss it, there was always something going on in the creative industries all the time and it was an inspiring place, I also got to meet a lot of designers and illustrators there and became friends, at the time I was living in London I started up Funkrush clothing and my printer and supplier were both based in Devon. Also, that is where I grew up so a lot of my friends were living down there, and my parents. I think that Devon suited my personality more, since I am pretty chilled and laid back and London was much more fast paced. Also I was getting a lot of requests for freelance work outside of my fulltime design job so it made sense to free up more of my time, and also I could work directly with my printers to ensure funkrush production was high, not to mention it was more economical.

How do you juggle your day's work along Funkrush, Supercombo fashion brands and other commitments?
I basically have a bunch of tasks to do for each project all the time, which means I never get bored but its just picking some sort of priority. In some respect its kind of fun deciding what to work on, my freelance design work normally takes priority since it has deadlines, and Funkrush I still consider almost like a hobby but if an order comes in I have to get it out, Supercombo I am relaunching that next week so have been working on the new site and products a lot recently. Desktopography is once a year so I don't have to worry about that just yet, but once a year but it does take a lot of organising. Other things such as my accounts, concepts and personal art I can work on whenever, I do procrastinate a lot though.

Out of our contemporaries, I can safely say you've collaborated with the most people I've ever seen? Do you proactively seek new talent or reactively agree to offers?
Over the years its true I have collaborated with a lot of artists, I did this mainly because its fun but it also pushed me and have develop my style and techniques. Recently I only collaborate with people with Depthcore if we are working on an artwork for a new chapter, or I do bigger collaborations with members of the blackrock collective as part of a larger project, recently we did a skateboard and some card decks. I would love to do more personal art and there are still a lot of people that I would love to collaborate with, its just finding the time, I do get a lot of requests also, but have to turn most of them down due to time constraints. My favourite collaboration was the one I did with Andreas Wannestadt, it was a flash animation for the splash page of my clothing label Funkrush.

You can view it online at the website - http://www.funkrush.com/

We decided to make an animated intro that reflects the essence of funkrush, and that highlights elements from the designs as well as some of the featured artists. I did most of the art directing and creating the graphics and andreas worked on the compositing and animations. The final result is a mixture of urban infused graffiti street art mixed with cool, funky and unique characters. The project took us 6 months on and off whilst we were working on our own projects and client work. It was so much fun because I was passionate about the project (It is my clothing company afterall) and it was fun collaborating. It was exciting getting an email back from Andreas and seeing the progress we had made and it all come together bit by bit.

You're one of the longstanding members of Depthcore collective, having contributed to many chapters over the years. How important is your personal work and what message do you feel it needs to represent?
Depthcore is a great way to do more personal work, and the chapter themes serve us a concept to work around, in fact I think most of the personal artwork I do is dedicated for the collective. Its such a tight crew of people now, inside the member panel we all help each other out and have a laugh too, I really cant wait to meet some of the other longstanding members at the OFFF conference in June.

Do you combine traditional and digital media in your work?
For starters I normally start off by creating a doodle or composition on paper when I am thinking of a concept for a new piece. I usually do a lot of the work digitally however, but I have a few ideas that can only be executed by traditional means so in some upcoming pieces you will see a mixture of them. I am not that good at drawing on the computer, I don't have a tablet, so just prefer to do some things by hand, it can be digitised after however on the computer, but I think if people can see I used mixed media it might add a different spin to my usual style and work, keep your eyes peeled!

Do you have a set workflow ? What is it?
Like I said in the previous question, I usually sketch out my designs, mainly composition wise. Then when I have the concept and composition down its usually a hunt for stock photography. Once this is all in place I blend it in and start adding effects etc..but I guess it depends on the kind of piece I am creating. Sometimes I will do it all digitally, or just start a piece with no real concept and just go with aesthetics and experiment, which is interesting and fun to do.

What is the best drum'n'bass tune of all time?
I would have to pick two! First one Netsky – Memory Lane .Never gets boring, very well produced, I think its pretty timeless! and also The Qemists – Stompbox (spor remix). This tune is played everytime before we go out, it gets everyone pumped and don't forget that dr