For Emir Karyo, posters are like paintings

Looking at graphic designer Emir Karyo’s eclectic, multi-sensory work, it’s not hard to see that his visual style has been formed from a 90s melting pot of “sci-fi movies, cartoons, obscure CD and cassettes, graffiti, Yu-Gi-Oh cards, action figures...” (the list goes on). Emir’s practice sits very much on the border of art and design with a more-is-more mentality. His approach is extremely diverse in its output, from posters to animations, to airbrush paintings and handmade sculptures or installations.

Born in Istanbul and now based in the Netherlands, the artist is a recent graduate from The Royal Academy of Arts (KABK) in The Hague, now balancing a successful freelance design practice with personal projects and commissions. When it comes to designing, graphic rules and conventions haven’t really phased the creative, in fact he’s deliberately decided to venture beyond them: “I believe I have found my own creative voice by treating posters as paintings,” the artist tells It’s Nice That. With this mix of digital and analogue approaches Emir has found a common ground between graphic design and art by “always adding a sense of unpredictability and fun” to even the more traditional design formats; he’s discovered a sweet spot where the two disciplines interconnect.

“In both my artistic and design careers, I embrace a ‘bouncy’ method of creation,” he says, “where new ideas emerge simply through sharing thoughts or experimenting with something illogical or incorrect – a collaborative approach that often opens up fresh visual and conceptual perspectives.” His most important teaching from it all? Improvisation and last-minute ideas are “to be welcomed”, and ‘mistakes’ should be “celebrated”.