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Having entered the design field in a nontraditional way, Designer of the Week Emanuele Colombo is proud to say that this has helped him become the motion designer he is today.
Read on to check out his impressive work—and see if you can spot the nerdish influences!
Name: Emanuele Colombo
Location: Milan (Italy)
Where to find him online:emanuelecolombo.itbehance.com/emanuelecolombodribbble.com/emanuelecolomboinstagram.com/ema_colombo
Design school attended:This is going to seem absurd, but the truth is that I don’t have any design background. Luckily, I’ve always been interested in creativity in all its forms, from music to photography and videos. I think having these things as hobbies has helped me develop a good aesthetic sense, grown my creativity and given me some technical experience as well—[all of which as] been naturally integrated into my current work, partially compensating for the fact that my studies were not strictly connected to design.
How would you describe your work?Really hard question. Some kind of 2D animation with nerdish influences.
Where do you find inspiration?I am undoubtedly inspired by other artists’ work, particularly those that excel in technical skills or style. For every project I do, I always try to raise the bar, and looking at high-quality work is a fundamental stimulus to push myself to do the best I can. As for the rest, I think every artist draws from their creative references—whether consciously or not. In my case, I usually gravitate toward the nerd culture and science fiction films I used to watch as a child.
Who are some of your favorite designers or artists?I don’t have any in particular. I really love the amazing work studios like Buck and Giant Ant are doing. Their teams are probably [made up of] the artists that I admire the most.
Do you have a favorite among all the projects you’ve worked on?Like every designer, the last project you worked on is the one you like the most, so I would say the video I recently created for Change.org.
Is there a project that stands out to you as having been the biggest challenge of your career so far?I think every project is fun and challenging at the same time. In general, I would say that personal projects are more challenging because I take them as an opportunity to try out new styles and learn something new.
What do you hope to accomplish in the future?Keep on having fun and enjoying my work and my life just like I am doing today.
What’s your best advice for designers today?The only thing I would say is to experiment with different animation styles and techniques: It’s the only way to understand where your strength lies and what comes to you naturally, what’s fun for you to do and what you’re best at. When you’ve understood what your strong suit is, invest all of your energy to constantly improve in that specific field of animation, and never stop experimenting.
Motion Graphics and Animation Design
Ever wonder how that cool title sequence from your favorite movie was created? Or how that company logo was seamlessly animated on the television screen? Maybe you’re wondering how that awesome interactive infographic you saw on Vimeo or YouTube came to life?
In this course, you’ll immerse yourself in the motion graphics and animation design by learning the general terminology, as well as the workflow of creating the designs in After Effects, file organization and animation fundamentals, along with many other basics. Click here to learn more.
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