Minting Digital Art
Pete Harrison, Digital Artist, UK
Pete Harrison is an award winning digital artist and creative director from the UK freelancing under his alias ‘Aeiko’. He is an established designer at the forefront of digital illustration, defining several styles in his career and continues to innovate at an exceptionally creative level in both corporate and cultural industries.
Fabrik: Hi Pete, we’d love for you to share a little bit more about yourself and background as a Digital Artist and Creative Director?
Pete Harrison: I have been designing since the early 2000’s, I have been doing freelance ever since but have worked in studios in London for a while too. I have had a variety of dream clients from around the world in my time being a digital artist and used to help people learn Photoshop by writing magazine tutorials and doing seminars and presentations in the States.
I have networked and worked with so many creators over the years, and I have set up Funkrush - An urban street brand and Desktopography - A Nature based desktop wallpaper exhibition and been a part of several successful art groups and communities over the years such as Deviantart and Depthcore.
Recently I have been working on digital art and design in the crypto currency space, both for my own projects and commissions but will consider any kind of creative offers that come my way.
Fabrik: Could you tell us more about your creative process?
Pete Harrison: It depends what I am designing, usually I instantly get a vision inside my head, so it’s just about writing down my ideas with some sketches. From there I will normally start planning a photoshoot or sourcing stock photography, then the rest of the magic is done in Adobe Photoshop.
Fabrik: Can you explain in detail how you became interested in cryptocurrencies and why you’ve decided to mint of some your original pieces of work as NFTs?
Pete Harrison: I got into crypto currencies in the 2017 hype, put some savings in and saw some serious gains, then of course it all crashed and I lost everything I made and some of my savings too. I spent the next few years learning everything I could and how blockchain technology can change the world, and some of the advantages it has.
Since then I have tried my hand at everything crypto from defi, yield farming, launchpads, trading, NFT’s etc and made some nice profits in the process. I also got into the educational side of it, teaching people about the crypto space and the blockchain, I love being able to help people as I do think its the future.. I really see the long term vision of decentralisation!
I saw the rise of NFT’s into the space but was a bit late to the party, I minted some older works just an experiment really. The more exciting part of the whole NFT craze was seeing all the old creatives and digital artists come back together and talking again, the whole community was buzzing and it was great to be a part of it again!
Fabrik: Do you have a vision of the future that includes crypto? How do you feel it will impact the creative community?
Pete Harrison: Yes 100% I believe crypto will be here to stay, there are so many uses and advantages for real world usage and it will only get bigger. In terms of the creative industry NFT’s are here to stay and are growing in market capitalisation year on year, not only for digital art but all sectors of entertainment. I have already accepted crypto currency for payment for artwork, or token allocations in pre-sales etc, I think this will become more common practice in the coming years.
Fabrik: With an already impressive portfolio, do you have any favourites or milestone projects?
Pete Harrison: I think working with the worlds number one DJ at the time, Hardwell has to be up there. I love electronic music, and what I did for him, the branding and key artwork in the campaign was super fun to do and I like to think I had something to do with him becoming #1 that year. Observing what they did with my artwork and how it was on such a large scale (used in the sets, video’s even its own website) was incredible and made me feel proud, not only that he tweeted me and said I was his favourite digital artist!
Fabrik: Can you give us any insight on any upcoming projects you have in the pipeline?
Pete Harrison: In fact I am working at the moment on my own NFT project called Hopped, I cannot reveal too much at the moment, but my business partner and I have some amazing ideas and great connections with both crypto pioneers and digital artists in the NFT world, I believe it is going to be a key part of moving the Non fungible token market forward in such a positive direction.
Fabrik: Final question. What do you like most about Fabrik? What's your favourite feature?
Pete Harrison: I really liked Fabrik for its ease of use, and minimalism - exactly what I look for in a portfolio, I think the work should speak for itself, it is also very user friendly. My favourite feature is how easy it is to switch between layouts and themes, great customisation options.
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We're always keen to see what you've created. Follow our social feeds and tag your new work with #onfabrik when you're ready to show it to the world. Apologies; we can't add spec work, ads or commercial content to our Maker or Conditioner series.
