I have said in the past (whether that be in some draft of a post for this site, or maybe it is actually published) that Portland, Maine has a ton of fantastic artists. Firstly, we have the Maine College of Art—of which I am an alumni—that is constantly producing great artists as well as bringing great art to town. Along with that we have the Portland Museum of Art. From time to time I hope to be posting about the artists that live and work in this great city, and I am going to start with a graphic designer/illustrator named Josh Brill.
Josh Brill loves animals. To learn this, you would just have to go to his website, www.lumadessa.com, and look at the work. Illustrations of hummingbirds, dogs, giraffes, polar bears, and more grace the pages—some of the illustrations, due to parallax scrolling, really make the site fun to scroll through. Lumadessa is the name of the label that Brill does his work under. Lumadessa is a word that comes from two others, “luminous” and “odyssey.” With luminous meaning light and odyssey meaning a long eventful or adventurous journey, Lumadessa is, in Brill’s words, “an abstract odyssey of the luminous land around us.” What’s more is that he donates one percent of all profits to Animal and Environmental charities. He focuses on limited edition art and design prints and uses premium materials to make sure that the prints last.
A few prints from the Hummingbirds series
Brill has even had a signature line of skateboards, Luma Nature by Element, and he is currently collaborating on a set of scarves with HAD Originals.
Element Luma Nature series skateboards
Prototype scarves for collaboration with HAD Originals
I love the illustration style; look up Charley Harper or Always With Honor to see animals rendered in a similar fashion. Geometric and minimalist, yet still pretty complex with all of the different shapes that make up the animals, each composition is deceptively simple. The color choices are vibrant (as goes with the name that is based on the word luminous) and look good on screen as wallpapers (which he offers) as well as in print.
Smartphone wallpapers
Check out all of his work at his website, and like his Facebook page for updates on his work, and even Spotify playlists that give you a heads up on what is inspiring him as he inspires us.
