Russell Shaw found his calling in design. After first pursuing art in college, it was his love of infinite detail that ultimately led him to design and illustration. This choice proved to be the right one, and his clients these days include giants like Porsche, Target, New York Magazine, and HarperCollins. He’s also a New York Times best-selling book illustrator and designer.
“My favorite work is helping people take their wild ideas and turn them into tangible experiences — and bringing creativity, impact, and delight into each experience that is made along the way,” reads Shaw’s website. “To me, the beauty of brand identity design is not in any one single expression of the work, but in the magic of how it gains momentum when it all fits together.”
His illustrations and designs are, indeed, very much cohesive, with his Instagram page providing a vibrant collection of illustrations and typography work. “I think there was always an artistic side to the way I saw the world, but it was less about freeform creativity; it was always more interesting to me to order things, organize them, think in systems, and create things with intricate, infinite detail,” admitted Shaw in an interview with The Design Kids.
“I think it also helped that I got into computers when I was really young,” he added. “I learned how to take them apart and build them, how to write code, how to use basic graphic design software – I put together my first website when I was nine-years-old. It was just a lot of rambling about Power Rangers. The background was a repeating image pattern of a photo of fire. It was rad.”
Take a look at some of his rad illustrations in the gallery below:
