Josh Dakgraaf
Illustrator
What’s your link to Townsville?
I did a Bachelor of New Media Arts at JCU, with a double major in Visual Arts and Graphic Design.
Where are you now?
I’m living in Melbourne at the moment, where I recently moved after spending four years in Amsterdam. It was fantastic – a huge shift in lifestyle and I made some great friends there. It’s taken some getting used to not being able to ride a bike everywhere now! Melbourne has a pretty packed creative scene with lots of people to interact with.
What does your work involve?
I’m an illustrator working in a signature style of photo-real collage. My work focuses on images for advertising and magazine covers. Wherever possible, I shoot my own source material and edit it from there. 3D modelling often plays a large role in my work. The bulk of my work comes from the US and UK. The work I’m pictured with is titled Old Reliable and was for Art Below London – a program that places artwork on billboards in tube stations around the centre of the city. I was commissioned to create an image based on London and spent three days wandering the city shooting images of buildings, signage and objects. I then used those photos to construct an image of a ship, drawing inspiration from the city and country’s strong maritime history. My work was on display at Regents Park and Pimlico tube stations.
What’s your next project?
I’m creating a series of images for Auckland Transport – creative manipulations that promote their ferry services and buses.
How did your time in Townsville set you up for success?
At the time the course I studied at JCU was still developing and we were given a fairly free leash to do our own exploration. Without that I probably wouldn’t have developed my signature style that I work in today. I had some great lecturers whose lessons influence my practice daily (shout out to Dr James Brown and Katja Fleischmann).
CONNECT NOW
www.joshdykgraaf.com