Alberto Seveso Interview

Alberto Seveso is a graphic designer and illustrator from Italy who has simply created a fantastic style by mixing colourful vectors with black and white photos known as "sperm shaping". It's very hard to look at his work and not say WOW.

We were able to interview him to find out more about his work and its right here in this post.. ENJOY.

1- Thanks for the opportunity of having you here. Firstly we'd like to say that we really admire your style and we think it's really unique. So, tell us a bit of how did you start and discover that you wanted be a designer?

I was born in Milan 30 years ago, but I have lived for more than 20 in the marvellous Sardinia Island; today I live in Rome, where I work with some agencies.

I did not study design, and I had no classes; I think this job doesn’t require a degree, even if design schools are very important.

My passion for graphics was born about 15 years ago, when I had an Amiga 1200 and Delux Paint, that I loved so much, but I switched to PC when a friend showed me the potentials of Photoshop: I was astonished and I understood the power of that software (I know what you’re thinking right now, but no, this is not a commercial, I actually switched to PC due to photoshop). From that moment on, I started to go in for my today’s job.

2- How did you come up with the "sperm shaping" technique? I have to say it's a fantastic effect and I think everybody wants to know how to do that.

The style used for the serie "a me mi piace la gnocca!", that was born for a joke around one year ago, the title says everything about the sense, the rough translation from English to Italian is "I like the pussy"I would not have given an "euro/dollar" to this collection, but people like it! And I don't know why… this the is mystery of the inspiration, some things are born by chance.

Even if I have always had as objective that to unite vectors and bit-map in harmonious way, the name "sperm shaping" it derives from the form of some vectors very similar to the sperm:)

3 - Tell us a bit of your career? Favorite project you worked on? Toughest project?

I don't have a favorite project, i'm not a "working lovers", i like to illustrate and dream, the most difficult project is the everyday life.

4 - Who are the designers you like and inspire you? And what sites do you visit, or what do you do to get inspiration?

I love to many designers is not possible to make a list of these!

I love in particularly the designers endowed with an original style. In the past I've been inspired a lot from Dave Mckean (http://www.mckean-art.co.uk) and Alessander Bavari (http://www.alessandrobavari.com), now I prefer to follow my way. To remain adjourned I read "Computerlove" (http://www.cpluv.com) one of my favorite blogs about art/design

5 - Tell us about the apps you use? How long have you been using them?

My computer career has started around 15 years ago with an AMIGA 1200 and Deluxe Paint, i'm a photosohop user from around ten years and an illustrator user from six
i use only these two software for the illustrations

6 - What about your hardware?

I don't have a preference, i work with PC and MAC the only rule is to have a fast CPU and enough RAM, i don't use a graphic tablet my skill in classic drawing is ultra poor :)

7 - Again, thanks for the opportunity of talking to you. One last question: Any advice for designers out there, who, like me are willing to improve their skills and become a master?

Yes, sure, try,try,try and try!, it's the only way to be a master.

Some works of Alberto Seveso.

You can check out more of his amazing work at:

About author

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My name is Fabio Sasso, I'm a graphic/web designer from Porto Alegre, Brazil and I'm the founder of Abduzeedo. I hope we can share lots of information, tips, and ideas through abduzeedo.

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The tutorial below should get you started with understanding the basic concpet of how it's done. However, To achieve results like Mr. Seveso's, you must use many other techniques and make sure you put enough time into getting it to look right.

http://psdtuts.com/tutorials-effects/creating-a-vector-composite-effect-...

Bill Labus's picture
Bill Labus (not verified) 05/16/2008
kishoreblog's picture
kishoreblog (not verified) 05/05/2008

Fantastic! Amazing! I've never seen everything so fab!

Laura's picture
Laura (not verified) 04/18/2008

Very nice stuff.

Have these any of these pieces been used commercially?

Luke Faccini's picture
Luke Faccini (not verified) 04/17/2008

Really cool and beautiful.

Nice style !

arnaud's picture
arnaud (not verified) 04/17/2008

Any tutorial on how he made those sperms? Working process maybe?

DamnitClothing's picture
DamnitClothing (not verified) 04/17/2008

bella alberto! yeah! :)

kaneda's picture
kaneda (not verified) 04/16/2008

O and Fabio i am definitely going to buy you a coffee one day. =)

Maybe 2...

Cameron Rad's picture
Cameron Rad (not verified) 04/16/2008

Loving it, though it's not my style. Great use of vectors and masking!

Cameron Rad's picture
Cameron Rad (not verified) 04/16/2008

This is really good stuff and reminds me of stuff I have seen here.

Anonymous's picture
Anonymous (not verified) 04/16/2008

I've been recently become quite a fan of Seveso and was very excited to see this interview today. I only wish I could really figure out his process.

Fantastic blog, by the way!

pschlafer's picture
pschlafer (not verified) 04/15/2008

Awesome work !

Horacio Lorente's picture
Horacio Lorente (not verified) 04/15/2008

Muito bom! A primeira vez que vi seus trabalhos foi impactante!!!

Bruno's picture
Bruno (not verified) 04/15/2008

Great interview! i love his style. a great designer.

daniel's picture
daniel (not verified) 04/15/2008

WOW!!! Que entrevista fabulosa e os designs então!!! Sem comentários!

Thanks for this wonderful interveiw and showcase!

Gabi Butcher's picture
Gabi Butcher (not verified) 04/15/2008

I love his personal style.. Alberto is great.. I have a folder in my desktop with all his creations.. And I'm so happy that he is italian..

giackop's picture
giackop (not verified) 04/15/2008

Great interview. I love the style and mix of vector and pixel. Thx.

Sean Hodge's picture
Sean Hodge (not verified) 04/15/2008

Nice, love Alberto's work. Really experimental and unique, thanks for the interview.

James White's picture
James White (not verified) 04/15/2008

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