H+ CREATIVE IN CONVERSATION WITH VASYA KOLOTHUSA

Tokyo at night, with a healthy amount of psychedelics and a side of virtual reality—this is how I would describe Vasya Kolotusha’s artwork. His bright, neon-inspired pieces have a hint of déjà vu, like there’s a feeling of strange familiarity to his individual style. Vasya Kolotusha is a young graphic designer from Cherkasy, Ukraine, whose otherworldly designs are somehow grounded in reality. Vasya’s style is whimsical yet sophisticated and he has the ability to manipulate color and recognizable imagery to create something that looks completely abstract even though it is entirely digitally made. His interests in evolving technology and new mediums for creating artwork are immediately present in his ever-advancing style. H+ Creative talked to Vasya about his inspiration and exclusive style: H+ Creative: Your range as an artist is quite broad—do you have a favorite style? Vasya Kolotusha: I think I love my "iridescent" style most of all, it is the new style I still developing, but I still love to do neon artworks though. What is your favorite design program? Photoshop, for sure. What’s your favorite client you’ve worked with and who do you hope to work with in the future? Red Bull I believe. Not so long ago we made a cool sign for the Red Bull Studios Tokyo, with the great team of A-Gent Tokyo and craftsmen who brought my designs to life. Hope to show you some photos soon! Where do you find your inspiration? Books, movies, internet, ordinary stuff. Your work has a nightlife sort of feel, are you a night owl? Yes I believe, I love working at night, also most of my clients live in different time zones, so working at night helps me a lot. Describe your aesthetic in one sentence: Bright, clear, simple, I try to keep it like that. How long does it take you to develop and execute a new concept or idea? It takes from 5 to 15 hours to create an artwork, depends on complexity. Also 99% of my work is made without sketches, this helps me to save the time. I keep the concept in my mind and create few different versions of the artwork in fully colored and detailed. What are your thoughts on the evolution of net art? I love how new technology, new mediums help people to express their creativity, it simplifies the process of creation and gives new ideas. Yesterday we had net-art, today we already have VR-paintings. I mean, if you'll take a good read trough blogs like prostheticknowledge.tumblr.com you will realise it's about code-art today,and it is awesome.It's just different stages of art-evolution. The main thing is art itself, in all forms and conditions, it grows and develops and it's great. Do you have a favorite piece? I think it is my Helmets series, I made it in 2014 I believe, but it was something different at that time. What is your go-to music while you’re creating artwork? Most of the time I listen to audiobooks during my work process, it's like a background noise that can also entertain you in those critical moments when you already bored by working 5 hours straight and still have things to finish. Sometimes I just open some random Boiler Room video, it also works well for me. What’s next? Any exciting projects to close 2016 or start 2017? Yes, I have a couple in development, we'll se how it goes:) I want to finish a new personal series this autumn, probably will make exclusive aluminum prints.