Vector Graphics

Vector graphics is the use of geometrical primitives such as points, lines, curves, and shapes or polygons, which are all based on mathematical equations, to represent images in computer graphics. Vector graphics are images that are completely described using mathematical definitions.  Computer displays are made up from grids of small rectangular cells called pixels. The picture is built up from these cells. The smaller and closer the cells are together, the better the quality of the image, but the bigger the file needed to store the data. The size of the file generated will depend on the resolution required, but the size of the vector file generating the bitmap/raster file will always remain the same.

Birgit Amadori, was born and raised in Germany and graduated from HFG Offenbach in 2002. She is now living and working in beautiful Redondo Beach since 2004. The primary software that she works mainly with is Adobe Illustrator and her main fields are advertising, book cover illustration, fine art and web. She shows her love for complexity, detail and pattern in her work and states that she ‘loves the cleanliness of vector art – even colours and straight, smooth lines – even in a very detailed image.’ Being a long time student of Asian and Japanese culture, a lot of her work is based around these themes and for her designs, Amadori chooses to introduce images of women along with flower images.

‘I was able to fly by shooting beams of light from my palms, yet as I was up in the air, I was shot down by fear.’  This image was produced from a dream she had, where she could fly from beams shooting from her hands. Her work is very original, the colours are bright and it’s a very powerful image with a red spear through her body named ‘fear’. A lot of her work that is based on her dreams is similar, they all have similar colours and similar themes. All of her work is bold, eye catching and unique. This is personally my favourite image and I really like her work, it stands out to me a lot and I like how her work looks visually.

Iker Ayestaran was born in Spain and works as a press illustrator in several newspapers in Spain such as Público, El Correo, ABC and La Vanguardia and also abroad like The Boston Globe. He has worked for numerous magazines both in Spain and abroad including Fortune, Wired, Inc., Man, Barcelones, Tiempo,  and has designed book-covers and film Posters. His style of simple geometric forms, subtle backgrounds and color washes, Ayestaran illustrations are simple, effective and clever. The works of Iker bring to mind of illustrations one would see on the cover of The New Yorker or in political sections of serious newspapers. Iker generally starts with a pencil sketch which he vectorizes in FreeHands and finally expotrs in Photoshop, finish off his work. He prefers working in FreeHand as it gives him freedom to compose his illustrations and realises changes where and when necessary. His work is original and interesting to look at, and they all follow similar colour schemes. They theme of his pictures seem to be focused are the season autumn, and the deep colours of brown and cream.

Charlene Chua is original from Singapore and is an award winning illustrator and her work has featured primarily in Southeast Asia, the UK and Austrailia. She covers diverse subjects as retail promotion, real estate, children's comics, CD covers and even jigsaw puzzles. She is now part of an illustration group called Sketch Motel in Toronto, Canada. She persues personal projects such as her graphic novel series  and describes her style as 'vector-based, stylized illustration with Eastern and Western pop-culture influence.' She is fond of gradients and details possible with an airbrush and likes to bring similar techniques into her work in Illustrator, particularly through the use of masks, but with far more ease and precision than with a traditional tool. Chua finds that drawing the initial sketch is the most difficult part in creating her work. I think her work is very distinctive and very beautiful. Each piece of work has similar themes to it but are all original in there own ways.


Russell Tate was born in the UK and is now living in Australia. He is a freelance designer who has worked on record sleeves, music magazines, logo creations and designing layouts. He has worked for McDonalds, Coca-cola, Volkswagen, Telstra and many more. In the mid 90's, he set up his own design business with his wife, a fashion stylist. Illustration work takes up most of his time however he still enjoys logo creations and designing layouts. He thinks that his work is 'cheerful retro' showing themes of childlike images in his work depending on who he is working for. He nearly always starts with a drawing in pencil on a sheet of tracing paper, as he is developing he finds it easy to and a sheet over the top, and so his work might exist on four sheets of paper before he does a final master trace. He then scans the completed sketch into Illustrator and finishes up his image there, using a limited colour palette in muted tones, simple vignettes and blends of other things.