About me

Grant Louden - Freelance Creative Artworker

I came to the UK from New Zealand in 1985, and have lived and worked here since then in a variety of industries and disciplines.
For the first dozen years I lived in London working in the music industry for most of the major labels and many national and international recording artists. From punks; The Stranglers to prime movers; Jimmy Page, to piano kings; Richard Clayderman!

During this time I worked between Bruno Tilley - Creative Director at Island Records - and Jean-Luke Epstein, who ran design house Graphyk. I was involved in most aspects of design, from initial concept, through retouching and on to final artwork for print, for album sleeves, posters and advertising.

Subsequently I moved to Leamington Spa to work at Codemasters producing artwork and design for video games. There I was a Graphic Designer working on game packaging and advertising materials.

Following my stint at Codies I returned to freelance creative artwork from Leamington Spa, Thame, Aylesbury and finally Milton Keynes where I settled down and still reside.
During this time I worked in various design studios, one of which was Milestone Creative in Beaconsfield. After freelancing there for several months I was asked to join the team as a permanent Graphic Designer and stayed with them for several years until I left to return to New Zealand for a two year working holiday.
At Milestone I had sole control of the design and artwork for Hyundai UK, as well as working on packaging for Hasbro K'NEX toys, amongst a multitude of other clients

I later years I spent two years as a senior artworker at Santander's head office in Milton Keynes, and then a time at Riot Squad vapes in Bletchley, working on product packaging, posters, press and online advertising.

I am currently working from home and the bulk of my time is taken up working once again with Bruno Tilley from my old Island Records days. We produce branding and visual assets for ImpJar, a leading UK vaping startup that has been growing exponentially over the last four years. Together we do everything visual for the company, from brainstorming design concepts for branding, packaging and promotional material, through illustration - 2D and 3D - and finally finished artwork for print and web.

When not working I am an avid Formula 1 fan and follow every race from free practice through to the checkered flag on Sundays. I also follow the British Touring Car Championship. On the back of this I am also a keen sim racer, and in between Grands Prix can be found strapped into my racing seat in my home office, blasting around Spa-Francorchamps or Brands Hatch.

This interest has also bled into my work, with the occasional commission for F1 posters at the British Grand Prix and booklets for the UK Porsche Carrera Cup. My interest in British Touring Cars led me to apply for the job at Codemasters to work on their Touring Car and Colin McRay Rally games.

Another interest of mine is science fiction, and in particular book cover illustration from the 1970's and 80's. A massive fan or the work of Chris Foss, Peter Elson, Colin Hay and Tony Roberts, I did for a while build large scale models of famous book cover spaceships. I've also worked with Mr Foss occasionally on small projects helping him out with logo design and other graphic art related items.

Currently I am looking to expand my freelance work, particularly in the areas of packaging artwork, art and illustration for the vaping, gaming or music industries. I can do 2D and 3D design and illustration and have extensive knowledge of packaging artwork for print and web graphics design.

Thanks for reading!

Grant

Skills

3D Illustration, creative artwork, Graphic Design, Image Retouching, Packaging Design

Sector Experience

Advertising, Automotive, Banking, Computer Games, Point of Sale, Print, Record Industry, toys, Vaping

Clients

A&M Records, British Grand Prix Silverstone, Codemasters, Colin McRay Rally, Daler Rowney, Downhill Mountain Biking, Electrolux, EMI, Hasbro Toys, Hyundai UK, Island Records, Jimmy Page, Playstation, PolyGram, Prima Records, Sid Griffin, Sony Music, South Bucks District Council, Squeeze, Tesco, The Killer B's, The Screaming Blue Messiahs, The Stranglers, Xbox games