Aidan Hughes is a
commercial artist. He was born in 1956 in
Merseyside, England, and was trained as an artist by his father, himself a
landscape
A landscape is the visible features of an area of land, its landforms, and how they integrate with natural or man-made features, often considered in terms of their aesthetic appeal.''New Oxford American Dictionary''. A landscape includes the ...
painter.
In the 1980s, Hughes published a
pulp-style
magazine
A magazine is a periodical publication, generally published on a regular schedule (often weekly or monthly), containing a variety of content. They are generally financed by advertising, purchase price, prepaid subscriptions, or by a combinatio ...
called ''BRUTE!''. ''Brute!'' has become an occasional
pseudonym for Hughes as well.
Hughes usually works in a very high contrast style, often black and white, but more often black and white accented with one other color. He claims influence from
American comic book artist
Jack Kirby, the painter
John Martin John Martin may refer to:
Business
*John Martin (businessman) (1820–1905), American lumberman and flour miller
*John Charles Martin (fl. 1913–1931), American newspaper publisher
*John Martin (publisher) (born 1930), American founder of Black ...
, and (most apparently) from
Russian
propaganda
Propaganda is communication that is primarily used to influence or persuade an audience to further an agenda, which may not be objective and may be selectively presenting facts to encourage a particular synthesis or perception, or using loaded ...
posters.
Aidan Hughes created most of the
album cover
An album cover (also referred to as album art) is the front packaging art of a commercially released studio album or other audio recordings. The term can refer to either the printed paperboard covers typically used to package sets of and 78-r ...
s for the
industrial band
KMFDM. Two of KMFDM's
music videos ("A Drug Against War," "Son of a Gun") were
animated versions of Hughes's artwork.
His other work has included outdoor
murals, including the 75 metre mural in
Barga,
Italy, during 2003 which has since been covered over with an earth bank; and a wide variety of
advertisements, including pieces for the
Bank of Scotland, and
Guinness
Guinness () is an Irish dry stout that originated in the brewery of Arthur Guinness at St. James's Gate, Dublin, Ireland, in 1759. It is one of the most successful alcohol brands worldwide, brewed in almost 50 countries, and available in ove ...
.
Hughes is credited for the art design and concept of ''
ZPC
''ZPC'' (''Zero Population Count'') is a first-person shooter video game which uses the ''Marathon 2'' engine. It was developed by Zombie LLC, published by GT Interactive and released on October 31, 1996 in video gaming, 1996. It was noted for its ...
'' (''Zero Population Count''), a first-person shooter computer game developed in 1996 using the ''
Marathon 2'' engine.
In 2017, Hughes co-founded ''Tweak'', a photo-editing app for iOS and Android.
He presently lives and works in the
Czech Republic.
BogArt
Aidan Hughes joined the BogArt collective in 2006.
This street art organisation attempted to subvert the burgeoning graffiti tagging culture by using public toilet advertising space as alternative gallery space. They also produced a number of short films, detailing their art happenings and protests on the streets of Prague, Czech Republic.
References
External links
"BRUTE! Propaganda", Aidan Hughes's official siteKMFDM official site Article about Hughes' outdoor murals"KMFMS"
(Anti-Microsoft website for which Hughes has designed artwork)
(An interview with Hughes conducted by Brian Sherwin
Brian Sherwin (born January 22, 1980) is an American art critic, writer, and blogger with a degree from Illinois College in 2003. Sherwin is a founding Management Team member of the artist social networking site myartspace, where he also served as ...
)
*http://www.blog.bruteprop.co.uk
Aiden Hughes' YouTube channel
{{DEFAULTSORT:Hughes, Aidan
1956 births
Living people
English contemporary artists
English graphic designers
English muralists