The nostalgic pop aesthetic of the movement designer Ardhira Putra
When movement designer and illustrator Ardhira Putra was a child, he would often draw Son Goku from Dragon Ball and copy characters from other comics such as Astro Boy, Doraemon and the Adventures of Tintin. When he was 16 it was all about MTV and its respective channels, where Putra fell in love with the idents and graphics that framed the music videos.
“I also loved going to the bookstore to look at graphic design books and magazines,” he says. “At the time, I was only using my graphic design skills to edit my profile picture on Friendster. Then I bought Adobe Photoshop and all of the tutorials as there weren't any video tutorials on YouTube yet. "
Above: The future is feminine. Above: macros. All pictures and animations: Ardhira Putra
Putra's passion for the visual world led him to study animation at the Multimedia University of Malaysia and he was introduced to the world of motion design.
"It really opened my heart to anything to do with Asian cinema, Tapestry school animation, Pixar animation, and Japanese animation, and I was reading blogs for inspiration," he says. Still based in Singapore, Putra now works full time for a software company. At night, however, animations and illustrations are created for various clients, often creating projects for the independent music scene.
Ranger series
Ranger series
The creative style is almost like stepping back in time with a combination of graphic design from the 80s and 90s and poppy color palettes with nostalgic references to boomboxes and cassettes. "I have a lot of inspiration and most of it comes from vintage and Asian pop ads, ”says Putra. "I can get inspiration from a poster, an album cover, a billboard, a TV commercial, my favorite cartoon from Japan as a kid, and vintage video games like Sega Saturn or Nintendo 64."
Putra only sees his style as embodied in himself and his latest project, which is what makes his work so distinctive. Putra was released last month and was the brain behind the video for Engelwood's track Crystal Dolphin. The song was already popular having been used on millions of TikToks over the past year, but the official video takes it to a new level.
"The original pattern of Crystal Dolphin is from Dolphin in Town by Kingo Hamada. I looked at the year it was released, which was 1982, so I researched what was going on that year, but from an entertainment pop culture perspective, ”Putra explains the aesthetic of the video.
“From this I collected photos from Google and Pinterest and started creating them the scenes that I liked the most. I then started coloring it. “For Putra, color is an integral part of his work as it influences the mood and mood of the finished creation. "If I feel comfortable with the color, I can already imagine how things are moving."
Nice boys love you Vol. 2
Putra is now experimenting what he can create through his animations and illustrations and how he can translate the ideas he has in his head into tangible images so that people can enjoy them. "That's why I prefer to work alone for the time being, ”he says. "For me, my personal project is just about creating freedom."
Ideally, the ultimate goal would be for Putra to quit his full-time job and work as an independent creative, but he's realistic about what that means. “I have to think about how I can survive financially and that is my big challenge for the future,” he says. "So it's going to be a gradual process, from working on personal projects for free in 2017 to getting to the Crystal Dolphin project, which took some time."
Ultimately, for Putra, he is happiest when people enjoy the pictures he has created and the nostalgia people feel when they see his work. "Some of my illustrations are like a response to late 80s / 90s Asian pop culture, and I'm glad some younger people who haven't lived during that time are still enjoying my work," he says.
“I have personal feelings about the colors, shapes, objects and designs that I use. When people look at my work, I'm really glad that some people can relate to it and that this can be linked to their memories too. "
@ardhiraputra