Our Campaign Illustrations
Elliot O’Donnell / Askew One
In 2022 we asked designer and urban art specialist Elliot O’Donnell to produce a small series of street-art illustrations for use in our annual campaigns.
The depth and thought behind Elliot’s work elevates the street form and fits well with the creative Wellington vibe.
It is sophisticated enough to appropriately represent us as the quality university you’ll love to study at, while at the same time setting us apart as fresh, new and distinctive—that’s Wellington all over.
Find out more about Elliot and his work below.
About Elliot
Elliot O’Donnell or Askew One (graffiti name) is a graffiti artist, designer, illustrator and video producer.
O’Donnell’s artistic evolution has, in many ways, mirrored the maturation of New Zealand urban art, embracing mural and studio work as extensions of his graffiti roots and seeking new pathways and themes. He has designed murals all over the world from Lower Hutt Wellington, to Vegas, and Mexico. His work appears on a wide range of mediums from south Auckland music scene promotion materials to product packaging for large international brands such as Bic. He organised the first NZ graffiti festival, established exhibition spaces for street artists, published the graffiti magazine Disrupt, and authored InForm: New Zealand Graffiti Artists Discuss Their Work (Reed Books, Auckland, 2007).
The use of technology has been a central feature of O’Donnell’s process, unearthing new terrain and allowing for a conversation between the potential found in the digital and the honesty of the analogue. Shifting between screen, street and studio, compositions are transformed and unlocked as dynamic animations with shifting perspectives that reimagine the artist’s accumulated knowledge and reframe his questions of the world.
Each figure can take up to 30 hours to draw using a variety of brush sizes and styles on on iPad. He digitally overlays textures, images and colour to achieve his signature style for print and digital work.
The cover illustration for Victoria University's publication “Your Introduction 2024”.
The cover illustration for Victoria University's publication “Your Introduction 2024”.
A close up of one of Elliot's illustrations showing the many brush strokes.
A close up of one of Elliot's illustrations showing the many brush strokes.
An example of the layers of background texture that make up Elliot's work.
An example of the layers of background texture that make up Elliot's work.
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