Gary Card is a set designer and illustrator who lives and works in East London. Best Known for his playful fashion work. His intuitive sensibilities, creative vision, eye for colour and yearning to explore has made him one London’s most sought after talents.
In Card’s relatively short career, he has collaborated with artists Nick Knight, Dinos Chapman, Tim Walker, Nicola Formachetti, and Stella McCartney. Designed watches for swatch and headpieces for Comme des Garçons and Lady Gaga. Created shop window installations for Cos and Loewe. And has had his work featured in Vogue, Dazed & Confused, i-D, Love, V, Pop, and The New York Times.
Card studied Theatre Design at London’s prominent art and design university Central Saint Martins. He graduated in 2010. He received his first commission completely unexpectedly. Card was passing time by creating things out of cardboard and wearing them on his head. His flatmate, Jacob Sutton, photographed Card and his creations. Unbeknown to Card and Sutton the images came to the attention of creative agency Mother and Penguin Press Art Director Jim Stoddart. At that time, Mother and Stoddart were collaborating and reached out requesting to repurposed the images for a series of book covers for Kafka novels.
The exposure from the Penguin covers led to a commission from AnOther Man. Card was asked to base the imagery on his cardboard masks. In 2012, he received a nomination for Design Of The Year thanks to his interior design work for Dalston retailer LN-CC. In 2015, Card collaborated with car manufacturer, Vauxhall, to design a 15 foot tall Christmas tree made entirely out of car parts. It was showcased at King’s Cross Filling Station throught December.
I want people to be surprised and excited by the things I create – a passive reaction is worse than a negative response for me.
— Gary Card
Card is a huge fan of the artist, Prince. Borderline obsessed. In 2014, Hannah Hanra from music magazine BEAT asked Card if he could illustrate a centerfold poster the magazine. Given free rein and instantly wanted to honour the artist that he loved. Alway fascinated by Prince’s hair, he decided to draw every single hairstyle the singer has had since 1978. When the magazine and the poster were finally released there was not any fanfare to speak of. That was until Prince tweeted about it and it went viral. Card has said that out of all of his career achievements, knowing he had impressed his hero, was his proudest.
Streeters London, who represent Card, announced an exhibition of his work. Scheduled for October 2016, it will be Card’s very first exhibition.
Our eight images here do not even scratch the surface of the incredible diversity and body of work that Gary Card has achieved. To see more of his work head over to Streeters’ website. You can find Card on Instagram and Twitter. You can also check out some of his older work on Blogger.
