EBoy
eBoy is a pixel art studio founded in 1997 by Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig, and Svend Smital. It is based in Berlin and Los Angeles. The studio's 8-bit-style work draws on popular culture and commercial imagery, rendered as three-dimensional isometric illustrations of cityscapes populated with robots, cars, and topless women.
eBoy has attracted a following among graphic designers. Design critic Steven Heller compared them to "what Roy Lichtenstein was to Ben-Day dots and comics." Their illustrations have been reproduced as posters, shirts, and souvenirs, and exhibited in galleries.
Background
Sauerteig and Smital grew up within blocks of each other in East Berlin and met as teenagers. Neither had access to video games or computers; they learned about Western culture from John Peel's radio programs and punk shows staged in churches. Sauerteig took part in the Leipzig demonstrations that preceded the fall of the Berlin Wall, and later studied video arts at the Berlin Institute of Design. Smital studied typography and magazine design at the same school.Vermehr was born in Germany and raised in Venezuela and Guatemala, where his father worked in pharmaceuticals. He grew up with Apple II computers but felt culturally isolated, and moved to Berlin after finishing school. He studied design in Cologne and later joined MetaDesign, where he met Sauerteig, then a student intern, in 1994. They began publishing pixel art on a website after Sauerteig graduated in 1996, and brought Smital in soon after to form eBoy. Earlier work had been distributed on floppy disks passed among friends.
The studio's work is inspired by "shopping, supermarkets, TV, toy commercials, LEGO, computer games, the news, magazines". Vermehr has also cited the picture books of Ali Mitgutsch as an influence.
Process
Vermehr began experimenting with pixel art in the mid-1990s because digital images could be reproduced without any loss in quality. The studio works within an 8-bit style but rejects the retro label; Vermehr has called the association "a very common misconception," saying the choice was technical rather than nostalgic. Sauerteig has said the medium appeals because "you are forced to simplify and abstract things."The studio maintains a shared database of more than 5,000 modular elements, accumulated over its history and recombined for each new project. A detailed cityscape takes roughly six to eight weeks of full-time work by all three members.
Collaborations
eBoy's first major commission was a Pac-Man-style online game for MTV's Spring Break website in 1998. The studio has since worked with Adidas, Adobe, Bungalow Records, Coca-Cola, DKNY, FontShop, Gola, Honda, Kidrobot, Louis Vuitton, MTV, the New York Times, Nike, Paul Smith, and Xbox.They designed the album covers for Groove Armada's Soundboy Rock, Yuzu's YUZUTOWN, and the Wombats' Fix Yourself, Not the World.
Pixoramas
The studio's largest works are Pixoramas, detailed isometric cityscapes that can take more than 1,000 hours to assemble. The studio has produced more than 20 since 1998, including:- Baltimore
- Berlin
- London
- Los Angeles
- New York
- Paris
- Rio
- San Francisco
- Tokyo
Exhibitions
| Year | Title | Venue | |
| 1999 | Game Over | Museum für Gestaltung Zürich, Switzerland | |
| 2000 | Expo 2000 | World's Fair, Hanover, Germany | |
| 2002 | postscript | Künstlerhaus, Vienna, Austria | |
| 2002 | the book and the exhibition | Magma, Clerkenwell, London | |
| 2002 | I love to meet you | new graphic design, Venice, Italy | |
| 2003 | Super, Welcome to Graphic Wonderland | Festival of Posters, Chaumont, France | |
| 2003 | GraficEurope | Pan-European Graphic Design Conference, Barcelona, Spain | |
| 2003 | 8th International Design Conference | Typo 2003, Berlin, Germany | |
| 2004 | Paul Smith – eBoy | IDEE shop, Tokyo, Japan | |
| 2004 | Pixelesque | Maxalot, Barcelona, Spain | |
| 2004 | Superbroncobattle | Minuco Underground Gallery, Clerkenwell, London | |
| 2004 | Mural design to be built with LEGO bricks on student wall | MIT, Boston, USA | |
| 2004 | Tokyo Designers Block, Tokyo, Japan | ||
| 2005 | CR9, Madrid, Spain | ||
| 2006 | BUILDING SPACE | CTM, Berlin, Germany | |
| 2006 | Todaysart Festival | Nederlands Muziek Instituut, The Hague, Netherlands | |
| 2006 | Play | Typo 2006, Berlin, Germany | |
| 2007 | Hello Tokyo | artbits, Vienna, Austria | |
| 2007 | The Digital Aesthetic 2 | Digital Aesthetic 2, Lancashire, UK | |
| 2007 | Happy Living | Museum of Tomorrow, Taipei, Taiwan | |
| 2007 | Todaysart Festival, The Hague, Netherlands | ||
| 2008 | eBoy LA | Concrete Hermit Gallery, London | |
| 2008 | Pluto Festival, Brussels, Belgium | ||
| 2008 | Vertrautes Terrain | ZKM, Karlsruhe, Germany | |
| 2009 | Pixorama | ROJO artspace, Barcelona, Spain | |
| 2009 | Centre Design Marseille, France | ||
| 2009 | Exhibition and workshop | Nave, Rio de Janeiro, Brazil | |
| 2009 | Since, Paris, France | ||
| 2009 | Pixorama | We Love Asbaek, Copenhagen, Denmark | |
| 2009 | Pixorama | Milk, Istanbul, Turkey | |
| 2011 | DC Gallery, Seattle, USA | ||
| 2011 | madformacs, Barcelona, Spain | ||
| 2011 | OFFF, Barcelona, Spain | ||
| 2012 | De Sein: German Graphic Design from Postwar to Present | BODW, Hong Kong | |
| 2013 | Save Point | Floating World Comics, Portland, USA | |
| 2013 | Berlin Graphic Days | Kater Holzig, Berlin, Germany | |
| 2013 | Drones of New York | Museum of the Moving Image, Astoria, New York | |
| 2014 | Digital Revolution | Barbican Centre, London | |
| 2017 | 64 Bits | Here East, London | |
| 2017 | Upstream Music Fest | Pioneer Square, Seattle, USA |
Publications
Social links
Category:1997 establishments in Canada
Category:1997 establishments in California
Category:1997 establishments in Germany