About us

These Escape Artists create graphic and web design work rather than amazing feats of escapism.

We are three developers and designers working under the name Escape Artist as a way to share our individual areas of expertise on both print and digital projects. Escape Artist was started as a collaboration between Matt and Mischa who first worked together at online music service Last.fm in 2006.

Matt is a graphic designer and front end developer, working mainly with the HTML, CSS and JavaScript side of things for web and the range of Adobe Creative Suite (CS6) products for any design work. After spending the last four years working as a graphic and web designer in Sweden Matt is now back in Kent and working freelance as part of Escape Artist.

Mischa has been building large and small websites since the late 90s. He likes programming with Django (Python) and backbone.js (JavaScript). One of the leading developers at Last.fm from 2003 - 2009 he built, improved and maintained the backend for the Last.fm online radio. This proved to be a performant and scalable solution serving over 50,000 concurrent MP3 streams.

Sven is a graphic designer and print specialist, producing hand crafted print works. Most of Sven's work is screen printed or letterpress work, you can take a look at the kind of things coming out of his workshop Built & Burnt.

How we work

Our situation is a little different to what you might normally expect. We are all independant freelancers, each with our own areas of expertise and each based in our own corner of this little island we call home. Thanks to the wonders of modern technology, rather than working from one expensive office space we have set up our own virtual office, allowing us to work with each other remotely.

Working this way means we don't have the overheads a regular agency would have and can pass those savings on to our clients by offering lower hourly rates. Things might work a little differently round here but we always provide the same high quality of service you would expect.

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RECENT WORK

Bar Events Hub // Web and Mobile app

Bar Events Hub are a brand new venture, providing bar staff to events all around the UK from James Bond premieres to private cocktail parties. They approached us with a request for a new website which would allow them to effectively communicate with their staff members. As they have a whole range of different skill levels there was a need for a matchmaking system which suggests staff members for particular events based on what the client has specified. Personal calendars are then checked for availability and consequently updated with event information.

A mobile app has also been built for iPhone, Android and Blackberry. The app will allow the Bar Events Hub system to send out push notifications directly to a staff members mobile phone, alerting them that they have an offer of work and giving them the opportunity to accept jobs whilst on the move. This allows the system to function quicker and means clients can arrange their events in shorter times than the current system used by staffing agencies.

View this project

Red Fox Marketing // Branding and Web

Newly established Red Fox Marketing asked us to create their branding. This included their logotype, business cards and branded stationery. The logo was created from a brief given to us to create a professional yet friendly logotype. There is also an alternate logo for use at smaller sizes and on the branded letterheads.

We have now started work on their web presence and they will soon have a brand new home on the web.

UltraFox Software // Software Icon Design

UltraFox Software came to us with a brief to create some icons for their new software. Without giving anything away it required icons for navigation between pages as well as for sorting, searching, printing, confirm, decline… the list goes on.

You can see a few examples of the icons by clicking the button below.

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Advanced Technology Integration // Branding and web

Advanced Technology Integration known as ATI specialise in building business information systems. They required a re-design of their logotype and a new website, showcasing their previous work.

The site is still being built and is nearly there. The logo is over there… look left.

QUICK LOOK...

Our very own high quality business cards

T-shirt with Screen Printing and Design by Escape Artist

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A small selection…

of our previously completed web and print projects. All these projects were created using the techniques and tools outlined in the next section of the site. To see even more examples of our work, use the buttons below.

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behance portfolio
Browse a few more web projects Open more below

Aroy

The website for thai Restaurant 'Aroy' was designed as a simple way to display their menu with some basic contact and opening information online. This work was undertaken as part of Sehéler Network who had created the branding and menus for Aroy previously.
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Timer

Keeping track of time worked on a project during the day is hard, especially when you are switching between jobs. We made this as a way to better keep track of what we have been doing during the day for our time reports made at the end of each day.
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Hajom

This website for high-end door manufacturer Hajom was designed by Seheler Network. The Wordpress CMS was used in this project, allowing the client to easily update the websites content. The design was then coded into a custom wordpress theme from a fireworks file.
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Islanna

Islanna Treehouse Hotel commissioned SNW to produce this site. The original intention was to keep the site to one single, vertically scrolling page but it was then spread over a regular site layout due to the sheer amount of information the client had.
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WEB

HTML5 / CSS3

The internet has been undergoing a bit of a facelift recently with many changes to HTML and CSS (backbones of the web) in particular. We like to make sure our code is 'future proof'. To do this we use these latest web technologies, HTML5 and CSS3 where possible as well as many others such as jQuery and Python. These give a much richer experience to the end user and mean our clients don't have to update their sites code every year… everyones a winner!

User-experience

Whilst we like everything we do to look as pretty as possible we are also focused on the user experience that the end product will give. In websites this means making sure things like links and buttons are easily recognisable, pages are where you would expect them to be and everything does what it's told, to name just a few. During the entire development process our web products are frequently checked for any bugs, usability issues and general nastiness by real human beings!

Mobile friendly

Responsive web design has really taken off over the last couple of years and we are big fans. Making your website resposive means that it will adapt to whichever screen size it is currently being displayed on, from a 27" monitor to an iPhone. This means your users get the best possible experience no matter how they browse the site. This site is responsive, resize your browser and give it a try!

DESIGN & PRINT

Print Techniques

Sven produces print projects using a couple of techniques. Screen printing is our most used technique. It allows us to print on a whole range of different media, great for T-shirts, posters and custom runs of prints. The second technique is letterpress, perfect for business cards and other profile material.

Technology

We use latest Adobe Creative Suite software for all of our design work. The Creative Suite programs such as Photoshop, InDesign and Illustrator are by far the most widely used. This allows us to deliver our work to you or any external parties such as printworks without potential compatibility headaches.

Graphic Design

Need a new company logo, maybe a re-design of your exisiting profile material? Maybe you need this years catalog laid out or have a company car that needs a promotional vinyl wrap? We offer an entire graphic design process, taking your idea right through from sketches to delivery, working closely with you all the way to get the best possible result.

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Escape Artist is a small group of web developers and graphic designers based in Kent and South Yorkshire working together to create bespoke products for print and the web.

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