eBoy

For the fashion sub-culture, see E-boy. For the TV series, see E-Boy (TV series).
Ecity Pixorama, 1998

eBoy is a pixel art group founded in 1997 by Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig and Svend Smital.

Their complex illustrations have been made into posters, shirts, souvenirs, and displayed in gallery exhibitions.[1] They were founded on May 2, 1997. "We started working with pixels because we loved the idea of making pictures only for the screen. It’s the best way to get really sharp and clean looking results. Also, handling pixels is fun and you are forced to simplify and abstract things, which is a big advantage of this technique."[1] eBoy is based in Berlin and Los Angeles.

Their influences come from: "Pop culture... shopping, supermarkets, TV, toy commercials, LEGO, computer games, the news, magazines..."[2] Kai grew up with Nintendo to inspire him, the rest of the eBoys lived in East Germany where video games did not exist.[2] Their work makes intense use of popular culture and commercial icons, and their style is presented in three-dimensional isometric illustrations filled with robots, cars, guns and girls. Now, most of their designs are printed and not used solely for computer screens, allowing images to get more complex with details.[1] "If we don't work on other projects at the same time it takes about six to eight weeks to finish a very detailed cityscape, three eBoy's working on it, nearly full time. But, if we have to do it in our spare time, which happens often, it could take years to finish a picture since we can't spend so much time on it."[1] Their style has gained them a cult following among graphic designers worldwide,[1] as well as a long list of commercial clients. Another one of their projects are plastic Peecol toys with Kidrobot, and a line of wooden toys are to be produced under their own label.

eBoy has completed "Pixoramas" on cities like Tokyo, Paris, Rio, Berlin and London and are currently funding their newest cityscape based on San Francisco via Kickstarter. They have also worked with brands such as Coca-Cola, MTV, VH1, Adidas, Gola and Honda. They worked on creating the album cover for Groove Armada's 2007 studio album Soundboy Rock, as well as the Wombats' 2022 album Fix Yourself, Not the World.[3]

Major Pixoramas (city and landscape scenes)

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  • Shift Ecity (1998)
  • Berlin (1st edition 2002)
  • Venice (1st edition 2002)
  • Superbroncobattle (1st edition 2004)
  • London (1st edition 2005)
  • Cologne (1st edition 2005)
  • New York (1st edition 2006)
  • FooBar (1st edition 2006)
  • Tokyo (1st edition 2007) NFT
  • Baltimore (1st edition 2008)
  • Los Angeles (1st edition 2008)
  • Marseille (perspective from city, 1st edition 2009)
  • Amnesty (1st edition 2009)
  • Paris (1st edition 2010)
  • Rio (1st edition 2011)
  • Marseille (perspective from sea, 1st edition 2012)
  • BazQux (1st edition 2013)
  • Miami (1st edition 2014)
  • San Francisco (1st edition 2015)
  • Moscow (1st edition 2021) NFT

Other Notable Pixoramas

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  • Maker Faire (1st edition 2007)
  • MIA Miami Airport (2014)

Collaborations

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Adidas, Adobe, Nike, Honda, Paul Smith, Louis Vuitton, DKNY, Kidrobot, The Wombats, Yuzu, Uniqlo, FontShop, Marriott, Net-A-Porter, bungalow records,[4] and many more.

Exhibitions

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SuperBroncoBattle - 2004

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The first solo UK exhibition of eBoy was at the Minuco underground gallery in Clerkenwell London, England.

eBoy-LA - 2008

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The exhibition at Concrete Hermit in London, England, saw Los Angeles get the eBoy treatment. There was a chance to see the development of the Peecols – eBoy’s series of toys. There was the opportunity to see the Blockbob prototypes and limited editions of the figures.

Year Title Venue City Country
1999 Game Over Museum of Design Zürich Zürich Switzerland
2000 Expo 2000 World's Fair Hanover Germany
2002 postscript Künstlerhaus Vienna Austria
2002 the book and the exhibition Magma Clerkenwell London UK
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 UK
2004 Mural design to be built with LEGO bricks on student wall MIT (Students) 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 (organized by Pao Paws) Museum of tomorrow (MOT) Taipei Taiwan
2007 Todaysart Festival The Hague Netherlands
2008 eBoy LA Concrete Hermit Gallery London UK
2008 Pluto Festival Brussels Belgium
2008 Vertrautes Terrain ZKM Karlsruhe Germany
2009 Pixorama ROJO®artspace Barcelona Spain
2009 Centre Design Marseille Marseille France
2009 Exhibition and workshop Nave Rio de Janeiro Brasil
2009 Since Paris France
2009 weloveasbaek Copenhagen Denmark
2009 What is 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 China
2012 LA Game Space Kickstarter Los Angeles USA
2013 Pixel Art Show Portland Floating World Comics Portland USA
2013 Berlin Graphic Days Kater Holzig Berlin Germany
2013 Drones Of New York Museum of the Moving Image Astoria (NYC) USA
2013 Marseille Pixorama Pavillon M Marseille France
2014 Digital Revolution Barbican Centre London UK
2017 64 Bits Here East London UK
2017 Upstream Music Fest Pioneer Square Seattle USA

References

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  1. ^ a b c d e shane ward (June 17, 2007). "eboy feature @ Format Mag". Archived from the original on 2016-06-11. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
  2. ^ a b James Peacock. "eboy feature @ Knowledge Magazine Gallery". Archived from the original on 2011-07-24. Retrieved 2008-04-28.
  3. ^ Krol, Charlotte (16 August 2021). "The Wombats announce new album 'Fix Yourself, Not The World' and UK arena tour dates". NME. Retrieved 18 August 2021.
  4. ^ "bungalow poptics". poptics.com. 2000-10-10. Archived from the original on 2000-10-10. Retrieved 2023-09-13.
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