Dan Hines

Background

About Dan Hines

When I embarked on my career journey into design, I never thought that I would find myself immersed in such an exciting and rewarding time to be a designer. From a young age I have taken great pleasure and personal satisfaction from creating, and this love of design and creating has only grown stronger as I have progressed through my life. In the beginning I knew I wanted to create visually exciting, beautiful and provoking things inspired by all manner of products and visual culture experienced through my young adulthood. The emergence of CGI, computer games and the combination of vision and sound in music videos all had a huge influence on shaping who I was to become as designer and what still inspires me to continue to create today. In the beginning it was understanding the importance of the creative process and the visual communication of graphic design. This then evolved to be the design of the physical and now I design in the virtual and interactive. When I wrote my dissertation on the emergence of CGI in the visual culture nearly 20 years ago, never did I know this area would play such a pivotal role in what I now do today. My journey as a designer has had 4 main chapters to date. Firstly, my early learning of design in the broad sense, fine art, the creative process and visual expression of ideas through sketch and painting. Graffiti was my thing and with the new prominence of Banksy and stencil art at the time this is what I found spoke to me as a young aspiring designer (ND University College Suffolk). Second was love of graphics, graphic design enthused and excited much like the graffiti artists did in the earlier years, yet it was a more & intellectual approach in its visual communication (BA HONS Graphic Design UWE). Thirdly was the realisation of the physical and bringing these visual elements into the real world in built and manufactured products. I became experienced and very proficient at drafting designs into manufacturing (10 years Industry). And fourthly where I now find myself in building and designing in the virtual and experiential. Using 3D mesh modelling platforms and games engines to realistically create virtual worlds and visuals that place the products and designs we create (5 Years Industry). Each of these chapters in my personal journey have shaped me and given me a depth and breadth of experience to draw upon. I find often that this array of disciplines and experience helps me deliver compelling inspirational and successful work today, whether it be product, experience, animation or user interface.