Nick Barrett

posted by Mel Luff March 10, 2015

Londoner, Nick Barrett is a visual artist based in Hackney. Multitalented, with a degree in Biological science and six years behind him as a recording artist – he is now focusing on a different artistic venture. His work is rooted in organic forms, exploring the often-overlooked and beautiful details in what could be considered a mundane subject matter.

Influenced by foil greetings cards, Nick researched the process behind their creation and adapted this to fit his own unique style. In a progression from his original drawings (fashioned in back ink and gold and silver gels) – the transference to foil printing seemed like a natural evolution.

Starting life as surveillance or monolith drawings, the image is scanned and manipulated into a vector – the colours separated, merged and layered, creating 4 or 5 layers, each with a different colour.

We asked Nick about the printing process:

“The process of printing relies on the binding of the foil to the printer ink. Each layer is printed separately through the printer and then passed with the specific colour foil through a laminator, which binds the foil to the print. The process is then repeated for each layer with a different colour foil. Each A4 page usually take between 30-60 mins to print all 5 layers if there are no errors.”

The result – a multi layered, intricately detailed and beautifully gilded print.