Interview: Graphic Designer Rijan Hamidovic from Sydney via Bosnia Herzegovina

Creativity has been a part of Rijan Hamidovic's life since he was a child growing up in Bosnia Herzegovina. Now based in Sydney, the designer would draw, cut, and glue in order to come up with interesting and often funny collections of images.

This skill has been put to good use with Rijan's designs making the finals or winning DesignCrowd photoshopping contests. From Australian, Japanese and Russian leaders partying together behind the scenes at the G20 to Snow White getting a Disney Hipster makeover, Rijan's playful creativity and excellent technical execution is on display throughout.

As a master of the latest design tools, Rijan lists his specialties as Photoshop designs, logo designs, and packaging design. In this interview, he tells 'Beyond the Pen Tool' about the family and design influences in this life, how he developed his cheeky design style.

Rijan's entry for the LA Clippers' logo redesign contest.

I live in...Marrickville, Sydney.

And I work from...home, an office, the beach, or cafes.

My passion for...Illustration, drawing, Photoshop, began in my early childhood. I loved drawing, and always tried to redraw cartoons, cartoon heroes, etc. They didn't always look good, but I loved doing it, so it didn't matter.

I loved to use glue and scissors, for cutting newspaper pictures and creating something I had on my mind. It was usually something funny, but I loved combining photography and manipulations. Luckily today I have Photoshop so things don't get too messy.

Rijan's entry for a resturant logo redesign contest.

I come up with a creative ideas...By listening to music, observing stuff around me, from nature, and even sport. But mostly it involves a lot of thinking.

My favorite designer/creative is...Haris aka greative (graphic designer on DesignCrowd) because he was the one who encouraged me to start designing. He has always helped me, and still does. I always love the way he brings an idea to life. He's an amazing guy.

Then one of my favorite creative people is my wife, who is an amazing photographer. Often I find myself going through her collection of photography to get some inspiration, ideas.

And my sister, who is amazing at combining photography and graphic design. She has amazing ways of expressing her thoughts with photography.

Rijan's entry for our fun contest exploring what famous brand logos would look like with a hipster makeover.

My design style can be described as...Well, erm, I can't describe my style because I'm still wondering. Design is such a bright field and I just can't stop trying new stuff, learning new stuff, combining photography and graphics, illustrations, logos, posters, anything! Well see in couple of years, it's still early to talk about that.'

I'm most creative when...I isolate myself from all the daily noise.

The app I can't live without...Is probably Angry birds - it's my anger management (tool)!

My secret superhero power is...Ignoring irrelevant things in my life.