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100th Texture Thursday!

Today we’re incredibly happy to release our 100th Texture Thursday pack. It’s hard to believe that Texture Thursdays have been going quite this long, but we’re incredibly glad that you guys seem to appreciate them so much. We’ve had thousands of downloads of our weekly high-res textures, which are now being used by designers all over the world.

To help celebrate this week, we’re interviewing the man behind it all – Andre Meca! Be sure to check out the interview at the bottom of this page.

Century Textures

You can view the textures below, and can download the full sized textures at the bottom of this page.

Interview with Andre Meca:

Hi Andre. Could you start by telling us a little about yourself and how you became interested in the design field?

Hello, I am André Meca, a Portuguese graphic designer and illustrator. I’m currently studying Graphic Design in Escola Superior de Artes e Design (ESAD) at Caldas da Rainha and working as a freelance designer.

I’ve always been very enthusiastic about design and the arts. It all started when I got my first computer. I was blown away by the web and it’s possibilities. At first I started to teach myself programming as I loved working with all the lines of code, and the scripts. However, after some time, a massive change happened. I don’t know why, but I broke away from programming and moved towards art. That’s when Photoshop came into my life. It’s amazing to see how a simple piece of software changed my mind forever… From there I went to a design course, and the rest of story is currently being documented via my portfolio.

A big congratulations on reaching 100 Texture Thursdays! The weekly post series has become really popular with our readers. How do you continually get inspired?

Nature, the abstract, my life, the lives of others, everything….. I can’t understand how I get inspired to continue doing this things, but one thing is for sure, my family has a big impact. They’re often my source of inspiration. It’s the passion, the love, and I want to keep doing it for a long, long time.

Looking over your portfolio you’ve been creating some awesome new works. Could you talk us through a couple of your favorites?

Now that’s an interesting question. I can tell you that when I finish something, I feel really pleased, but then the next day I look at it and I say “What the Hell…What was i thinking!?”. It’s all part of my process and the fun of designing though! Of course I have my all-time favorites though, such as: EXPLOSION OF COLORS AND SHAPES; IMPERIUM V; SUSTAINABILITY; THE STUPID PORTFOLIO; CONSUMERISM; and more…

I can see a lot of improvement in your latest work. How do you challenge yourself as a designer, and hone your techniques?

I consider myself a person that makes what I think is right. By this I mean what is right in my head, my mind. I love to show that, one major example is the academic work, I’m always trying to find new ways, stupid, creative ways to achieve something. My technique is very simple, I always think up an initial concept, then I take a big cup of coffee, and think a little bit more, then I plan out the execution, then finally I execute it very fast, and many times the first sample is the best! That’s it, thinking and planning take up most of the process, and then the execution is fast.

You’ve showed me some of your theatrical work, in addition to your print and web work. It’s inspiring to see you mastering so many mediums. Do you feel that these various creative outlets cross-over much in your life?

Yes definitely! I feel like the design world is being saturated by people who are always behind a computer. Learn to leave your chair! I’ve always tried to find more and more ways to transmit what I want in different mediums. For example, in the Fernando Pessoa’s Performance
“WHAT A PAIN IN THE ASS” I wanted also to show the public that I can also portray graphic images through performance. So my advice to all designers out there is to leave your chair and do something different and unexpected.

A lot of your graphic design work is collage-based. How do you go about selecting the various visual elements for your compositions. What does a typical work process involve for you?

I like to say that “What’s old is good”. I’ve molded my mind to be able to use collage-based work to give a new expression to the old. The elements are very important, and one thing that I love to do is buy old magazines from the 60′s, 70′s and 80′s, and scan those wonderful images, and my work processed on working those elements is also very simple. I pick some nice color palette from colourlovers.com (great job guys), then I most of the time randomly pick an image, and I start working on it spontaneously. I love to have a nice background to work with first, then I cut the images and paste, and finally I play with blending modes a lot (which i love doing).

Thanks so much for your continued contributions to PSDFAN, and for taking the time to do this interview today. Do you have any final words or perhaps tips for our audience?

Hey Tom, please let ME thank you for the opportunity to be part of such awesome community! For the readers, please, please, do what you guys love and don’t follow your dreams, chase them.

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