about davide de angelis

He has worked extensively with David Bowie and his product development company Isolar, creating a huge range of artistic and commercially led material. Together they have produced award-winning print (Outside, Earthling and Bowieart) – and conceptualised multi-faceted characters, interactive environments and interfaces alongside experimental methods of storytelling. These projects have reached an audience of literally millions of people around the world, and have been widely credited as introducing highly original and dynamic methods of presenting images, narrative, film and music.

As a design specialist, Davide has also worked for some of the world’s most prominent international corporations, organising product development and on-line strategies for Pearsons and EMI. Other major projects include designing and art directing giant stage graphics for U2 and print and corporate branding projects for Sony, Virgin Entertainment and Virgin Atlantic.

As well as being an internationally exhibited graphic designer, Davide’s intricate acrylic paintings and prints have been included in shows at the Museum of Modern Art (New York), The Tate Modern (London) and the Pompidou Centre in Paris. Private Collections include Saatchi, Bowie, the Sony collection, Yoko Ono and Steven Spielberg.

Originally studying Fine Art at Goldsmiths College, he went on to study Graphic Design and Media at the London Institute LCP where he obtained a first class honours degree. After graduating in 1987, he spent three and a half years working for some of London's leading design and advertising agencies - establishing a reputation for experimenting with language, typography and image producing work for clients such as Levi's and Toshiba.

In 1991, he formed his own design and media agency 'Denovo', specialising in high quality print and multimedia technologies. Over the next four years he art directed sequences for MTV, designed a myriad of projects for Sony and Virgin Entertainment, and art directed promos for U2 and The Ministry of Sound. In 1996, Working with David Bowie and Brian Eno, in association with Apple computers, he conceptualised and designed the world's first commercially used role-playing interface based on Bowie's' 'Nathan Adler Diaries'. He later went on to use this knowledge to produce the very first interactive graphic novel called Zarnac, which sold as a stand-alone product in both America and Japan.

By 1998, Denovo had grown to a company with an annual turnover of over £1 million. And it was at this stage, whilst working for Pearsons as a client, that a successful merger was negotiated with Pearsons New Entertainment (PNE). With the backing of Pearsons it was possible to start developing products on a commercial basis, and this led to the successful SFX-CD and the much acclaimed knowledgebox Digital Learning products.

			"the seed is mezmerizing" steven spielberg "De Angelis' prose is as vital, weird and as devious as his image-making. Enthralling!" david bowie "De Angelis has discovered a way to communicate the complex human condition in such a different and intensely beautiful way" Anne Furse - new york times

In 2000, Davide decided to leave Denovo and devote some time to travelling. Together with his wife, Esther he embarked on a journey taking him across South America, India, Nepal and eventually across the Himalayas and into Tibet. And it was on this journey that he began the process of fulfilling a life-long dream to write a successful novel. The subsequent book called ‘The Seed’ has gone on to become a science fiction best-seller and has to date been translated into Japanese, Russian, and recently Spanish. In 2003, The Seed was short listed for the Phillip K Dick sci-fi award for innovation.

Upon his return from travelling, Davide trained with Richard Bandler the pioneering creator of NLP (neuro linguistic programming) and qualified to the level of NLP master practitioner and advanced business practitioner. This played a crucial role in helping him further develop his ability to manage teams on high-level design projects. He has subsequently used these skills to great effect working for Virgin Atlantic and Columbia TriStar.

Over the last two years he has devised creative training programs and workshops for organisations such as WPP, D&AD and British Telecom. To date he has lectured on a whole range of subjects including Design, Storytelling & Narrative Construction, and Interactive Media, in Europe, America and Japan. He is the only person to sit on four different judging panels for the D&AD awards: Print design, interactive media, music promos and illustration.

His most recent projects have seen a return to the core elements of graphic design and brand development, art directing DVD educational products for Columbia TriStar, and working for Sony to create an entire graphic brand for a new generation of business communication devices known as Syntax. And in these projects can be found what he does best: creating design that ignites clients’ visions and inspires their customers – exploring how to communicate ideas and values to the world in a unique, compelling and innovative way.

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