Portfolio

Most adults live long enough to see themselves become the villain of their own creation. You almost have to feel bad for people who worked themselves so hard that they forgot who they are in the process. I Miss The Old Kanye. Sitting down on a late night, I realised that the best work that I produce is during my emotionally charged moments. There is something very intimate about my work. Something that is very personal that I wouldn’t be able to show otherwise, maybe I wouldn’t be able to share it with a therapist in the first place. I know I can be professional, but my best work is when I combine that with sentimentallity and sensitivity. 

On the 1st of January 2020, I took my first step into becoming a freelance graphic designer by launching my design alter ego; Kancer The Crab on Instagram. That post got 50 likes at the time and it was a great start for me. Every 6 months I would “re-invent” myself by updating my profile picture and ushering myself into a new phase. This would include new work with different style expirementation, new work with different artists and clients and it would give me a chance to show how much I improved during those 6 months as a form of a time capsule.  2 years later, I keep going strong and I’m not planning on stopping.

Shawty bust it down, Greek Style 😎 Honour to my ancestors that knew how to party even in times of turmoil. Greek representation feels quite minimal in the design space, especially when it comes to anything other than ancient Greece. That’s what most people recognize Greece for but for me it’s the gift that keeps on giving. I think of my heritage often and how they withstood 400 years of Ottoman rule after the fall of Byzantium, while safeguarding the same language, religion and culture during uncertain times.

Welcome to Kratau. Fortune, history and blood covered up. A true FBI paradise experience. With time my projects evolved from using lyrics as inspiration to being fueld by my ideologies, feelings and storybuilding. That is when I realised how much I love to write copy for my projects. Being a non-English speaker makes it alot more difficult but I get such a thrill out of it, trying to piece everything visually and conceptually. This piece tells a very simple story but I think it does so in a cool, bold and exciting way.

Gothica Sauvage: 80's Gothcore was a collaboration with a Serbian Instagram model and make-up artist Sandra Radjenovic to showcase her skills and a new project line she was working on. Photography being not my strong suit, I was tasked to create a narrative rather than really showcasing the make-up of the model. Taking inspiration from 80′s dark fantasy novels and art, I gave it a more contemporary spin with the enchanting Sandra not taking center stage, but still guiding the eyes of the viewers. Expanded my skills even further by using 3D to create the frame and type was a great experience, proving to myself mostly that I can rise to the occasion, no matter what the task at hand is. NOTE: Tumblrs compression rate ruined the image but it’s actual intended purpose wasn’t to be shown on tumblr, so apologies for the inconvinience.

Returning back to my root folder and traditional hardware. The last slide features one of my designs from 2020 that established my raw and grainy dark style for comparison. Both of these posts were made with a song in mind and both of them were meant to symbolize something on my thriving Instagram account. 2 years apart and you can still notice the similarities with how I overload my designs with eye candy and unconventional compositions. My texture work and general colour use has expanded and even though the design that I made now is quite “lighter”, you can see how I’m much more confident with multimodality.

“Dedicated to you, the world and everything you stand for. Hope your engagement crashes and burns xoxo” Comedy is one of my strongest points and I try to incorporate different forms of sarcasm or irony within my work. I think it reflects well with my edgy and meme-y sense of humour.

In 2022 we got to see the overturning of abortion rights in the US which set a very dangerous precedent in the world stage. Even as a man you feel very confused and troubled by such a horrible situation, that it almost turns funny again. The only way I could express my feelings was through this design. Even though I got some comments for this poster being “insensitive”, I really feel like it misses the point. Women are considered criminals just like a terrorist would, just because of their need of body autonomy. I compare their struggle to Osama Bin Laden and very similarly to how we applaud women for being “queens” and “slaying”, we should appluad women to be “bombs” in this age of dystopian control. 

A post shared by Michael Yukis ♋ (@kancerthecrab)

This was my last university project where I was given my brief. After this I had full control over what work I would be producing but in this case we were tasked to create an experiential design for a museum that hasn’t been getting alot of love by the masses in London. By getting myself out there and by doing first hand primary research, I was astonished by The Museum of The Order of Saint John and how at ease I felt in there. It seemed like it’s best days were over and now it quietly sits at the side of a side road, holding history and artifacts that any fantasy nerd like myself would get absolutely enthrilled by. I knew this was just right for me and so I decided to “revive” the Order, get people to sign up to be actual knights for the order and I wanted to bring modernity with traditionalism in the most respectful, and interesting visuals that I could produce.

Basilisk Pulse. Celebrate the birth of the Basilisk and let it come to fruition. An event inspired by the idea of Roko’s Basilisk (a futuristic concept of super AI destined to destroy all those who oppose him) with different techno and rave artists.  Created a very eerie mean-looking poster by playing around with different reptiles and as much as I hate this description “psychadelic” inspired typography. Felt like I was the right person to design this poster from the start. That humble confidence got me pretty far.

By all means, I am not American and I know almost nothing of what it means to be American, but I can at the very least attempt to comment, criticize and question with my posters, without making a useless tweet that would spark hate.

THE TECHNOMANCER BREATHES. 50 Megatons Of Artificial Supermacy. Been sitting long on this design for a really long time but my tenacity as an individual kicks in and things just “click” into place. This was one of those serotonin moments where literally every little machinery fitted in like puzzle pieces. The concept behind this was the reanimation and fusion of broken machines, inspired by my love for Transformers that the Michael Bay movies killed for me. This was my way of expressing the “design machine” within me that works day in and out to create those really detailed and intricate raw designs. Similarly to how you would capture a painter brushing the paints on the wet canvas while it sits on the easel, this is my capture of my system working to create pieces of art.

“IT KNOWS” was one of the more experimental design choices I overtook and even though I faced alot of difficulty landing on an idea, I personally think that I created something fitting for my ideology and artistic style. For one of our uni projects we had to create a 6 page sequential photo narrative using our own photos. Naturally, without a solid foundation in photography I had to do alot of editing to make this whole story shine. Using my friend and his cat, Kiri, I was able to create a mini comic that is inspired by cosmic Lovecraftian horror just in time for the deadline surprising my tutors who to be frank, were not very faithful in my ideas. Sometimes it’s not what the tutors want, it’s what makes me feel complete as a designer, and this feels right at home in my portfolio.

Gnome Kvlt, a comically themed black metal florist brand for a Weekly Discord Challenge. The challenge revolved around making a brand for a florist shop which was something completely out of the ball park for me. Yet, branding is so much fun and it's super easy to just get carried away, so I kept making visuals till kingdom come.  From memes that would be posted online, to possible advertising campaigns that they could promote, all the way to their merch, this challenge was done within a weeks time, improving my consistent and persistent working schedule without getting demotivated or feeling like the brand doesn’t have a cohesive identity.

CLUB DAMAGE was an event hosted by Puerto Rico Underground (stylized as PR UNDGRND), a group of DJ’s that work together to introduce the best and most unique genres within San Juan. This comission marked my biggest design for an event to date and the reception was phenomenal by the whole team, as I tried to have a good balance between the bizaree rave freak and the casual club goer.  

 The Great Design War is still raging. I keep getting randomly tagged with the hashtag and I have to say after some very angry messages against me, this project was a massive success and I can’t wait to get back to it when I have the chance.