Mar­cus Oak­ley is an illus­tra­tor based out of Lon­don. I’m a fan of his flat­tened ren­der­ings and col­lages, and how this con­veys a sense of space and time.

Marcus’s works, while using sat­u­rated col­ors, have a cer­tain level of dilu­tion to them. They seem a bit washed out, like they could be brighter, but I’m glad he chooses not to do so. His work tran­scends what’s cur­rent going on, and ref­er­ences the past, in both style and exe­cu­tion of it. The graphic sen­si­bil­ity freezes time and leaves things locked in place.

I think Marcus’s work appeals to me on a num­ber of dif­fer­ent lev­els. It’s appeal­ing aes­thet­i­cally, but also through the pat­terns and line work that he infuses in his col­lages. Content-wise, it’s got a sense of naivety to it, but with some more “mature” themes. I enjoy that jux­ta­po­si­tion of it all.

All images via his blog. You can also visit his web­site!