Mert Özel, graphic designer and illustrator in Istanbul
Hi, I’m Mert, a graphic designer and illustrator in Istanbul. I work across , , , , , , and .
Graphic design is my main work now, and I still draw. What I care about most is taste: finding the one idea a project needs, then leaving out everything it doesn’t. I work where image meets text.
All work
20 projects since 2018. Point at a word above to see one side of them.Tap a word above to see one side of them.
brand identity
I build a brand from its name outward: the logotype, the packaging, the posters, the site. The idea is usually hiding in the name already.
app design
I design apps end to end, from the icon to the last screen, and see them through to release.
typography
I care how words look as much as what they say. One result is a book of over a hundred typographic terms, explained in Turkish.
packaging
Packaging is where my drawing and my design meet: the lettering, the illustration and the layout all come from the same hand.
I like work that ends up on paper: posters, a book, a record sleeve.
3D
I model and render in Blender, for brands and for my own pieces.
illustration
I draw people, mostly: faces, figures, states of mind. And the occasional jay.
WaterSeparationMental DisordersBlue Jay BirdMagusIllustrations
the web
Every brand I make gets its website, designed as part of the identity rather than after it.
A rooster hidden in three initialsA symbol for love, borrowed from calculusA logotype drawn from Sumerian scriptPoems that arrive at the hour you chooseA Mac app that talks you into startingA glassware brand, down to the glassChewing gum lettered flavour by flavourA hundred typographic terms, explained in TurkishNine faces in fine white lineA harp made of glass