Self-taught Photoshop whiz and brainy physicist Nick Ainley probably knows how to split atoms. His illustration and design work is pretty good too….

Nick Ainley is the kind of young, ambitious digital creative who seemed to arrive on the scene from literally nowhere with a fully developed and unique style, a strong portfolio of work and an impressive roster of editorial and publishing clients, all wrapped in the intriguing company name under which he operates – Shiny Binary

Hailing from Oxford and still just 24 years old, Ainley has quickly built a reputation for delivering striking work in an eye-catching style which blends futuristic, sci-fi and gothic influences, strong typography with lush vectors and dazzling Photo manipulation work.

Its no surprise, then, that Ainley reaches for Adobe Photoshop when he begins the task of turning a commission into a piece of finished art. What may be surprising, though, is that he managed to teach himself Photoshop while studying full time for a degree in Physics at Imperial College London.

So why does Nick always look to Adobe when starting a job?

“I use Photoshop 95 per cent of the time when producing my work. It's where I start all of my pictures and finish all of them. Probably the only other Adobe program I ever need to use is Illustrator which is fantastic for line work. However I find Photoshop can do nearly everything I ever need,” he says.

Nick says he usually starts a job by reading the brief and then “sits back a bit with my eyes closed and let ideas run through my head.” But how does a package like Photoshop help the process once his eyes are open again?

“Without Adobe software there would be no process. I start working straight in Photoshop, unlike a lot of people who'll sketch stuff out first. I create nearly all of the visuals in Photoshop, composite them in Photoshop and polish the final image in Photoshop. Without it you'd just have an idea in my head and not much else,” he says.

Although Nick makes the process sound simple, producing bespoke images for articles and magazine covers can be fraught with problems, particularly revisions in commissions and changes of direction with illustrations. How does Adobe software help here?

“Photoshop is great for changing things around, as the range of options it has to quickly alter your image without risk of losing work you've done is fantastic. Some of my best work has come from just playing around with different functions and unexpectedly coming up with something really cool,” he says.

With his time currently split between his Shiny Binary illustration work and web development projects, and loads of interesting new clients constantly tuning in to the Ainley style, it looks like things are just going to get shinier.

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