Mario Nevado is a Freelance Illustratoran Art Directora Storyteller

Mario Nevado - Illustrator for Hire

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“I think everyone has a good story to tell. I bring them to life.”

Mario Sánchez Nevado (Premiá de Dalt, Barcelona, 1985) is a Spanish freelance Illustrator and Art Director with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with +15 years of experience in creating cover artworks for bands and publishing houses all over the world.

His distinctive surreal signature on aesthetics, and his caustic approach on storytelling, has granted him a worldwide recognition of his career, working with clients the size of Adobe, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Harlequin or Hachette. He was also one of the managers of the international artistic collective Hysterical Minds. Mario has lectured in Adobe’s Create Now, Photoshop Rockstars, Brief Festival or the Creative Pro Show. His opus has travelled the world in exhibitions like Creatives Rising, that itinerated among others, to the exterior walls of the MoMA and Guggenheim museums in New York. His artistic labor has been recognized by the Master Award on the digital art annual Exposé by two consecutive years, and the milestone of his career came when he participated in Adobe Photoshop’s 25th Anniversary campaign “Dream On” that was premiered on the 87th Oscar Academy Awards and screened in Sundance, winning a Pencil D&AD Award, Three Cannes Festival Lions and an Emmy nomination.

With a solid but ever-evolving style, his striking collection is deeply woven with bold, stinging narratives, built with vibrant color palettes that lead to the atmospheres and scenery of the dream-like environments present in his body of work. Nevado’s message revolves about the epic and emotional interpretation of everyday life, where irony is recurrent and leads to a critique to society’s morals, distribution, politics or canons in an historical era dominated by shallowness. Part magical storyteller, and part sober messenger of society’s ills, Mario’s work begs for a deeper consideration of the world around us.

About MeArt

Mario Nevado - Illustrator for Hire

Who is Mario Nevado?

``I think everyone has a good story to tell. I bring them to life.``

Mario Sánchez Nevado (Barcelona, 1985) is a Spanish freelance Illustrator for hire and Art Director with a Bachelor’s Degree in Fine Arts with +15 years of experience in creating cover artworks for bands and publishing houses all over the world.

His distinctive surreal signature on aesthetics, and his caustic approach on storytelling, has granted him a worldwide recognition of his career, working with clients the size of Adobe, Goodby Silverstein & Partners, Harlequin or Hachette. He was also one of the managers of the international artistic collective Hysterical Minds. Mario has given several lectures and workshops in London, Rome or Madrid, and has participated in Adobe’s Create Now, Photoshop Rockstars, Brief Festival or the Creative Pro Show, to name a few.  His opus has travelled the world in exhibitions like Creatives Rising, that itinerated among others, to the MoMA and Guggenheim museums exterior walls in New York. His artistic labor has been recognized by the Master Award on the digital art annual Exposé by two consecutive years, and the milestone of his career came when he participated in Adobe Photoshop’s 25th Anniversary campaign “Dream On” that was premiered on the 2015 Oscar Academy Awards and screened in Sundance, winning a Pencil D&AD Award, Three Cannes Festival Lions and an Emmy nomination.

With a solid but ever-evolving style, his striking collection is deeply woven with bold, stinging narratives, built with vibrant color palettes that lead to the atmospheres and scenery of the dream-like environments present in his body of work. Nevado’s message revolves about the epic and emotional interpretation of everyday life, where irony is recurrent and leads to a critique to society’s morals, distribution, politics or canons in an historical era dominated by shallowness. Part magical storyteller, and part sober messenger of society’s ills, Mario’s work begs for a deeper consideration of the world around us.

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My Style

Epic Emotional Art

From surreal landscapes, to gothic portraiture, my style revolves about the emotional response of individuals surrounded by a context dominated by shallowness. My key ingredients: Surrealism and automatic writing, a bit of fantasy and the correct amount of darkness, but always with a burst of color and drama.

My Mediums

It's mostly digital, but...

All the illustrations you see on this website come with a solid style after decades of experimentation with different mediums. This mix is called ``matte painting``: a mixture of photo manipulation, digital painting, and 3D. I try to shoot myself most of my resources, and the crazy textures you see in every other artwork, are hand painted by me.

My Expertise

Timeless Cover Artworks

All these ingredients are put on the blender to offer you what I do best: Covers. I have been working as a cover artist for 15 years, designing full albums, merch and stage elements for bands all over the world. I also create covers for books and will gladly spend my time in designing eye-catching posters for films. I'm comfortable working in other fields, but these three comprise my main areas of expertise.

Notable Achievements

Awards

Emmy Awards 2015 Nominee
Outstanding Commercial for ``Dream On`` by GoodbySilverstein & Partners (2015, credited artist).
Three Cannes Lions
Silver (Best Animation, Best Film) and Cyber Gold (Social Media) for ``Dream On`` by GoodbySilverstein & Partners (2015, credited artist).
Pencil D&AD
Graphite on Film Advertising - TV Commercial for ``Dream On`` by GoodbySilverstein & Partners (2015, credited artist).
Digital Arts California
Gold Stellar Award on Wide Open Digital for ``Deliberation`` (2014, Art Director).
Two Exposé Master Awards
Best in Surreal for ``Deliberation`` (2013, Art Director). Best in Whimsical for ``Discovery`` (2012, Art Director).

Exhibitions

Digital Dreams: Masterpieces of Computer Graphics
2017. Russia. Collective. Itinerant through St. Peterburg's Art Bank, Nuzin Exhibition Hall, Krasnodar Showroom and Togliaty Art Musem.
Sick Tales: 10 years of Mario Nevado
2016. La Massana Còmic Museum (Andorra). Solo retrospective.
Creatives Rising
2013. Museum of Modern Art and Guggenheim Museum. New York City. Collective. Artworks projected on the museums exterior walls. Curated by See Me.
Art Takes Times Square
2012. Times Square (NYC). Curated by Artists Wanted.
V Parallax Art Fair
2012. Chelsea Old Town Hall (London). Collective with Hysterical Minds. Curated by Mario Nevado & Martín de Diego.

Lectures

Photoshop Rockstars
``Based on true events: How I became a Photoshop Rockstar``. Itinerant through Spain. Adobe events. 2015-17.
Adobe’s Make It Layered, Make It Yours
``Advanced Composition with Mario Nevado``, ``Make Yourself Happen`` and ``CC Assets Lab``. Creative Cloud Events. 2016.
Brief Festival
``Vertiginous compositions on the go`` for Microsoft & ``Behance Portfolio Review``. La Casa Encendida (Madrid, Spain). 2015.
VII Creative Pro Show
``Extreme Digital Imaging with Mario Nevado``. Aurelia Hotel (Rome). 2014.
I Symposium of Art & Psychology
``Reflections of the awaken subconscious``, ``Keys to a contemporary painter`` and ``Art and Madness``. UDIMA University (Madrid, Spain). 2013.

Client and Media Endorsement

His Artworks went beyond our Expectations

It was a wise move to become Mario's client - I feel so thankful, and this feeling goes beyond the admiration I feel for his talent and his generosity while avoiding to save efforts, which is a plus that makes of his pieces true works of art that go further than your expectations, so my biggest respect for Mario, an artist of great imagination and with a humble, meticulous energy.

Michel Sult. Client (Songwriter/Guitarist of Deathwalking).

I can't imagine a better Artist to capture a feeling

I've been incredibly fortunate to have darkly beautiful covers for both of my books, but this one is something special. The genius artist is Mario Sánchez Nevado and his work is drop dead gorgeous! I went cruising around his site for ages simply reveling in all the surrealist beauty. Now I can't imagine a more perfect visual artist to capture the feeling of the Twixt. Thank you, Mario! Thank you, Harlequin Teen Dream Team!

Dawn Metcalf. Client (Author of "The Twixt" series).

The Cover Art dug me into the Music

A beautifully well-crafted artwork has always been the first thing to catch my attention, one that strengthens my curiosity to begin digging in treasured music that lies hidden beneath it. There is no exception to that rule with the prog metal act Ashent. The artwork created by Mario Nevado is a haunting and stunning piece of art, and so I began digging, and discovered a small polished prog pearl had revealed itself.

Tommy Skøtt. Columnist (The gates of Metal Magazine).

His Professionalism matches his Masterful Artistry

Mario Nevado’s art brings the lights up in the soul and illuminates the inner life that fixes the self to the world. His professionalism matches his masterful artistry, and my work experience with him enlivened me and my project. He created the title graphic for my fantasy novel The Shadow Eater in a timely way that gave my book a cover of timeless beauty.

A. A. Attanasio. Client (Author of "The Shadow Eater").

Mario’s work begs for deeper consideration of the world around us

Mario S. Nevado is a dynamic illustrator and Art Director based in Spain. With a solid style, his conceptual work creates an emotional impact on his viewer with pieces that are both personal and political. His striking collection is deeply woven with bold narratives that drive each image. Part magical storyteller and part sober messenger of society’s ills, Mario’s work begs deeper consideration of the world around us.

Shyree. Social Media Manager (DeviantArt).

His talent goes beyond Digital Art

For me, he's one of the best digital artists of the moment, although his talent goes beyond the merely digital as we will discover later. I could talk a lot about his opus and the several sensations it awakes, but I prefer for you to enjoy his work and to read his words, that will demonstrate us that, apart from being a great creative, he's an artist who has clear ideas and big reasonings.

Enkil Mauriz. Editor in Chief (Uno de los Nuestros).

He often knew better than ourselves what we actually wanted

We tried to extend this motive of duality to the artwork as well. However, we only insisted on the hourglass as a central element. The rest is the amazing work of the brilliant Mario Nevado, who often knew better than ourselves what we actually wanted. He had such a tremendous understanding for the whole concept and was a pleasure to work with.

Lukas Knoebl. Client (Songwriter and Producer of Illuminata).

His name means Professional Job

That Mario's art is magical and special is something unnecessary to mention. But there are things that cannot be appreciated without having been working with him. From my experience with Mario as Creative Director and Production Manager for many years, I can say that his name means success on the product. Always accompanied by a caudal of energy, he makes the experience of working with him something delightful.

Martín de Diego Sádaba. CEO (Hysterical Minds Collective).

Convinced? Let's work together!

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First Contact

Get in touch with me with the basics of the project you want to commission, preferably with budget and deadline. I'll get back to you with some questions to settle a rate and a date of delivery.

Contract & Deposit

We sign a Licensing Agreement with the terms of the license alongside the payment of the deposit, either via SEPA Bank Transfer or Paypal, after we have agreed on a project briefing and direction.

Art & Design

I create some mind-blowing artworks for your project and send them for preview when they are around 90% completion, so you can offer some reasonable feedback and corrections if they're needed.

Files & Payment

When the art is done, it's time to create a printing layout for them and render the high-resolution files. After payment is completed, everything is sent to you. Now is your time to show it to the world!

Get in Touch_

Let’s talk about your next album, publication or film. 

If you are looking to hire a freelance artist for your next project, don’t hesitate in reaching me for availability and quotes. My areas of expertise are cover artworks, editorial projects, music album packagings and film poster design – but not limited to them! Please, while requesting a quote for your project, be as specific as possible: number of elements, illustrations or pages, estimated print run, preferred date of delivery and if you’re on a budget, just let me know it and we will try to work something out, if possible.

Feel free to contact me if you would like me to perform in your next design festival, give a lecture or a workshop in your area, if you’re arranging a group or solo exhibition or if you want to invite me to your podcast or magazine for an interview.

Please, allow me 24 hours to reply to your message. Remember to contact me at least 2-3 months prior to your release date, as my schedule might be (and usually is) full.

Say hello at hey@marionevado.art