Eric Elms
Photo: SamAlive
Eric Elms, founder of the creative studio Partners & Others, and the imprint AndPress, is a New-York-Based, mixed-medium creative force. One part graphic designer, one part painter, one part sculptor, Eric's artistic expressions have been commissioned extensively within the pillars of art direction, creative direction, and illustration. Born and raised in San Diego, Eric found his first mentor in Shepard Fairey while just a teenager. After moving to New York from San Diego to attend the Pratt Institute, he earned notable roles as a graphic designer for Supreme, and as a studio assistant for KAWS.
In the mid 2000s, after gaining a tremendous amount of notoriety as a graphic designer and creator of beautiful, language-based sculptures, Eric branched out on his own to launch his own design studio and publishing imprint; his clients ranged from Nike, to Huge Magazine, to Colette. Most recently, Eric has sparked a powerful resurgence and focus on his fine art practice, creating paintings that almost resemble large-scale Xeroxes; his new, inventive technique has allowed him to create images and shapes from the manual half-melting and manipulation of canvases adorned with rows of rubberized dots.
Concurrent with this fine art push has been Eric's evolved stance and focus on his Kilroy character, a fun and playful recontextualization of a WWII-era, pop-culture design. Collaborating with the likes of Stussy, KAWS, and Brain Dead--to name a small handful--Kilroy will continue to be a tangential design moniker of Eric's larger multi-tiered studio practice and fine art offerings.
