The Story
 

James Harden Illustrated is an ongoing personal illustration project by Filip Peraić, all about portraying James Harden over and over again. So far, the project includes more than thirty diverse portraits. So yeah, I take this fun idea very seriously — I am a professional creative. Since I'm spending hours creating personal work, why not do it systematically and organized? That was my mindset when I started this side project in 2013. I created the first James Harden portrait, just for fun. Then I decided to do another one, this time with a different approach, so I can compare two styles. This led to a third portrait, fourth portrait, which leads me to...

What is the point of this?
 

The point of this personal illustration project is to sharpen creativity using various mediums, techniques, and styles. My goal is to create as diverse as possible collection of portraits, which is an addicting and demanding challenge to a professional creative. This project pushes me out of my comfort zone, I want to portray James Harden in a way you, but neither did I expect. It's about avoiding the enslavement of expression to one style. Some results will be led by a more stylistic and aesthetic ideas, while others are more conceptual or metaphorical. I follow one rule when creating portraits: Create art within James Harden’s profile form on a white background.

Why James Harden?

James Harden is an NBA superstar, and I'm a basketball fan. It's important to choose a constraint, a strict rule because this produces more creative approaches and out-of-the-box solutions. James Harden is a frame through which I express myself. Almost icon like the bearded form of his profile is a food for a designer’s thought.

recognition

This passion project received a fair amount of attention, making appearances pretty much everywhere — from Colombian radios to French TV shows, but most notable features include full-page treatment in The New York Times, Forbes magazine, features on CNN, Fast Company, Yahoo, Yahoo again, USA Today, Vice, TNT,  Sports Illustrated, ESPN, Print magazine, and many more. Most recently, James Harden Illustrated was exhibited on Art Basel Miami 2019 in a first-ever exhibition by National Basketball Association.