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Alexis Marcou is a visual artist known for his commercial and self initiated work. He has done freelance work for clients such as Nike, Inc., Atomic Skis, Hewlett Packard, Cisco, Gatorade, Boehringer Ingelheim, BMW and Acco Brands.

Early life and education
Marcou was born in Greece and was raised in Larissa. He was educated at Plymouth College of Art in Britain, and was awarded a Bachelor of Arts in Photomedia and Design Communication in 2006. In 2007 he started doing freelance work and since has been steadily working as a commercial visual artist. After his studies in 2006 he began to merge his drawing with the use of digital software. A notable example of this style is the Panda series of images that he created in 2008 and which were sold as limited edition prints. In 2009 Marcou designed the album cover for the Mau band's album, backseat love songs.

2010-2013
In 2010 Nike, Inc approached Marcou to design an illustration of a skull, a recreation of the Just Do It slogan, and the Swoosh logo in his own signature style. Marcou has designed three illustrations for Dacs United, Designers Against Child Slavery, a nonprofit organization campaigning against the sexual exploitation and trafficking of children. Dacs United exhibitions were held in Columbia, South Carolina and New York. Marcou also did work in 2011 for Pencils of Promise, a nonprofit organization which builds schools.

In 2011 Hewlett Packard commissioned Marcou to design three illustrations that were used as desktop backgrounds for their 2012 laptops. That year he also designed the Nike Lion for the Galatasaray football club which was also part of the Nike Graphic Studio Show in 2013. Marcou also worked with Indian textile company Crusoe in producing designs for a new clothing campaign.

During 2011 Marcou worked on a self initiated piece called Noire which was included in the International Contemporary Masters Seven. "Noire is an illustration mainly created by hand. Photography was also used for its completion. Numerous photos of crystals were taken and then digitally composed onto the original piece to create the cold crystal mode".

In 2012 Marcou was commissioned by Slang Inc, a New York based design firm, to design the new Foot Locker House of Hoops wall graphics for Nike. Kevin Durant signed on one of Marcou's wall graphics to help launch the brand a new Nike shoe and to celebrate the fifth anniversary of the House of Hoops Foot Locker store at Harlem, NYC.

In June 2012, Marcou was commissioned to produce four portraits of members of the Animal Collective band and a portrait of Christian Louboutin for the Nylon Guys September issue. Later he designed a portrait of Philip Glass for the November issue of the same magazine.

Also during 2012 he was commissioned by Mutabor to design an illustration of a futuristic trade fair stand for BMW. In that year he also designed five snowboards for Endeavor Snowboards. The company also posted a video to the public where they mentioned Marcou and the fact that he was responsible for the design on the B.o.d series. The defender font which was featured in the magazine Complex was created for Nike, Inc. and was part of a project done for Major League Baseball. During 2013 Alexis designed artwork for the cover of the album The Wait by the band Phase. He also designed the artwork for the band's single, Point of You.

In 2013 Freefly Systems commissioned Marcou to design their trade show display for the NAB Show in Las Vegas. Later on that year he was approached by Mccann Erickson to design seven illustrations for Boehringer Ingelheim each of which depicted a different perspective of a great horned owl holding the Hepatitis-C virus in its talons. During the spring he worked with the Derwent Cumberland Pencil Company on various illustrations which were used on product packaging such as limited edition pencil cases.

In March, 2012 Atomic Skis commissioned Marcou to design their next Atomic Automatic which was produced later in 2013. The ski was also featured on the front cover of Powder Magazine in the September, 2013 issue. Throughout 2013-14 Marcou worked with Atomic in designing graphics for the Vantage series. Marcou's work was featured during the Adobe Max keynotes.

2014-present
Since 2011 Marcou worked on multiple projects for Nike including the Dominator project. Once again Marcou's work was featured in the Adobe Max 2014 keynote with the Union Jack he created for Derwent pencils. Early in 2015 one of Marcou's techniques was featured in issue 131 of the magazine Advanced Photoshop. In February 2015 Digital Abstracts announced that Marcou will be amongst 53 other artists participating in Playing Arts 2, a design project for a deck of playing cards. . In spring 2015 Jordan Brand released new clothing with Marcou's design on. The design has the letters 'Lucky No 7's' written on the clothing and the style was influenced by Tinker Hatfield tribal design of the original AJ VII Hare basketball shoe.

Style
Marcou’s illustration style is known for the use of intricate shading and geometric lines drawn using graphite. His techniques combine a mixture of traditional methods and digital art. Often considered an unusual style. He is also known for his improvisations by using original ways into solving problems in his designs. According to Computer Arts magazine "there's a visceral quality to Alexis Marcou's sketch-style illustration work that really speaks of his ability to capture a living moment with his pencil." Marcou says his style has "evolved gradually into a more cubic and expressive style.". Marcou is also known to use makeup brushes which he uses to blend graphite and charcoal.

Bibliography (selection)
• ''Rooms Magazine (2014) Issue 14 ‘The Color of Sound’, Published in London by Rau Studio London Handpicked, pg 104,

• ''Pork & Mead (Nov/Dec 2011) Issue 2, pg33

• ''Bangstyle Art Book (2012) ‘Bang style - Hair and Culture Art + Soul book’, pg 48

• ''Big Up Magazine Issue 12 ‘Black & White’, pg 14

• ''American Cinematographer (April 2013) Vol. 4 No. 94 ‘Oz the Great and Powerful’ Freefly Systems, pg 75

• ''American Cinematographer (June 2013) Vol. 6 No. 94 ‘Star Trek Into Darkness’. Freefly Systems pg 9

• ''Advanced Photoshop. Issue 101, ‘Trend Focus’ pg 78

• ''Advanced Photoshop. Issue 105, ‘Techniques’ pg 74

• ''Advanced Photoshop. Issue 131, ‘Techniques: Finishing with HDR Toning’, pg 29

• ''Get Inspired! Magazine #22 (2014) ‘112 pages of creative inspiration’, pgs 16-25

• ''Book Of Creation (August 2011) ‘1000 Creations’ pgs 8-9

• ''Avant Garde (June 2011) Issue 15, ‘Front cover’

• ''Scaraveo Culture Club (July - August 2011) Issue 11, ‘Front cover’

• ''Schwarz Auf Weiss (2011) Volume 2 ‘Style needs no color’ pgs 8-9, ISBN 978-3-937946-06-1

• ''Computer Arts (October 2010) Issue 180, pgs 14 - 15

• ''Nylon Guys (September 2012) Issue 127 ‘Animal Collective, Contributors, Christian Louboutin’ pgs 34,112,52

• ''Nylon Guys (November 2012) Issue 135, pg 136

• ''Nice Magazine Issue 12, ‘The Monochrome Issue’ pg 30

• ''Newwebpick ‘Design for Designers’ Issue 46, pgs 15 - 26

• ''InPrint Magazine Issue 3, pgs 4-13

• ''Default Magazine Issue 21, Front Cover and pgs 70-75

• ''1000 Portrait Illustrations (2012) Published by Rockport Publishers ‘Contemporary Illustration from Pencil to Digital’ pgs 50,51 ISBN 978-1-59253-809-6

• ''International Contemporary Masters Volume 7 (2013) Published by World Wide Art Books pg 263, ISBN 978-0-9802079-8-9