eBoy is a pixel art group founded in 1997 by Kai Vermehr, Steffen Sauerteig and Svend Smital.
Their complex illustrations have been made into posters, shirts, souvenirs, and displayed in gallery exhibitions.[1] They were founded on May 2, 1997. "We started working with pixels because we loved the idea of making pictures only for the screen. It’s the best way to get really sharp and clean looking results. Also, handling pixels is fun and you are forced to simplify and abstract things, which is a big advantage of this technique." eBoy is based in Berlin and Los Angeles.
Their influences come from: "Pop culture... shopping, supermarkets, TV, toy commercials, LEGO, computer games, the news, magazines..."[2] Kai grew up with Nintendo to inspire him, the rest of the eBoys lived in East Germany where video games did not exist.Their work makes intense use of popular culture and commercial icons, and their style is presented in three-dimensional isometric illustrations filled with robots, cars, guns and girls. Now, most of their designs are printed and not used solely for computer screens, allowing images to get more complex with details. "If we don't work on other projects at the same time it takes about six to eight weeks to finish a very detailed cityscape, three eBoy's working on it, nearly full time. But, if we have to do it in our spare time, which happens often, it could take years to finish a picture since we can't spend so much time on it." Their style has gained them a cult following among graphic designers worldwide, as well as a long list of commercial clients. Another one of their projects are plastic Peecol toys with Kidrobot, and a line of wooden toys are to be produced under their own label.
eBoy has completed "Pixoramas" on cities like Tokyo, Paris, Rio, Berlin and London and are currently funding their newest cityscape based on San Francisco via Kickstarter. They have also worked with brands such as Coca-Cola, MTV, VH1, Adidas, Gola and Honda. They worked on creating the album cover for Groove Armada's 2007 studio album Soundboy Rock, as well as the Wombats' 2022 album Fix Yourself, Not the World.[3]
Adidas, Adobe, Nike, Honda, Paul Smith, Louis Vuitton, DKNY, Kidrobot, The Wombats, Yuzu, Uniqlo, FontShop, Marriott, Net-A-Porter, bungalow records,[4] and many more.
The first solo UK exhibition of eBoy was at the Minuco underground gallery in Clerkenwell London, England.
The exhibition at Concrete Hermit in London, England, saw Los Angeles get the eBoy treatment. There was a chance to see the development of the Peecols – eBoy’s series of toys. There was the opportunity to see the Blockbob prototypes and limited editions of the figures.
| Year | Title | Venue | City | Country | |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| 1999 | Game Over | Museum of Design Zürich | Zürich | Switzerland | |
| 2000 | Expo 2000 | World's Fair | Hanover | Germany | |
| 2002 | postscript | Künstlerhaus | Vienna | Austria | |
| 2002 | the book and the exhibition | Magma Clerkenwell | London | UK | |
| 2002 | I love to meet you | new graphic design | Venice | Italy | |
| 2003 | Super, Welcome to Graphic Wonderland | Festival of Posters | Chaumont | France | |
| 2003 | GraficEurope | Pan-European Graphic Design Conference | Barcelona | Spain | |
| 2003 | 8th International Design Conference | Typo 2003 | Berlin | Germany | |
| 2004 | Paul Smith – eBoy | IDEE shop | Tokyo | Japan | |
| 2004 | Pixelesque | Maxalot | Barcelona | Spain | |
| 2004 | Superbroncobattle | Minuco Underground Gallery Clerkenwell | London | UK | |
| 2004 | Mural design to be built with LEGO bricks on student wall | MIT (Students) | Boston | USA | |
| 2004 | Tokyo Designers Block | Tokyo | Japan | ||
| 2005 | CR9 | Madrid | Spain | ||
| 2006 | BUILDING SPACE | CTM | Berlin | Germany | |
| 2006 | Todaysart Festival | Nederlands Muziek Instituut | The Hague | Netherlands | |
| 2006 | Play | Typo 2006 | Berlin | Germany | |
| 2007 | Hello Tokyo | artbits | Vienna | Austria | |
| 2007 | The Digital Aesthetic 2 | Digital Aesthetic 2 | Lancashire | UK | |
| 2007 | Happy Living (organized by Pao Paws) | Museum of tomorrow (MOT) | Taipei | Taiwan | |
| 2007 | Todaysart Festival | The Hague | Netherlands | ||
| 2008 | eBoy LA | Concrete Hermit Gallery | London | UK | |
| 2008 | Pluto Festival | Brussels | Belgium | ||
| 2008 | Vertrautes Terrain | ZKM | Karlsruhe | Germany | |
| 2009 | Pixorama | ROJO®artspace | Barcelona | Spain | |
| 2009 | Centre Design Marseille | Marseille | France | ||
| 2009 | Exhibition and workshop | Nave | Rio de Janeiro | Brasil | |
| 2009 | Since | Paris | France | ||
| 2009 | weloveasbaek | Copenhagen | Denmark | ||
| 2009 | What is Milk | Istanbul | Turkey | ||
| 2011 | DC Gallery | Seattle | USA | ||
| 2011 | madformacs | Barcelona | Spain | ||
| 2011 | Offf | Barcelona | Spain | ||
| 2012 | De Sein - German Graphic Design from Postwar to Present | BODW | Hong Kong | China | |
| 2012 | LA Game Space | Kickstarter | Los Angeles | USA | |
| 2013 | Pixel Art Show Portland | Floating World Comics | Portland | USA | |
| 2013 | Berlin Graphic Days | Kater Holzig | Berlin | Germany | |
| 2013 | Drones Of New York | Museum of the Moving Image | Astoria (NYC) | USA | |
| 2013 | Marseille Pixorama | Pavillon M | Marseille | France | |
| 2014 | Digital Revolution | Barbican Centre | London | UK | |
| 2017 | 64 Bits | Here East | London | UK | |
| 2017 | Upstream Music Fest | Pioneer Square | Seattle | USA |
