- Source: Vector Meldrew
Vector Meldrew is a British artist and creative executive. He was a former lecturer at the Swedish design institute Hyper Island, and the creator of the grime website RWD Magazine, as well as the associated RWD forum. He is an established crypto artist and has auctioned his work at Bonhams.
Career
= UK Grime scene
=In 2001, Vector became a founding member of RWD Magazine created to push UK garage, grime and dubstep, and RWD became the first platform to champion grime music and feature UK artists Dizzee Rascal, Skepta and Tinchy Stryder.
During this period the website received London Business of the Year, UK Garage Awards : Best Website 2002 and Sidewinder Peoples Choice Awards : Best Magazine 2003 "Ernst & Young Future 100" Award in 2011.
Channel U commissioned Vector's first animation series working in collaboration with Matt Mason (writer) and Julian Johnson (Art). Taking hints from underground music culture and the intersection between UK Garage and Grime, the 3 episode web series was shortly co-signed by Missy Elliott after her PR team asked to feature the artist as part of the campaign for her hit single 'Work It'. The series then acquired a 6-episode deal on Channel U (now named Total Country) and recorded a music video with UK Garage producer 'Sticky' known for hits such as Ms Dynamite's track (also named) 'Boo'. Music publication Ransom Note cited the series as the first 'grime comedy' saying it was 'essentially a proto(type) version of People Just Do Nothing"
= James Bond - GoldenEye
=Vector worked as a motion graphics director with video game developer Eurocom, commissioned by Activision to work with the James Bond franchise to develop GoldenEye 007 and 007 Legends.
From 2009 to 2013 Vector worked as a freelance consultant providing strategy for various fashion brands creating campaigns such as the 'adidas About to Blow London Olympics 2012' campaign featuring Tinie Tempah and Mo Farah. He created a handful of films entitled 'Monotone' 'Monkey Business' and 'Do Not Feed The Horses'. Screenings include : AniFest, Resfest, British Film Council and Channel Frederator The business school Hyper Island recruited Vector between 2014 and 2017 to teach 'storytelling' to the motion creative course in Stockholm/Karlskrona.
= Dubstep / EDM
=Vector was responsible for design collaborations with dubstep / techno artists such as Appleblim, Headhunter, Pinch, Komonazmuk, Joker (Kapsize) and 2562. The most notable being an Audio Visual live show with Headhunter (Tempa) now called Addison Groove. He also directed music videos for Appleblim and Addison Groove. The most notable was 'Changa' which premiered on the Adult Swim YouTube Channel and gained official selection status and was nominated for awards at Aesthetica, London Short Film Festival, Berlin Music Video Awards, The Smalls, Stockholm Independent Film Festival. His work has been mentioned in books including: Dubstep Graphics and Contemporary Colour Theory. Artwork has been featured in Vice Adult Swim Tech Crunch and includes collaborations with musician Tinie Tempah.
= Digital art / Crypto Art
=In 2021 this led to an auction at Bonhams as part of a (now known to be fake) art residency created by some traditional art world grifters. He also launched a street art treasure hunt to for an art activity during the pandemic Art auctioneer Simon De Pury described the residency on a podcast with ArtNet. On April 5, 2022, Vector appeared on the popular talk show Waxing Lyrical, with fellow NFT artist Waxbones.
