Welcome

Based in Shrewsbury, Mike is a printmaker, graphic designer and illustrator whose work bridges nature, community and imagination. With a background in wildlife and architectural illustration, his current passion lies in printing, particularly linocuts and etching, always exploring fresh ways to blend bold shapes, colour and narrative.

Special Feature

Go to SYT website

A Long history

I have had the pleasure of working with Shropshire Youth Theatre for many years and am amazed at the professionalism, talent and quality of these young people.

MA Creative has supplied SYT with their posters, programmes, display material and web graphics as well as photography of their dress rehersals. For the last few years, the members of SYT have provided the illustrations and inspiration and theme for the play.

SYT is run by Lisa who kindly sent the following message:

Mike Ashton of @ma_creative_art has been supporting our work for many years. He has been responsible for generating our beautiful show flyers and publicity, often from artwork created by our senior members. Mike takes the spirit and energy of these original designs, and transforms them into digital and print publicity for our performances and events, showcasing the talent of our membership and engaging with our young artists to work collaboratively towards publicity material.

Mike also takes the incredible photographs of our productions, showcasing our cast and creating a lasting document of the work that we do.

Thier latest production will be Shakespeare's As You Like It, set in a 90s rave! Tickets available from Theatre Severn

About MA Creative

Mike is a graphic designer and illustrator based in Shrewsbury since 1993. Creative from a very early age, he studied illustration at Portsmouth College of Art & Design. Mike turned his attention to linocut printing a few years ago and has since tried a wider range of printmaking techniques.

Linocut printing lends itself very comfortably with Mike’s approach to imagery. He uses strong colour and shape to create his quirky, individual style. A strong compositional awareness creates a journey through the picture, inspired by, rather than depicting a specific scene. Much of his imagery is based on nature and landscape, developed from a long interest in the natural environment. He regularly adds a human element to the picture, enabling engagement with the viewer and contrasting with the countryside scenes.

When Mike is not printing he runs a successful graphic design business – MA Creative. He specialises in projects for environmental organisations, arts projects and community groups.

Find out more