 eeksi
- EDWARD EKSI
EDWARD EKSI
 eddie@edwardeksi.com
ST. JAMES NEW YORK
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BIOGRAPHY:
Edward Eksi is a professional illustrator, graphic designer and artist. He was born and grew up in Istanbul, Turkey, and graduated with a BA in Graphic Design from Marmara University in Istanbul in
1978. His early career included jobs with Turkish advertising
agencies and art studios. He later became art director for the
Istanbul newspaper "Gunaydin."
In Europe, he won a number of awards for art and design, car rally posters, packaging and illustrations. He became one of the top designers in Turkey.
He emigrated to the United States in 1981 and became a U. S. citizen
in 1985. Although speaking little English at first, Eddie immediately
obtained jobs in New York design and advertising firms, becoming
Owner-Vice President of Russnell Communications, Inc., a commercial advertising and design company. Hertz was a major client of the firm and he created a number of car illustrations for them. As a freelancer, he has had many clients in numerous fields, including ocean transport, publishing, manufacturing and printing. Originally a talented airbrush artist, he quickly adapted to the Macintosh computer, becoming highly skilled in both Adobe Photoshop and Illustrator. Although his art looks as if it was created in a paint program, his car drawings are painstakingly done in Illustrator, allowing them to be printed at any size without loss of fine detail.
His interest in classic and race cars goes back many years. While
still in Turkey he won an award for his 1980 International Turkish
Rally poster. In the U. S. his interest turned to owning a classic
car. He currently drives a 1981 Mercedes-240D and a 1988 Corvette.
Combining his love of Corvettes with his abilities as an artist he
has become a leading illustrator of Corvettes and other classic cars,
as well as designing logos for a number of car clubs and races.
A little known aspect of his early life in Turkey was his success as
a body builder. He was five time Turkish National Team champion and named Mr. Turkey. As a regular competitor in Mr. Universe, he trained and traveled with Arnold Schwarzenegger, Frank Zane, Franco Columbo, Lou Ferrigno, Dave Draper, Serge Nubret, Ahmet Enunlu Albert Beckles, Robby Robinson, Danny Padilla and other famed champions for several years, his first International Competition was historical 1975 Mr. Universe / Mr. Olympia in Pretoria-South Africa, where Arnold filmed his first movie “Pumping Iron”. He also appeared in Pumping Iron. He traveled and competed in many competition placing eighth on 1978 and 1979 Mr. Universe Championship. He retired from competition when he left Turkey.
Eddie and his wife Susie have two boys and one girl. They presently
reside in Smithtown on Long Island, New York, and his Design Studio is in St. James, New York. In addition to his job
as an illustrator and designer he is active in Corvette club
activities throughout the eastern United States. His Corvette artworks highly collected by Corvette owners in USA and overseas, he also sells his items at Corvette shows in Long Island and Northeast.
Rusty Nelson
Writer/Designer
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