Cut, Build, Repeat

Cut, Build, Repeat is a digital collage series exploring how quickly ideas, moods, and visual narratives can be constructed through image-making. Using a combination of Shuffles and Photoshop, I created a collection of posters and scenes that experiment with composition, cultural references, colour, texture, and atmosphere.

The project began as a challenge to produce ideas quickly and consistently, using collage as a way to build visual worlds from found imagery, personal references, and graphic elements. Each piece became an opportunity to test a different aesthetic, from vintage street scenes and cyberpunk interfaces to political unrest, primate-inspired posters, medieval fantasy, and surreal landscapes.

Rather than focusing on one fixed theme, the series is built around experimentation. Some pieces are purely aesthetic, while others act as visual mood boards for future projects, including my developing 3D world-building project Golden Tapestries. Across the collection, I focused on creating strong focal points, layered compositions, and a sense of story within each image, even when the narrative is left open to interpretation.

1. Vintage Indian Street

This piece was created from a mainly aesthetic starting point, focusing on the warmth and atmosphere of a vintage Indian street scene. Yellow became the central colour of the composition, guiding the mood and helping connect the architecture, textures, and collage elements into one visual direction. The aim was to create something that felt nostalgic, decorative, and visually rich.

2. The Presence of Buddha

This piece explores the symbolism of monks and Buddhism through a collage-based visual style. The idea came from looking through online inspiration and noticing how Buddhist imagery, monks, and spiritual symbols are often repeated through stereotypes, trends, and aesthetic references.

Rather than making a direct religious piece, I wanted to capture the visual presence and symbolism surrounding these images. The central figure, warm tones, floral marks, and layered textures create a calm but stylised atmosphere. This piece allowed me to think about how spiritual imagery can be used, interpreted, and sometimes simplified within online visual culture.

3. Untitled

4. Paradise

This piece explores a calmer and more atmospheric side of the series. The blue colour palette, layered text, and central figure create a quiet, almost dreamlike feeling. I wanted the piece to feel like a memory or imagined place, using collage to suggest a sense of distance, stillness, and escape without making the narrative too direct.

5. Supermarket

6. 2K Punk Inventory

7. Cyber Matrix

This collage combines ideas from cyberpunk UI design with visual inspiration from The Matrix. I wanted the piece to feel digital, coded, and slightly dystopian, using green tones, interface-like details, and layered imagery to create the feeling of a system or virtual environment. The final outcome became an experiment in building atmosphere through technology-inspired graphics.

8. Black & White Signal

This poster was created as a black-and-white collage experiment, focusing on contrast, texture, and symbolic imagery. The composition brings together hands, an eye, wings, and layered graphic marks to create a sense of tension and movement. Rather than following a clear narrative, the piece works more like a visual signal - fragmented, expressive, and open to interpretation.

I used this poster to explore how much atmosphere could be created without relying on strong colour. By working mainly with monochrome tones, the focus shifted towards shape, layering, rough textures, and visual rhythm. The result feels gritty and slightly chaotic, fitting into the wider Cut, Build, Repeat series as a fast-built experiment in mood, symbolism, and composition.

9. Riot Language

This piece was inspired by the 2012 riots and the visual language that often appears during moments of conflict. I wanted to recreate a gritty, harsh aesthetic that reflected social tension, frustration, and public unrest. Through rough textures, black-and-white contrast, layered symbols, and chaotic composition, the poster acts as a visual record of people voicing displeasure.

10. Primate Poster I

This poster was created from a more playful and aesthetic direction, connected to my ongoing fascination with primates. The composition uses bold layering, graphic marks, and a chaotic poster style to give the subject a strong personality. It was less about a fixed message and more about building a striking image with attitude and energy.

11. Experimental Poster

This piece is a purely aesthetic poster experiment focused on texture, contrast, and visual layering. I used collage as a way to test how different images, marks, and graphic elements could sit together within one composition. The result is more open-ended, allowing the viewer to create their own reading of the image.

12. Exhibition Poster

This poster was created after visiting an exhibition, with the central focus placed on artist Sarita Acosta Vargas. The piece became an opportunity to explore how exhibition imagery could be presented with more creative flair, turning documentation into something more designed and expressive. I wanted the poster to feel like a personal response to the work rather than a simple record of the visit.

13. Visual Experiment

This collage was created as an aesthetic poster study, focusing on composition, contrast, and atmosphere. I used the piece to experiment with how unrelated images and graphic elements could be combined into something visually cohesive. It reflects the wider aim of the series: creating quickly, testing ideas, and finding strong visual outcomes through instinct.

14. Banana Business

This piece continues my playful interest in primates, this time inspired by the stylish energy of spy films and classic animated crime-comedy visuals. I wanted to create a poster that felt dramatic, humorous, and cinematic, giving the primate subject a sense of character and narrative. The result is a light-hearted collage that mixes luxury, mystery, and absurdity.

15. Monkey Monney

This poster is another primate-focused collage, built around humour, character, and graphic energy. The piece plays with the idea of giving the subject a larger-than-life identity, using bold composition and layered textures to make it feel like a fictional poster or campaign. It sits between comedy, style, and visual experimentation.

16. Unititled

17. Yakuza Reference I

This poster was inspired by pop-cultural references to the Yakuza, focusing on mood, symbolism, and dramatic visual presence. I used darker tones, layered textures, and graphic marks to create a sense of tension and mystery. The piece is more aesthetic than narrative-driven, but it still suggests a character or world behind the image.

18. Cut, Build, Repeat - Yakuza Reference II

This second Yakuza-inspired poster continues the same visual direction, focusing on identity, status, and cinematic atmosphere. The composition uses collage, portraiture, and rough graphic detailing to create a bold character-focused design. It allowed me to explore how cultural references can be stylised into a poster format without needing a full written narrative.

19. Muay Thai Poster

This poster is inspired by Muay Thai and combat sports visuals. I wanted the piece to feel intense, physical, and competitive, using strong reds, bold imagery, and aggressive layering to match the energy of fighting culture. The design works as both an aesthetic poster and a study in how sport can be translated into graphic form.

20. Golden Tapestries: Medieval Study

This scene was created as inspiration for Golden Tapestries, a project where I am exploring possible aesthetics for future 3D work. This piece focuses on a medieval visual direction, using architecture, fantasy imagery, and dramatic composition to test how that world could feel. It acts as a mood board and concept reference for developing atmosphere, setting, and visual tone.

21. Golden Tapestries: Middle Eastern Study I

This collage continues the development of Golden Tapestries, exploring a more Middle Eastern-inspired direction. I used warm colours, desert-like environments, architectural references, and symbolic imagery to test a different cultural and historical atmosphere. The piece helped me think about how future 3D scenes could combine fantasy, history, and stylised world-building.

22. Golden Tapestries: Sultan Study

This scene builds further on the Middle Eastern and medieval direction for Golden Tapestries, leaning into themes connected to the Crusades, figureheads, and sultans of that period. The composition experiments with scale, power, and historical atmosphere, using collage as a fast way to visualise possible ideas before developing them in 3D. It acts as both a poster and a concept-development piece.

23. Surreal Street Mash-Up

This piece was created from a mix of my own photographs and online assets, with the aim of adding a subtle surrealist feel to everyday imagery. I wanted to see how personal photography could be pushed further through collage, creating a scene that feels familiar but slightly unreal. The piece became an experiment in blending real spaces with imagined visual elements.

24. Mars Exploration

This poster is inspired by space exploration and Mars-like environments. I focused on building a sense of distance, discovery, and strange landscape through warm colours, surreal forms, and layered collage. The final image feels like a visual mood board for an imagined expedition, combining science-fiction atmosphere with poster-based design.

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