SHOP - Figaro Owners Club

Figaro Store Artist biography

Andy Powell “Powelly”

Born in Sheffield on August 4th 1971, youngest of four kids, by the age of nine he knew what he wanted to be; and as astronaught became a long-shot he settled down into his passion for drawing, insisting to his parents that by the age of 30 he would have his own commercial studio.

Andy studied at The Chesterfield College of Art, after which he was offered both a BA Hons Degree course at Trent University and a job within a busy art studio at Henry Boot PLC. He chose the job believing that he would learn quicker and be paid for the pleasure. His mentor at Henry Boot PLC was a talented gentleman called Alan Coltart, famed for many designs and illustrations used on Fleet Street in the 1960’s.

It was Coltart that gave Powell his immense passion for pop-art and artists of the 60’s and 70’s.

After his time at Henry Boot’s, Powell took on a new challenge and moved into advertising sales temporarily. After some success in his new role he decided to make a career of it. Moving up and up through the ranks, Powell found himself winning Sheffield Newspapers’ Sales Person of The Year in 1998, totally unexpectedly.

In 1999 Powell took the leap into self-employment, again in the design and print industry, and later on combined his creative talents and advertising knowledge to set up Powell Outdoor Media, a company that provided mobile billboards and promo-vehicles to marketing companies and ad agencies. This introduced him to the Nissan Figaro.

Although Powell’s free-lance illustration and design work has seen him design work for Atomic Kitten, Corvette, Formula Vee & 750 motor club, Cleanfry, Popolo’s, JHR Developments, Learn Direct, The Scouts, Sheffield Children’s Helpline (The Link) and Arriva trains, his passion is still to create Pop-art illustration for his own satisfaction.

Andy's Web Site