Personally speaking, this may one of the toughest categories for me to judge. My personal interests and biases kept me away from properly appreciating the difficulties and talents of these artists for far too long. As my involvement in the Chip community grew so did my respect and admiration for these visual artists, so with great honor I present the 2008 nominees for TCTD Best Visual Artist.

minusbaby – The multimedia power house behind the visual style of the 8bitpeoples netlabel and the cohesive yet visually stimulating Blip Festival 2008 media onslaught could rest easily on his sheer consistency of voice and vision, but he also brings his unique world view to the retro pixel style, and has a playful yet serious visual style.

Kef and Niina – This Turku power house duo also maintains a deep level of knowledge in the style and techniques of pixel art, but maintains their own unique vision. The video for ‘Got Brains’ was one of the more delightful and engaging videos of the year, chip or otherwise, and led to TCTD commissioning them to design the awards for this years crop of winners.

UI– The South American madman has toiled ceaselessly with tons of art and graphics for the criminally under looked BOTB collective. At times both deep and crass, his unique designs and characters suit well the anarchic anything goes style of the BOTB compos, yet always look like his own arresting visual style.

Steig– A pixel artist that is an artist first, Steig seems equally appropriate choice when doing fliers, the Blip Festival Teaser, or his own artwork. Rising above typical pixel pushers, his works contain a strong personal voice and stimulating visual appeal.

Sander a long time demo scene insider, Sander has all the traits of strong voice, style and execution, along with the ability to speak about his genre and have a strong curational approach to speaking on behalf of his peers.