Justin Van Genderen

I came across some cool posters recently, not realising they were by Justin Van Genderen whom I've posted about before (he created some excellent minimalist star wars posters). I found an image he did of Superman's Fortress of Solitude inspired by the film Superman II, and taking another look at his website I found even more great work. I particularly liked his vintage car ads which include cars from various films. I've posted both the Superman images and the car images below for you to take a look at. I absolutely love them.

Like the Star Wars posters I mentioned before, his Superman images (a set of three) are again confidently minimalist, created in just black and white. For the fortress one, the use of cross-hatched straight lines in varying shades of white and grey really capture the reflective nature of the ice fortress, and the use of just a small superman logo at the bottom of each image, resembling a seal or branding, completes the images and confirms that they are from Superman.
As for the car ads, I again love their simplicity, the use of texture, the colours chosen, and the nice typography and use of quotes added in at the bottom. Check 'em out below.

Connected

Whilst doing a bit of research and looking around for ideas for my personal project, I came across this really cool poster for a short film called 'Connected', made by Anders Baden Nielsen and Joaquim Marquès Nielsen from Barq studio in Denmark. I really love the old 60's/70's sci-fi poster feel of it; the strong illustration and use of limited colours, and the really nice use of customised type. Making the image of the people in just one colour (with various bits of shading) is something I don't think I would have thought of doing, but it works really well, especially as it helps emphasise the bright white tubes connecting the two figures. I really love these types of posters, and Joaquim Marquès Nielsen has posted a really excellent explanation of their working process from start to finish, over on his blog here. Definitely worth a read. I've posted said image below for you guys to get your peepers on, enjoy.

><><><><><><><><><><><><

Christian Montenegro

I recently stumbled upon the website of illustrator Christian Montenegro and instantly loved his work. He is an Argentinian illustrator who's work spans many different outlets including books, editorial and advertising. Most of his work is created digitally, but the look of his work does vary as some includes a lot of pattern and textures, and other work is a lot more colourful with clean lines and no texture. His textured work has a look of traditional paintings and murals, even slightly religious perhaps, as if they are inspired by the type of old paintings found in churches. Other pieces of his work have a decidedly more digital look about them, with some pieces referencing old pixel based digital graphics. I really love all of his work, and like that he is able to work in different ways without losing the sense of identity he has built up. I've posted some examples of his work below for you to get your peepers on, and remember to check out his website here for more. Enjoy...

 

 

 

 

><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><

Stockport College Illustration Newsletter

So the Illustration department newsletters came through from the printer's recently with my image printed on one side. It's really cool to see the image in print, and I've posted a few snaps of it below. The newsletter has been printed up really nicely, and works as an A2 sheet folded up into an A4. When folded out, one side becomes an A2 poster, and the other side has all the illustration information and news from the spring and summer. I took a few photos of the inside too, and particularly the type at the top which I think looks great, so all credit to whoever put it together. Thanks!

OWT Issue #6

So I submitted a little illustration to OWT a while back for their 'Differences' issue, and they were kind enough to include it in the issue that's on sale at the moment! I blogged about my image I while back so I won't go into details, but I just used it as a chance to have a go at something a bit different (no pun intended) and mix together some of my ideas and influences from other people. Anyway, I've posted the image below along with photos courtesy of OWT of the actual zine in print. The zines are on sale on their website here, in Magma and I believe also the Cornerhouse in Manchester. Cheers guys!

><><><><><><><><><><

3D Book Covers

I just found a link to cool article on Digital Arts online, about some 3D book covers that have been made by Vintage Books, for some classic horror and science-fiction novels such as 'Planet of the Apes', 'Journey to the Centre of the Earth, and 'The Lost World'. They work by the viewer wearing some of the classic red/blue 3D glasses, and the covers then jump out at the viewer, adding a more interactive experience to buying or reading a book. It's interesting to see how 3D, an effect obviously popular in films, has been translated over to still imagery to try and draw in a wider audience in the midst of the 3D revolution. I think this is a really good idea, especially for children, and as it says in the article, the illustrations work well even without 3D glasses. It would be cool to try and do a project using this method in the future. Anyway, I've posted some of the books covers below along with their illustrators...if you've got some 3D glasses maybe try 'em out..do't know if it would work though......enjoy!

Mick Brownfield

 

Jim Tierney

Vladimir Zimakov

Sara Ogilvie

Jim Tierney

Illustration Newsletter

Earlier this year I submitted a load of rough ideas for the college illustration newsletter, based around the theme of 'Transformation'. The image had to be in one colour, so most of my ideas were bold central images, some with typography. I think I emailed in about 13 different ideas to do with transformation, from butterflies, origami, evolution, and superheroes to scientific changes, werewolves and Dr Jekyll/Mr Hyde. Jo liked the idea of using origami to represent transformation, and it became a bit of a collaboration between me and Jo as she helped me develop it from the initial rough through to the final image. 
The image went through a lot of changes, and went from a more simple image of some origami, through to a more conceptual image that involved showing all the stages of the folds of an origami crane. I also originally had some typography at the bottom, and it also went through a colour change from a dark blue, referencing blue print type drawings, to a leaf green colour to represent changes in nature, as blue had been used before. 
I've posted some images below showing the changes it went through from rough to final. The newsletter has been sent off to print so it'll be interesting to see this printed up to size!

 

 

><><><><><><><><><

'Music' Project Part 2

Below I have posted our proposal sheet for our 'Music' window design, based on the song 'Harder, Better, Faster, Stronger' by Daft Punk. We will be taking this proposal to the next stage before it finally gets sent off, so the sheet will probably change a bit from this one. In the next couple of week we are going to be doing some scale tests on a piece of glass/perspex using cut vinyl to see if it's feasible. So we will have to look at finding specific sizes for the triangles of vinyl used to create the pattern, check out what colours are available, decide on numbers, look at trying to get some uniformity between the images and also creating more examples of the images we will use. So still a bit of hard work to come!
Check it out below, along with a couple of my image ideas and the original window sketch,  and I'll post again when we have developed it a bit further....

><><><><><><><><><><><

Bugs Project

So on Tuesday we had a quick one day project set by some of the HND graphics students. We had to create an image for a poster advertising a bug/germ spray cleaner that was meant to be safe to use around children and made of natural ingredients. The tag line on the poster was '...send them packing!' so we had to take that into account also.

In all we had about 4-5 hours from first seeing the brief until the deadline, needless to say my image wasn't great. Because of the tag line I started thinking of different types of transport that I could have the germs leaving in, and I also was trying to think of a way of showing that the natural ingredients were forcing them to leave. I had to make a decision pretty quickly, so I ended up with the idea of showing the germs in a rocket, surrounded by lots of harsh weather; wind, rain and lightening, to represent the forces of nature and the natural ingredients, and to have the lightening sparking the fuse to the rocket.

I think that the idea was ok, but because of time restraints, the execution of the image just wasn't good. The overall quality of the image, composition and readablility definitely suffered. When I see the word advert I think I sometimes get a bit confused by what I should be doing because adverts are often funny or clever, or have great metaphors, or some just include the product in some form, so I'm not even sure if I was going down the right road with my idea.

The only bit I actually quite like is the rope/wick with the sparks on the end; I think that turned out ok. I like the idea of using a rocket for something so I might have another go at it in some other form in the future.

Anyway, I've posted the image below, don't judge it too harshly!

><><><><><><><><><><><

The Chase

A while back we had a visit from The Chase, a graphic design and branding consultancy based in Manchester, but with offices in London and Preston also. They came in and spoke to us about how they commission and work with different illustrators, what they and illustration agencies are looking for in an illustrator, and gave us lots of tips on how to get meetings with art directors, and how to present our work. They had compiled lots of good quotes from illustrators and agencies, which was very helpful.

Now that I'm trying to put together a portfolio, it was helpful to look back at the extensive tips they gave us on the best way to go about it. I've posted below some of what they said about portfolios (and I am paraphrasing!) :

1.  Start and finish with your strongest work

2.  Don't leave in pieces of work you don't like

3.  Include a good mix of work (mix of colour and black and white, different sizes)

4.  Spend time working on the layout so that it flows well

5.  Try and include original work or good quality scans

6.  Don't put foam board in your folder!

7.  Practice talking about your work, and find out how much time you have in a meeting so you can go through it all

8.  Keep your folder spotless!

9.  Don''t take all advice to heart!

They also gave us some good tips for when trying to set up portfolio meetings with agencies and art directors :

1.  Find the correct names and spellings (phone up to find out if need be)

2.  Include a PDF portfolio of around 10 images, or an easy link to a website.

3.  Follow up your emails and mail to see if it's been seen

4.  Be nice to receptionists!

5.  Know something about the company or people you're meeting with

6.  Don't be nervous! Enjoy talking about your work

7.  If there are no jobs going, ask about a brief you could have a go at

All the things they spoke about and told us were really helpful, and I think we all appreciated the time they dedicated to giving and putting together the presentation. Check out their website here to find out more about them.

Thanks!

><><><><><><><><><><><