 Non-Editorial Play
posted: September 1, 2010
Here are three recent projects for various advertising clients. Every year, I get a few more advertising jobs than the previous year. I hope that trend continues. So far, 2010 has been about a 70% editorial, 30% advertising year. I have had a few nice offers for book work, but none of them stuck. I'm patient, though - I really like book work and hope to do more of it when the right opportunities come up.
The first job was a character design project. I enjoy character design a lot - inventing people that 'feel' right for a brand is tricky business, but I find the process to be pretty enjoyable. This character, Sophie, was originally created a few years ago to serve as the interactive host of the Simplifi website. A few months ago, the company decided that she needed to be redesigned. I met with the president of the company and their agency of record and the new Sophie was born. I'm sharing a few of the process drawings. 
For this illustration, I decided to step outside my comfort zone and try something different. The agency asked for a simple illustration of a glass of iced tea. It had to look 'interesting and pretty.' Type was going to be laid over most of the center of the image, so it couldn't be too busy, either. I wanted to do something really graphic with a lot of grainy gradients, like old advertising posters. I did 100% of the art in Photoshop and tried some new things. I learned a lot and it was fun, but it's not something I want to do again soon - it takes a really, really long time to work this way! Drawing paths, yada yada... 
Third is a series of icons for the Center for Design Innovation and the upcoming Design, Art, and Technology Symposium. The theme this year is 'Food for Thought' and the icons will represent different areas of focus on a scale from personal to global. It has been a while since I did icon work, so this was a fun challenge. These will be used individually as keys for different presentations and events and they will also be used together in different compositions to advertise the symposium. 3 comments |
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Phoenix New Times Cover
posted: August 26, 2010
So, I wanted to follow up Brian's post with my own recent collaboration with Peter Storch, A.D. at the Phoenix New Times. The story was a tricky one (this seems to frequently be the case): a daycare operator charged with the murder of a baby boy was found innocent after a difficult and painful trial. You can read the story here. Anyway, the cover art could not be misinterpreted as a judgement for or against the verdict. Peter had the smart idea of illustrating a mobile or some other baby-related objects and somehow suggesting the shape of a baby in the art. After a few false starts, the shapes worked themselves out and this was the final result. 
Recent NY Times Drawings
posted: August 19, 2010
The first was a Metro section cover and an entertaining story by Frank Bruni about his frightful adventures in getting his license renewed after letting it lapse. Richard Weigand provided excellent art direction. The second, assigned by the charming Kimberly Moy, was for a funny collection of reader comments in response to a story about the importance of making one's home accessible to potential buyers when it's time to sell. For instance, one should not leave adult magazines lying out and about in the living room (true story from the comments). I chose to illustrate a comment about a couple who entered a home that was filled with stuffed, dead animals of all sizes. My other sketches are included (a dead gerbil in the middle of the kitchen floor of one apartment, and a suit of armor that smelled of cat urine). Both of these were very fun stories to illustrate. Thank you, NY Times! And, I have to give a special thank you to Christoph Hitz and Victor Juhasz for mailing me copies of the Metro section. I was so thrilled to see how big the illustration printed - nearly half of the front page of the section! That's a first for me. 
First sketch - Richard wisely advised me to cut in a lot closer for more of a panicky feel. 
Approved sketch (it was also requested that the man look less like Bruni, himself). 
For the second page of the story - these illustrations refer to sections of the story where he describes waiting at the DMV and turning onto an empty street but being chastised by the instructor for not paying attention to the people crossing... who were not even on his side of the median! 
A little spot to round things out. 
The final art for the real estate story. The couple in the illustration are friends of mine (she is a realtor). I was happy to get a chance to sneak some friends into a piece of art for the Times. I do this for other assignments sometimes, as well. It's really fun. 
Drawing an iPhone Game
posted: August 16, 2010
My second iPhone game, 'Plates!' is live in the app store today, August 16th. This game required a lot of drawing and design. I also had to do a fair bit of frame by frame animation. It all started with a little scribble one morning. I don't know about the rest of you, but I sometimes wake up with ideas and if I don't jot them down right away, I forget them. I'm really glad I wrote down my idea for Plates! - I only wish I knew why on earth I woke up thinking about exploding plates of food on conveyor belts. Anyway, from the first scribble to the final layout for the game play, I learned a lot while drawing the graphics for this game: 1) Food is not easy to draw, especially on a tiny scale. 2) Anything I think I can draw or design, when it comes to iPhone games, will probably take three times longer than I plan for it to take... and I will redraw it a few times, as well (in this case, blueberry pancakes) and 3) Building over 30 beta versions of a game before the official launch is perfectly normal! So, here are some graphics from the game, along with some videos. What you see below may not look like it would take very long to produce, but Plates! was a five month project. Besides the game graphics, the constant redesigns, the music and sound design, and the play-testing, I made a website, press packet, Twitter page and banner ads... So, please wish me luck with game sales - I would like to buy a villa in Tuscany some day. Here is the official website for the game. If you want to buy the game (99 cents), you can do so here. 
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