30 Day Challenge Research Summary

For the 30 days project I wanted to focus on my drawing skills, therefore it was important to get inspiration and ideas to form my drawings.

I started by looking at illustrators/designers that inspire me.

For instance, I love the work of Sanna Annukka (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/inspiration-sanna-annukka/) who uses block colour vectors to produce her work. It is bold and colourful and often she applies a colour scheme to her work, limiting the design to three or four colours. Another artist I admire is Michael Craig Martin, who works more in the fine art spectrum but I like his style of drawing – realistic outline drawings of everyday objects. (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/inspiration-michael-craig-martin/) He also uses block colour in interesting ways, helping his drawings to be bold and eye-catching.

Caitlin Schneider (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/caitlin-schneider/) and Malika Favre, whose work is beautiful (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/bold-vectors-by-malika-favre/) also inspires me with the use of bold, block colour vector graphics. I work in this way, and tend to just create drawings/illustrations that are one colour etc.
I felt it useful to explore other vector illustrations for ideas and approaches (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/vector-illustrations/) I can across the work of Samual Sinaga, who works in the same way I do “I always start with an imaginary sketch, inside my head, then digitally sketch it in Illustrator. This cycle will go on and on until I’m satisfied with the raw sketches that I’ve done. Stock photography comes in handy sometimes, mostly for reference or if I need to trace them. There’s a set of tools that I always use when I’m working inIllustrator: the Pen tool, the Shape tools, the Pathfinder panel, the Blend tool, Brushes, and Symbols. I also use other tools, but usually I work well only using the tools I just mentioned.” His work is very simple, yet colour and interesting.
I also looked at existing responses to the challenge and different prompts for challenges. One particular, and very effective, example was created by ‘Golpeavisa’ (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/el-moreno-30-days/ – link to video) who create an animation using the drawings created in response to the project. It took the drawings to a different medium and the animation was appropriate because it was able to be put across the idea of time, being presented as a timeline, the camera moved along. The images also interacted with eachother – i.e day one the artist cuddles the dog drawing for day two. This was a really nice touch and showed the concept had been considered carefully.

I wanted to vector illustrate all my responses and add a colour scheme to make the images relate and work together as a set. However, I did look at other imagery relating to the content or ideas behind certain drawings. For instance, day one was inspired by a punk song, so I looked at the work of Jamie Reid (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/day-one-inspiration/), day ten was attempting to recreate a art nouveau style through the vectors and colour scheme, so I looked at the work of Alfons Mucha (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/day-ten-inspiration/)
I also looked at imagery for designs such as day six and thrity, which were science related, to help me understand how to get across the intended content/outcome result etc (https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/day-six-inspiration/, https://finalyearresearch.wordpress.com/2012/05/16/day-thirty-inspiration/)

Day Thirty Inspiration

Day Ten Inspiration

Alfons Mucha

Day Six Inspiration

Day One Inspiration

Cecy Meade’s 30 days…

Day 19 Something new : My swing shoes

Bold Vectors by Malika Favre

Malika Favre is a London-based, French-born illustrator/graphic designer. Her bold vector illustrations are stunning.

Malika Favre’s Portfolio

Duende

Example of work from duende

I designed and illustrated a Save the Date for friends, Erin and Chris. It’s based off their concept that they’ve lived and traveled all over the country together. They also wanted a play off the phrase “Meet Me in St. Louis”. With their colors of gray and light yellow and a list of some icons they wanted for each city, we were off!

I hadn’t done a lot of icon or illustration before this project. Creating icons is no easy feat. I began by rendering detailed illustrations of building and statues from different cities, but quickly realized that I needed simple, bold shapes shapes and strokes that could render in the small .25″ space they’d be printed in.

Pictured below is the comparison between the icon I used (left) and my original vector illustration (right)

As you can see through the actual printing size and placement below, the window details are muddled and you lose the visual separation. I went back to each icon to distill it down to more simple shapes and spaces.

Now that I’ve experienced the issue of scale in icon design, I really want to go back and refine them even more!

belldandies

following the work of Belldandies for quite some time in DeviantArt. His unique style is very graphic and stern but still manages to look lively thanks to genius use of textures.

Belldandies Gallery at DeviantArt

Craig and Karl

via Here

Craig Redman and Karl Maier live on opposite sides of the world but collaborate daily to create bold work that is filled with simple messages executed in a thoughtful and often humorous way.

They specialize in illustration, installation, typography, as well as character, editorial and pattern design. Craig & Karl have exhibited across the world, most notably at the Musee de la Publicite, Louvre. They have worked on projects for clients like LVMH, Nike, Apple, Vogue, Microsoft, Converse, MTV and The New York Times.

Portraits by Craig & Karl for an exhibition last month of 150 individuals celebrating 15 years of fashion, art, design, music and film at Colette Gallery.

Official Site of: Craig and Karl