Andrew Rae

Andrew Rae is illustrator, his style I feel falls into the cartoonist category. I really like the complexity of these illustrations, yet they appear to be produced in an effortless manor. They have a nice contemporary feel. Andrew has also done some work for mtv, which can be seen on his website http://www.andrewrae.org.uk/. You can clearly see why his style suits this type of brand/genre.

Its nice to see illustration being produced on the larger scale, e.g in shop interior etc. I think further ideas could be developed within this area.

Adrian Johnson

I noticed some illustrative work by Adrian Johnson in an issue of Design week. You might recognise his work in the more recent Robinsons adverts. Here is some further works found on the website http://www.adrianjohnson.org.uk. I really like the charming youthful style however can be also used for adult audiences. Therefore his style at which you may consider unique and specialist is actually quite versatile. He 'really enjoys the immediacy of screen printing'. Design week. It shows that illustration does not always need to be brought back to the Mac. Within the examples above I really like the limitations of colour, perhaps due to the screen-printing process as well as the cleanness of the designs.

Whiskas

Whiskas' Cat Food as has just released a new campaign. I must admit the advert did catch my eye within a TV magazine. Perhaps due to the simple background, aesthetically pleasing crafted origami chicken and because not many other animal food ad's have an experimental quality. So I thought it was worth blogging. However I then showed my mother who said the first time she saw it she thought it was a screwed up piece of paper and didn't take much more notice than that. Admittedly she was not wearing her glasses and we don't own a cat, so perhaps the ad didn't need to strike her. I then thought about the ad again, it was aesthetically pleasing to me, however I like anything slightly artistic. I can understand the concept that there are whole chunks of chicken/beef/fish/lamb etc, therefore the chicken/cow/fish/sheep is relevant, buy why origami? does that suggest a playful brand? and should there be a small reference a to the cat? However that may not be required as Whiskas is a big brand, and maybe if it did it would loose its eye-catching simplicity. Does this eye-catching simplicity/ arty/ wittiness actually gain more sales? Do the public like this or sometimes are they just looking for a brand who says it like it is?

I think this origami creatures could have been animated a little better online.

Stickmen Cards

I have recently seen these illustrated cards in regular card shops. They are created by Santora collections. Unfortunately I couldn't find many images of them online. However they have developed the well know stickmen styled drawings, with added humorous catchy captions. I like the idea of using something so simple in this case a style, which people can easily relate to. The simple style also makes it easy to make the cards aesthetically pleasing; with the theory less is more. There are endless possibilities for the idea, which is needed for card design.

In some specialist card shops, I find endless inspiration for illustrative ideas.

Alberto Seveso

These illustrations by Alberto Seveso are brilliant. I think they jump right out at you. The unusual shaped coloured bands pulse through the black background. The swirls form the female figures, which creates quite a sexy seductive image. These would work rather well for a perfume or fashion ad due to the intensity. They go beyond just drawing the regular cartoon females, they are more attractive and arty, and therefore appeal to both sexes!

To create these he uses black and white photographs with vectors. It shows how well linking two mediums can work.
You can see more of his work here http://www.recycledarea.co.uk/index.php

Think Mule Illustrations

Here is a collection of illustrations by think mule (www.thinkmule.com)

Due tonal colourings and abstraction of forms they suggest a native style of working. (Possible Picasso with the workings of far more surface texture) However I feel they go beyond this as they seem to work well and seem rather trendy when placed in to graphic products, i.e. packaging and posters. They seem to dwell well in the Music market - suggestions of alternative art for alternative music.

The layering and strongly marked details of create a surface texture of which I admire. They appear far from my own illustrative style this maybe why I like them.

Peter Calleson

Here is another great use of paper, this time plain white, to create patterns shaddows, buildings - all sorts. They could be used to be great illustrations. My particular favourite is 'traces in the snow' it uses the enviroment behind the paper to complete the scene- seen above. He has 'explored the relationship between two and three dimensionality.' http://www.petercallesen.com/index/index2.html.

People talk about 'the pencil' being a great tool what about paper? Theres more to be seen on the site http://www.petercallesen.com/index/index2.html.