Thursday, March 19, 2009

The idea funnel

Here is a sequence of ideas I sent to USAA Magazine for an article about where to find money when you're broke. The art director had suggested that the concept be more direct (actual places you would find money), but before I went that direction I sent two other more metaphorical ideas.





The art director loved them, but asked for a more literal approach for a backup. As you may guess, this is the idea they ultimately chose. But I knew going into the sketch that this was likely. So, the way I challenged myself was to make this sketch a pure formal exploration of pattern and color. No perspective, just squares and patterns.



I wasn't sure how this would work in the final, but went with the multicolored lines with a minimal palate. Using the white of the page as the top of the color heirarchy. The background and texture were added digitally.



I think I'm going to write a kids book about that broke genie from the first sketch. I love that idea!

8 comments:

josh said...

whoa! This ones really great John

Andi said...

love it. i hadn't seen it yet.

John Hendrix said...

Thank you! Thank you!

Should I keep trying out this digital plus hand drawn stuff? Yuko always told me to be purist.

Unknown said...

As a former memeber of the military and current member of USAA, I'm not surprised they took the literal approach to reach their audience. Love the sketches though!

Carlee L. said...

Beautiful. Mom & Dad, ha.

Kyle T. Webster said...

Sketch numero uno was so superior (as an idea), but you still produced a lovely illustration, John, which is no surprise.

As for digital / traditional - do what you like! There is nothing 'impure' about digital work, but I am biased since I work 100% digitally.

TurtleGurl38 said...

I think you can never duplicate a pure hand-made texture with a digital rendering. There's just something about digital flat color and even digital texture that make it seem very artificial at times. It's interesting when it is juxtaposed or used in combination with the handmade media to distinguish between foreground and background though. I'm trying to move away from using digital to "fix" things because digital shouldn't be a substitute for a media that would keep the integrity of the work but it should serve to add what traditional media can't. Now if I can just work towards that...

Nathan said...

The digital stuff is great looking for backgrounds. But I think your hand drawn stuff will always be a better look and feel. This one looks great.