Point of sale display
For this assignment the brief requires two illustrations of fruit or vegetables to be used within a campaign for a supermarket to package and promote a range of seasonal foods.
My first task was to look carefully at the brief to find out exactly what was being requested and to pinpoint the most important aspects.
Requirements:
Generating ideas
To start building a picture of the seasons and generating ideas I created word and picture spider diagrams representing the two seasons.
I wanted the illustrations to represent British produce, and so I reflected this in the diagrams.
It's amazing how many ideas come to mind as you start to focus.
Although I used a combination of words and pictures in both types of spider diagram, I found that I referred to the picture-based diagrams and collages frequently during the design process as they provided a quick visual reference.
I then collected images, textures and colours to represent the seasons and assembled them into collages.
Development through research
Throughout these processes ideas started to evolve - about choices of fruit and additional seasonal elements and how to communicate high quality and freshness in an illustration.
In magazine photographs fruit and vegetables look vibrant and glossy, often with droplets of water that seem to reinforce their appearance of freshness.
With illustrations, I found the most appealing ones, were created by hand. Digitally created images lacked life or looked like clip-art.
I looked in detail at two illustrators in particular - Georgina Luck and Emma Dibben.
The work of both of these illustrators is lively, loose and fresh. The colours are clean and vibrant. The illustrations are beautifully detailed. And the fruit and vegetables look fresh, glossy and appetising.
My interpretation
It was now time to firm up ideas and to practise illustration techniques.
For the summer illustration I wanted to communicate the idea of eating outdoors, picnics, al fresco living. I chose tomatoes as the main fruit, with hot rocket leaves and daisy chains to support the season.
I wanted the two illustrations to be compatible in style and content, and so for the autumn illustration I selected green William pears as the main fruit, with a crackly brown leaf and glossy conkers as additional elements of the season.
I really wanted to be able to create illustrations that were lively and vibrant like those of Georgina Luck and Emma Dibben. I practised drawing and painting the tomatoes and pears using real fruits, trying different techniques to see what worked best.
Eventually I had a go at creating the assignment pieces.
At first the images looked a bit disconnected - just a collection of items on a page. But adding handwritten text seemed to bring them together and introduced another dimension to the illustrations.
Reflection
Looking at the entire experience of this assignment I realise that evaluation and reflection is something that happens throughout the project.
Through analysis of the brief, ideas generation, research, experimentation, to final design, ideas are shifting, decisions are made and then amended - until that moment when you have to commit.
Looking at my final pieces of work, I'm disappointed that the tomatoes don't look glossy enough - I wanted them to gleam. I need to practise painting in watercolours to improve my skills and techniques.
I'm also disappointed that the spattered paint effects that add vitality to the work of Georgina Luck and Emma Dibben, just look messy and grubby in the autumn illustration. I think they work better in the summer illustration.
However, I'm pleased that the two illustrations look similar, both in selection of elements and style, and that I have captured something of the freshness and vitality in the illustrative style that I was hoping to achieve.
For this assignment the brief requires two illustrations of fruit or vegetables to be used within a campaign for a supermarket to package and promote a range of seasonal foods.
My first task was to look carefully at the brief to find out exactly what was being requested and to pinpoint the most important aspects.
Requirements:
- To produce two illustrations of fruit or veg, one for summer, the other for autumn, to be used as a supermarket point of sale display.
- The audience will be all customers - new, regular, old, young, male, female - and so the illustrations should appeal to all.
- Size of each illustration to be 12 inches x 12 inches/30cm x 30cm, or to scale.
- The images must reflect the produce selected and aspects of the season.
- The client places great importance on the high quality of their produce
Generating ideas
To start building a picture of the seasons and generating ideas I created word and picture spider diagrams representing the two seasons.
I wanted the illustrations to represent British produce, and so I reflected this in the diagrams.
It's amazing how many ideas come to mind as you start to focus.
Although I used a combination of words and pictures in both types of spider diagram, I found that I referred to the picture-based diagrams and collages frequently during the design process as they provided a quick visual reference.
I then collected images, textures and colours to represent the seasons and assembled them into collages.
Development through research
Throughout these processes ideas started to evolve - about choices of fruit and additional seasonal elements and how to communicate high quality and freshness in an illustration.In magazine photographs fruit and vegetables look vibrant and glossy, often with droplets of water that seem to reinforce their appearance of freshness.
With illustrations, I found the most appealing ones, were created by hand. Digitally created images lacked life or looked like clip-art.
I looked in detail at two illustrators in particular - Georgina Luck and Emma Dibben.
The work of both of these illustrators is lively, loose and fresh. The colours are clean and vibrant. The illustrations are beautifully detailed. And the fruit and vegetables look fresh, glossy and appetising.
My interpretation It was now time to firm up ideas and to practise illustration techniques.
For the summer illustration I wanted to communicate the idea of eating outdoors, picnics, al fresco living. I chose tomatoes as the main fruit, with hot rocket leaves and daisy chains to support the season.
I wanted the two illustrations to be compatible in style and content, and so for the autumn illustration I selected green William pears as the main fruit, with a crackly brown leaf and glossy conkers as additional elements of the season.
I really wanted to be able to create illustrations that were lively and vibrant like those of Georgina Luck and Emma Dibben. I practised drawing and painting the tomatoes and pears using real fruits, trying different techniques to see what worked best.
Eventually I had a go at creating the assignment pieces.
At first the images looked a bit disconnected - just a collection of items on a page. But adding handwritten text seemed to bring them together and introduced another dimension to the illustrations.
Reflection
Looking at the entire experience of this assignment I realise that evaluation and reflection is something that happens throughout the project.
Through analysis of the brief, ideas generation, research, experimentation, to final design, ideas are shifting, decisions are made and then amended - until that moment when you have to commit.
Looking at my final pieces of work, I'm disappointed that the tomatoes don't look glossy enough - I wanted them to gleam. I need to practise painting in watercolours to improve my skills and techniques.
I'm also disappointed that the spattered paint effects that add vitality to the work of Georgina Luck and Emma Dibben, just look messy and grubby in the autumn illustration. I think they work better in the summer illustration.
However, I'm pleased that the two illustrations look similar, both in selection of elements and style, and that I have captured something of the freshness and vitality in the illustrative style that I was hoping to achieve.
