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To see all my illustration portfolio samples, visit my web site.
I had the opportunity to work with O'Connor Design in the Chicago area (James O'Connor/Creative Director), on a project for The Options Clearing Corporation 2009 Annual Report. (The Options Clearing Corporation (OCC), founded in 1973, is the world's largest equity derivatives clearing organization)
The images were to reflect a handful of themes used to create the thrust of the report: Strength, Growth, Development, and "Behind the Scenes." Since the process of clearing options is very detailed and high-tech driven, I chose to go low-tech and monolithic with the nature of my images allowing the readers to immediately understand what the core themes were, at a glance. I came up with the idea of using a monolithic financial-esque building as the visual handle throughout all the images, and a repeating the same male character who adds the action and human value.
Several variations ensued in the sketch stages... first a simple approach, then exploring a more textural background and even trying composing the building shapes out of just financial data, but ultimately we went back to the basic approach as I initially envisioned.
Usually, most of the illustrations I do these days all have layered digital Photoshop enhancements, but all these final illustrations for OCC were done the "old fashioned" way, with just brush and paints, without benefit of the computer, in part because the client also wanted to purchase the originals to display in their Chicago offices. The final artwork was created with gouache, watercolor, and pastels on Arches 260 lb hot press watercolor paper.
The sketches posted here show one image from sketch through to the finished art (man lifting building over his head) -and I also have shown one of the other final images, too. (building as hot air balloon)
To see all my illustration portfolio samples, visit my web site.
A while ago I created a series of prints ads for the international sock company, GoldToe. The new campaign, was conceived and motivated by their VP and Creative Director, Charles Moretz... as a push to direct a younger consumer toward their quality line of footwear products. (...kind of a "it's not your dad's Oldsmobile anymore" campaign) A renewal process which all large established companies must go through at some point or another to capture a younger generation who may not be as fully aware of the brand as could be. Charles defined the simple tactic: to use illustration for the new ad campaign "For All Walks of Life," to stand out from the competition and in contrast to the sea of photography omnipresent with everything fashion.
It was a wonderful experience to be in the series of meetings with Charles, to learn about the company, where they are heading, etc... and together direct my imaging, relative to their target audience, to be memorable print ads. There was also talk of possibly using my illustrations for their in-store wall graphics, signs, displays, kiosks, etc... to extend the impact of the ad campaign to the maximum in terms of capturing the attention of the younger audience. (see posted mock-photo of my images used in a store/boutique setting)
Posted here are three of the ads from the series... the man and woman are kind of visual companions, to give a bit of a romantic story or spin the the ads... Just their legs and feet are seen in the third ad with all the walkers. I also created the hand-lettering for the ad title, “For All Walks of Life.” The ad copy text is positioned in the white space at the bottom. These posted images are too small for you to see, but in the female scene, she has financial data on her hand held device, and in the male scene, there are flowers on his hand held device (the same flowers as in the female scene) to suggest that the two are connected. Also posted at the bottom are a few samples of preliminary "test textures" I created, representing different characteristics of product categories, which may be incorporated into their "in-store" graphics look.
There has been a delay in the release of theses ads nationwide, obviously due to the economy. GoldToe is evaluating when the correct timing to do so will be best, but hopefully it will not be a long delay. So, in the meanwhile, if you are looking for terrific socks, think "gold toe."
To see all my illustration portfolio samples, visit my web site. 
