Pinterest to the RESCUE!
I am completely new to illustrator and a little daunted by the prospect of creating artwork using a program I know nothing about for this new brief. So to help overcome my fear and to get an idea of what level of artwork can be achieved using Adobe Illustrator and vectors, I thought it would be really helpful to set up a Pinterest board where I can keep anything that catches my eye. This of course spiralled out of control and it is now easily one of the largest boards I have on Pinterest. There are so many designs and vibrant illustrations created using this form of digital media, and maybe it is the clean lines from the vectors or crazy works with geometric shape and texture, either way I am really inspired by these works and cant wait to have a go at my own.
Whilst adding to my Pinterest board, there were specific illustrators who caught my eye:
Jing Zhang
Jing Zhang is a Chinese illustrator based in London and works primarily in advertising. What strikes me about her vector based illustrations are how informative they are. With the flattened infographic style, her personal works into cities really stand out to me. Every aspect of the illustration is clear and clean, yet beautiful and each piece of work is really brilliant example of how simple shape can be successful at conveying key information. I am also a big fan of the limited colour pallette, reflective of the specific city being depicted. This is something I would like to attempt in my own work - as I tend to exagerate and overuse colour - when in fact less can be more.
The use of key landmarks is a good way to start this brief when looking into specific cities to take further with my ideas. I would also like to explore the "map" idea, as i think it is a nice way to represent a city and incorporate all of the key elements to help make it recognisable.
Monsieur Z
Another illustrator whose work stood out to me was that of Monsieur Z. Based in France, Mr Z's vector based illustrations are globally renowned and mainly feature for top fashion organisations. However, it is his scenery work and use of colour that has caught my eye. Each piece of work manages to depict an idillic location, somewhere where anyone would love to visit.
What strikes me the most when looking at these travel posters is the use of colour. I wouldn't say that each illustration has a limited colour palette necessarily, but even though the variety of colour used is wide and extremely bright - the illustrations are not overpowering. The colour has been used so effectively - enhancing these locations and making them seem better than ever. I also like how these posters are managing to advertise a location, without being too obvious about its scenery or familiar landmarks. I would like to be able to achieve this with my own postcards and I would like someone to want to visit the locations I choose, as a result of seeing my artwork, without being too obvious - as Mr Z has done here with his.
MUTI
Lastly I stumbled across the work of Cape Town illustration and design collective MUTI.
Again i think the work appeals to me as it has that very clear "infographic" style about it, which I think would really help to covey my chosen cities well if I was to choose this style. The use of simple shapes and bright colour is again apparent in this work, which helps to make the work stand out in aesthetic.
I absolutely love their work and their website. Check it out here
Thoughts
From this work I have been able to see the importance of creating work using shape. Block colour, slight texture and considered colour, all work well with the clean lines of vector based illustration and help to covey the message clearly. I want my postcard to be striking in appearance, but to also be representative of the cities I have chosen. Maybe explore the map/infographic style further.
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