Editorial brief workshop

For this workshop, we were tasked with creating an illustration to accompany a recent news article. The illustration was to be editorial, so that we could use our images to respond to the article, as well as fitting within given specifications. The creation process involved creating roughs and ideas, then presenting them to the tutors (clients) for feedback on how to improve or develop our original designs. The finalised roughs would then be completed digitally and printed as per the brief.

I chose an article titled "Need to Land a Plane? In Australia, They Break Out the Toilet Paper." My response to the brief included visual research about elements of the article, as well as creating two ideas for the editorial illustration. This resulted in pages of referenced drawings and two roughs.

After presenting this first stage of development to the tutors, I continued to develop my first idea into a rough at the size that the final artwork was set to be. The rough was then presented and tidied up for the final pencil illustration.

Afterwards, the pen lines were added to define the shapes of the illustration and better determine where to place colour digitally. This marked the final hand-drawn stage in the creation of my illustrated response, as it was later scanned in to the computer and resized on Photoshop to better fit the brief specifications.

At the colouring stage, I laid down colours that were appropriate to the Australian landscape - including a red-orange sunset. I wanted to incorporate a good white balance in this illustration, which I think I achieved with the clouds, toilet paper, and the rotors and windows of the plane being colourless. The flat colours of the landscape contrast well with the more textured colouring of the plane, and the smooth colour fade of the sunset. As this is an editorial piece, I intentionally did not go for realistic colours so as to better communicate the message of the article to the reader.

I believe this task was helpful in getting me to work to a professional standard with a tight deadline, as well as encouraging me to communicate with a 'client' during the production of the editorial illustration. These skills are transferrable to the main OLIO brief, as we will have to communicate with a real client to sell our rough ideas. However, by responding to a brief, it limits the amount of options we have when it comes to the illustration, which may lead to some people having visually similar subjects in their work.