Gerry's responses.

Nick Rhodes

Nick Rhodes is an illustrator based in …. The reason behind looking into him is that he has designed been designing posters for Richard Hawley and I wanted to see the approach he takes when tackling music / tour poster briefs. The image in blue with the guitar and book, has a very simple composition but it is incredibly detailed. Rhodes has added texture on the walls and slightly in the foreground. Detail outside the window with the moon and starts and in the mid ground the guitar. I seem like most of this will have been created digitally and the screen printed, therefore there is a limited colour pallet, but screen printed this would look strong. I’m not sure about the band going across the bottom with the type in I think that this bit could have been made to work into the image more, could have been places outside in the window. But in the band it feels to be obstructing the image and might work better compositionally if blended in more.

The second the green poster I prefer over the blue as I like the breathing space he has given the main image. It is a good balance between detail and space. The detail that has been given to the tree and how this blends into the tree house is good and adds a small narrative to the overall picture but I don’t like the white circle in that has been added behind the background trees. It looks out of place and similar with the band in the first image could have been blended in better. However, I am viewing this image on a digital format, but if screen printed it may help all the elements blend together as they are and it would then be in the format it is intended to be in.

His approach seems to be that he takes key parts of information about the artist he is designing for and builds an image around that ,as screen prints both these images would be strong and you do get an idea of process from them.

Gerry 3rd email

the New York times.

They have 3 words that they really drill in on there website , Read , Watch , Engage.  These are the aims that they want the readers and viewers of their magazine be able to do. In order to do this they spread the times across several platforms  , for example print , digital - accessible on tablet, phone, product and video.
They also hold live events and conferences with different collaborators and cover stories that have a wide range of subjects such as , political , social, cultural and creative.
The reason  I chose to look into the New York time specifically is that they have a good emphasis  illustration. They have run a scheme for 2015 and 2016 where they have place some of the best illustration of the year online. These illustrations are not just static images , they also include stings, and gifs that would go along side a digital article to help capture the reader and communicate what the article is about. It is also a really good resource for spotting trends.

Narrative seems to be a effective trend at the moment. Creating sequential illustrations that tells a story , and it can be a very simple narrative but is really effective. An example , this image by Marion Fayolle for an article about infidelity. It tries to tackle the topic and suggests that cheating on your partner may have its links to it , especially within men.  Fayolle narrative I think dose have a light hearted side as it is a humours element when the women's head comes away from her body and kisses the man behind her. The unrealistic approach dose help prevent any offence that people may take to it but is still illustrating the key point.

This was a Gif by Angie Wang -
The article handles a very sensitive and dark subject of when the Taliban bomb exploded near a children park. 72 people died. You realise the sensitivity of the imagery as you read on because the title initially doesn't give much away. The image defiantly has a sadness to it has been approached by unidentifiable figures invisible apart from the shadows , ghosts. And creating the image in black and white allows for no misinterptiation over colour as the wrong colour could send out the wrong message. The simplicity of it as well helps with the same purpose.

This final image I think shows how illustrations can be laid out but also the vast subjects they cover for example the future of capitalism. Again has narrative elements but not keen on this illustration , gets a bit boring , bit to repetitive.

Gerry second email.

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