As a result of being forced to ponder my existence as an illustrator helped me grasp what it is I love or hate about other designer’s images has helped me develop my own images. A result of this is evident in an image I created for a calendar, where we were given a month to illustrate combined with varying intensities of wind 1 through 12. I was given august and no 8 on the Beauford wind scale. When I initially thought o august I thought of hot summers, festivals, the sea side, ice cream, etcetera. But after doing some research I found that in Britain it is one of the hottest yet wettest months, then, in shot the reality; a quintessential, wet British summer.
I initially had the idea that I would illustrate this stereotypical notion of summer being depicted, like a sea side post card but have the wind and rain pouring in and ruining the whole scene. When I first created this image I slipped into my old ways and tried to say everything at once with disregard for aesthetics, underscoring the theme over and over again. I ended up shuffling these elements around in literally hundreds of different colours, shapes, and sizes. I felt desperate and hadn’t taken anything I had been thinking about on board, the things I deplored in other peoples work, were now pouring out of mine. This had to stop and I remembered the old but oh so relevant modernist approach I deleted every thing, and rebuilt the most important elements that conveyed the message in the most simplistic of ways. But I am pleased to say I retained the aesthetic quality, which I also desired. I feel this image is a stepping-stone for me, it has the balance I need between content and aesthetic and I would love to continue to work in this manner.
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