Visual Communication Brief 2 - ' Greetings From...'

After being set the newest task, to produce 4 postcards based on famous cities (real or fictitious) and knowing it would have to be vector based,i set about researching into existing practitioners and examples of shape-based or vector work. In a way i've started at the end.I'm already considering carefully how the final images may be constructed,possible issues and layout before i've even had an idea about what to produce from what city.Probably not very orthodox i know? 

As vectors and working in Adobe Illustrator are very familiar to me and often the core part of my heavy linework-based productions i wanted to look into other,simpler ways of conveying the same message that a complex image would, as Noma Bar and Stan Chow do.If i could manage this then it would also speed up my output time, providing that my concepts were strong enough - which at this point hasn't always been the case.

Drew Roper

This one (above) by Alan Fletcher is amazing! Something i'd actually pay money for a print for and i rarely buy art. It's the sexiest thing I've come across in a while and there's almost nothing to it. Super graphic but I imagine there must be a fair bit of sketch/development work behind this, but the final result cant've taken longer than 10mins (2mins if it was done on a computer) I can only dream of being able to take 2mins to produce a final piece and then move on with my life.

Stan Chow

Noma Bar

Michael Nÿkamp

This was followed by a good old research & list making session to try and form some initial ideas & concepts, which i'll try and avoid the most obvious countries, landmarks or subject matters.Though granted, not everyone knows the landmarks or national dish of countries  like Afghanistan or the Democratic Republic of Congo? I say "not everyone" - i mean, NO-ONE.

But by christ i'll teach them!

INITIAL THEMES

I have a fondness for old action films ( an some not so so old and of varying quality) so thought'd be fun to make a few of them my subject matter. Quickly had doubts about this as i felt id only be drawing pictures similar to how they were depicted on screen and wouldn't really be bringing anything defferent to it.Plus I'm not a comic book artist of any sort so felt id dragged into those realms. A quick veto i realise.

World street foods & snacks

I had researched into some of the quirky snacks from around the world, to see if there was enough visually interesting products to work with?! Also looked into the various street food that the globe has to offer.Was find that the darwable stuff from all from the U.S though. I for some reason i was already set on drawing hot dogs.

National Animals

After looking into Chinese food, i though about pandas, which lead me to investigate the national animals of the world. Didn't realise so many random countries A: existed and B: had a national beastie. Admittedly the more interesting animals were representing more unfamiliar nations, really unfamiliar, but i though that might make things interesting, and a bit educational- and really didn't want to just draw british bulldogs or bald eagles.

These pics don't really show it but i spend FOREVER looking into this subject, probably too long - as i was looking up the animal, then looking into the related country, then the capital city of that country, and then the motos, and the flags and then recognisable landmarks it goes on… as i said probably too long reading and not enough drawing.