When I was a child, I was drawing all of the time, obsessed with art, Lee J. Ames and animation. I always knew I wanted to be an artist. When in school at Virginia Commonwealth University’s Communication Arts and Design Program, I was able to study illustration, my first love, along with graphic design and animation. This kept me very fulfilled and allowed me a multi-disciplinary degree. Accidentally and luckily, I prepared myself for designing and developing on the internet, in which all of these skills are used.
Illustration Work
400th Anniversary Jamestown Cloisonné Pin
I was commissioned to produce a high quality pin for state government to celebrate the 400th anniversary of the Jamestown settlement. I did a lot of research of the historic and present day fort’s tower. Later, I distilled the depiction of the iconic tower that would still be recognizable at a very small size. Cloisonné is challenging to design for, as it’s a mix of digital prep and manual craft that the vendor makes subjective decisions on, trying hard to maintain consistency with digital art provided. This is similar to the process when you prepare a multi-level emboss design for a vendor with designated heights, etc.
Technologies and Strategies Used
- Adobe Illustrator™: Created the vector masks that make the Capitol “emerge” from the collage of the image grid
- Various communication and correspondence with cloisonné vendor providing custom PMS and enamel fill designations with custom digital layered illustration
- Making strategic decisions for silkscreening processes vs. cloisonné at such a small reproduction size, ex: encircling silver “quadricentennial” text was silkscreened after enamel fills vs. the cloisonné fills that would have collided with one another, making elements illegible
Capitol Illustrations & Ornaments
I was asked to to produce both a modern and realistic set of illustrations for a wide array of applications in promotion of the historic Virginia State Capitol. Some of these uses were highway road signage, a logo for the Capitol, along with promotional items such as annual holiday ornaments sold in the Virginia Shop at the Capitol, benefiting the Virginia Capitol Foundation. Seen in the .pdf download, a great deal of research was done to draw and represent the Capitol building in both modern and traditional ways. While the intricate, realistic version was used in planning of gift shoppe purposes, the modern facet continues to be used in a variety of publications and sites. These are mostly formal in nature, as in gubernatorial elections and similar ceremonies.
Technologies and Strategies Used
- Much research in the architecture of the building itself, both in its past from illustrations and in the present from
photography. - Other research about symbolism and traditional uses of what are the Commonwealth’s ephemera
- Heavy use of Adobe Illustrator™ for developing both minimalistic and realistic illustration styles.
- Visual thinking in creating the diptych showing the 230 year span of the Capitol’s origin to its new restoration that also serves as
a promotional item during holiday time and beyond.