eCommerce Store – Artist Research 2

Stated in my previous post, as with any commercial project it is integral for its success that any designs are based on strategic decisions. As stated before what this means is that any designs, I produce must appeal to the target audience. After observing various competitors in the niche as well as lead designers celebrated in the community, I have identified a trend in the design patterns that I believe the community leans towards. Using this information, I have selected a set of artists that I will analyse to allow myself the opportunity to learn and decipher the creative rules of the style to begin the process of developing my own for this project. This should allow me to produce artwork that appeals directly to my target market.

Artist Two – Drew Millward

Drew Millward is an Illustrator who typically works in the commercial poster industry. From what I can tell he is currently represented by Nobrow press due to his recent feature in the Nobrow book titled “Studio Dreams” which is the tenth book within this series printed by the publisher. The image directly below this text is Drew’s submission to the book “Studio Dreams” and is how I discovered him as an artist. Nobrow 10 was the first book from the publisher Nobrow that I collected upon its launch and Drew’s interpretation of the brief was one of my favourites due to his bold and striking style.

The visual aesthetic is quirky and abstract in nature and I would suggest is not a good fit for my current project. However, the style that I have identified that appeals to the Kawaii and cute niche makes use of elements that Drew is extremely talented at executing. The bold lines and blocked out colouring choices is something that aligns with popular designs within the niche of choice. Therefore, I would like to analyse Drew’s illustrations in depth to extract the elements that I feel make his work so appealing into a new experimental outcome of my own making to fashion a solution for my design needs. In the next few paragraphs, I will deconstruct the appealing style that I am drawn towards.

The artwork above is the design that Drew Millward’s submitted to the Nobrow book: Studio Dreams.

The concepts that Drew typically illustrates into his designs consist of abstracted characters or animals in vast and eccentric landscapes covered with symbolism and interesting visual stimulus. These characters and environments are often representing a theme or ideal in a visual form to communicate an intended piece of information of message. As a commercial artist much of his work is intended to communicate the client’s intentions in eye catching visual ideas, therefore the concepts or characters that are included within each artwork utilise clever symbolic concepts to convey such messages.

The artwork below this text is a cropped close-up of a poster that Drew illustrated for the leads festival featuring an Owl. Festivals are often events that last well into the hours of the night and as such Drew cleverly used the concept of an owl to represent the impression of a fun and exciting character that is ready to be up all night just as owls do in the wild. This subtle design choice uses the concept to engage with a target market directing hot traffic to the other information on the poster. The way in which Drew utilises concepts in a subtle and skilled fashion is one of the reasons I am drawn to him as an artist. It will benefit my current project impeccably if I learn to master the strategic techniques that Drew implements into his artworks such as concise concept application. I intend to experiment with this element of design in response to the observations I have made in response to Drew’s work using my design experiments.

The artwork above is a cropped selection of a poster that Drew created as a commission for the lead’s festival.

I define Drew Millwards visual style as a refined modern illustrated aesthetic informed by vintage graphic design with gritty elements and geometric forms. The structure that Drew builds his designs up with is heavily informed by geometry. There is heavy use of circles and straights which I define as been reminiscent of graphic design due to complimentary nature this has with a gridded format. Drew makes use of thick bold lines within his designs with much of the detailing using a difference in balance regarding line weight variation. The solid forms use consistent bold lines whereas the detailing has it’s boldness shrink down as it moves outward n the images design to define form. The way that Drew uses colour and shading is blocked out similar to how Jauncho made use of it in my last blog post.

The difference between the two artists is that Drew layers more detailing and colours to give the design depth by blocked out abstracted shapes and highlights in targeted areas of the design. For example, if you observe the image below the canister with the smiling face has dripping effects on his design. This is unnecessary to support the aesthetic of the piece but adds another layer of charm and refines depth throughout the piece. Due to Drew working primarily as a poster designer, he makes use of limited color palette’s in much of his work to direct tone and impression for the viewer of the artwork. This technique in visual communication as well as Drew’s design choices and style are all elements that I’m keen to experiment with regarding the stylised aesthetic that I intend to create for my current projects brand.

This artwork was commissioned by Northern Monk Brewery. The project is dubbed “Nothern Tropics”

Similar to the way that Jauncho works I believe that Drew Millward utilises the vector base software Adobe Illustrator to clean up hand drawn sketches that he forms on paper. Once the vector illustrated has been refined and completed, I believe he imports the design into Adobe Photoshop where he distresses the image with textured image overlays, brushes, and patterns effects to stylise and refine the tone of the piece. From start to finish I believe he collects references and collates ideas before sketching rough thumbnails for his designs. Then I believe he creates a final refined sketch which he imports in adobe Photoshop.

From here I believe that he blocks out the bold outlines for his images before using finer detailed linework to define shape and form increasing the images depth. Adding colour, he blocks out large segments of the image before implementing lighting, highlights, and shadows to add some sense of realism to his design. Finally, I believe he blocks out colours for even more depth and implements distressed texturing in adobe Photoshop to enhance the aesthetic appeal. The process that Drew utilises to construct his imagery is a method which I am keen to experiment with, I intend to practice and push the boundaries of Drews creative process to master the techniques that he makes use of and continue the refinement of an aesthetic for my brand.

The above artwork is a commission by Machynlleth Comedy Festival as a promotional poster for the event.

The composition that Drew Millward utilises within his illustrations makes clever use of the foreground, midground, background tactic. This technique layers visual information in a way that carefully manipulates the path that your eyes follow when observing the imagery. This layout technique is used in correlation with value and colour use to further emphasis this compositional effect. For example, in many of his posters the information that is needed to be communication is often placed in the far background using lighter values and a different colour from the rest of the piece. This immediately pulls the viewers’ attention towards the relevant information. Once the key information has been identified the gaze of the viewer then observes the rest of the illustration which utilises symbolism to set the tone and impression for the targeted audience.

Drew often uses a framing technique within his illustrations to contain all the visual information in a window of perspective. But he always makes sure to break the window by having certain objects, characters, or environment pool over the edges drawing attention to these aspects and causing the design to feel full and living. Leading lines are also a prevalent technique that Drew uses In his arsenal of visual techniques in combination with the rule of thirds to continue the process of skilfully directing the eye of the viewer towards the relevant information. Although these leading lines may be more subtle, they are still in play when directing attention, elements form together directing the viewer further.

I believe that the rule of thirds has a deep impact on Drew’s work due to the focal points of the design usually been placed in the top 4 squares of the rule of thirds with the other information supporting and guiding information towards peak points of interest. Because Drew Millward is primarily a poster designer I believe that he is skilled in his use of composition. I am keen to experiment and practice with this technique that is often established in the thumbnailing stage of the creative process. I believe by experimenting with such techniques that I will ensure a higher rate of success in my current project as a by product of such investigation.

This cropped closeup is another commission by Northern Monk Brewery for the “Nothern Tropics” project.

Due to the style and impression that I get when observing Drew Millwards Illustrations, I believe that he is deeply inspired by vintage graphic design as well as early psychedelic culture. Many of Drew’s illustrations remind me of the works of Gary Taxali which leads me to believe that he is inspired by this artist, similar artists, or the same source materials as this artist. I make the suggestion that Drew is inspired by early psychedelic culture due to the themes and conceptual pieces that Drew produces often featuring abstractions, multiple eyes, vivid colours, and unusual settings. Each of these elements combined remind me of many of the artworks found in the psychedelic movement. It is my hope that by observing the same source materials as Drew Millward that I will gain deeper insight into his creative method and aesthetic allowing me to empower my artworks during this project to achieve a better result.

Disscussed throughout this blogpost, the purpose behind most of Drew Millwards creative works is the communication of a client’s brand message or event details. The goals of each piece is always to define tone of the an event or brand. Essentially acting as a beacon looking for a look alike audience that relates to the visual and connects with the aesthetic. When the ideal targeted viewer is now giving attention to this artwork the purpose is the quick and clear communication of relevant information. To simplify this explanation, the purpose of Drew’s illustration is to grab people’s attention and communicate intended messages clearly. The secondary purpose of his work is to use theme and visual tone to qualify customers ensuring that the target audience is most likely to convert from a passer by to an informed and engaged potential customer. Due to the nature of my project been to convert customers there is a lot that can be learned by observing and practicing Drew Millwards design techniques. I intend to experiment during my project with what I have learned through this analysis. I believe this will have a positive impact on my design outcomes.

Drew Millward is the second artist that I have analysed during this projects research phase. I will be performing another artist analysis in the following blog post. Thank you for taking the time to read.