eCommerce Store – Artist Research

As with any commercial project it is integral for its success that any designs are based on strategic decisions. What I mean by that is 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 One – Juancho Styler

Juancho Styler is a Venezuelan illustrator who creates vector-based artwork using Adobe Illustrator. Typically, his designs are designed for print but they feature much of their work in apparel and product based mock-ups. They produce a plethora of personal work but primarily work commercially for brands and company. I would describe Juancho Styler as a modern designer whose work is a combination of graphic elements with hand illustrated designs. The visual aesthetic and charm is a form that I believe would resonate with my target audience should the concept of the piece be more relevant to their interests within the Kawaii & Cute community.

I personally resonate with this piece as a creator looking through the commercial lense of the community relevance because I admire the complexity that is brought to a simply design. This unique balance in the simple vs complex ratio of style is something that I would define as idealistic in nature. What I mean by this is the nature of the design is ideal or visually pleasing because it places emphasis on beneficial elements and minimises or removes other elements that are less agreeable. For example the big bold lines allow the design to feel more charming and playful in contrast to the rough way that artworks more based in realism utilise. This described elements of Juancho’s style is something I would like to experiment with when designing for this current project as I believe the results would appeal to my brands target audience and would stimulate sales.

The artwork above highlights an illustration from Juancho Stylers project: Simpson Samurai.

The concept that Junacho typically utilises within his design illustrations is often informed by pop-culture references likely due to the personal interest of the designer. These concepts are often abstract in nature and consist of vivid imaginings of unique creations combining other elements that appeal to the artist. For example in Juancho’s project: Simpson Samurai, Junacho combines his interest of the television series “The Simpsons” with his interest in Japanese culture playing of the conceptual aesthetic of the samurai with Japanese modern fashion. This reminds me of how fashion designs digest information about modern trends and combine them with personal interest to produce moderns takes of self-expression making statements of opinion. Each of his pieces are a statement suggesting his personal visual expressions that he contributes to the world of design.

 The artwork above highlights an illustration from Juancho Stylers project: I want to be free.

I would define Juancho Styler’s art style as a playful and bold visual aesthetic informed by graphic elements. Each design is simple and bold in nature which is reminiscent to graphic design however in each artwork clear effort has been made to elevate the complexity of the piece weather through layered lighting, textured speckles, or finer lines detailing the piece. Juancho also makes use of limited color schemes to tighten the appeal making it less distracting in the bad way and more visually engaging to the viewer. I believe his colours are often very soft in tone, there is a distinct lack of black colour in the pixels that he uses. Even the linework he uses within his designs use a dark purple or brown to continue the soft impression of the design. I believe specific aesthetical choice will resonate with my target

audience deeply due to it being more appealing to their desired aesthetic.

The line weight variation utilises 2 sizes in variety, the core components utilise consistent bold lines and any side detailing uses a second smaller weight that is consistent throughout the design. The shape and form of each of the elements uses only round edges, with sharp jiggered edges being avoided. The linework also ends in a rounded butt cap to further this effect. This choice in design form aligns with the Cute and Kawaii aesthetic as it is inviting and soft all aspects that contribute to invoking a sense of cute. As mentioned earlier I believe this style that Juancho uses is idealised exaggerating features to be more inviting that we as humans are drawn too. For example, the eyes are blown up whereas the mouth is shrank down. I am keen to experiment with this style within my own experiments as much of this aesthetic aligns with the intentions for the clothing designs within my intended store.

The artwork above highlights an illustration from Juancho Stylers project: Pugs Cream.

The techniques that I believe Jauncho Styler utilises in the creation of his illustrations are the application of vector-based software. Although there are potential alternatives, I found on his Behance account that he uses Adobe Illustrator to create his vector illustrations. Although his design is created within Illustrator for the most part, I know that he first starts by sketching his design out on paper as a rough sketch and then refines the sketch until he is satisfied with it. Once he is happy with the shape and form of the design, he then photographs this as reference and sends it to be refined in Adobe Illustrator. Utilising the pen tool, I believe he begins the process by tracing the linework that will end up becoming the bold lines within his illustration. Once the bolder lines have been created, I then believe he goes and refines the detailed smaller weighted lines to give the design more depth in its aesthetic appeal.

If he has not selected a colour palette out yet I believe he would start the process of choosing a palette. The criteria that he uses for this process is to keep a limited selection of colours which are soft in nature, often pastel in variety, and assembling them aside before continuing his process. Once he has his palette selected, I believe he would use a combination of the shape tool and the pen tool to block out the core colour behind his linework before following up with blocking out the shading and highlights of his designs. Having blocked out all the lighting the final stage of his process would be to add any higher detailing such as speckled effects of angular marks in select locations creating a greater sense of depth. This process has connected with me through deep inspiration and I am keen to utilise it during my experiments within this project.

The artwork above highlights an illustration from Juancho Stylers project: Kuraishi.

The composition that Juancho utilises in near to all of his Illustrations follows a graphic poster style of layout. The design is suspended in space appearing more abstracted than grounded in a reality or context. Often his designs can just be text or elements of design such as symbols of illustrated designs, and other times they can be characters, but they all are suspended in a void setting with few to no surroundings. Each design is central to the image and fills up as much of the space as possible.

For example in the image above there is spacing between and around the two masks but Juancho has taken the time to design marks and symbols that align with the overall design to fill the space and further add detailing to the aesthetic of this piece of artwork. Although effort has been made to fill up the space of the design appropriate spacing has been made to ensure much of the elements don’t collide and only overlap as a specific design choice. This allows the design to breathe and feel full but not busy. I admire the inviting nature that Juanchos choice of composition utilises within his designs and I am keen to make use of this within my own experiments for this project.

The artwork above highlights an illustration from Juancho Stylers project: Aguacate Fresh.

I believe that Juancho Styler has taken influence from modern graphic design regarding the visual language and form that is utilised within his artworks. The composition, visual aesthetic, blocked out shading, and layout are all deeply reminiscent to graphic design and as such I define this as a core influence to Juancho as a creative. In much of Juancho’s concepts he makes use of modern fashion and pop culture invoking the idea to me that this is a key interest to Juancho as an artist. This can be identified as an example in the image above as branded sneakers, spray paint, a book box, and a basketball are all present in the designs theme. These are all elements of modern fashion and pop culture and as such I define that as a key interest for Juancho. I believe the Junacho’s interest in graphic design combined with his interest in modern fashion and pop culture has shaped his visual aesthetic as a core influence. This visual appeal is something that I am drawn to for this project and I am keen to implement this within my design experiments.

The purpose of Juancho’s graphic illustrations in my opinion is a combination of two underlining intentions: Self-expression and brand communication. Like many artists, self-expression is a core motivation that drives us to create artwork, we all have a voice and the creation process allows us to define ourselves and our interests in a visual method that is clear and freeing. It is clear to see when viewing the range of work that Junacho has produced over time how his voice has been refined and how he has grown. The second purpose that I believe Juancho’s work serves is for the establishment and communication of brand impression and communication. Each of his artworks expresses a feeling, a tone, and idea. I believe that the purpose of many of Juancho’s illustrations is to define that impression to attract like minded individuals, to stimulate a response, and to encourage community around the theme at hand. In response to Juancho’s purpose I am keen to wield my self-expression for the purpose of brand communication. I believe that Juancho is a master at what he does and I wish to embody his strengths during this project to see its success realised.

I will continue my artist research in my next post. Thank you for reading.