Eili-Kaija’s illustrations are woven into the new website for Folk!- an advertising agency based in Helsinki. She created the portraits that accompany the staff bio’s and a map on the contact page. The handmade, approachable quality of Eili-Kaija’s work was chosen to help brand the site with the company’s down-to-earth and participatory work style.
Gary discusses a recent project he worked on with Michael Stokely for a campaign for “MCAP Service Corporation”, one of Canada’s leading independent mortgage financing companies: “The illustrations were to be based on sports metaphors. The challenge here was that the client wanted to keep their former ad format–a full page divided into 2 panels: a dark blue panel (their corporate colour) and a white panel. The illustration was to take up portions of both panels as well as rag around the bilingual headline and body copy. As the work progressed the copy was being written, laid out and edited at the same time. It was kind of like designing with a moving target. The client also requested that the illustrations be able to exist on a completely white background to accommodate future usage. All this said, luckily the designer, Michael Stokely, really understood the challenges and was very helpful in the collaboration.”
Tracy Walker has been creating some new patterns and had the “Blackbirds” printed through Spoonflower, and made into tea towels. She also created the repeating pattern “She Sells Seashells” in three colourways.
Thom Sevalrud, in his architectural layered style, created the following spread to accompany a feature article, “Core Values” in GreenSource magazine, about how sustainable design requires a closer collaboration between architects and structural engineers.
Alanna’s lovely illustration accompanies an article on what women want sexually, for Best Health. Her elegant hand-lettering helps tell to the story.
Gary Alphonso created a cover for the paperback edition of Hazards of the Game by Norma Tadlock Johnson. The art director wanted a very graphic feel to the cover where type would be a major element. They decided to place the text within the shape of the sand trap since the story takes place on a golf course. Another requirement of the illustration was to include some of the clues to the mystery: the pink golf ball, the discarded putter and the Siamese cat.
The challenge was to design the illustration with the type from the early rough stages as opposed to creating the illustration and having the designer apply type after the fact. Here are two versions to show the importance of type – an early draft and the tweaked type that became the cover.
Eili-Kaija’s dreamlike style was commissioned again for another story in Sunset Magazine. “A Sea Change”, written by Maile Meloy, is a first-person story about her move from Montana to Los Angeles and how she learned to fall in love with the Ocean (despite a predisposition to sea-sickness).
John Webster is always a natural choice for the “vintage” look. In creating this cover for A Hard Bargain, by Jane Tesh, published by Harlequin he combines elements drawing from the story and cleverly incorporating the film strip as a backdrop for the title. To see more of John’s art visit his portfolio here.
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