After completing the online questionnaire, Janine supplied me with my illustration brief. Each illustrator would create a custom illustration specifically for Work/Life 3. The following brief was sent to me:
Your Car A Day illustration project was a terrific self-initiated project. I think art directors will be really drawn to its graphic appeal, of repeated similar object isolated on a white background.
Gather a number of significant objects from your personal history and illustrate them. Why are they important? What do they mean to you?
I initially thought sweet, but then I was a little stumped. I did not want the items to be randomly laid out without a sense of relation to my respective age. Story telling was my main priority for this illustration, so I wanted to put some order to the miscellaneous items from different times periods.
To satisfy this desire of storytelling, I decided to make the illustration a map or an info-graphic of sorts that showed a timeline of my life.
My normal process with assignments usually starts off with drawing different on-topic objects. I started to draw all the different items that were important to me. After scanning all of the items in, I started to arrange them according to time.
I was fresh off of my trip to Japan and was majorly inspired by the backdrop of power lines and their street infrastructure (street signs, road lines, turning lanes, etc). I was able to incorporate these items and push the illustration to be more visually interesting.
View from the monorail that runs between Enoshima and Ofuna, Japan.
My initial sketch to get all the items laid out chronologically.
The final piece.
The illustration was submitted in April and by the time July rolled in, I as surprised about how much time went by. In the background, the Uppercase team was busy laying out the book, writing articles, and all the mysterious things that publishers do. So, I was happy to receive the first round of layout proofs in July. After adjusting a few things here and there, I approved the below spread.
And ta-da, there you have it! I hope you can take a minute and read the little notes in the illustration. To wrap up this week, I'll be back tomorrow sharing a few of my significant objects from the illustration. Also, I'll be sharing some other fab illustrators that are featured in the book as well. Until tomorrow!