This past summer Scott Hull Associates’ Von Glitschka was hired by the branding agency Integer to illustrate a Bucky Bronco character for a Coors Light campaign with the Denver Broncos. Von tells us the story of the process.

Stadium graphic illustration.

Being a creative hired gun means I create what I’m asked to create for my clients own clients, in this case Coors. I created the graphic assets used in the promotion but didn’t engineer or layout the actual display myself. There’s the rub, I lose control of how the art is used and sometimes it comes out fine and sometimes it’s just OK. This project in it’s final form I’d consider the later.

In store POP Display.

I think it came out pretty good, but there are design details I would have done differently in terms of how how they nested Bucky and the stadium in the layout. But I digress, over all I’m happy with it.

In store POP Display.

When you work with agencies and you deliver what they need they tend to fall off the face of the earth and it’s virtually impossible to get actual final samples of the work you created for them. The only reason I have photos of the final POP display is because fellow creative Dave Lilly from Colorado tracked them down for me and took some pictures.

Thanks Dave! Next time I’m in Denver beers on me.

Thank you Von for sharing!

The collaboration began with a mood board Penelope created to establish a visual starting ground (love mood boards!). Then she came up with an abstract icon that represented a person wrapped around a cup of tea and also evokes an image of a mother holding her baby. Penelope must have drawn a hundred of those little guys until one was deemed “perfect”. Next came hand-lettering which was just as exhaustive, none of which made it to the final, unfortunately. But the exercise in typography and variation couldn’t be beat! The final logo was then applied to packaging and collateral, with each flavor being differentiated by color.

mood board

icon work in progress

hand-lettering work in progress

hand-lettering work in progress larger 1

hand-lettering work in progress larger 2

thich nhat hanh quote … about hope being an obstacle… that inspired me

packaging work in progress

packaging work in progress

packaging work in progress (it’s getting there!)

final products

achieve clarity

enjoy rest

discover joy

all flavors

tshirt

Harry Potter has been a big part of Scott Hull Associates. It all started when Mary GrandPre created the face of Harry Potter while she was represented by SHA. Now Fast Company magazine asked Scott Hull Associates’ Mikey Burton to provide an infographic about this multibillion dollar empire. Will the Harry Potter brand keep thriving after release of the last movie, July 15th? Mikey gives the viewer the “Numerology” break down to what’s at stake.

After all, we only retain 10% of what we hear in 72 hours verses 90% what we see in 72 hours.

We love helping our clients reach their audeince but to win recognition makes it even sweeter.

Art director Kristen Vasgaard selected Scott Hull Associates Clint Hansen to do a collection of classically inspired portraits for a new young adult book series for with publishing house Thomas Nelson. She chose Clint because of his experience within museum display and collegiate hall-of-fame’s.

The collection of 67 prints, which are targeted towards readers age 25-65, features historical figures in the science, art and literary community that spans centuries. Clint’s goal was to bridge the differences between the rather diverse timeline of people, and create a series of engaging historical portraits that maintain a consistent feel using a variety of resources and references, often of very poor quality or not existent.

Kristen glows over Clint’s results, “The overall effect is detailed looking and polished. The final product exceeded our expectations. Clint’s custom illustrations unify the series and add a sophistication and uniqueness that we would not have achieved without them. Clint is great about meeting deadlines and is very easy to work with. He willingly makes any revisions or changes and has a great attitude.”

My wife would always hold up a Celestial Seasonings tea package and say, “honey you should be doing work for them”. I would say, “yep, that would be the coolest”. Thank God He heard my prayer and they called me and said they had wanted to work with me for years. The opportunity came when they rebranded the package design and needed a less narrative and more flavor driven illustration.

The narrative part was still very much a part of the look they were after. Hibiscus is a main ingredient in the tea, so I came up with this hibiscus island concept. The background was to be universal to all of the flavors.

This was the first pencil drawing a did and simplified it a little in the final.

Project: Budweiser Clydesdales Brand Icon

Creative Firm: Switch

Illustrator Designer: Mark Riedy

Creative/Art Director: Zach Hicks

Mark: Whenever you are asked to work on a long-standing iconic image such as the Budweiser Clydesdales, the biggest challenge is striking a creative balance. The art already has a name for itself. You want to add your own personal point of view while always considering the equity of the images that came before me.

Zach: Creatively, our goal was to update the Clydesdale logo, but keep it timeless; closely align with the Budweiser brand and communicate strength and power versus heritage and tradition.

Mark: The Budweiser Clydesdales are a symbol that is recognizable and loved by all ages. The goal was to update the logo so that it would be more relevant and appealing to current Budweiser consumers.

Zach: By the end of this project, Mark was master of the miniscule. Details, details, details. One major thing Mark had to live up to was his extreme attention to detail. With the Budweiser Clydesdales being such a well-known brand, a lot of care goes along with how they are portrayed, leaving little room for artistic interpretation. Mark was a trooper. With tweaks and requests like: dial down the musculature, the eyes are too close, skew closer to the original illustration, the brass color is off and on and on and on.

Mark: Technically speaking, the gradient mesh became my best friend for a few weeks. Creatively, it was very important to listen, listen, listen to all the input from the customer side and turn that into actionable directives.

Zach: We chose to use vector instead of PhotoShop. There were two reasons vector was important for this project:
First, this logo had to be able to be multiple different sizes in a hi-res format (ex. Clothing price tags, rear of the trailer).
Second, doing the logo in vector, we were able convert it to a 1C, 2C and 4C embroidery logo quite easily.

Mark: To create a traditional “painting” in vector art was a stretch and a challenge. We took vector to a new level in that respect. And as Zach said, vector provides the flexibility to use the art at any size. No bitmap worries here.

Zach: The ultimate goal was for the final illustrations to be used on all updated Budweiser Clydesdale communication, vehicles (including their haulers) and promotional materials.

Working with Mark gave us all of this and more. He is understanding and extremely talented. There were times I wanted to let Mark flex his artistic muscles and go rogue, but we couldn’t. We often had to pull back the reigns on each other. He is definitely someone I would work with again, no doubt about it.

Mark: Zach and the crew at Switch were pros. The rapport made me feel like part of the team rather than a hired gun. It was a great time.

How do you create something unique and visually eye-catching for the
second most popular decorating holiday? That’s what Lisa Ballard kept
in the back of her mind as she developed a line of Halloween imagery
for licensing. When you design for halloween, there are 2 main target
audiences, very young children or very young (in spirit) adults. This
product line, called “Scary Silhouettes”, was manufactured by Creative
Converting in Indianapolis.

A character development like this represents an entire company and a product line, so the process can become detailed and extensive. But jumping over hurdles is Von’s specialty, and the final outcome is a striking illustration that will be the foundation of the brand’s overall development.

Mesa, Arizona has a plan. The way they see it, their combination of resources makes them the optimal location for businesses in aviation, healthcare, tourism and education, so they’re launching a move-to-Mesa campaign encouraging those businesses to do just that. For help giving the campaign a visual voice, they brought in Curtis Parker.

His creative challenge: Keep the imagery simple yet bold. Maintain a business approach that covers all the bases. And once the project is underway, preserve the integrity of the original vision amidst a healthy amount of client input. To do this, Curtis worked closely with art director Art Lofgreen at Catapult Strategic Design through the entire process, keeping the ideas flying back and forth like dusty tumbleweeds roaming the Sonoran Desert. (In a business-focused sort of way.)

The end result connects the reader, whether it’s a tourist, teacher or captain of industry, to the city itself. It also connected with the client. The City of Mesa Marketing and Business Development Manager confirmed the positivity about their citywide revamp. “We look forward to promoting the campaign,” he said. “And Curtis Parker’s artistry, too.”

Fresh off her celebrated illustration for the Busy Scrapper launched last year, Lisa Ballard was asked to make a second illustrative appearance for the newest book in the series. Needing a illustration and stand-out type for the front cover, art director Kelly O’Dell knew from her past work with Lisa, that she would be the obvious choice in the continuing success of the book.

Lisa reinforced the scrapbook theme with hand drawn patterns. The fashion forward female figures were designed to appeal to the target audience, tying it all together.

Kelly has this to say about working with Lisa, “I spoke with a couple of representatives in our sales and marketing department and they did say that it’s been well received by Scrapbook stores and we’ve received many positive comments.

From my end, as a designer/art director, Lisa has been nothing short of amazing to work with. She requires very little art direction once she is given a vision. She takes in all feedback and really works with her clients. Communication between us was great, as she is open to suggestions, changes/tweaks, and really tries to push herself as an illustrator to give us exactly what we want. This being the second book I used Lisa for, I’m continually impressed by how much life she brings to her illustrations. They truly do speak for themselves. I love her bold colors and her overall style is very trendy. Her personality is very laid back, easy to work with, and I’ve never had any issues with her not meeting deadlines. I thoroughly enjoy working with Lisa and hope to work with her again in the near future.”

SHA Artist/Illustrator: Lorraine Tuson
Art /Design Director: Sheri Myers
Project: Riddel Williams Brand: Holiday Card

Lorraine Tuson, consummate illustrator for the law firm Riddell Williams, has done it again. For the past several years Lorraine has taken on the enjoyable project of illustrating series of images for the company’s brochure and then eventually translating them into holiday cards.

This year Lorraine transformed the focal image of a flower made up of hands and turned it into a wreath with a ribbon. This changed the color palette completely and gave them a decidedly different interpretation of their classic brand identity.

Lorraine is a key element in keeping the law firm’s look and brand fresh and updated. She took the old and made it new. Art director Sheri Myers has this to say about the working relationship with Lorraine, “The past three years, I have worked with Lorraine to transform one of the original branding illustrations she created for Riddell Williams into a winter scene for our annual holiday card. This transformation process allows us to retain the branding of the illustration, while expanding its usage, giving us more bang for our buck. Lorraine has been fantastic to work with and has created a beautiful transformation again this year.”

Click here to see Lorraine Tuson’s striking illustrations throughout the Riddell William’s website.
Also see: Lorraine’s portfolio