Scott Hull Associates

Art Director for Marietta College, Tom Perry, was searching for an artist to help visually express the celebration of their 175 yr. anniversary. He found the perfect fit with Scott Hull Associates, Penelope Dullaghan. Known to be organic in her approach and keen in her ability to tune right in to what the client needs, Penelope was the obvious artist to request. The illustration was to be featured as a special cover on the campus magazine, and needed to be classic, yet still modern and eye-catching.

Penelope notes that, “The campus is brick lined and has lots of trees and a sort of ‘New England’ feel. They wanted to have the image reflect the fall season. So I first sketched a bunch of ideas focusing on the campus trees and bricks. But it felt a little impersonal and this school is, of course, all about the students. So I drew a student reading beneath a tree. I covered part of her face so students could sort of project themselves onto her. And played with perspective to make the composition interesting and engaging.”

Penelope continues her process by elucidating, “I had reasons to leave the sky and ground the same color: It simplified the piece overall, both in composition and in color palette. That way the masthead could be the only strong horizontal. And the background remained simple to again, allow the main focus on the piece to be with the figure. I sent off my reasoning expecting to be asked to change it, but was pleasantly surprised when they came back and said that it all made perfect sense and once they tried it in the layout, they agreed whole-heartedly.”

The college was deeply satisfied with the finished illustration. Tom Perry praises Penelope lavishly, “Wow! That was all we could say when we got that first glimpse of the illustration Penelope did for Marietta College’s fall magazine. It was a pleasure to work with her on this project—from the concept phase to the final product. Penelope took the time to listen to our desires and fears, and made sure to incorporate that into the illustration. We had many concerns because we thought what we wanted would not be easy to illustrate. Our goal was to have an illustration that would be timeless as we tried to represent our 175th anniversary. Penelope hit a home run, and our alumni and friends noticed because we have had many people contact us to express how much they loved the image as the cover on our magazine.”

Our own Penelope Dullaghan, artist and new mother extraordinaire, was beautifully featured in Communication Arts magazine this month. The interview pried gracefully into to her process and showcased her quirky, adventurous, and fresh style of art perfectly.

When asked what her favorite quote is, Penelope characteristically responds with, “ ‘A ship is safe in harbor, but that’s not what ships are for.’ I have no idea who said it, but it always makes me braver.”

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Scott Hull Associates is honored to contribute to the birth of First Read; an international not-for-profit organization dedicated to supporting and encouraging family literacy and education in poor communities around the world. They distribute high quality books for young children and parents, support families to learn together, and help communities provide early childhood care and education. Founder Joseph O’Rielly needed someone to convey the mission of the organization along with a sense of optimism that is imperative to their work. Working with a limited budget, the design needed to be easily recognizable and have a warm friendly feel while conveying the idea of families learning together. The brand would be targeting a wide audience of interested individuals, prospective supporters, and international policy and decision makers. Penelope Dullaghan was just the girl for the job.

Joseph firmly believes that the identity Penelope created for them made a vital contribution to the entire work of First Read. “…We are trying to establish ourselves at a challenging time economically in what already is a highly competitive market, we know the critical importance of effectively communicating what we do. And working with Penelope was an absolute pleasure.” He goes on to say that she was prompt and clear in all her communication and gave him a real sense of confidence in her at every stage of the process through her genuine enthusiasm and understanding of the project.

Penelope started brainstorming and decided on the final idea of a parent/adult and a child reading together. This seemed to convey the special moment and intimacy that reading together can bring. Penelope says she chose elephants as the characters, both because the project is starting in Africa and because elephants are known to support their young for a very long period of time, forming close relationships and particularly tight family bonds.

Joseph concludes by telling us, “When Penelope presented us with what she’d been working on, she did it so well, I knew immediately that what she was about to present was going to be fantastic, and it was.”

Penelope Dullaghan is on the newsstands again! This time Penelope was featured in Mary Engelbreit’s Home Companion as an artist/designer on their radar. The article is a two-page spread showcasing a mix of her life and art.

Beautiful visuals as a sound business strategy

Participants in the event included 47 creative talents from Landor, LPK, BrandImage, FRCH, Marsh, Bridge, F&W to name a few.  SHA artists in attendance were: John Maggard, Lisa Ballard, Penelope Dullaghan, Michael Bast, Geoff Smith, Von Glitschka, Andy Hayes, Greg LaFever, and Mark Riedy.

There are 6,000 related design jobs in the Cincinnati area, but we invited only a select group. These thinkers strive for excellence and are consumed by finding creative, innovative and effective ways to reach their customer, and their client’s customer. And we all want to push each other forward.

The goals of this “town meeting” were to:

1. Get to know each other better
2. Determine how, together, we can make the creative process more effective.

If you’re going to talk art and effectiveness, where better to meet than the American Sign Museum? Like illustration, signage is a tool that evokes a response in seconds. Museum founder Tod Swormstedt took attendees on tours to see some outstanding examples of the art, all on display in the only public sign museum in America. We saw vintage signs of all kinds, from fancy gold leaf glass to pre-neon era light bulb creations, through neon’s heyday in the 20s–40s and on into the plastic era of the funky 50s.

Our group of artists has come to realize that Original Art Works through three key components: Originality, Collaboration and Results. As the Visual Ambassador, my job is to bring together (collaboration) artists and visual communicators to help the process of creating effective art that evokes response while sticking in your mind.

It was a great reminder of what our group of artists has come to realize: Original Art Works. And like always, this happens through Originality, Collaboration and Results. During the tours and talks I reflected on my job as Visual Ambassador—bringing together artists and visual communicators (that’s the Collaboration part) to help in the process of creating Original, effective art that evokes a response and sticks in the audience’s mind. As we see time and time again, that leads to measurable Results for our clients. Here are some of the opinions that came out in the group discussion. (Bear with me; my notes are a little sketchy since the ideas were flowing so fast.)

ORIGINALITY

How do you stay fresh or original?

• Look for trends, good advertising was evident in the 60’s because of independent thinkers.
• Industry trend: in the early 90’s we had 5 communication tools; direct mail, telephone, TV, radio, print and display.  Today there are 32 marketing communication tools and counting.
• Clients are complicated.  You need to collect inspiration, journal thoughts and trends.

How do you search for art?

• The foundation is the Internet, Googling names and keywords.
• It’s not who you know, it’s who knows you. Top of mind. Being at the right place at the right time.
• Print material is still good at catching attention as long as it has some purpose.

When you have used stock illustration, what was the reasoning behind your decision?

• Budget, time and trust.
• Stock is becoming a bad habit to find a solution, cheating your client of a creative solution.
• Clients do not realize the cost vs. value invested in time to search vs. time to sketch; so they revert to old habits
• “The computer is the synthetic of the real thing” – Michael Bast

COLLABORATION

Many creative minds instinctively want to work alone. But in the end we all know it’s better to work with someone than for someone. It’s about streamlining the process by becoming adaptive thinkers. That’s the ideal—many people working together, with a shared set of values and objectives, to achieve visual results that truly make a difference.

At what point in your process would you contact and involve an illustrator?

• After embracing customers and their ideas we drive a process of not simply solving the problem for them, but assuring that the client is part of the process.
• Most agency staff is weak in drawing but still overlooks outsourcing help in the presentation.
• Younger staff is not sure how to talk to illustrators, relying on the Internet for finding quick visual solutions.

Do you view an illustrator as a Creative Resource or Finished Artist?
Presently as a finished art source.  Audience has overlooked the illustrator as part of the process.

Tell us what helps you make your jobs more effective?

• Every artist has particular affinity and strengths. By taking advantage of the diversity we can not only maximize the creative potential, but also match it to the challenge at hand— expanding their creative potential.
• Better presentation or prototypes.
• It would help if we introduced a process in “Working Virtual”.  This would help set time frames and build communication samples. How can you log in to one source with a creative brief?  This is something we could test using SHA conference calls.

RESULTS

More than just sales figures, results mean a successful working relationship.  Sometimes, just getting the job printed is a success.

What was your best job?  Why was it successful for you and your client?  What is your best compliment?
The fact that the project gets produced is a huge compliment.

That about wraps up what I have here in my notes. If you were part of the discussions at Art On The Road Town Meeting, thank you.

Best regards,
Scott Hull