At Scott Hull Associates we want to help you teach your customer how to get more out of your communications by bringing in outside help.

Most companies generate a steady stream of print communications, websites, packaging, trade show exhibits, ads, manuals, presentations, etc. When you add to the list, new emerging opportunities through social media, operational processes, brand training, decision making, business strategy, and thought leadership– you begin to appreciate why most companies feel the need to cut costs by managing all of this in-house.
Before you or your customer think about building an in-house creative program, you need to address the problem that has plagued internal departments since the days of “Mad Men”.

As soon as a designer is hired, the perceived value of their talents depreciates faster than a new car in a showroom. Within months the new in-house group will be inundated with low-level tasks and excluded from high-level conversations.

The cure for vanishing value when going internal is going outside for a new creative perspective. This will give you and your company a breath of fresh air and an organic outlook from a visual specialist who has the skills to create something that does the job, but in a more unique way.

Drawing from my years of experience, I can offer the following 3 tips for working with visual specialists.

1 Hire a visual specialist early in the project’s conception, to work together with you as a single team. This way you will reverse the 20th century business model that has become a training ground for non-collaboration.

2 More of a benefit than a tip, hiring a visual specialist can promote innovation while lowering costs. It can be scaled up or down at a moment’s notice. Hiring a high performance artist can turn a confused and vaguely represented organization into a coherent leading entity, thereby raising long-term value.

3 Since the outside is where you find the best-of-breed visual specialists, many visual building skills needed to execute brand related projects should more often than not, be outsourced. But brand and design management should never be outsourced. Your brand needs to remain strong and consistent through various strategy shifts.

After all, there are only two choices. Win by being more ordinary, generic and cheaper. Or win by being faster, more remarkable, and more human.

Curtis Parker worked with Jeff Stammen, art director at Christopher Chadbourne & Associates, and created 4 murals for the Tampa Bay History Center. Curtis admits, “Personally, my favorite piece was the Tampa Bay’s Cigar factory illustration”. Apparently, the folks at the Society of Illustrators felt the same way.

Curtis was awarded the silver medal. The creative process went very smoothly, with all the clients and committees involved unanimously agreeing that Curtis’s visual solution perfectly captured the history of Tampa Bay’s Cigar Industry. Jeff Stammen asked the Center’s curators not to change a thing. He also told the client at the museum that, “They were getting more than expected.”

Curtis says, “I have to hand it to the client and the art director for giving me such creative freedom. I enjoyed working with them and the easy working relationship made the project fun.”

Curtis describes finding out about his award, “When Anelle Miller from Society of Illustrators called me, I assured her that my entry check was good. She laughed and told me that seven of my pieces were accepted in the Illustrator’s 52 show and that the mural had won a silver medal. I was blown away. I feel really honored and very lucky.”

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 her 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. Spanning centuries of artists, Clint’s goal was to bridge the differences between the people on the very diverse timeline. Clint used a variety of resources and references, often of very poor quality, to maintain a consistent feel and create a series of engaging historical portraits.

The biggest challenge to this series was creating a consistent style of illustration when the source imagery was so varied. For some illustrations they had actual photographs to reference, because the characters lived recently. However, some people did not even have formal portraits to reference and we had to rely on other illustrations or iconography that was centuries old.

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.”

Title of Project: Psyched for Surgery

Target audience: More magazine is geared towards celebrating women over 40.

What was the creative challenge? The challenge was to address the issue of trying to emotionally and mentally prepare for surgery. Our basic direction to Lorraine was to somehow create a tranquil scene within what would typically be considered a stringent and clinical environment

How did Lorraine resolve the challenge? She combined the yoga pose with a woman lying on a surgery table, thus transforming the table with visually calming and meditative elements. The patient looks at peace and in control, the subtlety of the surgical elements further supports the idea of suppressing your fears before surgery.

Describe the final outcome of the project: It looks great! I’m so glad we finally had the chance to work together, since I’ve been admiring Lorraine’s work for some time. She was the perfect choice for the assignment and she was an absolute pleasure to work with. I hope to work with her again soon.

Title of Project: 2009 Holiday Gift Guide Cover

Target audience: Philadelphian urbanites in the 18-45 demographic.

What was the creative challenge? To create an eye-catching cover illustration to entice readers to explore Philly’s annual gift guide, without being holiday-specific. It needed to be colorful enough to draw our readers in from street level and have a broad appeal.

How did Meg resolve the challenge? She chose a winter-feel for the illustration, drawing a reindeer whose antlers were hung with presents and ornaments of all colors. The color scheme was purposefully chosen to not reflect the usual holiday style, which gave it a warm and welcoming feel.

Describe the final outcome of the project: Excellent, it was one of my favorite projects to have worked on. Besides being extremely professional, Meg was a great communicator, and always delivered sketches and finals on time.

German publication, Illustration Index, recently did a four-spread article on Scott Hull Associates illustrator, Penelope Dullaghan. The international book is fashioned after American based books like Type Idea Index, Design Essentials Index, and Color Index, series that are available here in the US.

Interviewed in English by Claudia Herling, then translated into German, Penelope talks about how she first became an illustrator, how she chooses color for different pieces, and some favorite projects worked on. Most of the illustrators featured in the book are living in Germany, so Penelope’s showcase was undeniably an honor.

Penelope has this to say about her international recognition, “I was very flattered that they included my work as an example of art created in the US. I picture all the German people reading this and scratching their heads wondering ‘Where in the world is Indiana, USA?’ ”

Client: Metaleap Design/ Paste Magazine

Title of Project: New Records in Old Cabins; Listening to my Life: Night Rounds

Describe your target audience/client base: Influential independent music aficionados within the 18-35 year old demographic.

What creative/business goals did you have with this project? We sought to visually represent the environment that writer Jenna Sandgate lives in from a creative and fun perspective. We wanted to engage readers and lead them visually into the article in the magazine.

What was the creative challenge? To create a portrait of Jenna, who blogs at Cold Antler Farm, about her adventures of homesteading and farming in Vermont, as well as her love of music. The image was to accompany an opinion piece Jenna wrote for Paste. We wanted to be sure to have the writer’s likeness represented in the illustration. Meg did a fantastic job of placing her in a few different environments before we decided on the final direction.

How did Meg resolve the challenge? To quote from Meg herself, “I read through a large part of Jenna’s blog to understand her experiences and passions. From there I tried to capture her lively personality and the things she loves and surrounds herself with. I attempted to visually convey her lifestyle of being ‘alive with the sound of music’.”

Describe the final outcome of the project: The finished piece shows Jenna surrounded by the animals, plants, and music she shares time with on her farm. It does a great job of transporting the reader into her world, enveloped in music and companionship in an otherwise isolated environment. Meg went with a quirky flowing style to play up the musical element of the story.

Jenna herself was so pleased with the finished product that she posted the image to her personal blog and commented on how much she really enjoy the portrait, “I got to write a full page essay for the new issue of Paste, which I was beyond thrilled about. Also, they hired the illustrator Meg Hunt to do this picture of me for the piece and she managed to really capture Cold Antler Farms!”

Tell us specifically about your experience working with our artist: My experience with Meg is certainly one of the best I’ve had with any illustrator. She creates such great, lush, colorful artwork that really captures the feeling of whatever piece she is illustrating. She is super easy to work with and a great person to boot!

http://coldantlerfarm.blogspot.com
http://www.pastemagazine.com/

View Artist’s Portfolio

Scott Hull Associates weird-o in residence, Grant Gilliland, was recently interviewed, photographed, and cajoled (it didn’t take that much) by the Sharpie Blog into making custom illustrated “Sharpie-art” you can personally order online for only $20! Sounds too good to be true, we know. But it’s not. This one-of-a-kind artist who describes himself as “1/2 cup of season, 1 Ren & Stimpy mix, 4 tsp of Surrealism, 1 page of The Maxx comic book, shredded, 2 small vinyl figures from Kid Robot, massaged in oil, 1 Sonic the Hedgehog cartridge (Sega Genesis) quartered and cut into large pieces, and 1 pot strong black coffee” is willing to do this just for you.

Click here to read the full (hilarious) interview with Grant the Gross Uncle!

View Artist’s Portfolio

Penelope Dullaghan is a quite a busy lady. Between juggling motherhood, a successful and highly trafficked blog (illustrationfriday.com), a yoga obsession, and voraciously creating at all times, she is also a highly recognized and affluent illustrator with Scott Hull Associates. Working with clients that include, Target, Starbucks, United Airlines, the New York Times, LA Times Book Review, Harper Collins, O, The Oprah Magazine, Society of Illustrators, and the Baltimore Sun—she would in no way be considered a novice, despite her relatively young age.

Interviewed by Tiffany Meyer, the Communication Arts magazine article showcases a wide variety of Penelope’s work and gives an intimate glimpse into her charming personality, that is no doubt, a huge part of the reason for her success. “Penny is a delight to work with.” is something we have heard here at SHA more often than not, from very satisfied clients.

When CA chose her for a main feature in the Jan./Feb. issue, Penny was thrilled. She graciously says, “I’m just very grateful to be featured. It’s a huge honor and a milestone in my career. And I’m blessed to have it happen so young in my career as an illustrator.”

Penelope’s illustrations are her signature. You can spot them a mile away. Her sense of the organic is timeless, relevant, and beautiful. Her joyful personality resonates within the pieces she creates.

Part of her continuous artistic renewal is that Penelope takes nothing for granted. She has a very distinct mantra for her life and for her art, “My philosophy is that I’m fortunate to get to do art for a living, and that fortune favors those who bust their butts.”

So far, it’s working famously.

View Artist’s Portfolio

Curtis Parker has illustrated the New Year cover issue for Barron’s Financial Forecast over the past eleven years. So naturally, the creative challenge each year is to make sure it stands apart from all the previous years’ covers.

Facing a readership of predominately stock market investors, art director Pamela Budz had the concept of the bear and bull sitting in the rubble of the past year’s economy and giving each other a rousing New Year’s toast. Curtis immediately took this idea and embellished it with the background of the city in ruins to communicate the idea of the economy is shambles. Contrasted with the decaying ‘financial city’ around them, the Bull and Bear, like the Barron’s reader, is surprisingly still optimistic, cheerful, even celebratory, for the future and its possibilities. Pamela has this to say about working with Curtis over the past decade, “I’ve worked with Curtis for many years. His illustration truly has a magical aura. It’s strong both conceptually and visually — with beautifully crafted lines, composition and color. It makes any project I’m working on look special. Additionally, he’s just the nicest guy who makes me believe that my ideas are wonderful.”

Curtis says, “I asked Pam a question regarding some aspect of the bear and bull behavior in the painting and there was a pause before she said, ‘How long have you been doing these?’ Meaning, ‘I should know by now.’ Of course that is part of the challenge– to keep it fresh and organic.” Obviously, through his decade of successful illustrating for the company, Curtis has no problem with that.

View Artist Portfolio

As the decade I like to call the twenty-oh’s ends, think what a transformational change we have all witnessed in our culture. We are moving from selling facts to buying benefits. We all know where we are. But I think many of us have forgotten where we were, and just how dramatically things have changed in the last few years. What are you doing different this year? Better yet, what’s on your STOP DOING list?

That’s right, what are you going to STOP doing? We spend so much time thinking how to navigate our lives, why not stop the chaos?

The twenty-oh’s was the digital decade for bubbles. The twenty-teens will be the decade for D.I.Y. busting of the bubbles of life’s chaos. Time to get cracking.

Focus on what you have, not what you’re missing.
-Scott Hull

Read below to see what the rest of our illustrious illustrators have to say on the subject of “what to stop doing” in the New Year:

	I’m going to stop making excuses and find more time to make other things. 2010 shall be my year of making, and I will work as hard as I can to branch out and explore! -Meg Hunt
	I’m going to stop underestimating the possibilities. -Mark Riedy
	I want to stop doing anything that doesn’t blend my art with purposeful and meaningful application. I love it when I can use my talents to further influence in a positive way. I want to keep growing and exploring new ways to create great visual pieces and have them have a supportive audience. -Andrea Eberbach
	I am going to stop procrastinating. At least, next month I will take a look at that idea. -Curtis Parker
	I’ll stop making promises I can’t, or don’t want to keep–maybe that’s two things… -John Maggard
	Everything seems to be a risk now-a-days, so I’m preparing to take more creative risks myself. That means 12 months of living in the “No Comfort Zone.” -Von Glitschka
	I believe that it’s the perfect time for me to quit “cold turkey” my habit of doubting everything. So from now on, I will dropkick the doubt, and put trust in its place. The only thing that will stand in between me and my aspirations will be thoughts of bigger, better aspirations. -Grant Gilliland
	What? A “stop doing” list!? All these years I’ve been trying to change my language to positive and pro active, intentional and forward thinking. My Monty Pythonesque ‘bright side’ repertoire, as it were. And now you want me to actually commit to beginning the New Year with a proclamation that has a negative in it?! Can I bring myself to do it? …Oh alright. Here it is. “I am going to stop being so difficult”. -Lorraine Tuson
	I think I’m going to stop reading all non-fiction and add some fiction in for fun. -Penelope Dullaghan
	I am going to stop doing the same things over and over again expecting different results. –Dave Reinbold
	I am going to stop waiting for an email. What I mean by this is that I am going to be more proactive instead of reactive. I find myself waiting with bated breath for the next email-based job inquiry. Instead, I am going to work harder at establishing relationships with new customers. -Lisa Ballard

Why is this year different from the past years?
To start with, I’m a little wiser. As a result of the current market, the world of creativity and business is changing and I’m seeing opportunities to take our artists and myself, to a whole new level. With the passion of Scott Hull Associates to help others, it comes down to bridging the gap between creative and corporate. Collaboration and understanding the new culture of business is very important in creating a successful visual brand image. With insights learned from the challenging economy, we are excited not about only a new year, but a new decade.

What would you consider your “mantra” for the coming new year to be?
Original Art Works through Collaboration. I’m viewing 2010 as a new year of effective creativity. When resources are constrained, the key to growth is teaming up an analytic left-brain thinker with an imaginative right-brain partner. Look at the latest articles in Harvard Business Reviews, Business Week, or Fast Company magazines; they are blending creative and business minds.

What role does the client’s target customer or end user play in everyday business?
The new business model is building products around consumer needs, not the business needs. This is where original artwork can help client’s empower their customer. This is because original art can be tailored to more specific emotions of a targeted customer.

How important is open communication with a client?
Now more than ever, marketing executives and artists must listen and understand what the client is trying to say/achieve. The closer we can get to define the elements of a client’s desired customer experience, the more value, longevity, and uniqueness we can offer.

Why do you need a company like Scott Hull Associates?
STATUS QUO IS IN BIG TROUBLE. People yearn for change, they relish being part of a movement and they talk about things that are remarkable, not boring. I’m excited for the new era of visual branding. The marketplace (every marketplace) rewards innovation: things that are fresh, stylish, and new. After all, the best way to teach is through the eye and the hand. It’s harder to retain what we hear. Listen with your eyes!

We have had the privilege of working with some of the best and brightest in the art world. And I would like to personally thank them all for such incredible business over the years and a continued partnership into the new decade.

Doug Knopp, art director for Visual Marketing Associates, started his search for the perfect artist by speaking personally with Scott Hull, then went to the SHA website and picked a style appropriate for the client. Doug and his team discussed each style of each artist they were interested in and landed on Curtis because of his sophisticated approach to the theme. Curtis Parker offered his stylistic solutions to give the school a visual voice.

The school wanted the concept of the illustration to support the tagline for the Bell Tower magazine…”Connecting Schoolcraft College Alumni & Friends”. It’s all about cultivating and sustaining a lifelong relationship with Schoolcraft College’s extended family of alumni, students, faculty, staff and the community at large.

So why did Doug and his colleagues decide to go with art versus photography? Several reasons. The client had an illustrated idea of what they wanted. It would set them apart, from most collage magazines that are driven by photos. Always a big fan of illustration, they wanted to go against the grain. Their final outcome must be more customized than stylized. Marrying both style of illustration with the architecture within in the school. They wanted something tactile and approachable.

Curtis describes the initial stages of starting the process, “The school has a bell tower on campus so I wanted to connect all the alumni to this tower. I thought it might be cool to have the alumni crowd holding on to the bell ropes as the ropes weaved their way through the crowd.”

The finished product was described in a brief but effective statement from Doug, “The client is ecstatic.” That’s about the best response any director can hope for. He also went on to say, “The staff is excited about new style the magazine is taking via the illustration. We absolutely loved working with Curtis. He started with thumbnail sketches, so we had a sense of what final illustration would look like. And we were more than thrilled with the final outcome. Conceptually, it was spot-on.”

Client: Starbucks – print and web campaigns. Agencies: Tribal DDB for web and TracyLocke for print.

Target audience: Art director for the project, Stephanie Hancock says, “The Frappuccino campaign is called ‘You Deserve One,’ and it centers around rewarding people for doing the day to day things in life that often go unnoticed. In short, consumers can come to the site and nominate a friend who deserves a Frappuccino by creating a webpage for them which features their friend’s photo and story. Penelope’s illustrations served as the background to all these nominations.”

What was the creative challenge? For the web portion of this work, the challenge was creating each element of the illustration on a separate layer to be animated easily. For the print work, the challenge was to incorporate the pour from the Frappuccino bottle into the scene, kind of creating the space for the figures to be enjoying their found free moments.

How did you resolve the challenge? For the web, it was really fun to think up elements in each scene that could be animated. For instance, with the beach scene, I drew a fiddler crab, a seagull, the ocean tide, sailboat, etc. It was no problem creating each of these on different layers because my work style is a mixture of hand-made elements compiled digitally. So I was able to deliver a layered final file to the animators and make their jobs easy.
For the print campaign, we wanted to evoke a feeling of relaxation. So the figures look like they’ve found these spare moments to take a break and enjoy a Frappuccino.

What was the final outcome of the project? For just recently being launched, the campaign is a big hit. The website http://you-deserve-one.com/ has a lot of participant nominations for those who deserves it most.

Stephanie compliments Penny by saying, “It was such a pleasure working with Penelope. We’ll definitely look to Scott Hull Associates and his team for future illustration needs.”

Penelope was extensively interviewed and will be gracing a feature in the upcoming issue of CA magazine—so keep your eyes open!

Check out the pieces below:

Be on the look out for the January/February issue of Communication Arts, which features our illustrator Penelope Dullaghan.

Today’s marketing is about engaging with the audience and delivering products and services with stories that connect. We need to be part of a team that relates and then spreads the stories that get others to notice the trends. All you need is the desire. Take the initiative and make things happen. The organization that needs innovation the most is the one that does the most to stop it from happening. Realizing this is a tremendous opportunity.

People yearn for change, they relish being part of a movement, and they talk about things that are remarkable, not boring. Every marketplace rewards innovation, things that are fresh, stylish, genuine, and innovative.

Being part of a team that relates is a must! Over the years, our job during the execution phase has been to roll out art by the deadline. And today that means building an ever-widening support base of like-minded thinkers with the same passion– to create. We must collaborate to make a difference visually on the world. Never stop selling your passion to create! Never stop recruiting followers!

And finally, don’t lose the emotion; don’t let these hard economic times dry you up. Just as important as keeping the deadline, you must keep it WOW! Face it: The project execution can be emotionally draining. I can speak first hand regarding this. It’s easy for the big project to slip away slowly and imperceptibly. Go back to first principles and see whether you’re still on course emotionally. Bring in a new recruit to your team, someone with fresh energy and enthusiasm. But don’t lose the energy that created the project in the first place.

The ones that are willing to embrace the challenges rather than be threatened by them will bring prosperity and reign with growth and renewal. Keep in mind that your latest project should be the “brand of you”. No one will know about you if you don’t knuckle down and take care of the customer. Let him or her know what value you bring to their business. We can only do this together– as a team that relates.

VisualAmbassador.com

SHA Artist/Illustrator: Larry Moore and Andrea Eberbach
Art /Design Director: Jay Jung
Project: Panera in store murals

Panera’s brand is focused around artisan breads with a lifestyle element. Within that perimeter, the art directors for the world famous company are trying to build a visual brand image, through illustration. They selected Larry Moore and Andrea Eberbach because of their contemporary styles. With each artist working on a separate project, Andrea’s illustrations were placed in west coast stores, Larry’s on the east coast.

Larry had this to say about working with Panera, “While Jay was very forthcoming about what he wanted, he was also very clear about what he didn’t want. He didn’t want people sitting around in a café eating. No clichés. He wanted something broader. Jay explained the visual he wanted, of two worlds connected by a baker and his peel (the long-handled bread spatula). The next part was easy.”

Larry’s work was geared more towards the European neighborhood feel (pictorial scenes), which was depicted through his plein air style. While Andrea’s illustrations were focused on stronger graphics and shapes. Her style represented the individual in daily life, enjoying the comfort of home, relationships, etc.

Jay Jung, Panera’s Vice President Design Creative, first worked with Andrea, Larry, and assorted other Scott Hull Associates artists a few years back when developing other artistic visuals for the eateries. Jay says, “In my past experience with these artists, knowing the strength and visual impact that both Andrea and Larry have given brands, I knew that with their artistic deftness combined, it would be an impactful and elevated look and feel. I knew the results would make Panera a stand-alone collector.”

The CEO of Panera fell in love with the paintings so much, that the original art is hanging in his personal office.

SHA Artist/Illustrator: Greg LaFever
Art/Design Director: Greg Fehrenbach
Project: Value Dossier on Thoracic Surgery; Medical Illustration of Lungs

What creative/business goals did you have with this project?
We were asked to translate an 80+ page Word document of information, graphs and surgical procedure images into a comprehensive, branded communication tool. It was determined that the client would benefit from the ability to use these illustrations in future marketing communications.

Describe your target audience/client base:
Our client is a leading manufacturer and marketer of surgical devices. The target audience is both field sales reps and C-Suite decision-makers for health care providers (i.e. Humana, Anthem Blue Cross & Blue Shield, etc.)

Were there any special hurdles or requirements that the artist had to address?
Greg had to do some research to help him develop the illustrations of lung anatomy. Additionally, he had only 10 days in which to deliver final art, including illustrative time. He met the deadline spot-on.

Describe the final outcome of the project:
Greg created 16 illustrations that helped communicate complex procedural information to a non-surgical minded audience.

Tell us specifically about your experience working with our artist:
It was easy to secure client approval on the illustrations Greg developed for us due to how clean and precise his sketch work is. I was impressed by how quickly Greg was able to take his pencil sketches to final digital art. He was also able to make revisions without hesitation or increase in budget. Greg was easy to communicate with and responsive to our needs throughout the project. We look forward to the opportunity to work with him and Scott on future projects.

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