Drawing attention to your story
Posted by Guy Downes on December 24, 2009 under Illustration | 
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Merry Christmas 2009 - here's to 2010!
To everyone I have worked with in 2009 and for anyone who has followed my work - thank you for your continued support, Merry Christmas and best wishes for 2010.
Posted by Guy Downes on December 22, 2009 under Illustration | Be the First to Comment
Sparkling Christmas Wishes!
Here’s the 2009 Christmas card I recently created and illustrated for Your Body Works – a successful and growing specialised Applied Kinesiology Chiropratic healthcare and Allied Health Clinic in Brisbane.
This card has been sent to all their clients, suppliers and people who have had any type of interaction with the clinic over the past year — that’s quite a few people! My idea and purpose with this illustration was to add lots of slap-in-the-face bright colours to make it really memorable and fun to look at. Plus to include ‘Bod’, the clinic’s happy and flexible brand character, decorating the Christmas tree!
The final card...hot off the press & looking hot!
Posted by Guy Downes on December 11, 2009 under Illustration | Be the First to Comment
'Make it so I lose fat while washing the dishes'
I recently completed a series of 11 original cartoons for the Engineers Australia ‘Make it so’ campaign. My illustrations were based on the notion that engineers and engineering teams ‘make it so’ by listening to what people want and communities need and turn these wishes into reality.
The cartoons supported a media relations outreach campaign to consumer journalists who were asked to dream up what they would like to be ‘made so’.
I brought each journalist’s idea to life in a cartoon which was then sent to them as a follow up after their interviews by the agency running the campaign, Pulse Communications. Media involved ranged from magazines such as Madison, Better Homes & Gardens, K-Zone to Girlfriend.
'Make it so my lazy kids are flipped out of bed when I press a button'
From late February 2010, in a world first competition, Australians will be called upon to visit a dedicated website www.makeitso.org.au to share their dream, wish or idea and one lucky person will have it ‘made so’.
The unique competition is a part of a new public awareness campaign by Engineers Australia’s that aims to lift the curtain on what engineers actually do, by involving everyday Australians in the world of engineering in a fun and entertaining way.
'Make it so our precious Great Barrier Reef doesn't disappear'
From bridges to Blackberrys, drinking water to the Water Cube and plastic knees to petrol-free cars – engineers ‘make it so.’
'Make it so a remote control does my homework for me when I press a button'
'Make it so I can teleport from my wardrobe to the shops and back again at any time'
Posted by Guy Downes on December 8, 2009 under Graphic Recording | Be the First to Comment
Capturing the conversation as it happens
After about eight hours, working in three rooms, creating five massive posters and listening intently non-stop, I recently wrapped up a great day’s graphic recording at the ‘SPICE it UP!: activities programming for 9-12s’ conference in South West Sydney. SPICE stands for ‘social, physical, intellectual, creativity and emotional’.
‘The 9 – 12’s Project’ is an initiative to enhance activities programming for 9 – 12’s in the Metro South West Sydney Region. A key goal is to improve access to activities that promote positive development for children aged 9 – 12 and I recently created the logo for this fantastic initiative: http://guydownes.com.au/2009/12/logo-design-for-9-12s-kids-activities-programming/
Ideas, themes, thoughts captured in colour - as it happens!
The conference covered topics such as social inclusion and healthy communities, approaches to creative play, innovative approaches to working with 9-12s and plans for 2010. Lots of great content to visually capture.
Largest poster: about 8m long!
My posters are being used in future planning reports as well as being laminated to act as internal communication tools to remind people of the detailed content and conversation on the day.
Poster section in detail: colour, ideas, energy!
Posted by Guy Downes on December 6, 2009 under Cartoons | Be the First to Comment
Interest rate rise...
Plus ça change, plus c’est la même chose… I sketched this cartoon about two years ago when interest rate rises floated higher and really hit people stretching to pay a mortgage. Today, similar headlines are in the news.
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration | Be the First to Comment
VeryGOLDCOAST: media activity storyboard
In early November, the ‘Gold Coast Bikini Bar’ injected a taste of Summer to Sydney office workers and passers-by who may have been dreaming of a break or weekend getaway.
My role, working with Pulse Communications who led the VeryGOLD COAST launch, was to develop a series of storyboards showing how the event and format would shape up during the morning.
I sketched how the event would look before, during and afterwards. The key aim was to give the client a ’sense’ of the proposed order of events before the actual launch date. On the day itself, my storyboards were also used to brief other suppliers such as the photographer and the logistics team making sure everyone was on the same page.
The Gold Coast Bikini Bar let passers-by find out about the latest Gold Coast beach trends and learn what the Gold Coast offers summer holiday seekers. In addition, the original founder of the bikini in Australia and one of Australia’s leading swimwear designers also took part in the event. To check out some of the media coverage, click here.
VeryGOLDCOAST: lights, camera, action
VeryGOLDCOAST: pre-launch main area storyboard
VeryGOLDCOAST: main area
VeryGOLDCOAST: post-launch activity storyboard
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration | Be the First to Comment
Marketeers in a meeting
Working with Impact Employee Communications earlier this year, I was commissioned to help turn the content of a ‘word-heavy’ powerpoint presentation (that a Lion Nathan senior executive was giving to a large internal audience) into cartoon strip-style illustrations. The objective was to help the senior executive present the data as a story in a compelling yet clean and simple way – allowing them to move away from powerpoints slides overloaded with data and information. You can see the illustration style I used reflects this brief - it’s very minimalist using clean black and white line drawings. Here are a few more illustration frames to give you a sense of what I did:
Brainstorm in session
Market research
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration | Be the First to Comment
In search of the data driven enterprise
About six months ago while at Howorth (an Ogilvy PR company), I was thrown a dream and ‘carte blanche’ illustration brief by Luca Penati and his Ogilvy PR Tech Practice team in San Francisco. I was given the opportunity to humanise and ‘bring to life’ the business benefits of Informatica’s data integration software and approach in a cartoon strip. The cartoon strip was used in the new business meeting and Ogilvy PR were successful in winning the Informatica PR business. I’d like to think my cartoon strip was one ingredient in delivering a fresh approach to telling an important technology and business story.
My idea was to illustrate the key issues around data integration – by illustrating a CIO working late at night on an impossible deadline and drowning in data. Enter stage left: The Informatica D.I. (data integration) Patrol! A highly skilled, high impact unit that swoop in to help any CIO that they pick up on their ‘D.I. disaster’ radar who is drowning in data. By swooping in to help the CIO deploy Informatica’s platform and solutions the Patrol blast away the data integration disaster and transform the business into a data-driven enterprise!
It was a lot of fun (thank you Luca and team) and I really enjoy this type of brief : translating a complex and important business technology issue into a fun, light-hearted and easy-to-read cartoon. Here are some frames to give you a flavour:
It's late on a sweltering night in Data City...
Don't panic Jim!
Stand back Jim - this won't take long!
Posted by Guy Downes on under Illustration | Be the First to Comment
9-12s activities do matter
Activities for kids really do matter and can make such a positive impact. Kids benefit on so many levels such as: exercise, friendships, new skills, building self-esteem and confidence and having fun - the list goes on.
I recently created this logo design for ‘The 9 – 12′s Project’ - an initiative to enhance activities programming for 9 – 12′s in the Metro South West Sydney Region. This area encompasses the Local Government Areas of Bankstown, Fairfield, Liverpool, Campbelltown, Camden, Wollondilly and Wingecarribee. A key goal is to improve access to activities that promote positive development for children aged 9 – 12.
I gave some deep thought to the design and content of my illustrations which I used to convert into the final logo.
The seven stepping stones represent the seven local government areas mentioned above that will act as the foundation for this initiative. The two kids are stepping on the stones as they make their way from the start to their destination and each stride stretches them to make new progress – similar to the effect that the activities programme will have on participating kids. I tried to add movement and momentum in the illustration as the kids jumped from stone to stone.
If my illustration and short overview has peaked your interest, for more information, please go to: http://www.cnet.ngo.net.au/content/view/45489/
