“An Illustrated Life: Drawing Inspiration From The Private Sketchbooks Of Artists, Illustrators And Designers” is a must have. There is nothing more precious then an artists journal or sketchbook. Journals are not just a planning and practice ground for art but are creative, honest and faithful, true and private expression of a persons experience of life. Danny Gregory has dived into countless sketchbooks and compiled a book with just over 260 pages of priceless sketchbook entries of artists, illustrators and designers. The author Danny Gregory introduces his book in the video below.

How much influence did art, the politicians brand and exposure thereof have in the 2008 American elections?

Is there an integral role between art and politics which can guide us in discovering truth or does art and design in politics walk dangerously close to propaganda?

How much does art and design influence the way people think and act? Or is art an embodiment of people’s perceptions implying that the art is in-fact preordained? The logo of a political brand is then a personification of a symbol or in other words the embodiment of the person it represents – similar comments in the video at the end of this post.

To what degree has art and design influenced the way Americans voted in 2008?

With these questions in mind please take a look at the collection of illustrations, caricatures, logos and video’s relating to the 2008 American Elections. You will notice there is more material on Obama which has nothing to do with my personal views. There was simply more of it. For example there were no real variations of the McCain logo like there was for Obama nor where there video’s talking about McCains brand development.

Enjoy: (Click on the images to see fully)

Obama Brand & Logo Development:
An interview with Sol Sender about the Obama logo and the brand that was built.

Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2

Sol Sender – Obama Logo Design Part 1 of 2

Other Videos:

This is a video compilation of varies political expressions

Obama And Pop Culture – CBS News

HipHop Scratching Video

That’s it! I hope you enjoyed!

60th anniversary of the Universal Declaration of Human Rights – Awesome.

Andrea Innocent is an Australian born illustrator, designer and fashion designer. Her latest work explores Japanese pop culture. Themes investigate traditional Japanese folk tales and Japanese textiles and their meanings. I absolutely love the mix of western and eastern styles.

Read the rest of this entry »

Computer games often produce some amazing illustrations. Blizzard games have just released Diablo 3. I remember when they brought out Diablo 1 – I was glued for hours as I explored the labyrinths looking for new weapons and spells. You have to find and kill Diablo. Here are some illustrations from the game. Check Out The Website – pretty impressive.

Click on them:

Here is some work by Julie West.

Julie West – Exposif

Julie West – Grumpy Yeti

Julie West – Octile

Julie West – Wachi Fichuz

Illustration Blog

This set of print adverts where developed right here in my home city Johannesburg. Network BBDO is the agency. I guess I am somewhat patriotic.

Creative Director: Mike Schalit
Copywriter: Gary Du Toit
Art Director: Mariana O’kelly
Illustrator: Ree Treweek

Pretty cool add by Häagen-Dazs. Well done although it lost direction of its main message somehow. The flower did look might delicious.

“Last year Nadia Plesner started a Simple campaign to raise awareness of the ongoing genocide in Darfur and to raise money for the helping organization “Divest for Darfur”.

On February 13, 2008, Nadia received a letter from Louis Vuitton’s, asking her to firmly end the campaign immediately, as they believe one of their products is being portrayed in the illustration.

Nadia Plesner is standing up for her artistic freedom to express her view of the world as she sees it without restrictions from anybody.

On February 20, 2008, she informed Louis Vuitton’s Intellectual Property Director that she intend to continue her campaign to support the victims of Darfur.“

Nadia Plesner startet her own campaige in 2007 to support the Victims of Darfur. 100% of the takings from the t-shirt and poster are donated to Darfur.

To support her please go to: www.nadiaplesner.com

The illustration Nadia is getting suede for:

Illustrated campaign for The Economist. Six illustrators where brought in by the agency AMV.BBDO. It was quite a drastic change from there old stuff but I think it works.

The Economist – Fine n Dandy

The Economist – Geoff Mcfetridge

The Economist – Matthew Green

Adidas implemented the world’s biggest fresco (800m²) at the Central Train Station in Cologne. Pretty imressive!

This pantheon of Adidas endorsers includes Michael Ballack (captain of the German national team), David Beckham, Zinédine Zidane, Raúl, Kaka, Nakamura, Lukas Podolski, Lionel Messi, Juan Román Riquelme and Djibril Cissé.

A fun campaign by VW depicting King Kong stepping on a Polo end getting hurt. Illustrated by Paul Slater

Polo Kong | Illustrator: Paul Slater

Some more illustrations by the English Paul Slater:

The imagery is actually made up of wire! Yes wire. I thought we could still post it.

BBC – Connecting with the World