Eric Carle
Eric Carle is an American children’s book illustrator and author most known for ‘The very hungry caterpillar’. He uses vibrant bold shapes to make up his illustrations, I love the mixture of a painterly and collage approach to his work, it creates a unique dynamic. Carle’s work has caught the attention of many globally, winning him the Children’s Literature Legacy Award and the Regina Medal. Carle’s father used to take him on forest walks In Germany where he grew up, and show him the creatures crawling under logs and teach him about life cycles, inspiring his attention to smaller creatures in his works as he tries to recapture those fond memories. Upon research I discovered the process Carle takes when making one of his children’s books, he starts by painting on tissue paper with acrylic using various brush sizes and strokes, sometimes using found objects such as carpet or even finger painting to create interesting texture. He cuts up the painted tissue paper and stores it in a box, choosing pieces and colours as he sees fit. He makes use of various tones of paint, never using one primary colour but always mixing them to create his own unique bold pallet. I love how the unique compositions of the animals gives them strong personality, that will engage with his target audience. The tissue collage effect creates nice movement, texture and tones, I am particularly drawn to the sky from the moon image as it possesses great movement from the brush strokes and varying hues of blue.
David Carson
David Carson is an American graphic designer who worked for Ray Gun magazine as an art director in the nineties and is most known for experimental typography and contemporary approach to design. Starting out his career with a psychology degree Carson accidently stumbled upon the world of graphic design, after participating in a two-week course. Carson is well known from his experimental approach to his work, in an interview with Design Boom by Andy Butler he stated that his lack of formal training allows him to depend on his intuition rather than focusing on the rules of what to and not to do, this mindset has allowed him to break barriers in the graphic design world. Has been bestowed many notable awards, one being the AIGA gold medal. Carson strives for his work to create an emotional tether with the audience, ” Communication begins way before anyone actually starts reading”. At this time such experimental typography and display for a commercial magazine was uncommon, he used layering, spacing, column and image layout to portray certain atmospheres and emotions, with no one to approve his work before printing he had no reins to hold back his experimentation process.
Steve Simpson- Offset 2016
Steve Simpson is a British, Irish based illustrator who focuses heavily on package design and typography. Simpson has been commissioned for a myriad of pieces ranging from a postal stamp, billboard and book covers. It can be seen from his intricate ornamental typography that he is heavily influenced by folk art and pre-Columbian symbolism, which can be seen in his motif of skulls and tactile appearance to his work. Simpson style of hand lettering and illustrating every component of his work makes it truly unique and shows a link to the arts and craft movement of the 1950’s, and has won him over 50 awards, one being The Illustration Guild of Ireland award. Simpson creates highly detailed pieces of art teaming with quirky illustrations, fonts and very bold colours, though he uses a limited colour pallet to compensate for the business of his work to avoid it being overwhelming. I love the energy captured in his work, it is teaming with information and life, and texture is always present to create an interesting background, this can be seen in the green book cover.