In order to start my infographic illustrations I had to start looking at the style and colour of what I want to create. My topic is urbanisation and this includes cities, therefore I had to look up some city illustrations or artists who focus on this topic and get some inspiration.

I first started by looking on pinterest by typing in ‘cityscape illustrations’ and selecting a range of ideas that would help me. The link to this Pinterest board can be found here.

I then selected a few of my favourites and found the artists/companies that made them.

 

MUTI

 

Who are Muti?

I found Muti on Pinterest, I was first attract to their work because of the bright colours yet simple shapes and vectors used. I then went on their website to find out more. Muti is a creative studio founded in 2011 and is based in the City of Cape Town in South Africa. This was very intriguing because I don’t think I have looked at a company in this location before. On their info page of their website they state that ‘We’re a dedicated team of illustrators and designers who are passionate about producing original and inspiring artwork, from lettering to icons, digital painting to animation.’ They specialise in lots of things I am interested in too so scrolling through their website was really fun for me.

Why am I looking into this company?

This company first caught my eye with their lovely city illustration and I wanted to see more like his for my infographic since I am going to be making a cityscape I wanted to explore different approaches and this company has worked and designed a lot of city type images for other brands. They use bright colours and lovely shapes that make for amazing illustrations. I found on their website some great examples of this,

The image above is a project called ‘Appleborg’ that they have made for a brand based in Stockholm who are a publication that focus on business and technology. This caught my eye because of the colours, the use of the primary colours makes the green rural section really stand out even more. This work also is of help to me because my topic is ‘Urbanisation’ and a section I focus on is ‘Urban VS Rural’ and this illustration has both rural and city. There is a nice contrast in this and it is evident what is rural and what is the city. There is also a nice feature of added detail, the more you look the more can be found. This can help me in my illustrations and could be something I do too.

The images above are from a mother project this worked on called ‘Curbed’ that was commissioned by an American real-estate network ‘Curbed’, for an article on the development of various neighbourhoods in the US. This project interested me because of the colour. I feel like I struggle with colour sometimes and feel like I never make the most of colour options or pick the best ones. This project screams colour, there are so many colours and shapes throughout each piece. Muti shows their process too, the first image is of only the shapes they used to create it and the next images is the result in colour. The amount of detail in this project is amazing, the more I look the more I find which is similar to all of their work. The vectors fascinate me aswell because the shapes are simple and the closer I looked the more lines I saw. I like that the buildings are made with simple shapes like rectangles and lines because this shows me that I can make amazing cityscapes like this with simple shapes.

What has MUTI taught me?

• That I can make amazing cityscapes by using simple shapes
• That I shouldn’t be afraid of colour
• That so much detail can me made by only using simple shapes for example, lines, circles or rectangles
• That showing the process can be interesting to see for an audience

 

Peter Greenwood

Who is Peter Greenwood?

Peter is another artist I join don Pinterest while trying to find as much cityscapes as possible. Greenwood is an illustrator that is located in Brighton, UK. He has famous clients such as Time Magazine, Wall street journal, The New Yorker and many more. I discovered that he has also won many awards for his illustrations so I knew I had to look into his work more.

Why am I looking into Greenwood?

I came across some of his unique work that was a sort of different approach. Since he is such a successful illustrator I thought it would be helpful for me to look more closely at his work, so it can help me with mine own cityscapes. I want to hopefully get some inspiration for colour choice and or style.

 

The images above are from his project called ‘Brooklyn’. They are the same image but different perspectives and he put both up on his website. I loved these when I seen them for so many reasons. The main thing was the sunset background, I though this was so nice – city at dusk. I also liked the shadows he made, the building really looks like it is in a sunset scene with the sun disappearing behind the Brooklyn skyline. Another part I liked was the amount of detail, the details in the windows specifically. I can see people playing instruments and plant pots on the window sills etc. All of these minor additions make the piece what it is. His approach is different from MUTI, it is much more illustrative and graphic, it reminds me of a video game. The creation of this piece is really special in my opinion and is made by using shapes – rectangles and squares etc. His work is so well executed and is at such a high level and hopefully one day I can be as good as him.

What have I learned form Greenwood?

• That detail can really transform an illustration and bring it to life
• To perhaps consider a gradient sunset or sky
• To not be afraid of shadows to lighting to make my city appear realistic

 

Some extra city illustrations I found and liked

 

 

 

Each of these images has a differet style, some silhouette vectors, outlines, or shapes layered on more shapes. I looked at lots of images like these and debated which style I will go for and I think I have settled with a mixture of both. I want my infographic to be interesting and fun to read through so I think having a mixture of styles or types of illustrations will be helpful for this. Overall I think that this research into city illustrious has really opened my eyes to the possibilities, most importantly to colour, lots of these images are alive with colour and I think I want to do something similar.