Thursday, February 4, 2010

BRAND KANYE

Working over at BrandMakernews has allowed me, as a writer, a freedom that I sometimes miss with art.The freedom of an unfettered thought, playing itself out, from beginning to end. But of course I still get the urge to lay pen to paper and let a brother know how I put it down... lol. So when the opportunity presented itself for me to illustrate a piece my brother, Creative Director David Harley was working on, I jumped at the chance. The piece, the first of many to come, was a brand driven profile on Kanye West in the sites newly serialized section  Brand Universe. After getting some of the facts on the article, I sent him these:
 

After a few drafts, we concluded that less was more and decided to go the straight portrait route.




This B&W study was ok , but it didn't get the feeling and energy David was going for in the piece. It seemed too stodgy and illustrative. Too much line work. Since he wanted a cleaner look, I decided to go a different way and play up the simple cohesiveness of Dave prelim design:


Now that's that shh right there! I wake up just to do this. Clean, flashy and fly. Just like yours truly... lol.


Some extra design elements are place around the portrait to set off,  then all I had left to do really, was sit back and admire Dave's design work....


Blaow!! Tell me that ish ain't hot... lol