Workshop review- Andy Potts

Andy Potts is a London based illustrator and motion designer originally from Kingswinford, he graduated with a BA  Hons degree from Portsmouth university, and has worked at abbey road studio for 7 years as head designers, he focuses on image making, graphic design, animation and art direction This particular illustration was made in 2011 for one of his clients: New balance for the company to use for advertising in the store to show a runners experience in the city and also visual history of the company.

In this illustration and a majority of his other work Andy Potts tends to use very vibrant and energetic colors such as yellows, pinks and greens, this works well in this piece of work as the client is a trainer brand and features runners in the image therefore the illustration needs to give the message that this is a brand for people who exercise and a quite fit and energetic, so by using these bright colors it gives an electric and energized look and feel to the work and might give other people an idea of what type of products the company produces, the main technique used to create this illustration would have been done digitally on Illustrator using techniques such as collaging and by layer blending, although there are some handcrafted elements for example to get the silhouette of the people he would have had to take the photos first, as most of this illustration was done digitally I think it makes it look cleaner and more modern as there are no mistakes which may have occurred if the lines were hand drawn, it could also represent city life as thing can be very structured living in the city,The work is very well structured and planned out as its almost like a timeline of the company from right to left and shows their development of their products throughout the years.

Exam Prep Evaluation

Exam Prep Evaluation

For this Exam unit we were given the choice of three briefs, Illustration, typography or a packaging brief, I choose to do the typography brief whereby I required to create a wall art for 'Elements' a new cafe, my design had to include a typographic element that informed costumers of the food and drinks on offer in the cafe, I had done primary research such as going to the barbican exhibition and looking at other artists work which would have given us a first spark of inspiration before actually choosing our brief, I had also done sketches at the exhibition, later in the project I took my own photos of things relating to the elements or other natural objects aswell as researching online, also doing observational drawings from them to ensure I was developing my final outcome, making sure it was relating to the exam theme, Earth, air, fire and Water.

Some techniques I had used were making digital stencils and layer blending while working on illustrator also using vectors to create an image, I also used photoshop to make a clipping mask, after choosing my brief I went on to using handmade techniques such as paper cutting and painting, I thought by using handmade techniques it would make my work relate more to the exam theme as it looks more natural and less harsh then making something digitally, to generate my ideas I researched online and in books for other artists typography work to gain inspiration and to get a brief staring point for my design ideas, I then started to sketch out any design ideas I could think of, and tried to develop them into a better design which would both look and work better than the original design.

I think one of my best experiments were vectors as I found it the most enjoyable and also I think it produced the best outcome, I liked this experiment as this was a technique I was new to and it was easy to learn and do, however I did not use this technique when designing my final outcome, instead I used the more personal technique of hand made paper cutting as I felt I was able to design a suitable outcome easily and freely, where I then began to refine my ideas into a piece that would be more practical for it's use and wouldn't fall apart.

When I first began thinking about my initial ideas my main inspirations were Raphael Gibara and Alexander Girad, I was largely interested in their typography and also their placement and layout, because of this I first started to design flat wall pieces that would have slight 3D elements to them, however I did not like the physical appearance of this and felt that it was not much of an original idea and wasn't really exciting, I then moved on to look at another artist Louise Nevelson who also made 3D wall pieces although Louise Nevelsons work was different as she added layers to her work so you could see through and could have the letters on different layers, I thought this was a good idea as you could make people see different things depending on the perspective they looked at it from, I then went on to try and create my own 3D layered design whereby I first used a grid to hold the letters together although the actual design did not look pleasing, instead of using a grid I tried a design where the letters were held in-between lines, I thought this design looked better but I had the problem of trying to incorporate the exam theme into my work, in order to do this I would need a more natural flowing design and trying to avoid using boxed borders, I did some research on the internet looking at art nouveau and some pieces of work by Gaudi, I liked the curved shapes and decided to use them in them in my design process for the final outcome as I thought it expressed the exam theme well because it looked more natural and organic.


I am exploring the brief by experimenting with various techniques to try and work within the elements theme, Earth, Air, Fire and water, I chose the typography brief as I took the most interest into typography and I felt that by choosing this brief I could work within my strengths to create the best possible outcome, my outcome will meet the brief as it will be a wall piece/design that will include a typographic element informing costumers on the food and drink available at the cafe.