Illustrations posts

If Bill Shakespeare is to be believed, eyes are the windows to the soul. Designed to look outwards, looking into them reveals a person’s deepest emotions.

The same might be said of windows. Built to provide light, and scenic views for the occupants of a building; they also allow us to look in, catching a glimpse of the private world inside. What’s more, windows themselves...

Few things scream Americana more than Norman Rockwell’s iconic Saturday Evening Post covers. Inherently charming and idyllic, the 323 original illustrations remain heart-warming reminders of simpler times — so why...

There’s just something about vector illustrated websites; they’re fantastical and breathtaking; they’re exciting and bold. Designers are able to create worlds and people that only exist in dreams.

If you’re a hardcore Photoshop junkie or HTML magician, it’s really hard not to be jealous of those with some Illustrator skills. Recently, I’ve had to use the program for some edits. It’s a crazy and somewhat...

Taking an entire movie and translating it into a single image is not an easy job. Identifying the elements which best represent 90 to 160 minutes of dialogue, action, character development and photography then reducing that down to its simplest form without losing the original meaning is an art in itself.  This is exactly what illustrator Olly Moss does so well in his posters.

Some of these images work as promotional pieces: his treatment for There Will Be Blood, The Great Dictator and My Neighbour Totoro stand out in particular, as does the dark, brooding Batman image for The Dark Knight Rises. However, overall these...

There are nearly a million buildings in New York City (including all five boroughs). That’s a lot of buildings.

It makes me wonder whether James Gulliver Hancock, an Australian illustrator living in Brooklyn, is aware of that fact. Why, you might ask?

Well, because Hancock has set out to draw all the buildings in New York. That’s right. All of them.

It’s a huge undertaking, and one that is, frankly, quite awesome. So far he’s got more than 350 illustrations finished. It’s a drop in the bucket, but it’s still a laudable number. And with a virtually un-ending supply of buildings to draw, he could keep this project up forever.

His...

The images Paul Cadden creates are so incredibly realistic that you might first mistake them for photographs. But look closely and you’ll see that they’re actually drawings.

Cadden creates “hyperrealistic” portraits and landscapes, which so resemble real life that the subjects seem to come alive. The difference between hyperrealism and photorealism is subtle, but the two are distinct styles.

In photorealistic drawings, the purpose is to recreate reality exactly. In hyperrealism, the...

For the past few years, we’ve been admiring Radim Malinic’s work, and his bold stunning illustrations have been gracing our website since its very beginnings.

Malinic is a leading London graphic designer and illustrator. In his latest project, The West End Show, he explores the magical and bustling part of the capital in a series of elaborately illustrated poster designs, bringing together classic old century design with the dazzling neon future of the 22nd century.

Through a combination of bold typography, illustration and poetry, each piece tells the delicate story of classic design over-shadowed by the limitless offerings of this exciting city.

Malinic interprets his love for London by exploring the true characters of the...

Illustration is an incredibly versatile tool that can find many different uses in design. And when it comes to web design we can find an extremely wide variety of implementations.

Today I want to dig into some key ways that this tool has been put to work so we can draw new ideas to inspire and challenge the designs we produce.

Let’s begin someplace I seldom do, with a basic definition: Illustrated: 1) To make clear; 2) To make clear by giving or by serving as an example or instance; 3) To provide with visual features intended to explain or decorate.

It seems that in the real world of web design, illustration tends to perform both functions at one time. It beautifies while it clarifies. And if it is only doing one of these you might need to ask yourself why. Perhaps by putting illustration to work fulfilling both roles is the way to truly leverage the design element for all it is worth.

This is, of...

In this post, we’re going to learn about a bit about Illustrator’s Mesh tool.

It’s one of the hardest tools to master in Illustrator, but if you want to achieve a 3-D look in your illustrations, you have to really understand how to use this tool properly.

We’re going to create a Super Mario-style mushroom in order to better understand how to use this tool using a...

Trends can be born so silently and subtly that we seldom notice them.

And when you survey hundreds of websites, you often see patterns that you would otherwise miss. One such pattern is the frequent use of tags and ribbons.

These small flourishes have become increasingly popular. This article addresses the two elements because they are used together so frequently.

While ribbons are self-explanatory, by tags I mean the faux labels that hang down from the top of the screen, like a tag on a t-shirt.

The websites that...

Caricatures, by their very definition, exaggerate the physical qualities of a person and yet do so in a way that leaves the subject of the caricature entirely recognizable.

Celebrities are some of the most popular subjects of caricatures, primarily because they’re so easy to recognize, and often become known for specific physical traits.

Anthony Geoffroy is an illustrator and graphic artist who has created some of the best celebrity caricatures you’re likely to see.

He’s done caricatures of everyone from Dr. House to Robert De Niro, and...