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Ivan Gillett Interview
What was the brief?
This was for a recruitment company exe-appointments.com - part of the FT Recruitment Solutions company. The main image featured a big cityscape with signature buildings from around the world standing on the same street junction and with a single person in the crowds picked out in red. The illustration is used on the web and in broadsheet advertisements.
Whose idea was it?
It was entirely their idea. They sent me the thumbnail sketch with the buildings they wanted. The building on the east corner is the Petronas Towers in Kuala Lumpur. To represent New York – Empire State building might have been the obvious choice – but I think the Chrysler building has got more interesting things going on at the top of it and this ended up being the final choice.
What's the process of getting from the thumbnail to the finished drawing? Is there a lot of back and forth between the designer and you?
Not in this case, no. I got their layout and the brief - the general idea of what they wanted and then worked up the rough to a fairly detailed state. The only request was, "more people. please." so that was a good sign. I then went to work on the final version. Sometimes there's more back and forth with a designer over an illustration but we didn't have the luxury of time on this one and since they were fairly happy with the rough and we could see where it was going, I could just get on with it.
Do you usually do your roughs very detailed?
No, not usually. It depends really on what the situation demands. Originally they wanted a rough in 48 hours but I asked for more time because I wanted to get it to a stage where I could see more or less what the final version was going to like. There is a lot of "artistic licence" in the drawing – taking liberties with the size of the people and the cars and some of the perspectives – so I wanted to get a working rough that would show if there was going to be any surprises down the line.
Do you start your drawings on paper and scan as you go?
No, I work with a pen and tablet and draw straight onto the screen. And in fact, I had to do it that way for this drawing because the version that was going on their website was going to be animated with the taxis and people moving around, so everything had to be on different layers.
What references did you use?
Anything and everything – I use references like security blankets! The core buildings had to be recognizable - even if not everyone knows the Taipei 101 building – you can tell it's supposed to be a specific building. The other buildings are deliberately more generic (and that was mentioned in the brief) so that they wouldn't divert too much attention away from the central idea. The main thing for me with this illustration was to balance the level of finish it was going to have. I didn't want it to be too busy – too cluttered - I didn't want to see every single window-pane. I wanted everything to be fairly clean and obvious – but I had to restrain myself from messing around with the Gherkin!
You mentioned a tight deadline – what was the turnaround time for this picture?
Well I might've exaggerated for effect. After getting the okay for the rough I had 8 or 9 days to finish the final version.
Was the client happy with it? Are you happy with it?
Yes, I think they were happy with it but if they hadn't been – that's what the rough stage is for really. I went quite far with the rough knowing that they could've turned around and said, lose this, lose that: turn the Petronas Towers around or whatever - but as everyone was okay with it – that wasn't an issue. And then I was happy to throw some hours at trying to make the picture work, which, I hope, it does.
Scott Jessop's illustrations are a fusion of traditional and digital techniques. Watercolours, acrylics, pencil drawings and hand-made backgrounds are scanned into the computer and used with Photoshop and Illustrator to create textured and vibrant images.
The use of hand lettering and type is often a central part of the illustration and is a result of Scott's extensive background in graphic design and packaging. The garden plans and border plans are underpinned by a strong knowledge of plants, having also qualified as a garden designer at the English Gardening School in Chelsea. Scott sets out to achieve this degree of clarity and accuracy in all his images.
Beverley Young has been very busy working on these lovely books for Templar, the first of which has proven to be a bestseller. Bev has recently finished the sequel to How the World Works which should be out soon... "It was an amazing project to work on. Andy Mansfield at Templar did all the paper engineering. He not only supplied me with working mock-ups of each spread, but also detailed cut-outs of every component part, which made it easy to translate into my colour illustrations. It was very exciting seeing the finished book, as I had painted all the individual parts, but not seen them all working together before then.". How the World Works is published by Templar in the UK and Candlewick Press in the US.
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