A very uncommon event

I was going through some of my files hoping to find more storyboard material to post as I have pretty much exhausted my supply of material. I found a letter that was sent to me by the art buyer of a Chicago ad agency, Lois/EJL. I believe that the attached note was from one of the account executives.
I used to do a lot of work for them, one of their big clients was BASF and often I would be involved in one of their extensive client presentations which kept me busy for several days...and nights. After one of these sessions I received this nice letter from the art buyer, Laura Laube. It was quite a surprise, I'd never had this happen before or since.





A couple of storyboard frames that were part of a large assignment which also included magazine ad comps. BASF is a German chemical company, the largest of it's kind in the world. Lois closed it's offices in 1999, it's sad to lose a great client.

Sheep

Another rather odd concept, I wonder how the ad agency thought that they were going to shoot the final commercial, it seems that it would have been quite a problem. I believe that this assignment was done for one of my Chicago clients.


I had to show the art director preliminary sketches before rendering the finished frames. These are my sketches with corrections marked in red.


The finished frames were rendered using markers and were 5 x 7" in size.


The art director also needed a large rendering with the smaller frames included, here is my preliminary sketch.


The final rendering of the larger version.
I don't think this ever became an actual commercial, which is lucky for the art director, as it would have been very difficult to manage and direct a bunch of sheep.

More Sony ad comps

Here are a few more magazine ad comp layout renderings done for Sony, I remember now that the advertising agency was Y & R in New York City.






This was a weird concept, two flies communicating over the internet.

Comp layouts for magazine ads

My assignments were not all storyboards, often I would have to render images for a series of magazine ads. These images would usually encompass a proposed ad campaign for the whole year and frequently be double spread versions as well as single page ads, so there could be as many as 24 renderings required. The deadlines were often brutal. These were done for Sony, I don't recall the advertising agency.








Here is the single page version and below is the double spread version. The image on the screen was left blank, I believe the agency was going to add the screen image.




Here is another double spread image and below is the rendering for the single page version.



More often than not, these assignments would come late Friday and have a Monday morning deadline, but sometimes I might even have a whole week to do a campaign like this. These renderings were all done using markers on high quality layout paper. They were delivered to the ad agency over the internet and they had to be scanned which added considerable time to the whole assignment.

Another DMB&B storyboard

I found copies of these storyboard frames in an old file. They were an assignment from DMB&B and had to have been done before 2002, as the agency closed that year. Markers on high quality layout paper were used to render these frames. I believe that the client was Pontiac.

More fast storyboard frames

Another storyboard assignment from DMB&B, most likely an overnighter as were most of my jobs during the last year that I worked. Many of the ad agencies would pay double for overnight work which made it a bit difficult to refuse. These frames were rendered with markers and delivered over the internet.

Another strange Storyboard concept

Another oddball board from DMB&B, I think that there were a couple more frames, but this is all that I could locate. Again, all rendered with markers and under the usual tough deadline conditions.

Time Flies

Strange storyboard frames

As a storyboard artist I often receive very weird scripts and here is an odd one. It was done for DMB&B and the client was Pontiac Versatrak. I never could figure out why they had ants in the commercial and just how they planned to shoot these scenes. I never saw this commercial on TV, so the client must not have approved the storyboard.











Again, all of these frames were rendered using markers on high quality layout paper under the pressure of a tight deadline. Artists that don't work well under severe pressure should avoid this type of assignment.

More storyboards

I found some more examples of my storyboard work on an old zip disk, so I'll have a few more of these to post. My storyboard frames were always rendered using markers on high quality layout paper. As I've noted before, I've tried doing the frames on the computer, but it always took me much longer, and usually tough deadlines were a major factor when doing this type of work.









I don't recall the product or the ad agency that these were done for, but I'm certain it was for one of my New York clients and that it was another overnight assignment as most of them were.

Illustration Pages is running kind of a history of my career this whole week with lots of examples of my work throughout the years.

An illustration blog is featuring my work this week

Lou Simeone, who does the Illustration Pages blog, is featuring my work this week, check it out when you have a chance. He has a lot of other interesting stuff on his blog.

A message from 2011

Before you know it, it will be 2012. Time just seems to fly by, especially if your are very busy. I hope that everyone out there has a great year.
It's been snowing rather heavily in Southwest Michigan where I live, below are a couple of photos showing what it looks like here. It's very pretty, but makes traveling tough. I have to go to the store today to buy cat food, or I'm in big trouble.

Birdhouse project

The Harbor Country Public Arts Initiative has given 50 birdhouses to local artists to decorate which will be auctioned off at a wine tasting fundraiser on Friday, January 14th. Here is the birdhouse that I decorated and just finished yesterday. It was a fun project and I tried something a bit different by utilizing the computer. I found some old bird and bug engravings and altered them a bit digitally by adding color, then made prints using pigmented inks. The prints were then mounted on the sides of the birdhouse.

Movie of my proposed outdoor sculpture

Tim Rogers, one of the Directors of the Harbor Country Public Arts Initiative did a video of my sculpture which they are intending to construct. I thought that I would share this image with you.





The sculpture will be constructed of steel and will be 18 feet tall, located at the junction of the Red Arrow Highway and Sawyer Road in Sawyer, Michigan.