Custom Illustration for Publication | Springfield Daily Citizen

When Shannon reached out to me to create a Custom Illustration for the Publication Springfield Daily Citizen, she started off by referencing two previous illustrations of mine and pointing out the aspects she liked. She said she needed a custom illustration for an article they were working on about 'working from home' and they wanted to show a woman working from home at a desk with multiple screens and a calendar with dates marked off.  She liked the way I had illustrated the person in this first image below on the left and she liked the background of the second image below on the right. 

She also said she had a quick turnaround time--she would need the image less than a week later. I said that was no problem and had a few clarifying questions like:

1. Is there any preference on the type of person (age, gender, size, ethnicity, type of work)?
2. What type of content should be on the screens or should what's on the screens not be detailed enough to be able to distinguish? 
3. Should the calendar be on the wall, on one of the screens, on the desk? And what month should show?
4. Any color preferences?

Once she got back to me with her reply, I got started and this was the first draft I sent over a few days later:

She liked this version but felt like it wasn't clear enough that she was working from home--she wanted to see more details that made it feel like she was working from home. She also wanted the subject to be moved more to the center so when they share it on social media it wont crop the subject off. Lastly, she thought the background could have more abstract "pizzaz" like the image she had sent. 

I felt like with this feedback I could go one of two directions, so I went ahead and created both of those options for them to choose from. One which filled in the background with a room in a home and one which added just a few more "home" detail hints on the desk but had a more abstractly "pizzaz" background. Which do you prefer?

As I'm sure you guess from the header image on this blog, the option with the more detailed room in the background won from the client's perspective. 

Check out the article here!

If you are in need of a custom illustration, don't hesitate to reach out!

Call or Text: 417-848-0932
Email: [email protected]