Website review workshop

For this workshop, we were tasked with choosing two illustrator's websites and reviewing them to learn what could be applied or avoided when creating sites to promote ourselves as illustrators.


The first site I chose to review belongs to concept artist, illustrator and art director Giles Ketting. This site has a modern and compact aesthetic, with artwork placed close to each other above a dark background. The typography used for the site title and page headings is a round yet professional style of font which leaves plenty of background space on either side of the title.

I was attracted to this website by the unique simplicity of the featured page, along with the medieval period paintings on full display at the top of the page. These images immediately engaged me and I was encouraged to look closer at these pieces by their positioning on the site. The pages are clearly categorised, making the site easy to navigate. There are the right amount of images on the site, and all are crisp and clear. These things makes the site feel professional.

Gilles Ketting provides writing with some of his blog entries that explain the process behind certain artworks. This writing tells me that he is a competent artist and writer. They have links to a wide array of gallery and social media sites. The site itself shows a range of projects on different themes.

The imagery that this artist uses conveys a consistent language of work. As a client, this would make me feel confident in my decision to commission this artist based on the style of a handful of his paintings.

• compact artwork with a clean, dark background
• strong images at a large resolution
• professional typefaces
• page categorisation
• professional writing style

The second site I chose to review belongs to the creature and concept artist Andrew Baker. This site has a clear and showcased design, with thumbnail images spread out against a white background. The typography used for the site title and page headings is a round yet straight style of font which leaves plenty of background space on either side of the title.

I was attracted to this website by the thumbnail composition of the index page. These images immediately engaged me as they were clearly labelled. The pages are categorised, making the site easy to navigate. While small, there are the right amount of images on the site, and most are clear. These things makes the site feel somewhat professional.

Andrew Baker provides writing with all of his blog entries that explain the process behind certain creature and concept designs. This writing tells me that he is a proficient writer and designer. They have links to an IMDB page with credits for the movies he has designed creatures for, but no links to social media. The site itself shows a range of projects from different films.

The imagery that this artist uses conveys a consistent language of work. As a client, this would make me feel confident in my decision to commission this artist based on the style of his creature designs.

• light background
• strong images
• unique typefaces
• page categorisation
• professional writing style

Oliver Randall is currently an Illustration student at the University of Gloucestershire and has a love for experiencing and creating stories. As an artist, he prefers traditional illustration over digital methods, and likes to engross himself in the deep history of many stories, such as Halo, Star Wars, and Lord of the Rings.

This workshop was useful in finding characteristics of other artist's sites and finding ways to adapt them with my own practice when creating my site. By reviewing these sites, I have learned how to critically analyse and research an artist by their website, and this will be useful when taking inspiration from how other artists present themselves, for future promotional activities.

Christmas workshop

For the Christmas workshop, we were given a group task to create seasonal items for a specific shop. Each group would then work towards two outcomes - both of which including reference to the company within the visuals that were to be produced. My group was given the company "CRUSH," a local juice bar specialising in healthy fruit juices, the feel of which had to be reproduced using contemporary typefaces, modern colours and simple, bold imagery.

The first task was to create a seasonal GIF for the company. These are the elements that were referenced and created for our GIF, which represented summery drinks with a Christmas twist.

The second task was to make a pop-up Christmas card in the style of the company. These are the processes my group went through to create the final card design, which includes traditional and digital versions of the card. The card took elements from the seasonal GIF and implemented them into a pop-up advertisement for a drink from "CRUSH," in a scene that mixes summer with winter.

This joint task tested the communication between the two groups on what the visual style of the company should be in both the seasonal GIF and the Christmas card. As both of the final products ended up in similar styles, I believe this was a successful workshop. I learnt how important communication between teams, creating unique designs, and working towards brief deadlines are during this workshop, which are important teachings to take into any professional art environment.

Branding workshop

The first workshop in this module consisted of a group analysis, with a comparison of two similar branded products. The aim was to see how the same product can be branded with different outcomes, and how each is effective in attracting consumers, as well what our responses were to each product.

The products my group were given were Ainsley Harriott's Broccoli and Stilton Cup Soup and Tesco's Broccoli and Stilton Soup in a Mug. Both products share a use of the colour green, which is typically representative of health. A black mug on the front of each is used to make the actual product stand out, with compositions of the ingredients on the box. I believe this is done to show the freshness of what is actually in the product.

The Ainsley Harriott product uses steam, which is effective in showing realism, but has solid black packaging that doesn't present healthiness well. It also exploits the name recognition of Ainsley Harriott to sell the product, which is not a business tactic I approve of, though with a trusting endorsement there is no need to show all the ingredients. On this product, multiple typefaces are used to possibly break up the professionalism of the packaging, and gives it a casual and more stylised aesthetic. The ingredients of the product provide the storytelling - with Ainsley's travels to locate the best ingredients being presented on the box.

The Tesco product has a consistent colour scheme with bright, homely colours to present itself as more appealing to the consumer. This effect is compounded by the presence of a chalkboard, which is mainly seen at pubs and restaurants. Although this product only uses two or three typefaces to make it more functional, it still looks inviting as the homely appeal dominates the image. The back of the image is filled with block white statistics and ingredients within a standardised format, which is not very appealing to a consumer.



This workshop helped me to recognise what makes for a good branded product, and that the same product can be advertised in vastly different ways. I believe that the skills I have acquired in recognising and analysing the branding of a product will assist me in promoting myself as a branded illustrator.