The Vodafone Samsung Galaxy campaign is now pretty much a part of daily life – greeting us via billboards, press ads, bus shelters and the like. You’ll be pleased to know that the campaign’s friendly illustrations were all lovingly crafted by Jacky Winter’s very own James Gulliver Hancock. James worked closely with the team at Ogilvy Sydney to complete a huge suite of illustrations for the campaign – resulting in a pitch-perfect collaboration.
We pulled James aside to ask him a few questions about his involvement in the campaign.
Describe your work in five words or less.
Whimsical, handmade, personal, philosophical, detailed.
What kind of projects do you enjoy working on?
Everything! If there is a pencil in my hand I’m happy, otherwise I’m blue.
What’s your background and how did you first get a foot in the door?
I studied Visual Communication at the University of Technology, which made me think I wanted to be a web designer – blah blah… it was the 90s so… But I’ve always drawn, always! Since I was a little boy, my earliest memories are drawing – I can’t help it. And eventually that took over everything and then the amazing Jacky Winter came along, and it was a match made in heaven.
What is your artillery when it comes to your craft?
I’ve combated this question with a drawing as I get asked it a lot :–) —–> see this.
Can you tell us about the illustration process behind the Vodafone Samsung Galaxy campaign?
Sure – I started with a brief from the client, which was basically a rough layout and the image of the product to be featured. I then sketched how I thought the elements could flow around it. I liked looking at these asian scroll compositions to get the vibe. Then I worked over the top of that with pencil and tightened up all the linework. From there I finished, coloured and cleaned it up in photoshop.
What was the brief you had to work with?
It changed a bit from the beginning – initially we had a bit of a Communist style poster thing going, with little people protesting – see here. But we eventually toned it back and made it a bit more fun, with people flowing around the product, chatting to each other with lots of fun hand generated type. They let me have a lot of fun with it so it’s a great collaboration.
What aspects of your style do you think the client was drawn to?
They really liked the hand drawn element, I think they were trying to pull Vodafone away from a purely design based look, and bring in some more fun and whimsy – things I love!
How do you feel about your artwork gracing billboards, bus shelters and print all over Australia?
I love it, it feels completely natural. When I see a billboard that doesn’t have my drawing on it, I feel weird :–)
