05 April 2011

This campaign for the more exotic flavours of Original Juice has been plastered all around us – on billboards, bus stops, and beyond. It has been much lauded amongst the advertising industry, earning illustrator Stuart McLachlan a Bronze in the advertising series of the recent Illustrators Awards and causing ripples across the web. The beauty of these four bold and beautiful panels, each depicting a different blend of juice in a Venn diagram intersection of flavours, is that they look more like 20th century lithographic posters than traditional advertising.

We caught up with Stuart to find out more about the campaign and how he came to be an illustrator in the first place.

Describe your work in five words or less. “The simpler the better”

What kind of projects do you enjoy working on? Projects which the client has faith in me as an artist to let me go with the concept and make it as special in my way as possible without over art directing me. Basically, having the confidence in their choice that I will bring something special to their baby.

What’s your design background and how did you first get a foot in the door? I have a degree in graphic design and illustration from the Underdale S.A.C.A.E. (Uni) in Adelaide. I was lucky enough to be taught by lecturers who were passionate in the fields of typography and graphic design and were influenced heavily by the Bauhaus movement. I was also very fortunate to be taught by 2 lecturers fresh from working in Amsterdam who we had as specialist illustrators for 2 years – Keith McKewan and Mike Golding. They taught me the reality of working in the real world and prepared my folio for that. Keith was very kind and introduced me to Clemenger in Adelaide a few months before I completed my degree, and then when I ended my studies this gave me the confidence to call them and get my first job – a poster for Wendy’s Icecream depicting Alice (in Wonderland) falling down the rabbit hole holding a ‘Wabbit Cone’.

What is your artillery when it comes to your craft? Stamina, stubborness and – because of the years I’ve put into this job – the confidence that somehow and from somewhere I will find the solution to the brief. I try as hard as I can to find the best visual solution that not only satisfies my desires but also their brief.

Can you tell us about the design process behind the Original Juice illustration? Ian Bear from DDB Melbourne sent me a rough of what he was thinking. It was pretty well described style wise so I had a very clear idea of where it should go. He was a very good art director to work with because he wasn’t trying to fight against the style and bend it to a modern slant. Instead he wanted to keep the imagery as pared back as possible so it worked as simply as possible. I supplied tight sketches and then colour versions but in each of these processes there was a lot of tweaking position and colour. I didn’t mind because I knew he was a perfectionist and that he was just trying to get it as right as possible. I think that’s why it worked so well because there were constantly two sets of eyes judging it.

What was the brief you had to work with? The brief was to create 4 posters based on the very simple vintage imagery of the 1930s poster era. The images were to be simple but lush and ‘juicy’ looking to create a brand awareness while still showing the product in a pared back but instantly recognisable way. Each poster was to show immediately which two or three fruits went into producing the juice flavour in the bottle via the dissecting fruit shapes that converged into the drips.

What aspects of your style do you think the client was drawn to? My work is pretty simple but carefully designed and laid out, while taking typography into consideration. It also fits clearly into the era of art that he was trying to reflect in these posters. Even though this stuff looks easy, it requires a certain sensibility to the layout and colour to make it convincing. It’s not a matter of copying a vintage style but thinking in the same way as the designers did back in the old days and taking it from there as they would have if they were briefed on this job.

How did you feel seeing your artwork gracing billboards all over the country? Well , I was only in Sydney but I ‘sensed’ them out there spreading their juiciness around the country. Actually, I was driving and stumbled across one of the billboards initially. For the first time in ages, I was really quite happy with how my work was printed. It was bold and gave that true vintage feel which is what I really liked about it . As it was based on a black background the colours popped but what I liked was how simple and understated it looked compared to conventional advertising. They actually hand painted one of the billboards on Oxford street over 5 boiling hot days (poor artists!), which was very cool (not for them!). That was a first for me and I must say it did put a smile on my dial.