I've decided to share a favorite illustrator of mine. Julia Rothman uses both hand drawn and digital techniques in her designs. As an illustrator, she has created several examples of why hand drawn images are more efficient than computer generated text. As one example, she creates an image for D.I.Y. (do it yourself). Various tools and utensils illustrate the feeling of doing something yourself, completing a project, and pioneering your local hardware store. If the same items were digital recreations (i.e. photographs of these objects) the emotion of truly doing it yourself would be lost. 
That being said, I think it's very easy to over do hand drawn elements. Even though this trend is catching on steadily, as Mark pointed out in his presentation last week, things like fonts generated to look like handwriting or "artistic" photoshop filters will be looked down in the design world probably until the end of graphic design itself. I hope to use this project as a means of pushing forward uses of hand drawn elements both as an alternative to things like vector images and as a reminder of the human-ness in design.
Rothman's designs are so colorful. I read an interview that she took part of and was asked if she preferred hand drawn or digital method. She responded by saying, "The digital vector style is kind of like leftovers. I graduated school doing that style and worked in it for many years never really loving it. The hand drawn style was developing in my more personal work. Finally, when I was confident, I started working in the hand drawn style more professionally."
ReplyDeleteI have never gotten the hang of hand drawing type, so I admire those of you who can do so. Jay Ryan of The Bird Machine does hand drawn type and it looks fantastic.
ReplyDeleteI love the image! However I can see how the overuse of pseudo hand rendered fonts can become problematic. If the font is used appropriately and somewhat sparingly, for example, in a header or main focal point on a poster or logo, etc...
ReplyDeleteI also agree when you mention about the certain emotions that are created due to her use of the hand drawn elements, the DIY illustration is a wonderful example of this!
I myself am not the best hand-drawer, but it's nice to see people promoting things that aren't all digital based. Hand-drawn pieces are very unique in that every one has a very distinct character to it that is shown to viewers immediately.
ReplyDeleteI love your topic. I use to draw and sketch on a constant basis before I got into graphic design. Now it seems that anything that can be drawn,can also be drawn on the computer. However, I would rather see the imperfections of hand renderings.
ReplyDeleteI love this topic as well and I think it is great that you find such an interest in hand drawn design because of its "human-ness." I feel like a lot of us drew more before we got into graphic design (I know I did) and it would be nice to kind of see some of that come back.
ReplyDeleteI agree, I love hand drawn type, it adds a level of artistic quality that is just clearly not present when and "artist effect" is added through handwritten font or photoshop.
ReplyDeleteThere are ways to make vector look a little less "THIS IS COMPUTER ART," but it's so much more direct to just draw a lot of the time. Why fake it when you can go for the real thing?
ReplyDeleteI think everyone gives handwritten text a bad rap. I sometimes use it, because there are situations where it looks good. For kid's advertisements they are used quite frequently.
ReplyDeleteI agree with your comment of if the artist used photographs for the "Do it Yourself" poster instead of hand-drawn images then the artist's opinion that she was trying to express to her audience would be lost.
ReplyDeleteI definitely prefer illustrating by hand rather than on the computer. It's much more natural to me personally, and I really admire good work representing hand-drawn text and image.
ReplyDeleteI think both have merits, and they just have very, very different feelings to them.
ReplyDeleteI'm not sure that the DIY feeling would be lost to me if the artist used photographs, as I love photography and feel that it is very DIY because I spend a lot of time working on my own photography.
So the point I guess is that it all depends on who your viewer is as well as what your intention as an artist is!
I love your topic and can't wait to see your final result!
ReplyDeleteI love her! She has amazing hand rendered work! I think (at least in my case) our design intuition jumps over hand done work and immediately lands on "how can I do this in adobe?."
ReplyDeleteI love hand drawn elements as well. And she is an amazing artist.
ReplyDeleteAgreed, there is a time and a place for handwritten elements. As with any other device, if it is appropriate for the project, go for it.
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