Metroscapes
Q : How many stories can you tell in one picture?
A : Loads
My Metroscape illustrations have become a great opportunity for clients to tell their stories, to show their services, depict their working practices and bring some fresh, contemporary impact to their resources. I have created Metroscape for all sorts of media from magazine covers to animated digital displays, and from corporate websites to jigsaw puzzles! Most of these illustrations have started with a brief along the lines of ‘there is a lot going on!’ and it’s my job to take all those goings-on and put them into a structured landscape that reads well, attracts attention (and often curiosity) and tells the audience that everything is happening for a reason, like a well-oiled machine.
The most fun part? It’s hiding things away, secret references, members of the client team and historic highlights from the client’s past, I’ll also throw in my own friends and family now and again, but they don’t know about that.
If you’re interested in commissioning a Metroscape illustration then get in touch
PS. Big thanks to Parksie for the word ‘Metroscapes’!
Starting off with this Swiss landscape for OTII. This landscape incorporates a lot of specific activities relevant to OTII’s subject matters, for example outdoor activities, community, education, travel etc. This is a good example of how a Metroscape can include urban and rural locations.
Here’s an illustration for Surveylab, as you can see on Surveylab.co.uk a Metroscape can also be taken apart to provide small illustrated scenes, super useful for populating a company website.
Here are some examples of Metroscapes for editorial clients for Ambition Magazine, Boston Globe, The Guardian and The Big Issue (clockwise from top left).
The Bristol Harbourside scene was commissioned by Falcon Contemporary as a 1000 piece jigsaw (you can buy it here), and features a multitude of Bristolian references, including some special Twitter friends with connections to the city. I’m in there too.
A very busy Metroscape for Box Pensions, you may be able to see the illustration is split into four quarters by colour, each section targeted a different audience in the client’s market, and was used throughout internal and B2B presentations to define the structure of the company.
I always like building up a Metroscape illustration in layers, like a cake, but as you can see here we can also create single level street scenes, as busy and colourful as you like! These three illustrations (from the top) were creates for Affinity Designer software, Parlourwood production company and Unum Insurance.
Finally, a fun one. I created this Metroscape purely for my own enjoyment. The city… Chicago. The reason… Ferris Bueller’s Day Off. This artwork contains loads of references, characters, sites and scenes from the film. How many Ferris can you find?
