Mike Watt’s simplicity overflows with personality Oct 14 2011
What we love about the freehand line category is that there is very little to hide behind. There is no realistic rendering that wows your eye and no digital filters or effects to marvel at. The ability to affect people comes down to the energy of the line and the playful charm of the drawn poses. This is especially the case with the latest commission from Sydney agency, GHO for Mike Watt to create a caravan of characters for Commonwealth Bank.
Mike initially presented several alternatives for the look and feel of the characters ranging from ultra simplistic to more wacky in their design. When the client chose the most simplistic character design Mike’s playful mind and gregarious nature kicked in. These aspects of Mike’s personality and artwork is what is most enjoyable to look at below. With very little opportunity to express what he wanted in the characters faces Mike still managed to convey all the community minded critters cooperating with each other through their antics. They pull each other over the side of the banisters, slide and stroll up the banisters, climb up the stairs on their hands and crowd surf their way to the top, but never elbow, push past or walk on top of one another.
“This was a really fun job for me, there where a few challenges that I hadn’t dealt with before, new challenges are great as it means you learn something new so I was excited with this one straight away.
The characters are extremely simple but they all had to look unique while all being happy (working together going up the stairwell). Going through and playing with degrees of smiles on these guys was really entertaining and kept me smiling like a moron for most of the job.
The stairwell in the illustration is a 3d render that was provided, I quite like how the 2 styles work together and again another fun challenge making them interact with the environment.
The aspect that I thought might be quite daunting was the amount of characters. This turned out to be great fun, having so many little dudes in there I could play around with them, the little guy walking up on his hands and my favorite the one being carried”.
Mike Wa
What we love about the freehand line category is that there is very little to hide behind. There is no realistic rendering that wows your eye and no digital filters or effects to marvel at. The ability to affect people comes down to the energy of the line and the playful charm of the drawn poses. This is especially the case with the latest commission from Sydney agency, GHO for Mike Watt to create a caravan of characters for Commonwealth Bank.
Mike initially presented several alternatives for the look and feel of the characters ranging from ultra simplistic to more wacky in their design. When the client chose the most simplistic character design Mike’s playful mind and gregarious nature kicked in. These aspects of Mike’s personality and artwork is what is most enjoyable to look at below. With very little opportunity to express what he wanted in the characters faces Mike still managed to convey all the community minded critters cooperating with each other through their antics. They pull each other over the side of the banisters, slide and stroll up the banisters, climb up the stairs on their hands and crowd surf their way to the top, but never elbow, push past or walk on top of one another.
“This was a really fun job for me, there where a few challenges that I hadn’t dealt with before, new challenges are great as it means you learn something new so I was excited with this one straight away.
The characters are extremely simple but they all had to look unique while all being happy (working together going up the stairwell). Going through and playing with degrees of smiles on these guys was really entertaining and kept me smiling like a moron for most of the job.
The stairwell in the illustration is a 3d render that was provided, I quite like how the 2 styles work together and again another fun challenge making them interact with the environment.
The aspect that I thought might be quite daunting was the amount of characters. This turned out to be great fun, having so many little dudes in there I could play around with them, the little guy walking up on his hands and my favorite the one being carried”.
Mike Wa
