LE CINEMA FRANCAIS
DESIGN GOLD AWARD
PROFESSIONAL
2009 – IMAGES 33
Andy Smith studied illustration at the University of Brighton and the Royal College of Art, London. His work combines illustration and typography to create images that have humour, energy and optimism – executed with a hand made, hand printed, tactile feel. He splits his time between working commercially and getting inky producing a range of screenprinted books and prints. He lives and pretends to work by the sea in Hastings.
Cover for the film magazine Sight and Sound.
"Winning the award has been lovely, the AOI Awards are always a good showcase for whats happening in illustration today and its great to be a part of it and see what everyone else is up to."
asmithillustration.com
BRIEF: Create a cover illustration that can communicate the title of the issue and the names of the French film directors involved.
MATERIALS: The illustration was drawn in pen and ink and then put together on a computer.
RESEARCH: All the directors and film makers in this feature had some connection to the events of 1968 in France so the famous protest posters seemed a good place to start from, the cockerel felt like the best way of depicting France in a graphic way.
PROCESS: I painted the image with ink and then scanned it and gave it a few inky smudges to suggest the printing process.
RESISTANCES: None, I've done a few covers for this magazine and always enjoy working on them.
INSIGHT: It was great to look back over those original posters from the time.
DISTRACTIONS: Doing the research into the posters was both distracting and good fun.
NUMBERS: 1968
FINAL THOUGHTS: I made a screenprint of this design once the magazine was out, it felt right to print it for real.