2015 | Category Winner | Advertising

Totally Thames

Advertising New Talent

Commissioned by Annie Helps at Totally Thames.

Alex Foster is an illustrator based in the seaside town of Margate, UK. He has worked with a variety of clients including Roald Dahl, Anorak, Hallmark, Talented Totes, The Poetry Society and Folkestone triennial and has had posters displayed on the South Bank and London Underground. His House Portraits were featured on the Guardian Gift Guide and ITV's ‘This Morning’.

About Entry
My poster for Totally Thames aimed to depict London and the events from Totally Thames in a fun way. The nature of my style and the various things happening at the events made it a lovely project to work on; we included lots of little details, people, buildings and boats, with the Thames as a focal point. 

Website/Online Portfolio
alex-foster.com

Brief
To communicate what Totally Thames is, where the events take place and what the events are. It was to be accessible to a wide audience, be easily adapted to multiple formats across print.

Materials
Pencil, scanner and Photoshop

Research
Learning about the events involved, looking through photos and images, drawing and developing roughs and ideas into a final image.

Process
Everything is drawn in pencil in pieces, scanned, then coloured and compiled in Photoshop to bring it all together as one image.

Resistances
With many projects it is necessary to go through lots of revisions and changes, but in this case it improved the final image.

Insight
I try to make work that pleases me, as well as the client/audience and aim for my work to be original. I like the little details, but had to remember to see the piece as a whole image and how it'd look from a distance.

Distractions
Emails, general business work and admin, multiple commissions.

Numbers 
250 London tube station posters, 500 National Rail station posters and 10,000 brochures

Afterwords
Massive thank you to Annie for commissioning the piece, to my girlfriend, friends and family for continued support, and to you guys for the award. I feel very grateful to be able to do this as a career.

    Alex Foster Illustration2015Alex Foster-Illustration Image