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Welcome to the Future by Rod Hunt

Welcome to the Future by Rod Hunt

Design Ideas
February 19, 2016
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Rod Hunt's "Welcome to the Future: Staffordshire Uni Development" was commissioned by design company RileyRaven to visualise the redevelopment of Staffordshire University's College Road and Blackeath Lane campus’. The main College Road campus visualization focuses on improvements to the site, the new general teaching building, as as well as the refurbishment of the Cadman, Mellor and Flaxman buildings.

Everything starts in an A5 sketchbook with very rough & throwaway compositions to work out the overall page layout & where text will be placed. At this stage I purposely draw with a biro so that I can’t erase anything, keeping away from detail to keep the ideas flowing. Compositionally it’s important to have flow through the piece, leading the eye on a journey. The piece has to work as a whole & not look like the sum of its parts or be disjointed. It’s important not to be seduced into the detail too soon & lose sight of the overall goal. I also need to give myself enough thinking & doodling time at the beginning of a project before producing a finished rough drawing. That’s where the real hard work is done & is the foundation of a great piece of work.
-Rod Hunt

Rod Hunt

After I’m happy with the very rough compositions & idea, I moved onto creating a detailed fully finished pencil rough, drawing with a 2B pencil on heavyweight cartridge paper usually at A3. It’s at this point I work out the amount of detail in the piece. The roughs are then scanned and used as a guide in a background layer in Adobe Illustrator to produce the final artwork, while drawing with a Wacom Cintiq screen tablet. Everything is broken down into many layers so I can keep track of all the detail & make things easily editable for myself
-Rod Hunt

Rod Hunt

The idea was to show a 'near future' version of the site with a few futuristic elements while keeping it grounded in reality. So we included some recent ‘concept' jet packs and electric cars, while using a limited colour palette with a few strong spot colours.
-Rod Hunt

Rod Hunt

Detailed, isometric, retro tinged illustration. Comics were a big influence me, especially British comic 2000AD, & the thing that got me drawing as a kid. Apart from comics my inspirations would go back to games from my youth on the ZX Spectrum like Knight Lore, Batman, Alien 8 & Head Over Heals by Ultimate Play The Game, the isometric ones were particular favourites. I also grew up with Science Fiction films like Star Wars, The Day the Earth Stood Still & Forbidden Planet, & old TV shows like Flash Gordon & Star Trek. Their design aesthetic definitely stayed with me & their visions of the future are still what I think the future should look like. And of course the robots were always cool! I also owned a few old tin robot toys as a kid, which were amongst my favourite toys.
-Rod Hunt

 

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I love old illustration from 50’s & 60’s advertising, Pulp Fiction covers, album sleeves, old posters, comics, etc. Having a sense of history & what’s gone before is very important, as you can’t learn from just what everyone is doing today. The American painter Edward Hopper has also been a big influence on me due to his lighting & ability to capture a moment in time.
-Rod Hunt

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Get out there and get your work seen by as many people as possible. You should never be afraid to show people your work. It’s important to invest enough time & resources in promoting your work & explore all possible markets. You maybe the best designer/illustrator in the world, but if no one sees your work, you won’t get commissioned. Be yourself & indulge your personal interests in your work as that is what will set you part from everyone else.

Perseverance. It can take quite some time to get really established.

-Rod Hunt

 

Rod Hunt

There’s a steep learning curve for the actual business of illustration - pricing, contracts, ethics, copyright & managing deadlines. There’s much more to being an illustrator than drawing pictures, so it’s vitally important to educate yourself if you want to have a successful & sustainable career. I recommend joining the Association of Illustrators (AOI). They’re constantly campaigning to protect all illustrator’s rights, and if you need advice & support with pricing commissions, contracts, copyright, promotion, developing your career, etc, it really pays to get help from the experts. I know first hand the value of being a member and the confidence it gives you in your career. I wouldn’t be the successful professional I am today without their training, advice & guidance over the years.

Maintain control over your Copyright in your Illustrations. There are very few occasions that clients really need to own the Copyright in your work. Your body of work is your livelihood, and you should be entitled to the financial benefits of your talent and hard work.

-Rod Hunt

About Rod Hunt

Rod Hunt is an award-winning London based Illustrator and artist who has built a reputation for retro tinged Illustrations & detailed character filled landscapes. With UK and international clients spanning publishing, design, advertising and new media, he's illustrated everything from book covers to advertising campaigns, theme park maps, iPhone Apps and even the odd large scale installation too! Rod is also the illustrator behind the bestselling Where's Stig? books for the BBC's hit TV show Top Gear. See more of his works on Behance or his website.

One comment on “Welcome to the Future by Rod Hunt”

  1. Good tip on AOI... the pricing survey is really useful. Your work is also great BTW... haven't seen much pixel art lately so this was nice to read.

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