Brainwave. Issue 08. Lotsa Bots.

The much awaited copy of Issue 8 - Lotsa Bots arrived today morning. In the past month I had put a lot of work in creating the artworks and layout for the issue. Apart from the amount of work, the other challenge I took was to venture into many more styles for this issue to keep the look of content rich and engaging. Here comes the month of Robotica -

This spread is done for the regular toybox section. Unlike other sections, I have kept a fixed style of drawings for this - simple, hand drawn and functional in its look. The boxes have been kept loose to negotiate with the rigid drawing style.

During my foundation studies in college, I used to love the geometry classes and mechanical drawing. I think this issues provided a good opportunity to look back into that space. The above one is a blend of hand made textures and vector illustrations. Its a tiny spot illustration but I have grown quite fond of it. I had drawn this one for an article on how Mango ripens quickly in the company of Bananas :)

Again from the pages of isometric graph rendering, but this time its Khooni Cafe.  This one required long hours to finish and do I need to tell how much I fretted over the alignment issues in this one.

I also tried doing custom type for the title at many places. The 'Autobots' one was done while listening to 'Tron OST'. But lately I have been wondering about the treatment of titles. Do the titles need to follow the same design treatment across the magazine or is it fine to take the liberty to play around with it, if yes then how much? Considering this is a kid's magazine, being too restrictive on the style play will not help but a common thread is needed somewhere.

Back to the basics, these were rendered with poster paints by hand. 

This is 'Thingumma Bob', our mash monster for this issue - made out of six living creatures. You need to unmash the monster and tell who the six creatures are.

Lastly, the 'Tea-Bot' from our contest page.

I will finish this post by sharing how I approach colour when working on the magazine - being partially colour blind I can't afford to take risks so I do it all mathematically. Say if I have to make purple, then in my head I calculate what percentage of Cyan with Magenta should mix in multiples of 5. Tumbling around on colour wheel is not my area. So all the colours are done in my head like a matching store. 

This is it for now, next issue is on chemistry and I have a few things lined up for that. Lets see how that turns out. 

Brainwave. Issue 07. Snakes.

It has been quite some time since I uploaded any new work. A lot of freelance work is in the pipeline and should be done in the next 15 days. Apart from that I am now the designer and illustrator for Brainwave magazine (Science magazine for kids, published by Amar Chitra Katha). I joined in May and did some work for the seventh issue which is based on Snakes and Rain forests. Here are a few spreads on which I worked on -

Working in a Magazine is all about being quick and good. You can't afford to sit and ponder for long as the deadlines are tight. This is something that can make you good with being more confident and assured with your ideas and keeping the execution water tight. Another observation that came through when working on layout meant for kids is to let go off the clean Swiss look that we idealize so much. I do love the Swiss but there is something more challenging about getting down to the playful level. I hope to be more at ease with this non-Helvetica zone. The next issue is on robotics/intelligent machines, this suits my love for grids and the mechanical drawings. Although, I am working in a range of styles and the coming issue will give a sense of satisfaction to my exploratory side as a Designer. I have realised that I am more of a graphic designer than an Illustrator. I choose the style of the drawing according to the content and then work with it. It may not establish me as an illustrator who can be identified for the look and feel of his work but it strengthens me as a graphic designer.
I am waiting for the next issue to come on stands but lots has to be done before that. More updates soon. And here is something my Bhai gave me. Sadly, the amount of work this month has kept me off my running shoes.