Laid back, laconic illustrator Mike Watt helps Virgin

Jan 25 2011

Crests are usually fairly one dimensional when it comes to personality. They tend to be steeped in dusty old school history. That was not the case with this brief. Virgin’s progressive character and sense of nationalism in everything we do were central to the brief and that needed to be injected into the crest.

Mike Watt was our suggestion. As a person he embodies the laid back, laconic tone of the brief. As an artist he spent his youth using type and symbols in his graffiti pieces to carry a message. This helped when it came to illustrating the symbols and icons to visually articulate our beloved lifestyle in a contemporary crest.

One other thing very individual to Mike is that he can work intuitively on a Wacom. Most people lose energy when they move from a graphite pencil into a computer because they can’t resist the temptation to overuse “appleZ”. This means that they start crafting too soon rather than letting the illustration flow out of them which results in a static image with little life. This isn’t the case with Mike.

Perhaps it’s because he does life drawing each week with a biro? Or it may be that he’s used to working on walls with a spray can? Neither medium have an “appleZ” function and both flow with life energy. So Mike is able to work straight into the computer with the same approach. Never stalling, always maintaining his speed.

Scroll below to see examples of Mike’s life drawing in biro and the Virgin crest process to final art.

Click here or on any of the images below to see Mike’s portfolio.