We love it when a plan comes together

Feb 1 2011

Ogilvy’s latest campaign for the ARU was a dream of a brief to work on with Chris Wahl. Chris’s tireless discipline to drawing everyday has earnt him worldwide respect. Everyday he experiments with new styles, subjects, caricature and poses which he generously shares with the world on his blog. This passion for what he does is what makes dream briefs comes true.

When we judge an illustrator’s portfolio we look for something called insinuated movement. This refers to an illustration’s ability to stimulate our imagination and visualise what happened before or after the moment the illustrator has chosen to draw. To do this the pose must be fluid, the line work must possess energy and the composition structured in such a way as to hero the subject the same way our eye would follow action in real life. Comics rely on insinuated movement to keep the pace of action in their storytelling.

Looking at Chris Wahl’s pencils and final images below will allow you to appreciate one of the most talented illustrators insinuating movement extremely well. When you watch the TVC you’ll see that possessing this talent is what made Chris perfect for executing Ogilvy’s idea the way it first appeared in the imagination of Art Director, Chris McMullen. The brief also required drawing the players so that they would be immediately recognisable to their fans as parts of the campaign don’t show any photographs of the rugby heros. This is where Chris’s daily workout on caricatures qualified him for the job. In fact it was a personal interest portrait he did of Paul Newman that lead him down the path to this brief. Click here to see the portrait that lead to the campaign for Skins which was what caught the attention of Ogilvy when they were looking for an illustrator for the ARU’s new season campaign.

Click here or any image below to see Chris’s full portfolio.