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Russell Tate tickles the sides of tension

Jun 9 2010

Any freelance illustrator working today runs the gauntlet of constant changes, sustained deadlines and creative challenges. After an extremely busy period they emerge as weary as the tenacious gladiator standing in the centre of the stadium, surrounded by challenges they’ve had to overcome.

Russell Tate was commissioned to illustrate this very familiar phenomenon, but as experienced within the management structures of large corporations.

Russell’s illustrations work perfectly in communicating a subject loaded with tension in a lighter tone, in this case upper management carrying on in the ivory tower as the office and manual workers tire and collapse below.

But it’s not only his light style that tackles complicated messages so well, but also his ability to imagine visual metaphors that take people away from the sore points of a topic and appreciate the subject more objectively. In the case below he reflected the story of the Titanic sinking. The story goes that the band on the upper deck was still playing as the Titanic went down.

Click on any image below to see more work from Russell Tate in his portfolio.>>