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Campaign Spotlight: Steve Noble
Steven Noble’s site is so jam-packed with image categories, jumps to his array of satellite websites and revolving images that show logos and identity for nearly every type of product or service you can imagine that you might get the impression that he is the hardest-working man in illustration. And you could be right!
From packaging for Altoids, Samuel Adam’s, Budweiser, Peet’s Coffee and tons more, to book covers, ad campaigns, wine labels for Sutter Home, Glen Ellen, Ventana and Cakebread Cellars, to the dollar bill, his scratchboard illustrations have graced and enhanced the identity of a who’s-who of high caliber clients.
Noble lives in Petaluma, California and works out of a studio in the Mediterranean-style house he bought because it reminded him of the houses in the South of France that harkens back to his childhood. The Northern California countryside is also a pleasant reminder of his early surroundings. “I love to take small trips on the weekends in my convertible out into the wine country in Sonoma and Napa valleys and do wine tasting,” Noble relates. “I'm often invited to many of the wineries for whom I've illustrated the labels and get complimentary tastings and discounts on wine. It's wonderful to see the final product out on the shelves, which gives me a great sense of pride.”
He was born in Neuilly-sur-Seine, a commune in the western suburbs of Paris, in 1968 to a French mother. His father, an army veteran (retired military) who had fought in the Korean War, was working at the U.S. Embassy in Paris at the time. Noble has a sister who's four years older.
“I believe I inherited many of his qualities, likenesses, and talent,” Noble says of his father. “Throughout his entire life, his artistic, creative side would come out. For example, he would do many portrait paintings for other officers in the military. After his retirement, he decided to move back to France and go to the Ecole Municipale des Beaux-Arts in Perpignan, for three years, on his G.I. Bill. It was always his dream to go to art school and learn how to draw and paint,” he recalls.
“Afterwards, my parents decided to move back to the U.S. so that my father could find work as a civilian after his retirement from the military as a Warrant Officer in 1969. We then settled down in Novato, California in 1976 when I was eight years old.
“My mother, who I keep a close relationship with, still lives in Novato where I grew up for most of my life. She was instrumental in my success as an illustrator. She inspired me to persevere through the difficult years and created a stable environment that allowed my career to flourish,” Noble says.
Since he graduated from the University of California at Davis in 1990, his reputation and skill for working in the difficult medium of scratchboard has steadily grown, along with his professional accolades. Noble is the master of the X-Acto blade, carving delicate lines into pre-inked clay boards which allow him to make the work look as if it were a woodcut, a 19th century steel engraving or an array of other historical styles. Scratchboard requires the artist to work in an opposite fashion from drawing. “It is almost like reverse psychology,” Noble explains. “You’re adding light and taking away the darkness one stroke at a time.” He can translate the technique into a variety of styles and treatments like woodcut, pen and ink, and engraving, as well as very fine traditional earlier century engravings.
Noble keeps an informative and well-designed blog where he deconstructs particular projects. He has helped many clients take an established brand into a new age, such as the Kahlúa package redesign that refreshed the brand, while playing on its existing appeal. He cleverly combines historic styles with modern touches, creating an amusing campaign for an accounting firm that shows figures such as Ben Franklin and Abraham Lincoln dressed in Steampunk fashion to convey the message that the client is not a group of “ordinary” accountants.
He is presently working on a book that will collect and present his oeuvre—a rather daunting task considering his artistic output, but one that he will tackle with typical research and enthusiasm.
To see more of Steven’s work, visit www.stevennoble.com and www.scratchboardstock.net
Q: What motivated you to begin drawing? Were you one of those children who could always be found sketching?
A: I always drew something when I was a young child. I lived in the south of France near the Pyrenees and would draw the mountains overlooking the village that we lived in for three years. I would sketch out the snow line, as it would gradually descend, as winter season would come. The shapes and contours of the light hitting the highest peaks always fascinated me. When I moved for the first time to San Francisco, my interest became the city skyline along the bay. I was always visually perceptive when I was a child. My mother would ask me when I would sit in the airplane near the window, “What are you looking at? There's nothing out there…” I'd respond and tell her, yes… there're clouds and all sorts of amazing shapes and my imagination would run wild.
Q: Who or what were your influences?
A: My father was a great influence on me. He was an amateur painter and did portraits and landscapes for both family and friends. He would always coach me in the ways of drawing such as learning about perspective and creating values, shading, contrast and tone. The second influence in developing my style and technique were the master artists of the past such as Albrecht Dürer, Gustave Doré. They both were experts in the wood engraving and steel engraving techniques. I was always fascinated by this age-old process and that inspired me to learn the process, but in my own way.
Q: How did you evolve your color palette?
A: The colors came only as a secondary stage in the process as a means to enhance and highlight the values already established in the black-and-white scratchboard illustration. At the early beginning, I would add the color traditionally using watercolors and gouache by masking the sections and airbrushing in the colors over the top of the board or using a print and then adding color by brush. Soon afterwards, I found that digital technology with the use of Photoshop helped a great deal to create the same effect and allowed more flexibility especially in the world of commercial illustration which requires a lot of edits and changes.
Q: You have taken a rather unforgiving medium, scratchboard, and adapted it to many variations. How did you develop your style?
A: I adapted the scratchboard style by teaching myself the technique over many years of trial and error. I originally did line art and stipple and graduated to the engraving scratchboard style. From there, I expanded into linocuts and woodcuts which are much more bold and graphic in nature and allowed my portfolio to grow to include woodblock carvings of the 18th century and often re-creating a retro modern version to fit today’s needs for advertising, packaging design, publishing and logo identities. Final illustrations are created by hand on scratchboard using X-Acto knife tools on background clayboard. The engraved lines are then added using a pen-and-ink process which is laid onto the board, then scraped off with an X-Acto knife to create cross breaks in the lines, which renders a lighter value. The shadow is then created using a crosshatch technique to create a darker value for a more dimensional effect.
Q: What is your favorite type of assignment?
A: My favorite assignment was illustrating the SLS Hotels logo identity. This was in collaboration with GBH in London to design the illustration logo identity and all room collateral for SLS Hotel at Beverly Hills ("SLS" stands for style, luxury, and service). The identity’s monkeys are a mischievous and baroque slice of European culture in the heart of LA. The project was a unique challenge in that the artwork had to include numerous individual components, which needed to work cohesively in various combinations to support one main logo. The monkeys were all illustrated separately with their own individual personalities that included scared, mischievous, angry, and jovial. Preliminary pencil sketches were all drawn to create full-life monkey characters with likeable and distinct personalities to capture the viewer’s attention. The mirror, fork, and bells were dropped in separately into the hands of each of the monkeys; the blown-out candle flame was separately added as well. Additional personalities were later created to complement the logo and continue with variations on the theme of upscale festivity, such as dancing monkeys, and a monkey holding an engagement ring. The chandelier base image was originally modeled after my own dining room chandelier.
Q: What is your process for an editorial illustration?
A: My process for editorial illustration requires several stages. Those stages include a verbal communication with the art director concerning the concept along with any visually supplied reference material. Afterwards, I begin the preliminary sketch phase based on the art direction and create an initial rough tissue. Once that has been submitted, I include upwards of two additional revisions to the sketch for final approval. Lastly, once I get the "green light" to move forward, then I move to the final artwork-rendering phase.
Q: Can you explain the term “semi-stock” on your stock image website?
A: The “semi-stock” illustrations are defined by the fact that they are derived from an original stock image with the client needing a slight adjustment to fit their specific needs. This classification falls halfway between custom illustration and stock illustrations. For example, a “cup of coffee” spot illustration can either be adjusted to fit with an added and newly illustrated doughnut (with drop shadow) on the side or made to have just the cup without the saucer and, yet, have a spoon drawn to be placed inside the cup. This can be adjusted to create a “new” illustration while keeping the integrity of the original illustration without it looking like a “collaged” and/or pasted illustration.
Q: Can you describe your studio environment?
A: I keep a pretty organized and streamlined system in my studio so that I can stay on top of every individual project in my busy schedule. I have to wear many hats in the daily management of my business. This includes creating estimates, preparing my marketing, paying estimate taxes, answering the phone and finally working at the drawing board. This does not include other small details within the daily operations of the business. At the end of the day, the illustration and creative portion only takes up a small percentage of the business as a whole. It is very difficult to maneuver from two opposite sides of the brain: creative to analytical.
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Poster for Chaz Maviyane-Davies exhibition.
Paintings by Twenty-Two Gallery members (clockwise from top left) Melissa Bryant, Patrick Neilson, Derek Jecxz and Michelle Gallagher.
Mel Ramos, Hav-a-Havana, 2011, oil on canvas, 60 x 36 inches, photo by Philip Cohen, courtesy Imago Galleries.
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What's Hanging
Exhibitions of note nationwide.
Being: The Graphic Design of Chaz Maviyane-Davies
De Affiche Galerij (The Poster Gallery)
Den Haag (The Hague, Netherlands)
Through February 27
www.denhaag.nl/en/residents/culture-and-arts/museums/De-Affiche-Galerij-2.htm
While this exhibition is far beyond the borders of America, and he is a designer, I think it’s important to include Chaz Maviyane-Davies, a remarkable designer from Zimbabwe who defied his government to create powerful artistic statements about equality, peace and the rights of man. "Over the years I have tried to use images and ideas to cut through complacency and apathy while trying to raise consciousness about an array of social issues from discrimination and human rights, to health and the environment.,” Maviyane-Davies states. He calls design his weapon and he has dedicated himself to waging Creative Defiance against repressive politics. Visit www.maviyane.com to see more of his moving work. (Note that in the poster shown here, the arrow fletching is a barcode.)
Member Artists Group Show
Twenty-Two Gallery
236 S. 22nd St,
Philadelphia, PA
Through February 5th
www.twenty-twogallery.com
Since 2003, Twenty-Two Gallery has been showing local and national, as well as emerging and established artist’s work. The gallery represents 22 Philly artist members that work in many mediums including oils, acrylics, sculpture, print work, mixed media and photography. The gallery in Philadelphia’s Rittenhouse Square neighborhood holds art openings on the “Second Friday” of each month, that include a wine and cheese artist’s reception from 6 to 9 p.m. The back area of the gallery always shows a sampling of other member’s work in addition.
Palm Springs Fine Art Fair
Post-War and Contemporary Art
Palm Springs Convention Center
277 N. Avenida Caballeros
Palm Springs, CA
February 17 – 19
www.palmspringsfineartfair.com
Show Times:
Thursday, February 16, 5 – 8 pm | Opening Preview Party | Benefiting Palm Springs Art Museum
Friday, February 17, 10 am – 8 pm
Saturday, February 18, 10 am – 7 pm
Sunday, February 19, 10 am – 6 pm
Hampton Expo Group announces the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair, a new addition to its growing family of art fairs, February 17-19, 2012, at the Palm Springs Convention Center. Featuring more than 50 top international art galleries exhibiting more than 2,000 “carefully culled works of post-war and contemporary art”, the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair aims to appeal to the sophisticated collector and casual fan alike. Punctuated by an Opening Preview Party on February 16 to benefit the Palm Springs Art Museum, as well as a program of special events and exhibitions throughout the run of the show, the Palm Springs Fine Art Fair could be a President's Day weekend retreat for art lovers (not to mention fans of mid-century design and architecture).
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Malibu Cheesecake, The Pinup Art of Olivia
Pantone, The 20th Century in Color
Jorge Colombo, Lexington and 53rd Street
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Good Books
A brief review of notable titles and inspiring monographs.
Malibu Cheesecake, The Pinup Art of Olivia
edited by Joel Beren
Published by Ozone Productions, Ltd., 160 pages, hardcover, $39.95.
www.eolivia.com
The Pinup Art of Olivia, author, illustrator Olivia De Berardinis that is, presents over 100 new paintings, drawings, and studies plus comments by the artist on her technique, models, and the creative process as well as interviews with Hugh Hefner, Bettie Page, Dita Von Teese, and Margaret Cho. Ms. De Berardinis has a range of books on other vamps, imaginary and real such as pin-up icon Page, in addition to calendars and other products including my favorite, the Dancing Betties — Pink Ladies T-shirt.
Pantone, The 20th Century in Color
by Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker
Published by Chronicle books, 208 pages, hardcover, $40.
www.chroniclebooks.com
Pantone, the worldwide color authority, invites you on a visual tour of 100 transformative years. From the Pale Gold (15-0927 TPX) and Almost Mauve (12-2103 TPX) of the 1900 Universal Exposition in Paris to the Rust (18-1248 TPX) and Midnight Navy (19-4110 TPX) of the countdown to the Millennium, the 20th century brimmed with color. Longtime Pantone collaborators and color gurus Leatrice Eiseman and Keith Recker identify more than 200 touchstone works of art, products, décor, and fashion, and carefully match them with 80 different official PANTONE color palettes to reveal the trends, radical shifts, and resurgences of various hues. This vibrant volume takes the social temperature of our recent history with the panache that is uniquely Pantone. I worked with Leatrice for many years formulating my color predictions articles for CA; her other titles are indispensable tools in my design arsenal. She is a walking color encyclopedia!
New York: Finger Paintings
by Jorge Colombo, essays by Jen Bekman and Christoph Niemann
Published by Chronicle Books, 120 pages, hardcover, $24.95.
www.chroniclebooks.com
Jorge Colombo’s finger paintings on his iPod of New York City were featured in IV [issue #4]. Now he has collected them into a book of unforgettable images of the city that never sleeps. New York: Finger Paintings offers 100 paintings accompanied by Colombo’s comments about each location and the process of creating art on a portable device while standing on a street corner. Regularly released as 20x200.com limited edition prints, his images have appeared several times on the cover of The New Yorker, and there is a blog devoted to his work, Finger Paintings, on newyorker.com. “His view of the city and his art are influenced by Woody Allen movies, Edward Hopper paintings, and Arthur Getz illustrations, among others,” the release explains. His first cover for The New Yorker, in June 2009, was the first time a smartphone-created image appeared on the cover of a magazine. His work has been featured in publications such as the New York Times, 7x7, and The Guardian, and shown on Good Morning America, Fox News, and various international outlets.
Art-dealer, curator, writer, and entrepreneur Jen Bekman’s projects include her eponymous Manhattan gallery, the curated limited-edition fine-art print website 20x200, and the international photography competition Hey, Hot Shot!
Christoph Niemann is an illustrator, graphic designer, and author of several books, including I LEGO N.Y., who writes and illustrates the New York Times blog Abstract Sunday.
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Good Surfing
A few hot breaks to check out while surfing the net.
www.artrfairinfo.com — “News Dealers Can Use” is the slogan and mission statement of this interesting new website. They pledge to provide details on upcoming art fairs, the results of said fairs, the latest on promising new markets, trend observations, and interviews with artists. Check out this dialogue on global art fair choices available to dealers today. I know more and more illustrators who are exhibiting their work at art fairs and other venues with wide exposure to find new audiences.
www.kickstarter.com — Many artists and other creative sorts are using this site to raise funds to produce books, theatrical experiences (Cynthia von Buhler’s “Speakeasy Dollhouse” for example) and products. You can find a fascinating array of projects to help support. Your dollars are not tapped until, and unless, the goal amount is raised. Or start your own!
www.rarewords.org — is a collaborative blog run by illustrator/comic/designer Mark Burrier, where readers submit words that become the creative starting point for drawings. As Beth Pierson at Serbin Communications describes it, “Kind of like the audience at an improv club offering situations for the troupe.” True, that!
bentheillustrator.prosite.com/23231/240801/articles-by-ben/be-exciting-evolve-be-exciting-again — This witty British artist has posted some good articles, mainly targeted to young illustrators that may be of interest to a wider audience.
www.AViiQ.com — adheres to the tenet that form should follow function. Founded to create consumer mobile electronic accessories that maximize productivity through enhanced functionality and high-end design, AViiQ offers some stylish and colorful products such as the Portable Quick Stand, an origami-inspired laptop stand that weighs less than 3.5 oz and provides optimum ergonomic angle while increasing air flow for laptops up to 17-inches. Cool.
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blog.directoryofillustration.com
Featuring over 180 blogs from artists and their representatives.
- - RSS Feed Updated Hourly - -
Read More... blog.directoryofillustration.com
blog.playillustration.com
Blogs from illustration artists in the Toy and Interactive Game markets
- - RSS Feed Updated Hourly - -
Read More... blog.playillustration.com
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Industry Advice
Advice from an industry of one, but a determined one.
As an editor I cull from a vast number of magazines, websites, blogs, vlogs and more to find information that I feel can be of assistance to IV readers. While much of the material I peruse on a daily basis, might be focused more on design or another field related to illustration, I believe that there is good, practical advice to be gleaned from these disparate writings.
I admit I was first drawn in to Jim Signorelli’s piece below by the literary reference in the title. Like it or not, branding is now a ubiquitous cultural term. I admit I still think of it in connection with cows, and my time on a Texas ranch, but it has come to define savvy advertising that taps into the core qualities and attributes of a product or service, distinguishing it from the pack. Illustrators can take a lesson from the message here: If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it. You are the brand. You, the artist, your imagination, dreams, history, influences. Don’t try to be someone else, be you. Each of us is unique. Artists, and other creative individuals need only tap into their passion, and be true to who they are as an individual. Nearly every creative person out there says the same thing on their website, or in their PR materials: That they are problem solvers, they are creative thinkers, blah blah. And while the work does speak for itself, it is nice to have a little background about those we work and collaborate with.
When I go to interview an illustrator, I want to know what makes that person tick. Why are they an artist? What path did they take? What drives them? What books are on their shelves, what music on their iPod? How do they live? Tell your story, not the party line, but YOUR story. Make that your resolution for 2012! I wish everyone a Happy and Successful New Year.
Reprinted by permission of Jim Signorelli.
A Branding Lesson from George Orwell
By Jim Signorelli
As I walked into my office today, there was a copy of George Orwell's 1984 on my desk. On the book was a sticky note attached to a page with a drawn arrow that pointed to a certain passage. The note wasn't signed, but I knew that the words “READ THIS!” were written in my assistant Heather’s handwriting.
Like most books I was supposed to read in high school, all I can remember about George Orwell's 1984 is what Cliff Notes told me to remember. And what I remember most are warnings against evil dictators, Big Brother and the thought police. As I wondered if Heather was trying to send me a message, I sheepishly started reading the passage. By the time I was done I was ready to give her a promotion. Here is an extract from the passage the arrow pointed to: “The book fascinated him, or more exactly it reassured him. In a sense it told him nothing that was new, but that was part of the attraction. It said what he would have said, if it had been possible for him to set his scattered thoughts in order. It was the product of a mind similar to his own. The best books, he perceived, are those that tell you what you know already."
The context is less important than the content of this message. But if you’re interested, it’s in Chapter 9 when the lead character finishes reading a book he had been struggling to get his hands on.
Heather has known for a while that I have a fascination with the similarities between stories and brands. She also knows that this passage supports what I believe is yet another in a long list of parallels that can be drawn between good stories and good brands.
To understand why Orwell’s passage resonated with me, I should first let you in on a couple of beliefs I have about brands, in general. You should know that I don’t think brands are objects; rather they are labels given to objects for which we associate certain meanings. Furthermore, you should know that I believe that the “best” brands contained within anyone’s favored set of brands satisfy needs that go beyond product or service functions. Rather, they are brands that have meanings we value as important. Mercedes means something important to the owners of Mercedes, as does the meaning of Subaru to its owners.
Understanding this, the real “ah ha!” for me is a point that Orwell makes in this passage about “best books.” He says they tell us what we already know and that they are the “product of minds similar to ours.” In other words, they don’t create beliefs and values as much as they reinforce what’s already there. And they do this by awakening our minds or putting “our scattered thoughts in order.”
When Steve Jobs passed away, one of the most poignant comments I heard about him was that he didn’t give us Apple computers, iPods or iPads. Rather, he gave us Apple. He gave us a meaning that we could connect with emotionally for those of us who, like Jobs, value what is promoted through Apple’s theme line, “Think Different.” The reason we could connect with this meaning isn’t because Steve Jobs put that meaning into our belief system. It was already there. Like a good story, meanings associated with Apple are meanings that, to borrow from Orwell, “fascinate or more exactly reassure us.” Apple gave us something we were already predisposed to receiving.
The reason this is an important concept is plain to see when examining powerful brands like Apple, Harley-Davidson, Disney, Nike and others that tap into and/or celebrate our existing values. But just as there are lessons from success, there are lessons from underestimating just how important it is for brands to crystallize rather than create meaning.
Try as they might, brands like stories cannot change beliefs and associated values if we are not ready to have them changed. Marketing history is rife with examples that prove the point. Oldsmobile learned this lesson the hard way when it tried to convince its audience that “This is not your father's Oldsmobile.” Despite its clever attempt to shed a different light on its brand, the belief that Oldsmobile is a car for older people was too entrenched to be radicalized. As Sears learned through its efforts to shed light on “The Softer Side of Sears,” it was impossible for us to let go of its harder side image we had come to associate through brands like Craftsman, Die-Hard, and Kenmore. We gave Radio Shack a “you’ve got to be kidding” snicker when they tried to go from geeky to hip with its new moniker “The Shack.” And then there's the archetypal New Coke mistake that taught us that changing an image, especially when it ain't broke, can be a costly mistake.
Time and time again we hear Chicken Little pronouncements by management that “we must change our identity (read: meaning) or we are going to perish.” More often than not, the only thing that needs to change is an improved sense of meanings that haven’t changed.
At its core, Old Spice is a brand we have learned to associate with masculinity. Granted, it might be our father's aftershave. But “Smell Like A Man,” didn't bother to change Old Spice's meaning in order to reignite its appeal. Rather, it stayed the course merely with a more contemporized frame of reference we now have for masculinity. Volkswagen’s Beetle found its link to its reverse snobbery roots when it reestablished a cult following by introducing the new Beetle with alternative rock music. It furthered that link by attaching a flower vase to its dashboard. Sperry Topsiders, an old, tired brand sold mostly to men, dramatically increased sales by making its long-held association with the good life, on or around the water, relevant to women and kids.
Thank you George Orwell for putting my scattered thoughts in order. And thank you Heather. You’ve been elevated to Super Assistant.
Jim Signorelli is the founder and CEO of esw StoryLab, a Chicago-based marketing firm. Signorelli’s 30+ year career in advertising began as a “copy/contact” with Marsteller and soon expanded to account management with major agencies like N.W. Ayer, Frankel & Co. and W.B. Doner. Over the years, he has worked for a number of national consumer and business brands including Citibank, Kraft Foods, Burger King, Toshiba, Emerson Electric, and The American Marketing Association. Signorelli’s agency has been cited as one of the fastest-growing independent companies in the U.S. by Inc. Magazine for three years running and, in 2010, he was the recipient of the “Smart Leader” award given by Smart Business Magazine and U.S. Bank. He currently resides in Evanston, IL with his wife. For more information, please visit www.eswpartners.com.
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Accolades
Kudos to Leighton Hubbell for his activism in regards to copyright protection, most recently seen in this poster design. From leightonhubbell-blog.com/blog/ Hubbell writes: “With all the madness the design community has endured with the pilfering of my and others’ work in recent months, the thought inspired me to create a poster. The sentiment was this: The professional community that I have come to know – especially the online community, has not only taken the pilferers to task, we have banded together to watch out for each other. I am very proud of this.
“I know we cannot completely stamp out copyright infringement and plagiarism, but we can try and make the casual infringer aware of the damage they are doing by downloading others’ work and using it without permission.
“Let’s stick together as a strong design community and continue to look out for each other.” Amen to that!
If you have received an award, published a book or have other exciting career news, please email annetelford@san.rr.com.
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