Live Brief - Bumblebee's

In a recent brief, I was commissioned by a local primary school to design a series of bumblebee illustrations. These designs would be used to help students identify the different species of bumblebee's in their outdoor nature area. I was lucky enough to get this commission through a family connection. I have previously worked with this school in the past, creating educational resources and classroom displays. A few months ago, I designed some health and hygiene posters, encouraging pupils to stay clean and wash their hands regularly previous post previous post. This was a really fun project to work on. I enjoyed creating illustrations with a fit purpose to help children. It enabled me to get first hand experience of what it's like to design for children. Therefore, I was looking forwards to working with the school again.

This project really challenged my artistic abilities. Rather than illustrating in my usual simplified style, the brief requested more of a realistic depiction. Children needed to automatically be able to recognise the different species of bumblebee's from the illustrations. This required me to centre my style on detail as opposed to simplicity.

I experimented with mark making in my usual medium of pen, also adding colour and shading through photoshop.

Overall I'm really happy with what I've managed to create. To make these illustrations a success, I had to work outside of my usual style and follow the requirements of the brief. Most importantly, I've displayed to myself that anything is possible once you put your mind to it.

Finished Bumblebee identification chart