Rob Hodgson
One illustrator I want to look into further for this brief is Rob Hodgson, especially his Funny Buggers zine which I purchased for myself as a Christmas present. It's such a charming little publication full of simplistic, experimental characters using basic shapes and forms partnered with pattern and mark making. The fact that the book is printed in black and white values just adds to the simplification and adds a better spotlight on these characters being coherent together. Some really silly characters have been created with ink, cut paper and digital means and using basic shapes of squares, triangles, rectangles and circles gives it a childlike aesthetic with innocent implications. Such a great resource for my character design!
The Rippingtons
One of the first proper exposures to illustration I had was as a little girl in the early '90s, going through my Dad's extensive CD collection and picking music to listen to on his oversized headphones and stereo system! Who could resist these boldly colourful covers? The Rippingtons' artwork holds a lot of personal value, childhood memories and nostalgia for me and I hope to be able to add an essence of that to my final character design. Though the Jazz cat is a bit of a cliché and a trope, I think the cover designs here give it a fresh (at the time) late 80s' / early '90s funky, groovy and cool vibe married with the more traditional Jazz imagery of darkly lit clubs, stages, lights and instruments. Purple and yellow work so well together as complementary colours and the oddly proportioned curved and angular shapes give a flair associated with Jazz. The character design of the cool cat slightly changes with every album but he is always seen with his edgy shades, trendy clothes and big cheshire cat smile.
80s / 90s Patterns
A lot of Jazz artists around the 80's, in the time of The Rippingtons and Weather Report, used to wear things like dark turtleneck sweaters with a gold chain, Harlem pants, loafers and geometric print jackets - shoulder pads optional. I may want to try and include some of these elements into my character design to really amplify the components of Jazz! There is a lot of repeated forms and shapes, geometric and angular, with a lo-fi aesthetic. Very bright and loud with limited, neon colours and noise / distortion.
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