Wine for Guys
Thinking about summer seems so long ago, but when I’m recounting the entire year that has passed, it seems shorter. This summer I worked on several projects, including a wine campaign for a graduating advertising student at SCAD, Allison Navon. She had attempted to do some illustrations herself but wasn’t pleased with them, so she came to me for some pumping up. She described what her ad was selling (alcohol), and who it was being sold to (men around 25 years of age), and that the campaign would involve picking up women (with codes and signals). In other words, it was kind of perfect for what I work on, and I could see why she sought out my style for the job. For the final result, read on! Or check out Allison’s portfolio here and read about Accomplice Wine.
OBJECTIVE
Create illustrations to accompany a wine campaign targeted towards males roughly between 21-35. These illustrations would be used to aid men in picking up the girl at a club. The character in the illustrations plays a guy who is picking up girls,. The viewer plays his “wingman”, or in this case, his “accomplice”. These are the signals that the guy uses to signal TO his wingman when a particular situation arises.
CASTING THE RIGHT GUY
I had to create an attractive male that viewers could see themselves hanging out with. He had to have social dominance, charisma, and be believable enough to be a cool non-asshole guy but still get the girl at the bar.
In high school and my early years of college, I listened and read up on a lot of the Pick-Up community. You know, the Pick-Up Artist stuff? With Mystery and ‘peacocking’ and stuff. The kind of things that Aziz Ansari’s character on Parks and Rec, Tom Haverford, would be reading in order to score chicks. My character would have those pick-up skills, with none of the flamboyancy or cheese. Because that community can get very very cheesy.
There were two versions of this guy I had in mid. I based them off actor Bradley Cooper, Taylor Lautner, and football star Tom Brady. Alpha males. Guys that make ladies swoon. Tall, dark, and handsome. The stereotypical lead male. Gyllenhaal with a bad side! I worked in pencil, just to stay loose. I sent them for approval, and then it was on to creating some poses!
So I settled with a guy that was in between them. The ad copy used some military lingo and leaned heavily on picking up women as ‘missions’. So I dressed the guy in a military-style club shirt to appear more authoritative . Here are a select three. The tough thing about these were keeping them consistent, but unique. I think I did a total of 12 poses, and we chose the best 9 looks.
Of course, I decided to find a place between simplistic and descriptive, in order to show as much information as quickly as possible, while retaining a serious tone. I didn’t want to go full-cartoon, but I didn’t want to go hyper-real either. The character had to keep it real, not get laughed at (although, he does make some hilarious moves on the girls, later on).
Tight pencils. Once I perfected the poses, I waited for their approval before inking them. A couple of times, the poses didn’t look strong or bold enough. Or just felt awkward and uncomfortable for the character to pull off. Another good way to describe them: They didn’t look believable. There were gestures that didn’t seem like a guy would actually do them in a club or bar setting. And some poses just weren’t covert enough. But once I corrected them (or dropped them completely), I moved on!
And inked!
And colored! Now this was the first run of colors. She found the guy to be too yellow, and I agreed. I was going for tan, but it came out Asian. I guess that’s how I see people on default. He got whiter, but let me know if there’s a less racist term they use in advertising!
MALE SEEKING FEMALE(S)
There were also posters accompanying the signals of our lead character out on the field. He uses the signals to move in on the ladies and girls absolutely fall for him. I had a blast illustrating these girls. The one on the far right didn’t make the final cut. Sorry, darling, doesn’t matter how cute you are. Hollywood will chew ya up and spit ya out. Don’t take it personally. You don’t exist.
Looking at the colors now, I see that she’s a redhead and has freckles. That totally sucks for redheads everywhere. My bad. My friend KT might be upset because of this, cause she’s a redhead.
I threw in a quick background of bottles that doesn’t take away from the piece, but just adds some environmental awareness to the piece. The bar stool too, done in as a vector. It’s too bad there were only three posters. This guy totally could have picked up more girls (assuming he washed his shirt in between ‘missions’).
FINAL(LY)
One of my favorite things about taking on a project in collaboration with someone else, is seeing their contribution to the final product. Check out the copy that went along with them. The font choice is spectacular!
As much as I love comics, illustration is an intense and tiring job with plenty of reward to it. The most excruciating part is the back and forths of perfecting the work, but for me it’s just like getting a critique and reworking. I love getting input to make the best work I can, and I love working on a project that has a vision. Doing illustration jobs is about finding a way to agree on that vision. What is also a big plus was that this job sort of came to me. I’m happy I’ve had my website as long as I’ve had because people click, read, and share. Again, this job came to me through a friend of a friend, and I’m learning more and more that that’s how this business works. I’ve got to re-up on my hosting for the next couple of years, because it’s paid off in bringing me in new jobs. Again, you can check out the rest of the campaign on Allison’s website.
And let me know what you think of this project by commenting below! Do you think it’s an effective campaign? The the illustrations work with the copy? Does this at all help in your understanding of meeting clients’ objectives? Thanks for reading, I hope you enjoyed it!
