Andy Martin- Beaufort Windscale Project

We had the opportunity to work with Andy Martin on 4th and 5th of Februaury to work on a brief that he had set. The brief was to design 12 Illustrations for a proposed 2009 Diary with front/back cover and endpaper illustrations. We each were assigned different roles, my role was to design the illustration for January. The Beaufort Windscale is one of the first scales to estimate wind speeds and their effects designed by Admiral Sir Francis Beaufort, the scale is still in use today to estimate wind strengths. As stated on the brief the 12 illustrations must reflect the months characteristics but also incorporate the definitions of the wind speeds and effects for that month.
Initially I found it difficult to respond to the month I was given as there was very little in the definition. January is denoted as calm and smoke rises vertically. The first thing that sprang to mind was chimneys as they are associated with smoke but it seemed too weak and mundane to go with that idea and in any case it wouldn't reflect the month's characteristics. I started thinking of incorporating snow as January is a cold month but still disatisfied I explored the idea further. January, particularly the begiining of it is a time for New Year's resolutions and a popular one is giving up smoking. Smoking is also seen as calming for many so I decided to combine the chimney idea with a cigarette packet to make it look like a building and a theme in my work is boxes. I don't know why I doodled a fag packet with a cigarette sticking up but that was what began the idea. I placed the cigarette vertically upside down with smoke rising from it to reflect the definition I was given. The last part of the idea was as the fag packet looks like a building I thought a good way of denoting giving up was to collage a wrecking ball swinging towards it, I felt this humourous element was just what the piece needed. Overall it was a great experience working with Andy Martin particularly the professionalism aspect of it, working to a two day brief was a taster for what life is like for an Illustrator after graduation.