As part of the decision to expand the MEC product lines and offerings into more urban activities like yoga, road running and road cycling, I was tasked with developing a series of illustrations to accompany the launch of these new product lines.
After sifting through thousands of images from MEC in-house library with direction from MEC's Senior Designer, we arrived at a selection of images available that would be the base and inspiration for the illustrations.
Using vellum paper, a 2B pencil and a portable scanner, I proceeded to render a key section of each image in black & white. The aim was to do so in a way that captured the movement and energy of each image while keeping values of light and shadow.
After scanning each image, I combined these with digitally-manipulated versions of the original photos as well as various hand-made textures to create a visual style that would be dynamic & raw yet clean and inspired by the down-to-earth qualities of the Co-op.
Striking a balance between photo-realistic illustration and lifestyle photography was important as MEC traditionally relies on lifestyle imagery in all its marketing efforts. The results were experimental but a welcome departure from previous art direction styles. An illustration was created for each new category that MEC would be expanding.
In addition, a smaller illustration was produced for use as the main header image of the MEC blog during the launch period. Below are some compositional sketches as well as the finished image in-situ.
