Artist illustrates seasons greetings success
17 December 2007
Festive illustrations by a talented artist studying at NEWI are being showcased on the Institute’s 2007 Christmas cards.
Students on NEWI’s Illustration and Illustration for Children’s Publishing degree courses were asked to come up with seasonal designs for an annual competition to create the organisation’s Christmas card. Two works by third year Illustration student Phillip Evans were chosen to appear on the cards.
The designs, one of a giant Santa painting a Christmas toy and another of him carrying a sack of presents, took two days to complete. The cards have now been sent to friends and professional contacts of staff at NEWI and will be seen by thousands of people.
Phillip said: “I was very pleased when I heard my designs had won. I knew I was going to be competing against a strong field, as friends on the same course handed in some really great work, so it’s quite an honour to have had my illustrations selected.
“There’s a lot of contemporary art around which is quite abstract but I think my designs had a more traditional feel to them.”
On the back of the success, Phillip is considering trying to craft a career in the greeting card design industry, although he hasn’t ruled out working in other areas of illustration.
“I worked as a nurse for a long time but retired six years ago and I’ve looked upon doing the course in Illustration as a way of completely retraining and changing career,” added the 42-year-old.
“I grew up reading illustrated books and story books and when I was in my early teens got into comics in quite a big way so it’s great to have been able to follow up a lifelong interest in the subject - the emphasis in the course is very much on doing work which people will see and getting it produced commercially.”
Professor Michael Scott, principal and chief executive of NEWI, chose Phillip’s Santa illustrations as the winning designs from an extensive selection of entries.
He said: “It was difficult choosing a winning design as the standard of entries was once again exceptionally high, but many congratulations to Phillip, whose illustrations capture the spirit of Christmas tremendously well. I’m delighted that through the Christmas card people outside NEWI are able to see just one example of the tremendous work produced by our students.”
NEWI currently offers 10 undergraduate courses in Art and Design, including BA (Hons) programmes on Animation, Fine Art, Graphic Design, Illustration and Illustration for Children’s Publishing. The Illustration for Children’s Publishing course is the only one of its kind in the UK.