The Drawing Book // Latest Campaigns & News
March 20, 2009
Chris Wahl has had ink coursing through his veins since he was a boy. His childhood was filled with comics and from the day he flipped open the cover of his first book he started to build up a visual memory of heroes and villians. Specifically he was developing a keen sense of how to visually depict the personality and the unique individual super power of each character through deliberate choices for costume design, physique, expression and pose.
Now Chris enjoys working as one of Australia's most prolific character designers. Having designed characters and corporate mascots for Pepsi, McDonald's, Commonwealth bank and Goodyear tyres to name just a few and from the last 12 months!
What attracts clients to commissioning Chris is that since filling his visual library with comic heroes and villians in his youth he has added to it with an infinite amount of design concepts that inspire him every day. If he sees the curve of a Ferrari's chasis then he commits it to memory. If he sees the bend of an eagle's wing it goes into his memory.
Magic happens when he aims his memory of visual concepts at a brief for a new character.
Take the 15 characters you see below as an example. These 15 characters were created for the 2009 Desktop Awards and they each represents a specific person within the Advertising and Design industries.
The brief for the first Hero is written below. When you compare the brief to the finished character you can see evidence of Chris's brilliant visual memory at work.
Fashion (Graphics) – Female
Name: Chiara
Italian
Colours: Primary colours
Female in Mondrian style costume. Large square sunglasses.
If she were an animal it would be a tropical fish
If she were a car it would be Supercharged Mini Cooper with pattern roof
Superpower: Can up the brightness of her immediate surroundings so that it’s blinding colour to her enemies, but can also brighten the dull days of the sad and weary civilian.
Click any image below to see more of Chris Wahl's work.
