Illustrators Tribute Series – Gusto Design Co. | Brand Identity Design & Creative Services That Strike a Chord

Illustrators Tribute Series

SYNOPSIS: Twelve posters. Twelve months. Echoing tweleve illustrators.

OVERVIEW:

I love a yearly design challenge. The idea here wss to emulate the style of some of my favorite illustrators, but in original layouts and concepts. One poster a month for twelve months, styling twelve differnet illustrators. New ideas; just executed in borrowed styles. The 2024 Illustrators Tribute Series was a self-imposed creative challenge built on a clean premise: study the visual language of illustrators worth knowing, then make something new with it.

TASK:

The first task was curation. A long list of admired illustrators was stress-tested against one question: could I convincingly inhabit this style? The selected ranged widely—from Shepard Fairey's agitprop boldness to Aaron Draplin's thick-lines to Sanna Annukka's Scandinavian folk geometry. Each selection demanded real homework: studying source work, identifying the defining moves, then developing original concepts worth executing in their voice.

EXECUTION:

Each poster was given one month—concept sketch to finished piece. The process was mixed-media throughout: pencil roughs, pen and ink, and digital brushes. Each style dictated the final approach. The finished work was released monthly across Instagram and LinkedIn, where it drove engagement, brought new audiences to my website, and opened conversations with prospective clients.