Illustrators Tribute Series - Gusto Design Co.

Illustrators Tribute Series

SYNOPSIS: Twelve posters in twelve months echoing tweleve illustrators.

OVERVIEW_
I love a yearly design challenge. The idea here is to attempt to mimic or emulate the style of some of my favorite illustrators but in original works. One poster a month. Twelve months. Twelve illustrators. 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. Not copies—tributes. New ideas executed in borrowed styles.

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 final twelve ranged widely—from Shepard Fairey's agitprop boldness to Aaron Draplin's thick-line badge vernacular 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 that 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, with each style dictating the approach. The finished work was released monthly across Instagram and LinkedIn, where it drove consistent engagement, brought new audiences to the studio, and opened conversations with prospective clients.