Guest blog: Esme MacIntyre
I am an illustrator and printmaker based in Glasgow, and having worked with Iriss before, I was very happy to create some new illustrations for their website relaunch.
My favourite way to create images is through printmaking (such as linocut, woodcut and silkscreen, which I do at the Glasgow Print Studio in Trongate), but I also love creating illustrations for a wide variety of people, and I think stylistically these two aspects feed into each other. When I am creating illustrations I tend to think in layers, flat colour, and about how my images will work at a range of sizes. Subject-wise, my prints tend to be quite illustrative as I enjoy capturing everyday scenes, centred on people, places or nature, often finding something cheerful in the mundane. Working with a client also has the benefit that I get to learn about a subject that I would otherwise perhaps not have encountered—you can start a project knowing very little, but doing research and leaning the topic through my art, whilst taking into consideration the brief and what message the client is trying to portray, is very rewarding.
This particular project was fun because I got to imagine a range of scenes with people doing their own things, but with an emphasis on the variety of people in the community Iriss work with and the resources available to them. On top of this the illustrations had to deliver a message, depending on where and how they would be used on the website, and be clear and coherent (which suits my style). I also enjoyed being given a fun colour palette to work with and hope to do more projects like this in the future!