Randal was contracted by Wilson Sporting Goods to do a series of illustrations for their tennis product catalog. Each racquet in the catalog featured a cutaway illustration showing the layers and materials used in its construction. Each illustration was done by hand with pencil and color pencil on 100% cotton drafting vellum for that “techie” look.
Wilson Tennis Racquet Cross-Section and Cutaway
Exploded View Diagram of an Engine Head
Exploded view diagrams are very useful for communicating technical information is an easy to understand manner. They show various parts and pieces of a manufactured item or product in a “pulled apart” manner, with lines and visual aids to help the viewer understand where each part fits, and sometimes even in what order. In this case, an engine head is shown with the gasket, and various pins, washers, springs, seals and plugs extended away and in line with where they fit.
This particular technical exploded view diagram is done in a “pen and ink” style, and can easily be replicated in a vector-based software program like Adobe Illustrator.
Mining for Gold in Ghana, Africa
Newmont Gold
Denver, Colorado
Newmont Gold required updated images to the “How Gold is Produced” series that Randal Birkey had previously completed through the design firm: Design+Image. The new images were to reflect how gold is produced in the African country of Ghana.
Randal Birkey created new illustrations of various steps in the gold mining process to either replace or add to the process as it is done in Ghana, Africa. These images were then inserted in to a large poster that illustrated the entire process.
These new steps (examples on right) included:
Two African symbols were also illustrated for use in the updated printed piece.
Ghana Symbols
View the How Gold is Produced illustration series.
Contact Randal Birkey for all your digital illustration needs.
Toolbox Illustration for Cole Taylor Bank ad
Cole Taylor Bank
Chicago, Illinois
Cole Taylor Bank required an image of a toolbox to use in a conceptual ad campaign, designed to attract new commercial customers to the bank.
Cole Taylor Bank contracted with Randal Birkey through his Chicago artist rep, to provide an illustration of an open toolbox on a blueprint paper background. This image was supplied to the bank’s ad agency who dropped in the ad headline and copy over it. The toolbox drawers and compartments represented various services and products offered by the bank to commercial customers.
Contact Randal Birkey for all your advertising illustration needs.
Chicago Creative Sourcebook ad
In the early 1980′s, Randal Birkey started his freelance illustration career. At that time, one of the best ways to advertise illustration and get new work, was in the Chicago Creative Sourcebook, published in Northbrook, Illinois.
Randal created this ad as his first entry into the Chicago illustration market. He used a pen and ink image of a 1950′s Ford Pickup truck that he himself had restored. He created a grid and a side view of the truck to use as a background.
With the help of friend and designer, Rich Nickel, the type, fonts and layout were assembled into the final ad.
Contact Randal Birkey Illustration for all your architectural and technical illustration needs.
Queen Elizabeth II Deck Plans
Randal Birkey was contracted through a New York rep to provide digital line drawings of all the renovated Queen Elizabeth II deck plans, so that they would be compatible with, and able to be used in standard digital print design layout software.
Using the shipbuilding technical plans, Randal converted each deck plan to an Adobe Illustrator drawing that could be scaled to any size. These files were provided to Cunard designers to be used in various print pieces produced by the cruise line.
Abloy Lock - Cutaway Technical Illustration
The manufacturer of Abloy Locks required an illustration to reveal the unique tumbler technology used in their locks for a trade advertisement.
Randal was contacted by the manufacturer’s ad agency in the 1980′s and contracted to create the illustration. This image is one of the working “pencils” that Randal did on his way to the final illustration. Working from physical lock mechanisms provided by the manufacturer, Randal used his extensive engineering and blueprint knowledge to construct the cutaway view of the internal lock tumblers and mechanism. The final art was delivered to the ad agncy, and used in the trade ad for the customer.
Randal Birkey was contracted by Boston Edison, a Massachusetts utility company, to complete a series of technical illustrations for a public relations brochure. This image is a nuclear reactor core, with the sides shown cutaway to reveal the rods inside.
The illustration was done using Fractal Painter software on a Macintosh computer, and a Wacom tablet.
Nuclear Reactor Cutaway
Chicago is a very commercial, product-driven town when it comes to advertising and design work. Randal did this product illustration in Adobe Illustrator for an ad featuring a Mita copier. This technical line art style lends itself well to newspaper and magazine advertising reproduction, popular in the 1980′s.
Mita Copier