MetLife Asset Transfer Kit Tower Illustration

Posted on April 23, 2010 by rbirkey

Randal Birkey created this Adobe Illustrator vector-based illustration of a high-rise tower building for use on the cover of a MetLife Asset Transfer Kit, through a New York City ad agency. This style of architectural illustration is called an axonometric. The footprint of the building is drawn to scale and proportion (width and depth). The third dimension (height) is created by popping up off the footprint at a consistent angle, all of the vertical elements. There are no perspective or foreshortened lines in the illustration, yet it delivers a 3D aerial perspective visual sense to the viewer. This copyrighted work was done in 1995.

MetLife Tower - Adobe Illustrator vector art

MetLife Tower - Adobe Illustrator - Digital Vector Art

Quantum Graphics Aerial Perspective Cutaway

Posted on January 18, 2010 by rbirkey

Randal was commissioned by Rich Nickel Design to create an aerial perspective cutaway illustration of a client printing facility. The client was Quantum Graphics, located in suburban Chicago, Illinois. Randal first worked from architectural blueprint drawings to construct a 3D perspective wireframe of the building and the interior components that were to be revealed in the cutaway. Here is the final 3D wireframe aerial perspective model.

Quantum Graphics 3D Wireframe

Once this view was approved by Quantum and Rich Nickel Design, Randal converted the 3D model to 2D line art and began rendering it using a combination of Adobe Illustrator and Photoshop software tools.

Quantum Graphics - Aerial Perspective Cutaway

The final digital file was supplied to the designer, and used as a 4-color fold out spread in a Quantum Graphics company capabilities brochure. The designer also created a translucent overlay that contained leader lines and captions describing the different areas of this printing plant facility.

Shands Healthcare Campus Map and Floor Plans

Posted on January 2, 2010 by rbirkey

Randal was contacted through his new web design firm by Shands Healthcare in Gainsville, Florida. This organization is affiliated with the University of Florida, and located near its medical research facility. Shands has recently completed the construction of a new cancer hospital and needed to add some new floor plans and campus map illustrations to their existing website at www.shands.org.

Randal and Taylor Birkey worked from engineering drawings and references supplied by the hospital to create a series of floor plans and a campus map illustration using Adobe Illustrator software on Apple Macintosh computers.

Shands Healthcare Campus Map

Shands Healthcare - Floor Plan 1

Shands Healthcare - Floor Plan 3

The illustrations will be used for both print and web applications.

Michigan Avenue National Bank Aerial Map

Posted on October 3, 2009 by rbirkey

Randal created this illustration for VSA Partners, to appear in an annual report for their client, the Michigan Avenue National Bank, located in Chicago, Illinois. It must have been sometime in the 1980’s. The original art was pen and ink line work, with watercolor and color pencil washes on illustration board.

Michigan Avenue National Bank - Aerial Map

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall Aerial Map Perspective

Posted on October 3, 2009 by rbirkey

Randal Birkey was commissioned to produce a series of architectural illustrations of the renovation project of “Symphony Center,” the home of the world renowned Chicago Symphony Orchestra. Orchestra Hall, as it is also known, was undergoing an extensive renovation, as well as being connected to another building around the corner from Michigan Avenue. Together, this new combined complex was to be called “Symphony Center,” and would house not only the auditorium, but also all the practice rooms, backstage production and staging areas, and the headquarter offices for the organization.

This illustration was produced by Randal working from the architectural blueprints, in a Mac based 3D perspective wireframe application. Once the view and level of line detail was reached, the line work was transferred to a 2D drawing program called Fractal Painter.

In the Painter software, all the watercolor and color pencil texturing was added. A Wacom tablet was required for the kind of control needed for the digital “brushes.” The application and tablet ran on an Apple Macintosh computer.

Additional illustrations were completed including: a cutaway elevation, lobby view, floor plan, and auditorium views. These illustrations were all used in a high-end printed piece that went to CSO supporters to communicate the renovation project details, and also as a fund-raising tool.

Chicago Symphony Orchestra Hall - Symphony Center

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Historic Jamestowne Aerial Perspective

Posted on September 28, 2009 by rbirkey

Randal Birkey created this aerial perspective of the archaelogical site at Jamestowne, Virginia, located in the Colonial Historic National Park. The image was used in a textbook for children studying this first English settlement in the New World.

Historic Jamestowne Site

Read more about it here: Historic Jamestowne

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Greektown Aerial Perspective

Posted on September 24, 2009 by rbirkey

I love Greek food, culture, architecture and language! Why? Perhaps because I spent a summer there in 1980 doing a short-term mission project for Greater Europe Mission. I made some great friendships, some of which have lasted to this day. I’d love to go back for a visit with my wife someday!

During the 1980’s when I was doing a lot of freelance architectural rendering and illustration work, I was asked to do a rendering of a proposed redesign of an entire city block in the Greektown area of Chicago. Working from the architect’s sketches and ideas, I created this aerial perspective for presentation purposes.

The idea here was to recreate the “Greek village” aesthetic that one sees often when traveling in Greece. There are usually hillsides, mountains and/or beaches involved, with the village stepped up in layers behind. That was the idea behind this design. I think it worked pretty well, even though it was never built. The site is along the East side of Halsted Street, with the Kennedy Expressway behind it.

Greektown Aerial Perspective - Chicago

This illustration was done for Roula Architects, Chicago, Illinois.

Atlanta Olympics Aerial Map for Kodak

Posted on July 31, 2009 by rbirkey

Kodak was a sponsor of the Summer Olympics in Atlanta, Georgia. They wanted to give visitors a handy map of places to visit in the Atlanta area. Randal created this forced aerial perspective map to highlight a number of sites and locations.

Atlanta Summer Olympics Map for Kodak

Memphis Arts Council Map

Posted on July 31, 2009 by rbirkey

Randal Birkey was contracted by the Memphis Arts Council in the 1980’s to create a fun map for use in a promotional poster. The map was intended to highlight a number of locations in the city where arts related activities and events were being promoted. Randal worked from maps, drawings and aerial photo references of the city to create this “rounded earth” forced perspective view. In each location, one single element was selected and exaggerated to communicate the basic art events: music, dance, theater, etc.

Randal used a cutting edge software product at the time called Fractal Painter, running on a Macintosh computer with a Wacom tablet. This image was produced entirely digitally with nothing scanned or hand drawn on traditional paper surfaces. The final image file was delivered to the customer via email, and the printer went directly to CMYK film separations and printing plates from the file. It was reproduced in 4-color offset printing as a fold out poster.

Memphis Arts Council - Aerial Perspective Map

Atlantic City, New Jersey, Map Illustration

Posted on July 24, 2009 by rbirkey

Atlantic City, New Jersey - Map Illustration

This preliminary city map was illustrated in Adobe Illustrator by Randal Birkey and intended for use to sell advertising to the businesses in that city. It featured all the major casinos, and shopping spots as a means to attract additional businesses to advertise on the map. Each new business would have their building and location added in 3D to the map, to match the other buildings. A key to the advertisers and additional ad space was to be added to the outside edge of this map.

Detail Area of the Atlantic City Map

The style of this map is called an axonometric projection. To create this, the 2D base map is rotated off axis (North is in the upper right corner), which allows for the building to be projected in a 3D fashion, straight up vertically from the base. The advantage is that the base map is still to scale and can be used for relatively accurate distances.

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Randal Birkey Illustration Portfolio

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