Chicago

Loft Conversion Project

Chicago Loft Conversion

Randal Birkey created this watercolor illustration of a Chicago industrial style warehouse building being converted to residential lofts by a Chicago area real estate developer back in the 1980′s. Randal created the 20″ x 30″ ink line and watercolor art for the building and project architects, CAPA, also a Chicago firm.

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Rush Street at Chicago River

Rush Street at the Chicago River

Another illustration done for the “Friends of the Chicago River” project. Randal illustrated what could be done at the southern end of Rush Street in Chicago, where it dead ends into the Chicago River. This view showed an outdoor eating area, a dancing area on a barge, plantings, walkways and other amenities to make creative [...]

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Prairie Style House

Prairie Style House

Randal was commissioned by a real estate development firm to develop this architectural rendering of a residential design being offered in a development in Chicago’s near South Loop area. This was to be new construction offered in the Prairie School style, popularized by Frank Lloyd Wright. Randal first worked from architectural drawings to develop a [...]

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Chicago River Bridges at Night

Chicago Bridges at Night

Randal did this white ink and pencil illustration of Chicago bridges at night for a project funded by the Open Lands nature conservancy project. The illustration was used in a report designed to highlight how the Chicago River could be developed and turned into an amenity for Chicago, rather than the eyesore that it was [...]

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Maggiano’s Restaurant

Maggiano's Restaurant

I recently had a meeting at my office with food catered in by Maggiano’s… an Italian Restaurant in the Chicago area. It reminded me that I did some illustration work for the parent company, Lettuce Entertain You Enterprises (LEYE), back in the 1990′s. Here is one such grayscale line and wash illustration done digitally in [...]

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This is Amsted

This is Amsted

Randal Birkey was asked to create a series of illustrations for a corporate communication piece called “This is Amsted.” The illustrations depicted the main activities of each division of a large manufacturing company located in Chicago, named Amsted Industries. At the time, the divisions were named: American Steel Foundries Baltimore Aircoil Company Burgess-Norton Mfg. Co. [...]

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Quincy Area Street Map – Chicago

Quincy Area Street Map - Chicago

CLIENT Demi & Cooper Advertising Elgin, Illinois OBJECTIVE A real estate developer required a large Chicago area street map for a display wall in their downtown Chicago sales office. Their advertising agency contacted Randal Birkey requiring a Chicago street base map with approximately 300 specific locations to be added. SOLUTION Randal Birkey modified an existing [...]

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55 W. Wacker Drive Architectural Illustration

55 W. Wacker Drive Architectural Illustration

The Customer’s Need The office of the building at 55 West Wacker Dr. in Chicago, Illinois required an illustration of their building for use on printed note cards in order to extend the branding and image of their building property. Randal’s Solution Randal Birkey created a line and watercolor rendition of the building as viewed [...]

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Underwriter Laboratories and the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition

Chicago Fire Illustration for UL

The world renowned Underwriter Laboratories (UL) of product safety testing and standards fame, contracted Randal Birkey to create an illustration out of an old historical print depicting a scene from the Chicago Fire. It was to be reproduced in a company publication having to do with fire safety. In this unusual project, Randal Birkey was [...]

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Deep Tunnel Project Entrance Rendering

Deep Tunnel Entrance Rendering

Randal Birkey was contracted by an architect to prepare a rendering of a proposed entrance structure design near a Chicago “Deep Tunnel Project” location. Randal went on site and took reference photos. He then inserted the architect’s entrance design–based upon scale design drawings–into the scene and rendered it in a line and watercolor style.

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