Illustration – WYNK Marketing

Making Signage for the La Habra Art Walk

May 20, 2017May 20, 2017WYNK

“Can you make 2 signs for the La Habra Art Walk? We’ll buy all the materials so we can go with you to the hardware store … and by the way, we need it tomorrow.”

That was how we started this project. Immediately, concepts were floating in my mind:

“What if, instead of a regular sign pointing the way to the Art Walk … what if I recreate a famous painting and have whoever is in that painting pointing to the Art Walk?”

We were walking around the aisles of the hardware store and we were looking at different boards and selecting the paints, and the whole time I’m thinking that I will have to drop everything and work on this tonight. Will I have time? After all, the wooden panels we bought were huge — 4 feet square. Will I have all the materials I need? No more time for buying more supplies.

I decided to do a famous abstract painting and a famous classical painting. I chose Picasso’s “Girl Before a Mirror” and Leonardo’s “Mona Lisa.”

I did a little research for the original pictures then — paint rollers came off the shelf, painting tarp was spread on the floor, my box of acrylic paints were laid out, I set music to play in the background then I started splish-splashing away! 5 hours later, I came up with this:

It was late at night and I went to bed wondering if I would have time to make the Mona Lisa. I dreamed about what I was going to do in the morning.

The sun was just about to show itself and I proceeded to do Leonardo’s masterpiece. Do I do it cartoon style or do I do it realistically? I knew I didn’t have enough time because not only did I have to make the sketches, the text, then, after all of the painting, I would still need to let it dry. Cartoon style is easy. Classical style is difficult.

I pondered and said, I’d do it the hard way. I liked the challenge. Splish splash I was at it again. 4 hours later, it was done. Behold my Mona Lisa!

I know her face looks kinda weird. But hey, I was running out of time and I think people will get the idea.

My good deed was done. People loved it.

“That’s amazing Raoul!” said Michelle.

“Dude, that’s freakin’ awesome!” said Miguel.

“That looks great Raoul!” said Anna.

My good deed was done. End of story.

The final look:

Fence Art in La Habra

April 7, 2017January 6, 2018WYNK

WYNK Marketing is making plans for a “Love La Habra” event. On April 29, 2017 hundreds of volunteers will be scattered around the neighborhood to show unity and love. Pre-selected areas will be cleaned up and beautified.

WYNK is part of the board of the La Habra Art Walk and we wondered what we could do to help the Washington Middle School. What can the Art Walk do that will 1) promote art, 2) engage the community and 3) help the school? Do we paint the walls? Do a mural? Do we paint signs? WYNK came up with Fence Art. WYNK will design the artwork and groups of children/volunteers will be assigned sections of the fence.

With the help and encouragement of Michelle Bernier and the Art Walk board WYNK consulted with Principal Mario Carlos who said the neighborhood (which is mostly Hispanic) is nervous about the INS (Immigration and Naturalization System) and are afraid to join public gatherings. He wants the community to feel safe and have a purpose. Carlos said he wants the kids to look forward to college.

Raoul Pascual, Jeff Bernier, Michelle Bernier and Principal Mario Carlos.

WYNK developed a concept of putting colored cups on the perimeter fence. (We’ve seen it in some fences but we have never really done this but in theory, the plan should work.) Originally, the concept was to design a fence with children running and even having an animation that can be seen at night. After some preliminary calculations we decided it would be too ambitious for the first attempt.

Then we thought of a train with a long caboose with the name of the school.

But after the talk with Principal Carlos we learned that their mascot was “The Patriots.” So we adjusted our idea to have the famous painting of the marching patriots translated into “pixels” — where one slot of the fence equals one pixel.

Here is the concept:

Here is the projected pixel artwork.

It took several hours of experimentation but we believe we’re ready for March 29. If you’re in the area and free, come and join us. It should be quite an experiment.

Chalk Art for the City of La Habra

July 21, 2015July 21, 2015Raoul

La Habra held its first ever Art Walk on July 18, 2015. As usual I opened my big mouth and volunteered to help. I said I had never made one of those 3D Chalk Drawings that you see in the internet but if they were interested, I could probably create one. David DeLeon of Community Planning was delighted. In my mind I started calculating the work preparation — the designing, the measuring, the execution and realized this was going to take at least half a day. So I tried to back pedal and reiterated that I had never done that before. But it was obvious David was already sold to the idea. My goose was cooked.

As the day approached I thought it was going to be cancelled because I had not heard anything more about it. Then Michelle Bernier of the La Habra Business Connection called about a week before D-Day and asked me what materials I needed. Never having done this before I said “colored chalk — lots of it.” And that was it. I hurriedly designed a great white shark coming out of a crack in the pavement. I coordinated with Luz Sparks of La Habra Art Gallery and she met with me Friday afternoon and checked out the site. After deciding where the shadows were going to fall at the time of the event, I started measuring the pavement and made the initial outlines. The sun was shining in full glory so I figured I was going to get burned doing this the next day.

Saturday morning, the day of the event, I started the work. Curious passersby looked at it approvingly. I felt I was on the right track. Looking at the limited colors available, I had to adjust to what was in the original design. Anyway, about 3 hours into the drawing, I saw tiny raindrops splatter on the design. I looked up and saw ominous clouds laughing at me — daring me to continue. I’m an optimist (a stupid one at that) and continued — “surely Mother Nature wouldn’t ruin the fun for all the kids and families, right?” Well, I was wrong. Within a few minutes it started to pour … and pour … and pour.

Here is what I did before the rain:

And here is what happened during the rain.

Washed away

Oh well, at least one kid was able to take a souvenir of the very first Art Walk in La Habra — that never was.

If you want to read more about this, I posted this on 2 websites:

Art Tickles – my website featuring a variety of my artwork
La Habra Business Connection – a business networking group

Corporate Branding for CAS

July 7, 2015July 7, 2015Raoul

Corporate Branding begins with a lot of listening. It is understanding the client’s service, its goals, its personality and balancing all of these ideas with the budget at hand. WYNK’s favorite clients are non-profit organizations because they are all about making the world a better place.

Convalescent Aid Society Logo

The Convalescent Aid Society is an admirable non-profit located in the Pasadena area. They lend out durable medical equipment to anyone in need. WYNK overhauled the corporate look from the logo, the website, the marketing materials down to the utility van. We also collaborated with churches and other non-profits to help build awareness and to generate donations. We wrote press releases, designed magazine ads, newspaper ads, banner ads, convention signage. We arranged with a quadriplegic (Sourena Vassenghi) to become a spokesperson.

To connect with the medical community, we held a medical equipment donation drive. and we arranged speaking engagements for the CEO. At that time, Youtube was still coming of age, but early on we made video commercials that ran on the website and on local cable stations. Christmas season was our biggest fund raising for our newsletter so we designed unique Christmas cards where we had a snowman mascot in a wheelchair that our donors were eager to receive in December.

Here are some of the materials we designed.

WYNK increased its visibility in the community

CAS CEO speaking at the St. Joseph Medical Hospital Breakfast Meeting.

Fashion Illustration Project

July 6, 2015July 7, 2015WYNK

We were commissioned by a designer of a fashion website to create illustrations for an upcoming campaign. They said they wanted something petite, hip, colorful, trendy and fun. Although we had never done fashion drawings before, we were confident we could pull this off . This was very different from what we had previously done so we had to study the fashion trends coming out of the malls — from the signage, to the mannequins and to the clothes themselves.

We noticed that there was always movement — a visual direction that the eye is led to follow. Of course there was also color — either in subtle dainty hues or bold and daring —- making a statement. Fashion drawings were also minimalist — not a lot of detail … except maybe in the pattern in the garments. After a few days of initial sketches, we sent them to the client and that led to more finished renderings. Admittedly, this may be a rather simplistic view of fashion illustration but apparently it registered correctly with the client. We submitted the final work and, needless to say, the client was very pleased with the few designs we came up with.

Here are some of the sketches we made. Enjoy.