Client: Swift sports coaching
Title: Character design, cartoon illustration and merchandising
Description to come.
Project Specifics:
- Cartoon illustration, Flyer design, Merchandising, Branding
- Ongoing contract
- Software: Illustrator, Photoshop
willbaker
A Sixty year maze
Client: N/A
Title: A Sixty year maze – Cartoon
This illustration began in 2014 after an unscheduled stop in Bundaberg, North Queensland. We spent this day in the botanical gardens before entering the Japanese garden. The miniature landscapes they have on display there are amazing, the zen experience and the imagery became the starting point for this illustration. Two years on and the world around it has just been completed and the characters have all grown outwards from that moment. The finished piece was to be a gift for my Dad, Brian Baker, a gesture to commemorate him turning 60 in November of 2015. Dad passed away in September 2015. At the time I had the uncompleted piece printed for the rest of the family to see, in June 2016 I finally finished the illustration, a tribute to my Dad.
This piece has been accepted into the ‘Imaginary Worlds‘ exhibition at the Oriel Davies gallery and will be on display between October 2016 till February 2017 .
Project Specifics:
- Entry piece for the ‘Imaginary worlds’ exhibition at the Oriel Davies gallery
- Cartoon/Illustration
- Started: Nov 2014 – Finished: June 2016
- Software: Pencil, Photoshop, Illustrator
Strata Living Stories
Client: Ace body corporate
Title: Strata Living Stories – “An insiders guide to the weirdest, wackiest And downright hilarious things residents do!”
The book, published in November 2015, is a collection of illustrated stories taken from the world of strata. Myself and the team at Ace Body Corp Melbourne, worked together for several months researching and drafting the funniest stories available. Initially the cartoon illustrations were for a much smaller publication however as the project developed we found we had enough material for a paperback book and we will now be looking to begin a series.
Purchase your copy here
Project Specifics:
- 4 month contract
- Cartoon/illustration
- Software used: Pencil, Photoshop, Illustrator
Testimonial:
“Will is a very talented designer and illustrator that produced high quality work for my company while facing difficult deadlines. I was impressed with the quality of his illustrations and the creativity exemplified in his work.
I will have no hesitation using Will for similar projects in the future and actively endorse his standard of work to others.”
Ace Body Corporate – 20th Anniversary publication
Client: Ace body Corporate
Title: Our Journey – “Achieving Excellence Through Culture”
Ace body Corporate celebrated their 20th year in 2015 and approached me to illustrate a commemorative hard back book. The publication focused on the companies history and included some of the funnier moments during its life span, these funny stories where given to me to interpret and develop as amusing cartoon strips. Throughout the project we kept a very close working relationship, exchanging ideas which were to shape the book. The project was very enjoyable to work on, I was given creative control of the cartoons and together we executed the project in a timely and professional manner.
Project Specifics:
- 1 month contract
- Cartoon/illustration
- Software used: Pencil, Photoshop, Illustrator
Strata Living Shorts
Client: Ace body corporate
Title: Strata Living Shorts – An animated take on some of the stories taken from the book “Strata Living Stories!”
After the illustrations for Strata Living Stories were finalised we began promoting and marketing the book. The author, Stephan Raff, had taken questions on radio and television however we decided we wanted to create some supporting material which could be displayed online. To highlight some of the stories we animated the following stories using the characters and backgrounds from the original artwork.
Purchase your copy here
Project Specifics:
- 1 month contract
- Cartoon/Animation
- Software used: Flash, Toon boom, After Effects
Rotary cartoon awards
Client: N/A
Title: Not another bloody world cup.
This single cell cartoon is about the controversial 2022 Football World Cup which will be hosted in Qatar. FIFA has infamously been in international news over charges relating to corruption, racketeering and bribery surrounding the bidding process nations must go through. Before this story broke human rights campaigners were bringing to our attention the unprecedented amount of migrant workers who were losing their lives while building the infrastructure set to host the 2022 World Cup. To date the total number of migrant workers who have died surpasses twelve hundred and, although Qatar has promised to improve their working conditions, further stories surface daily which brings more questions and more investigations into why FIFA awarded the largest sporting event in the world to the nation of Qatar.
View some of the 2015 entry pieces here
Project Specifics:
- Shortlisted piece for the sports category of the 2015 Rotary cartoon awards
- Cartoon/Illustration
- Software used: Pencil, Photoshop, Illustrator
Helpful bacteria – La Trobe University
Client: La Trobe University
Title: Helpful Bacteria
This 2D animation titled ‘Helpful Bacteria’ was developed in June 2016 to support research into bacteria ran by La Trobe University. We proposed the idea of using a character based animation and ran with the rockstar theme that you will see in this video. Produced for La Trobe University and developed alongside Melbourne based agency Creativa videos I created original characters and artwork, storyboards and stylesheets before animating and compositing this animation.
Project Specifics:
- Cartoon/Animation
- 2 week production
- Software: Toonboom animate, Illustrator, After Effects, Premiere CC
Blog: Self promotion – Business card designs for business people
Tuesday May 3rd 2016// Business card designs
Today I have brought an electric toothbrush, checked in for an appointment to see the dental hygienist and designed some business cards.
Credits – <a href=’http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/star-icons-collection_791493.htm’>Designed by Freepik</a>
<a href=”http://www.freepik.com/free-vector/world-coins-set_832157.htm”>Designed by Freepik</a>
Blog: Projects on this month
Monday April 11th 2016 // Children illustrator Melbourne
I haven’t had an opportunity to update my site or this blog since the turn of the new year, since then I have been working on several new projects some of which I am putting the finishing touches to now. Lets see, we had the wedding cartoon for Thao & Linh, the comic book strip for Vlad, Doug and I are waiting on the final text before publishing a children’s book, going live in the coming weeks will be a fitness app I provided some character animations for and right now I am at the beginning of producing several sprite sheets for the Sydney based developer, Codecamp… I think there may have been some flyer design work among these projects as well.. I can never say no to my old friend Nick.
Here are some cuts from the aforementioned.
A page from ‘Dirty Filthy Archie’
Character designs for mobile fitness app
Sports Heroes Flyer design
Blog: Lets get Flarbed!
Wednesday December 9th 2015 // Flarbed
For you Dad x
Blog: Retro illustration & wedding cartoons
Wednesday December 2nd 2015 // Retro illustration and Wedding folk
Cut some jib, flipped some knee grabs and continued working on some projects. Here’s a close-up from some comic art we’ve been working on. The client is a fan of the vintage DC comic books so through some halftones and some additional filters I have created some pop art stylised illustrations.
Along with the above I have had the pleasure to come aboard a very special project with some soon to be newly weds. We have written a short story on ‘how we met’ and will be adding lots of funny moments to celebrate their relationship. Here is the couple in cartoon form.
Blog: More flyer designs
Friday August 14th 2015 // Sports Heroes flyer
I’ve just got back from a 3 week holiday back in England, while back at home I had the chance to catch up with some old colleagues from Sports Heroes, on returning to Australia I’ve put together the new design for their holiday club flyers. Here is the Halloween Sports Heroes flyer
Blog: Cartoons hot off the press
Thursday July 16th 2015 // Cartoons for the strata living fol
Wow… what a couple of weeks that was, I’ve powered through the days and nights to finish all of the stories for Ace’s Strata Living Stories, a book of the weirdest true stories you’re likely to hear about neighbours, tenants and their pets. The book is set to come out for Christmas where you can see loads more cartoons like the one beneath. Thanks to Daniel, Phil & Steve for working with me in getting these all ready for print. I’m now off for a 3 week holiday.
Monday May 18th 2015 //
Two months on and twenty cartoon sketches complete. It’s been a pleasure to work on this special edition anniversary book, commissioned by Ace body Management.
Blog: Speed drawing
Thursday March 14th 2015 // Speed drawing character design
While illustrating the background artwork for ‘Strata Living Stories’ and rendering my character design ‘s I thought I’d screen record my progress. This is what it looked like after being sped up by 900%. Note: Back home in the UK the general election results were coming in!
Blog: EPA motion graphics
Tuesday April 7th 2015 // Motion graphics Melbourne
Working once again with my friends over at EPA from West Melbourne, this time we have produced some marketing material, a banner design and motion graphics for this ident for use within their online seminars.