Headstand Media

In 1991, Randal Birkey prepared ths woodcut style digital illustration for the human resources firm, Hewitt Associates, for use in some of their corporate communication materials. The illustration depicts a plant with roots feeding on both sunshine and rain. It communicates growth, health and life.

The original art was completed and delivered as an Adobe Illustrator EPS file, and was based upon pencil sketches prepared by the artist working with a team of graphic designers.

Cunard Lines came to Randal Birkey in the 1980’s to contract for a set of new deck plans and drawings for use in marketing the newly renovated Queen Elizabeth II cruiseliner.

Randal worked from ship plans and engineering drawings to create a series of new deck plans in Adobe Illustrator, so that they could be used for promotional brochures, advertising and other marketing and communication needs.

In an unusual project, Randal Birkey was provided a faded copy of a historic illustration that was unusable for reproduction. He was asked to enhance it and turn it into a new and reproducible illustration. The image depicts a fire fighting team at the 1893 World’s Columbian Exposition in Chicago.

Randal scanned the reference work, then used a new software program called Fractal Painter running on an Apple Macintosh, and used a Wacom tablet to “retouch” and add color, texture and definition to the image.

Randal Birkey was commissioned through a Denver design firm in the 1980’s to prepare a series of illustrations on “How Gold is Made,” for use by their client, Santa Fe Pacific, then Newmont Gold, in printed brochures, posters and other corporate communication tools. The series was modifed several times over the years to reflect changes in ownership, as well as enhancements to the process.

Randal has prepared the Flash slide show below to enable easy viewing of this series of illustrations as an educational tool.

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.

Randal Birkey was contracted through Koralik Associates, to create a cutaway illustration of a typical Medieval Castle Keep for Everyday Learning Corporation in DeSoto, Texas.

Working from references provided by the Herman Adler Design Group, Randal created a pencil sketch of the Keep, with various walls shown cutaway to reveal activities and uses of the various floors. The final art was produced in Fractal Painter using a Macintosh computer and Wacom tablet and pen.

Contact Headstand Media for all your educational architectural illustration needs.

“Vitruvian man, a figure study by Leonardo da Vinci (c. 1509) illustrating the proportional canon laid down by the Classical Roman architect Vitruvius; in the Academy of Fine Arts, Venice.” — Encyclopaedia Britannica

This is Randal Birkey’s simplified and adapted illustrated version of Leonardo Da Vinci’s “Vitruvian Man” for use on a potential logo design and health related website interface.

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.

An educational textbook publisher contracted Randal for an aerial perspective map of a typical mill town for use in a textbook. Randal made up the view based upon elements required by the publisher in order to visually illustrate the textbook lesson.

Randal used Fractal Painter software on a Macintosh computer using a Wacom tablet to digitally illustrate in a line and watercolor style. The final illustration was delivered via file transfer protocol as a digital file.

A business parable was written by a client of Randal Birkey’s in the 1980’s. Randal sketched a series of globes in various circumstances to visually illustrate the story. The story and illustrations were used in a brochure promoting the client’s design firm and their capabilities in helping their customers with change.