Retro Galactica
Print/Illustration
Description
I credit my Battlestar Galactica series of posters as my “mind explosion moment” because it charted a new direction in my personal work. This set of posters represents a departure from the other pieces in the series. I kept the three poster/three storyline theme from Star Trek and Mad Men, but I didn’t rely on a traditional minimalist approach. I created more detailed illustrations that were inspired by several different “retro” sources including sci-fi monster movies, early travel posters, and 50’s fashion and dress ads.
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Digital Art, Graphic Design, Illustration
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Between my day job and my own personal work, I tend to have quite a few creative projects simmering. Occasionally, I will be inspired by something that will completely divert my attention for a day or two. In this case I was really interested in the illustration style and bold colors used to create the classic Batman comic covers in the 50’s and 60’s. I thought it would be interesting to apply that style to the soon to be released movie, The Dark Knight Rises.Digital Art, Graphic Design, IllustrationPrint/Illustration -
On occasion I will pick up a private commission poster if the subject matter inspires an idea or I have a technique I want to try out. This poster on Bluegrass legend Doc Watson was a single print for my friend and idea guy, Doug Whitworth.Digital Art, Graphic Design, IllustrationPrint/Illustration -
When I started getting heavily into photography back in 2008, I was really into the art of the portrait. My interest in portrait photography and the study of lighting techniques led me to some interesting commissions for friends, and later ended up being a valuable resource at my day job, as budgets got crunched in the economic downturn. I even managed to win a Louisville Graphic Design Association Gold Award for my black and white photo for the United Way/UPS fundraiser.Digital Imaging, Digital Photography, PhotographyPhotography -
“Why don’t you do some Phish fan art?” – With this one question, my collaborator Doug Whitworth, introduced me to the wonderful world of concert fan art. Phish, as well as a few other bands, allow their fans to maintain a secondary art market. The big restrictions being that you can’t use the band’s name, the individual members’ names, or their likenesses. You just have to be clever. This series of work helped me to launch my own store, www.movingthemerch.com, and has been very satisfying as a creative outlet.Digital Art, Graphic Design, IllustrationPrint/Illustration -
You never know what type of photos you will be taking in our department. I recently had the opportunity to photograph a new air mask system for our aircraft. The images were then used in informative magazine spread and for instructional purposes. I also captured images of the system in use in an actual cockpit for the magazine cover. Fellow designer, Brian Fellows, did the Leading Edge publication design.Digital Imaging, Digital Photography, PhotographyPhotography -
I love movies. I also love movie posters. For those of you out there familiar with Alamo Drafthouse’s Mondo store that sells re-imagined movie posters for classic films by contemporary illustrators, then you know it is almost impossible to actually buy those posters. They sell out in about 1 minute. Since I wasn’t ever lucky enough to buy a Mondo print, I decided to make my own.Digital Art, Graphic Design, IllustrationPrint/Illustration -
While I tend to do more portrait work as of late in my day job, I still love to capture the hustle of the operations at UPS Worldport. These images were taken over the last few years to help boost our department’s reserve of operational photography. Some of these pictures have been used for a variety of different applications including informational posters, regional ads, and most recently the 2012 UPS Corporate Calendar.Digital Imaging, Digital Photography, PhotographyPhotography -
In early 2010 I got the itch to create my own unique wall calendar. This is a large format calendar designed specifically for my work cube. I wanted to go slightly retro in the overall feel, hence the rainbow colors and use of half circles, which were inspired by the phases of the moon. The final piece was custom printed at zazzle.com and later featured in the book, Save the Date: New Ideas and Approaches in Calendar Design published by Victionary Workshop Limited.Design, Graphic Design, IllustrationPrint/Illustration -
For my second set of minimalist television posters, I chose to feature Mad Men from AMC. I carried over a similar format from my Star Trek series where the set consists of three prints, all in a different color, which when placed together tell a story. In this case, the napkin on each poster pulls from a classic tagline created by the lead protagonist from the series, Don Draper.Digital Art, Graphic Design, IllustrationPrint/Illustration -
In early 2010 I got swept up in the minimalist movie and television poster design movement that was found on just about every design inspiration blog at the time. I was also looking for a new creative outlet, so the idea formed to create a series of posters to honor some of my favorite television shows. My Star Trek set of posters was the first of the series. Each uniform contains a little detail about the character it represents as a nod to the die-hard fans that know the series inside and out.Digital Art, Graphic Design, IllustrationPrint/Illustration -
The 2007 UPS Global Small Business Forum was one of my first large scale projects for UPS as a full time employee. I was tasked with creating an overall design concept within brand guidelines, to run through the invitation, event program and schedule, booth banners, table tents, nametags, and PowerPoint templates used by the presenters. The design for the invitation went on to win a Silver Award for graphic design in the 2007 Louisville Graphic Design Association’s annual 100Show.Design, Graphic Design, Print DesignPrint/Multi-Media
All works © Ben Whitesell 2012.
Please do not reproduce without the expressed written consent of Ben Whitesell. Powered by ProSite.
Please do not reproduce without the expressed written consent of Ben Whitesell. Powered by ProSite.

























