Product Design

As of recent I've been taking a product design and illustration course and I've really been broadening my horizons from the 2D world to the 3D and making my illustratios come to life for different products. The following are some products I've designed.

This skateboard was done in Spring of 2010-the assignemt was to come up with a design that would work for a certain market-mine was boys 14-17 who would enjoy a nautical themed board. This is on display currently at the Tea Garden in Uptown.

This is a T-Shirt design i did for a T-Shirt project in the same Products & Illustration class-the theme I chose was birds and crazy squiggles.

This piece was done in Illustration & Products in 2010 for a "Stationary" Assignment. I chose to make a set of Engagement Party invites for a couple who enjoy a simple sleek look to their invite. These could also be switched out and used as a wedding invite. The INvite is 5x9 inches-rough paper on top of gold velum. The envelope is black shiny paper with the same gold velum inlay. The bird cages are cut paper collage on both the invite and the envelope. This piece helped me to really push my collage work-and my work for a client to better understand a need for things in a area I don't necessarily specialize in.

This piece is my most recent project in my Products & Illustration class-A Bedding Design. This design is a monster theme for a little boys room ages 3-10. Each monster has its own name and place in the pattern. The bedding is a striped fitted sheet,a monster top sheet and 4 different monster pillow cases to choose from.

This is the final "wow" item of my Final Collection for Illustration & Products.The collection is called "Cupcake Heaven" and includes the bedding (as you see here),A clock,Coat Hanger, Mirror and a Lamp. All themed with the same colors and icons. This collection would fit for any girl ages 3-15 who are fans of pink and the cute cupcake icon.

Love in the 1940s

This is a piece from Fall 2009-Its an all collage piece made from the theme of holiday-the holiday i chose was Valentines Day after I was feeling particularly bitter about the holiday around the time I made this I wanted to make something happy and beautiful. I combined old WWII photos of military men and their respective women kissing,making the main focus of the piece the ever famous "kiss" photo of the sailor and the nurse-shes holding onto magazine cut out balloons and the background is washed over with a purple acrylic wash. The whole piece is 18x20.

Moby Dick

This project was done in summer 2009.I did this on commission for a friend of mine. He wanted a mix of Moby Dick and the cover of a Mastadon CD to be combined into one painting. The canvas it's on is 22x30 inches and done in all acrylic. Throughout this painting I challenged myself to use the materials in different ways and to really push the envelope to make the whale appear a real animal with its own style of body-something new and innovative.

Playground 2

This piece was done in Fall 2009-for the prompt Playground (only in a different class than Playground 1). This time I decided to do the piece in acrylic paint-its about 20x22. The theme playground here for me made me think of raking leaves into a huge pile and throwing them up or jumping in the piles and just being carefree and acting like a kid should act. I also pushed myself to work with different texture techniques for the leaves and the piles as well as pushing he medium and learning to make a cohesive color palette.

Playground

This was a piece done in Fall 2009. Its based on the idea of a playground-to me playground was always a blanket fort that me and my sister would build-though I chose to illustrate two boys playing in a blanket fort instead. They are surrounded my games,and the night sky and a list of adventures they could take in their imaginations. To me this piece is really about reminiscing
about childhood and just being carefree and having fun with your best pal. This piece is 18x22 and done in all gouche-I really enjoy the flatness and overlay texture gouche gives and I enjoy pushing the limits with what I myself, and what the medium can do.

Jason In Charcoal

This is a charcoal piece done in Spring 2009 for Drawing 2. It is part 2 of a prompted piece titled "Before and After". This is the after image-as in he's now waiting for the person to leave (the before is a girl with no shirt on). This piece is 33x40 and all in charcoal done from real life. The hand and arm is where I spent the most of my time working on-it's also the area I am happiest with. This reflects how I like to use charcoal-in all life form rather than made up-and not a still life fruit bowl.

Self Portrait

This is my self portrait done in spring 2009. I used all oil paints,brushes and palette knives to create the texture and tones that you see here. I used new techniques and different lighting to create a piece I am truly happy with. This reflects my painterly work with the use of color and shading-its some of my strongest work to date in the realistic painting field.

Artist Statement (So Far)

My work is still developing but certainly reflects me as a person. My work represents a strong sense of me and my personality-bright and cheerful. I find that it is strongly influenced by the happiness around me and all the bright bold colors found in all children’s books-even if it is not an illustration for a children’s book. My work uses a vast amount of bright, saturated colors paired with fun characters that get the imagination going; not just for me and any of the people who view it. As an artist I always want my work to reflect me for who I am, and work to make every piece fun in some way or another to look at. I find my work to be most influenced by children’s books and art of my teachers that work in the illustration field. I like to push my work part of the up and coming-something new and exciting; maybe something never seen-or something old done in a new way. Striving to be ahead of the curve really pushes my work to be better than what I could ever expect.

Resume

Jessy A. Saffell

jsaffell@mcad.edu

Education

Illustration

Minneapolis College of Art and Design 2008- Present

Studies include: Tools of the Trade, Concepts and Metaphors, Digital Illustration, Art In The Community. Experience in:

Photoshop CS4

Illustrator CS4

Employment

Sales Associate

Vans 2009-Present

Responsibilities include working with customers to assure they are happy with the product, book keeping as well as maintaining the visual standards in the store.

Sales Associate

Pac Sun 2007-2009

Responsibilities included working with customers, maintaining visual standards in the store, cleaning and organizing the back room and making sure the store is clean for the next morning.

Volunteer Position

Whittier Elementary School Oct 2009-Dec. 2009

Responsibilities included teaching a class of 10 students about art through the process of book making, binding the book sand organizing all the paper work.

Exhibitions

Foot In The Door 4

Minnesota Artists Exhibition Program Gallery- Minneapolis Institute of Arts, Minneapolis, MN.

February 2010-June 2010

Illustration And Products Show

Tea Garden Tea Bar- Uptown Minneapolis, MN.

March 2010-May 2010

Digital Illustration Show

Spyhouse Coffee – Minneapolis, MN.

April 2010-May 2010

Dear President Show

Minneapolis College of Art and Design,-Minneapolis MN.

Fall 2008