From Sketch to Complete: The Work of IC4DESIGN

I’m very glad to show you the work of Hiroshima, Japan-based illustration group IC4DESIGN who make fascinating, lively and intricate illustrations for clients all over the world.

I was fortunate enough to meet Daisuke and Hiro, the people behind the designs at their studio in Hiroshima in March of 2010. Meeting them and seeing their work was one of the most memorable experiences of traveling to Japan. These guys seem to be the world’s hardest working illustrators!

Hiro and Daisuke show us their work process from start to finish of a New York Times Magazine brief below.

New York Times Magazine Cover

‘We meet clients in a variety of ways: face to face, phone, Skype and email. The process is often slow at first. I draw many small sketches that will eventually make up the larger illustration.’

‘After this we’ll do a rough sketch in a lower resolution. Once this is done, we draw a more complex line in higher-resolution.’

‘We refer to various documents and images of things like buildings and cars. Knowing the details is very important to the illustration work we do.’

‘For big illustrations, the work will take between 30-60 days. Usually about a week before finishing, we will continue drawing and working for 18-20 hours per day.’

© IC4DESIGN, 2010

Thank you Daisuke, Hiro and the team at IC4DESIGN!