1st of the "Hey Dan how did you create that?" series

1. Presenting the...
“Hey Dan,
how did you create that?”
Series
a ‘project-perspective’ based series of
presentations on the creative process of
Dan Madinabeitia

2. Slideshow I
“The GAIM 2013
Cabana Illustration Project”

3. Where did this idea come from?
he GAIM USA team from the Finance Division at IIR. GAIM stands
T
for Global Alternative Investment Management
Assigment?
Create an illustration (“New Yorker”/“Wall Street Journal” style) of a
crowd of hedge fund managers and investors networking in cabanas
in Boca Raton for the cover of the GAIM USA 2013 brochure.
Timeline?
1 month
Design challenge?
creating a cohesive style while simultaneously drawing a crowd of
people from scratch.

4. The tools:
• encils and sketch pad
p
• Adobe Photoshop
• A WACOM tablet
• tylistic references from
S
publications
I used Pinterest to
create a mood board
of cartoons I found commuter geek:
created by various me and my tablet on
illustrators the New Jersey Transit
train from Gladstone
to Penn Station, NY

5. First - sketch in pencil, scan and start transferring
in Photoshop with the WACOM tablet and pen...

6. Also adjust contrast to set a
cohesive visual rythm...

7. Begin adding color in Photoshop
using paint tools...

8. Adjust size of the piece to
eventually fit into the cover once THAT size has
been approved...

9. We played with the idea of a sepia-toned image to fit
with the GAIM brand. Time was a huge challenge.
At one point we had to place the image on an unfin-
ished mock up of the cover... It looked really bad.
The Divisional Manager freaked.
- deal, move on...

10. Present to divisional team in progress and
make adjustments - One person felt as though
it made serious financial people look like
‘Beevis and Butthead’
- deal, move on...

11. Hone in on the detail
Photoshop allows for
great detail work with
its zoom function. The
golfer in the back-
ground will be really
small in the final piece.
This is just an example
of doing detail which
is really important in
creating a final effect
Photoshop is also great for creating shadows (look under
the tables and couches in the background) which were
added as a final touch to add “pop” to the image

12. And here we have our final piece...

13. The client really liked it.
So we made more for the brochure
interior and website