Who are you?
Right! Well, I’m Chris Fernandez. I’m an art director, illustrator and occasional adjunct professor in Philadelphia. Most of my early career focused on digital design and UX. Since joining Dribbble to get back in the illustration game I’ve begun to enjoy a fair amount freelance illustration work. I find myself equally happy to be busy working with the good folk at Brownstein Group – though I’m still holding out hope for that sweet relocation back to London.
What are you working on?
I just finished up a couple of fun projects. The Philadelphia Citizen, a non-profit news entity aimed at engaging this fine city, was a pure logo, design and UX exercise that I’m quite proud of. The other is launching shortly and has this great mashed-up skyline illustration that is animated and lively and really turned out great.
I’m also lucky enough to have a pretty steady stream of sticker packs I work on as freelance. They’re wonderful because they’re a combination of simple and expressive over 12+ iterations which allows me to fully explore a single character.
Choose a favorite shot of yours. Why is it a favorite?
Though I struggle to evaluate my own work I’d have to choose “Signs of the Time.” There are so many iterations of this piece that will never see the light of day that, for me, represent a leap forward into this new, more expressive style. It isn’t my most technical illustration nor my most successful, but it received some really validating feedback from the Dribbble community and I haven’t looked back since.
Plus I got it printed with gold fleck, I mean come on, gold fleck!
Tell us about your setup. What tools do you use in your job? (e.g. hardware, software, pens, paper, blowtorch)?
I’m sure it is a surprise to exactly no one, but my sketchbook. I love to draw and find myself doing so wherever really — so having it at hand is more important than anything else. Same goes for my laptop — a MacBook Pro 15” Retina for those interested — mobility is a convenience I find indispensable. Still, I have carved out a space to put my head down and get work done. I use my iPad as a secondary screen, to keep inspiration at hand, to stream music to my speakers or paired with my pencil by Paper53 for some loose sketching. Then, most obviously, my puppy Jurgen Klinsmann Fernandez (or “Jurgie” to keep it short) who makes sure I get out.
Choose a favorite shot from another Player. Why do you dig it?
Impossible! Too much awesomeness to choose from. I’ve always found the ethereal lighting in Lars Lundberg’s work so inspiring and Kirk Wallace’s exuberant character work is consistently pushing me forward. However, since I have to choose I’ll go with Justyna Szczepankiewicz. I just love the use of color, the delicate lines and the fact that a lot of times our subject matter can be similar but the end result is so wildly different. I just love it.
Find Chris at Dribbble, on Twitter, and at www.clickclickdraw.com.
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