RESEARCH: Chrissie Macdonald

Chrissie Macdonald is a part of the Peepshow Collective - a group of illustrators, designers and animators based in the UK. She uses a range of materials to create props, sets and characters in her design and then they are photographed. She often uses paper in her design work and everyday objects. One of her most recognisable piece is the album art work she produced for Kate Nash's - 'Made of Bricks' (top image below). I really like this piece, how it all seems quite normal until you start to notice the different props included in the scene, 3 black cats, a skeleton and a bathroom. Its quite random but it works well and adds humour and lightness to the piece which i think reflects Kate Nash's music quite well. I wonder if the clothes belong to Kate Nash or if they were just chosen for the colours. I a also really like the use of shadows as some fit the scene well and others just don't seem quite right.

The bottom image is part of her work for Orange, the mobile telephone network. I think the use of objects for the characters is really clever, i especially like the peg people. She uses the colour orange to put across the fact that it's an advertisement for the company Orange, but it isn't overwhelming as i find orange can be quite a distracting colour. The orange coloured characters very quickly become the focus of the piece, but then you eye travels to looking at the smaller characters too. I have found that she uses a lot of black and white geometric shapes and classic patterns like spots and stripes in her work. It gives quite a retro/ 80's feel to it but feels new because of the way the illustrations are put together.

Chrissie Macdonald website: http://www.chrissiemacdonald.co.uk/