BerryVerrine`s Dell XPS Commercial Illustration

A quick look back to 2020, and a collaboration with Moving Picture Company, who were charged with realising VLMY&R`s epic vision for their Get Into Your Youniverse campaign. The centrepiece product, the Dell XPS laptop, brought an illustration created on it to life - given the aesthetics, the colours, the neons of the production, it was decided the illustration needed the authentic Japanese touch.

BerryVerrine and his searing palette was the artist for the job. Below are some excerpts from the process of his creation of the final piece.

From the start, the moon had to act as a focal point. We weren`t quite sure what kind of moon, but it had to help the transition between the glowing butterfly caught by the hero in her journey and the zoom-out from the digital artwork on her XPS screen. Above is BerryVerrine's first response to the creative brief. After this first presentation to the client, the appearance of the moon was discussed and it was felt that it was too dominant within the scene.

Presented as a rough sketch, other objects and elements in the sky were originally considered. As the illustration developed it was preferred to keep the upper half less busy, and more of a vista, with a real sense of scope and magnitude.

This is the seed from which the finished illustration grew, albeit too close-cropped in its current rough state, with the moon crowding out the rest of the skyline. We have the look of the hero character almost nailed down, it remains virtually the same for the rest of the process.

After BerryVerrine zooms his scope back out, we have the basis for the final composition

We tried a few colour schemes, but whatever we chose we found the swirling clouds a little too menacing, and the building elements a little constricting, so they had to be reimagined.

BerryVerrine was also asked to deconstruct one of his roughs in order to produce a vignette-style illustration. The idea was to show the illustration as a work-in-progress, as drawn by the hero in the commercial, and as an exposition of the artwork`s creative process.

Again, the moon was on everyone`s minds, and we experimented with some surface detailing, but found it brought an overly sci-fi vibe and that, as so often, simple was best.

With a colour change and a few more element tweaks, we were now very close to the finished article. Have a close look to see if you can spot the difference (answer below).

The finished piece!

With a little more shading, slightly different shaping, and more definition against the backdrop, our hero finishes her journey quietly contemplating the futuristic, cinematic ethereal landscape in front of her.

Thanks to everyone at MPC and VLMY&R for taking the journey with us, and a huge thanks to Dell for supporting the creative industry and allowing artistic imagination to be explored and developed, resulting in illustrations like the above.