Ruth Rowland

http://www.illustrationweb.com/RuthRowland/

Red and white make for a very striking image. The colours here are very appropriate because of the make up worn by the Geishas of Japan- by using only the lips, the picture is anonymous, whilst being intantly recognisable from a distance. The way Geisha's paint their lips make them even more heart shaped than is natural, although the image still retains the rough edges of the slightly imperfectly applied line. I also love the expressive typography used, which clearly references Japanese brush painting whilst retaining the modern element of the first 3 words of the title. All these elements express perfectly the themes of the book itself, so a very successful design.

The rest of Ruth Rowland's work is similar to this image in that she often uses a few bold colours, and always uses expressive, hand rendered typography. I was very inspired by Rowland's portfolio as she has worked for some very high profile clients (such as BBC1) whilst using hand rendered techniques and not being particularly 'trendy'.