Inside F1 Drivers Bubble

Together with Making PIctures I got to illustrate F1 website article series – Inside F1 drivers bubble.

The series takes an in-depth look at the professionals surrounding F1 drivers – all working with a clear mission of maintaining the highest skill level in each F1 driver: from their personal trainers (pushing F1 pilots’ physical strength to the max), to race engineers (dialing in technical stats), and personal managers keeping up with taxes and legal papers.

illustration stages from rough thumbnail to final colored render

While text explaining all the intriguing behind-the-scenes work is informative, it doesn’t get the proper attention it deserves. Therefore, we decided to create a bold graphic hook that would generate leads to the articles. And so we started to hone in on the visuals.

Initial ideas were drafted in old trusty sketchbook

The client’s brief gave plenty of creative freedom. Yet our main constraint was to keep the illustrations adaptable to various screen ratios, with most compositions built around a central focal point – to best showcase illustrated drawing in various screen types and formats, phones, tablets, and PC’s.

3 rejected sketches. Art direction quickly pivoted away from heroic look.

We quickly moved away from a heroic look and pivoted towards energetic, lively cartoon-style illustrations, in order to highlight the human side of things.

While creating the illustrations, a big stylistic influence was the legendary Jim Bamber, who lent us the idea of a stylised driver character – specifically, a helmet with big, expressive eyes.

The overall color work relied on the F1 brand-book palette, creating additional depth with stylistically friendly textures.

For this project, in total we created 6 article illustrations, as well as 1 promotional illustration to introduce the series.

The whole project is now live, and you can take a closer look inside the F1 drivers’ bubble, with some upbeat visuals to fuel a nicer reading experience.