My name is Benjamin Symonds, I'm currently part of the BA Illustration course at AUCB.

What you see on here is a mix of my work and other peoples that I admire/take inspiration from & not just illustrators... work from all areas of art. I'm also using this blog as a digital sketchbook for course assesment etc.

Note. Click on any image to see it in full.

Tuesday 25 January 2011

This Place

Just got featured on Transworld amongst other places! Check it out... http://www.bmx.transworld.net/​1000122167/​videos/​this-place-short-film-by-ben-symonds/​ http://www.vimeo.com/​19135665 Thanks! :).

Friday 8 October 2010

Wednesday 12 May 2010

Final Illustrations...

Decorative:



Would be used to decorate an artice for the Guardian newspaper (I created the spread above using photoshop).
I feel the illustration is eye catching enough to catch the readers view aswell as working in snyc with the layout of text, it also provides a certain amount insight into the article before reading.

Informative:



An animation for the 'Act On CO2' Campain that would be used to highten awareness on the levels of CO2 produced by air travel.

Commentable:



Two illustrations to be presented along side each other as a poster campaign to heighten awareness regarding CO2 emissions produced by airline companies and make people think twice about flying. They would be shown in places such as the london underground and in areas with airports near by. The imagery of the planet becoming more poluted aswell as  the red tracks left by the plane along side the text 'Thankyou Eyjafjallajokull' make this a commentable illustration rather than an informative one.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Commentable Illustration...

Series of commentable illustrations regarding the amount of CO2 emissions prevented by Icelandic volcano Eyjafjallajokull (I have no idea how you pronounce this).

Planes are up there with the main causes of CO2 emissions with 400,000 tonnes prevented each day flights were grounded in europe!

The volcano is also emitting but olny 15,000 tonnes of CO2 per day.












Potential Finals (to be presented along side each other):



Monday 26 April 2010

Collabaration with imfinethankyou! (Hüseyin Yilmaz)

Third set of illustrations created partialy using photography courtesy of Hüseyin Yilmaz (aka imfinethankyou).

His photographs were originaly published in issue 25 of Fan the Fire Magazine.

Click here to have a look.  (Pages 56-65).

He has kindly given me permission to use his photography however I see fit!

If you want to see more of his work have a look here at his online portfolio.





Above I tried to create a contrast between nature and planes but couldn't really get the text to work in sync with the imagery. 



I became abit fed up with the topic and started creating blunt illustrations around the slogan “FUCK PLANES”, I'm pleased with the outcome visually but felt they lacked depth in getting across a specific message. 

Flight Radar?

Found a website which lets you see the paths of all flights over Europe live!

Flight Radar




Screen Shot taken during flight ban...


Longest taxi ride home...

British comedy legend John Cleese took a $5,400 taxi ride from Oslo to Brussels after becoming stranded in Europe's volcanic ash travel crisis.

"We checked every option, but there were no boats and no train tickets available," Cleese told Norwegian TV2 in a telephone interview posted on the network's website in Norwegian.

"That's when my fabulous assistant determined the easiest thing would be to take a taxi."

The bill? A whopping 30,000 kroner ($5,400), said Cleese, who was visiting the Norwegian capital to take part in the popular Scandinavian talk show Skavlan.

The taxi carried two extra drivers for the 1,500-kilometre drive, TV2 reported.

"It will be interesting. I'm not in a hurry," Cleese said, adding that from Brussels he planned to take the Eurostar train to London, where he hoped to arrive by 3:00pm (local time) Saturday.

"I will think about a joke you've probably already heard: How do you get God to laugh? Tell him your plans," Cleese said.

Heres his route on google maps...


 Planes Vs. Volcano:


Saturday 24 April 2010