Creative Strategy: Clint Hansen + Thomas Nelson Publishers
Art director Kristen Vasgaard selected Scott Hull Associates Clint Hansen to do a collection of classically inspired portraits for a new young adult book series for her publishing house Thomas Nelson. She chose Clint because of his experience within museum display and collegiate hall-of-fame’s.
The collection of 67 prints, which are targeted towards readers age 25-65, features historical figures in the science, art and literary community that spans centuries. Clint’s goal was to bridge the differences between the rather diverse timeline of people, and create a series of engaging historical portraits that maintain a consistent feel using a variety of resources and references, often of very poor quality or not existent.
The biggest challenge to this series was creating a consistent style of illustration when the source imagery was so varied. For some illustrations they had actual photographs to reference, because the characters lived recently. However, some people did not even have formal portraits to reference and we had to rely on other illustrations or iconography that was centuries old.
Kristen glows over Clint’s results, “The overall effect is detailed looking and polished. The final product exceeded our expectations. Clint’s custom illustrations unify the series and add a sophistication and uniqueness that we would not have achieved without them. Clint is great about meeting deadlines and is very easy to work with. He willingly makes any revisions or changes and has a great attitude.”
