To promote the talent they had available, the Merrilake agency commissioned a calendar to promote the range of art styles their illustrators could achieve. The headline for the publication would be: "Merrilake Illustrators are not just bums on seats!". Each of Merrilake's twelve freelance illustrators, one for each month, would create an image in the style of their favourite artist that expressed this heading visually. Salvador Dali was Stephen's artist of choice. He based his illustration on Dali's classic painting “Sleep”, matching the tone and feel of the painting as closely as possible, while at the same time subverting it with a “bum” propped up on crutches instead of a bodiless head. Stephen was also Merrilake's only digital artist at that point in time, and so to highlight this fact he placed the dream like ghost of his artist tools in the background. It was a tongue and cheek response to a light-hearted creative brief.

Source Reference: Salvador Dali
Illustration: Stephen Franklin
Surreal landscape with Daliesque bottom propped up on crutches, and a ghostly computer outline in the background.
Stephen’s take on Salvador Dali’s original – “Sleep”.
Animated build-up of the illustration.

Starting with a base sketch, Franklin built up the illustration gradually.

View more projects

Freedom Unlimited Website
Design and development of the Freedom Unlimited website, Dublin, Ireland.
Donegal Catch Packaging Artwork
While working as the Creative Artworker at Mesh Design, Stephen was tasked with building the finished artwork for the Donegal Catch range from Green Isle foods.
Fuji Xerox Campaign Hero Illustration
Illustration of the Xerox 0% Finance campaign hero image for the Diesel agency. Included the preparation of finished artwork files for both print and digital.
Queensland Energy Revolution Report
A seventy-page report on Queensland energy. Franklin designed the complete report including all graphs, charts, and illustrations. The target format was a short run digitally printed document.
Escape to Luz Brand Identity
Identity design for Escape to Luz, a Dublin based holiday company which organises personalised trips to the Costa del la Luz in the Southwest of Spain.
Sqeez Juice Tetra Pak Packaging Finished Artwork
Finished artwork for the Sqeez range of juices in Tetra Pak packaging.
BigPond Cable Packaging Image
Worked with the Art Director at the Frontline agency to produce this secondary pack image, used as part of a Telstra Big Pond Cable Modem packaging. Involved matching and applying the colour halftone screen effect of the hand image to an image of the Microsoft mouse, combining both into a seamless composition.
Grandiosa Lørdagspizza Packaging Retouching
Retouching of the front of pack hero image for the Norwegian frozen pizza brand Grandiosa.
Coco Pops Back of Pack Illustration
A promotional back of pack illustration for Kellogg's Coco Pops cereal packaging.
TAFE NSW Snakes & Ladders TVC Illustration
Snakes and ladders illustration used as the central prop for a TAFE NSW television commercial. Final artwork was produced at a size of 3 x 3 metres and used on set. The largest snake was later animated and composited with live action to complete the ad.
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