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KEVIN SPROULS: FAST COMPANY FEATURE

May 14, 2013

Kevin Sprouls' iconic Wall Street Journal “hedcut” portrait style was the subject of a recent illustrated essay by Matthew May for Fast Company, discussing the design principle related to subtraction and minimalism. By limiting information, the imagination is engaged.

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“The initial contour drawing is like a map for me to follow. Everything is done by hand, one mark of the pen at a time.”

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Kevin then begins the six-hour, step-by-step incremental process of placing dots meticulously on the illustration board.

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“What constitutes a good quality portrait in this style is the structure of the dot field,” Sprouls says. “To produce that tonal effect, I align the marks into a grid matrix.”

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Kevin's iconic style is a metaphor for the way limited information can be used to create clarity far more compelling and indelible in the viewer’s mind than something perfectly concrete and complete.

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