Mel is a fantastically talented and experienced Concept Artist who has just finished working on Marvel Studio’s Secret Invasion. Mel uses her strong knowledge of transport design to expertly render the most innovative vehicle designs. She is determined to share this knowledge, educating and empowering others as a lecturer at Leeds Art University, a mentor through; Screenskills, Into Games and Limit Break and a Videogames ambassador through VGA. We spoke to Mel about her creative processes and influences.
After receiving and analysing the brief, I always start with research. It’s the foundation for creating designs that are functional yet interesting. From there, I create a mood and reference board which I use to direct the design.
Next comes lots of sketching. It starts simple with solid black thumbnails focused on shape language and will progress the more refined designs. At the later points in the process, I will use 3D to allow for a quick way to show the designs at different angles. When it gets to the last stage, I’m making sure to indicate any information that someone looking at the design may want to know. For example materials, scale and mechanical function.
Often clients have wonderful ideas but they need someone to create something visual that captures everything they want. I collect all the requirements for a project and establish colour schemes, design language and design focus.
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Ever since I was young, I’ve loved the world of science fiction. Space race was a piece that combined my love of vehicles and sci-fi. I thought about what a chunky racing vehicle might look like and created a vehicle that looked like it could fly but would need skill to manoeuvre.
When I first started to enter the world of concept art, I was massively influences by Scott Robertson, Syd Mead, Feng Zhu and Daniel Simon. They still influence me today as you can learn so much from their design thinking and work. I’m massively influenced by nature because I think it’s an incredible representation of amazing design.
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Most recently working for Marvel on Secret Invasion. It was a big milestone for me and I was able to create and explore some very cool concepts. I grew a lot artistically working on that project too.
