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Digital Creativity on an Analogue Medium
The list of customers, to whom Robin Preston has so far provided illustrations and spectacular photomontages, reads like a Who’s Who of the
automobile industry: Audi, BMW, Mercedes, Ferrari, Aston Martin and Bentley – to mention just a few. The common factor with all works is
the skillful showcasing of the automobile, frequently in settings where the vehicle had never originally appeared.
Robin Preston is a master of his craft where digital art is concerned. This passion began when he studied illustration at the
Central Saint Martins College of Art & Design in London. The native-born Englishman worked in a professional laboratory in his
term breaks and took his first tentative steps in the area of photography there and in what was known in the 1970s as “post production”.
Robin Preston is therefore a pioneer in this regard. He has been working in digital imaging since 1987. He still remembers well that the first
system that could be used to perform something like image editing had cost 1.6 million German marks (800,000 Euros). Even with the technology
at that time, work was commissioned for advertising campaigns of large agencies.
Immediately after his studies, Preston became self-employed and later became director and co-owner of a large photographic laboratory in Germany.
His first commercial project at the end of the 1970s, for Philipps, the electronics company, involved developing a series of creative advertisements
with flying television sets and raining electric razors – a technical challenge in those days.
In the 1990s, he merged his company with the largest litho group in Holland and has now worked independently as a digital artist and
illustrator for the past 28 years. Preston, who is always modest in this respect, has won many accolades and international awards
for his work.
Preston differs from most of his colleagues in this case in that, not only does he process images himself, he also photographs them himself.
As a result, he is one of the few artists who can combine the entire workflow themselves from the idea in his head through to the final
illustrated print.
In the meantime, 5 agents work for Preston worldwide, searching for new challenges from agencies. If a new order is pending, a pre-production
meeting will first be held with the Creative Director of the agency to discuss the client’s requirements. For orders for the automobile industry
in particular, these are anything but easy. According to Robin Preston: “The vehicles are often shipped across the globe to the relevant location
chosen by the location scout.”
Together with the Art Director, the results are filtered to create a preselection of the best images for the Creative Director.
Following another meeting, the post production process begins – Robin Preston’s actual main field of expertise.
As a pioneer of digital photography, Senior Evangelist at Wacom and Adobe and ambassador for Nikon, Robin Preston always works with the latest tools:
Adobe Photoshop CS3/ CS4 with different plug-ins are as much a part of his equipment as a current Mac Pro with 16 GB RAM and two Apple Cinema Displays.
When Robin Preston is on the move, his choice of camera is either a Nikon D3 or Mamiya, including a Phase One back. Despite all the advantages of
digital technologies and the most modern screens and cameras, ultimately it’s the final print that serves as a rule for the customer.
“Of course, an image is edited and reviewed on the screen first”, explains Preston, “but it’s the proof, which goes to the litho people along with
my data, that shows the result that I must be measured by”.
Preston relies on a HP Designjet Z3200 for this. He particularly values the embedded spectrophotometer for profiling media. “Before, proofing was
always a nail-biting experience for photographers and illustrators when it came to the actual printing after all the work on the screen”, says Preston.
“Today, I can approach the matter calmly and be sure that the quality of the finished print, even if the Z3200 has been switched off for several weeks
while I’ve been away, is consistently high and I don’t have to be plagued by inks or print heads drying up”.
“Naturally, I mainly carry out my work digitally on the computer and use a lot of Photoshop and other tools that change the image. Ultimately, my work
is always used in printed form”. Preston is also working on his own people photography project to create some balance in his daily commissioned work.
“It’s a kind of online art gallery where you can directly order large format printouts that were printed on a HP Designjet Z3200 and fine art paper.
For the first time, the high quality enables me to produce my works myself and sell them directly.”
“Through the Photosmart Pro B9180, I’ve seen for the first time the fantastic results that can be achieved on very different print media.
Shortly after I got my Designjet Z3100 back then, I met a friend who had also just bought a large format printer. He showed me a print. I asked him
to give me his data and I printed out the image unchanged on my Z3100. A short time later, I found out that he exchanged his printer for the Z3100 from HP.”
“In addition to being able to deal directly with people, by working on my own project I also get an insight into the significance that actually printing
on an analog medium still has in this digital age.” When Robin Preston is not working on a contract, he regularly holds lectures and workshops at different
trade shows and roadshows.
1 Computer Generated Imagery
Robin Preston creates breathtaking compositions and illustrations in a
fully digital workflow. By means of image editing and CGI
1 software he compiles montages that are
used for international promotion campaigns. The British expatriate was among the first to change to
digital technology for image editing in the 1980s. Since then, he's made cars submerge in water and
let razors rain. In addition to various workshops, he's been a lecturer at the Academy of Fine Arts
in Munich, Germany.
Equipment:
- Cameras: Nikon D3, Hasselblad H3DII
- Hardware: Mac Pro, MacBook Air, HP Designjet Z3200
- Software: Photoshop CS2 - CS4, various plug-ins
- Occupation: freelance
- Area of expertise: digital illustrations
- Homepage: www.nw-5.com
- Clients: various international agencies, mainly from the automotive industry
- Current project: Laboratorium.co.uk
