Logitech Gaming, California: a long term packaging project involving over 100 of Ian’s photo realistic and x-ray 3D CGI illustrations

Radio Times, London: a combination of Ian’s photography, retouching & illustration. Awarded the accolade of ‘Cover of the Century’ by the Professional Publishers Association

Ian makes ideas and concepts become ‘real’. Visualisations for a broad range of media: advertising, magazine editorial, graphics, consumer and commercial products. Creative thinking executed with a devotion to the highest possible standards of craft with an obsessive attention to the smallest and finest details.

He creates these images with 3D software, Photoshop, photography, image retouching & AI.  Whatever it takes to fulfil the brief. For example the Logitech packaging and advertising images were created in Ian’s London studio by combining technical CAD files with additional detailed modelling by Ian. These 3D models were then rendered twice: as a realistic photographic quality image of the exterior and an x-ray visualisation showing all of the internal details. These two computer graphics images were then merged together in Photoshop.

Ian’s specialisms are convincing 3D photo realistic illustrations of objects that don’t yet exist in the ‘real’ world and photographic-quality realistic illustrations of scenes, views and perspectives that could never be captured by any camera lens.

From his central London studio, Ian collaborates with Creative and Art Directors in advertising and design agencies, magazines, book publishers, product manufacturers and media companies all over the world.  He has helped create advertising campaigns for screen, print and posters, and graphics for products & product packaging, annual reports and over 1,000 magazines and book covers.

By working with photographers as a creative retoucher, as well as a collaborator in the initial image creation (as an on-site photo-shoot consultant), Ian helps to ensure the image creation assets will fit seamlessly and credibly into the visual environment and scope of the final graphic illustration for a completely photo realistic effect.  The photographer’s clients’ strategic visions are transformed to a graphically fulfilled reality.

As a photographic retoucher, Ian covers the entire spectrum of retouching work, from product retouching, to beautifying skin and faces and embellishing metals & composites on product surfaces throughout the range of product categories.  With image transformation, Ian can also combine various retouched photography or graphic elements into a newly created and photo-realistically credible portrayal. Ian runs classes teaching advanced retouching for creative professionals.

Everything has changed through CGI.  Wonderful photo-real graphics can be created without a need for traditional cameras - the visual potential is endless!  As a pro commercial illustrator, Ian broadly exploits every new technology to illustrate realistic photographic-quality images.  Whatever can be imagined can be produced without creative limits; whether it is stylised x-rays, liquids, soap bubbles, typographic lettering, smoke, balloons, or script in glowing neon.

3D modelling, surface texturing, and stylistic rendering, are all important aspects of Ian's illustration workflow.  Years of experience in professional photography informs the way he lights and frames virtual imagery for cultivating that finessed presentation of photo realism, which is his overall creative objective as an illustrator.

Photoshop has been a lifelong professional tool for Ian, a natural extension of his creative thinking.  By incorporating 3D CGI techniques, the conceptual vistas for creating photorealistic portrayals have become totally intuitive for him.

From simple, discrete image-enhancement work as a pro retoucher to total visual transformations, hugely complex composites that include hundreds of images from a wide variety of sources - all colour graded & optimised - these are all illustration challenges which Ian thoroughly enjoys. 

“I welcome the opportunity to discuss these creative aspects for any of your upcoming projects in advertising, magazine cover and editorial illustration, product packaging, or in the wide range of CGI-created illustrations or photographic retouching.  Whether it is with clients here in London and the UK, or around the world, I am very experienced in working to the global demands of Time Zones and international cultural affinities.

I really enjoy designing, researching and creating the ‘Radio Times’ TV-based brain-teaser quiz graphics for the fun of presenting visual quizzes to the UK public in the wide-circulation ‘Radio Times’ magazine - they have become such a huge favourite with the UK public.

I derive a great deal of creative pleasure from the scope and range of my work as a professional illustrator and look forward to collaborating with you”.

Ian McKinnell, Bloomsbury, London, UK. 

Awards include the Magazine Cover of the Century, a number of D&AD yellow pencils, the Association of Photographers Annual Awards, the International Print Biennale and the Northern Young Contemporaries.

Clients include: 

Packaging: Logitech, Shell 

Financial Services: Franklin Templeton, Venture Finance, Liberty Mutual 

Retail: Marks & Spencer, Tesco, Boots, Sainsbury's, Waterstones 

Jewellery: Citizen Watches, Garrard

Technology: Apple, Microsoft 

Magazines: Elle, The Observer, Time, The Radio Times, Blueprint, New Scientist, World of Interiors, Architects Journal, Architectural Review

Publishing: Penguin, Random House, DK Books, Octopus Publishing

Sports: Golf magazine, Boat International 

Travel: New Zealand Government, Transport for London

Music: Island records, Decca, Philips, BBC, 4AD 

Cosmetics: Pheora Rucci, Dove

Furniture and Design: Vitsoe, Vitra Design Museum, Danny Lane, Daiko Electric, Japan 

Architecture: Fletcher Priest, Axis Design, Imagination, Design House 

Animation: BBC Television, Supponor