George Ermos for M&S
last updated 28 October 2020
This month, Bright Artist George Ermos’s art can be seen in high-streets around Britain, as he illustrated packaging for this year’s Marks & Spencers Halloween food range.
George’s range of work in Children’s Publishing, and his bold, fun style made him perfect for the seasonal packaging project. We caught up with George to find out how he created these creepy characters and spooky scenes!
How did you find doing a seasonal Halloween project?
Amazing. Seeing your work in the supermarket is a real buzz, especially when it’s on sweets. Ultimately though, it depends on how much you like Halloween; illustrating eyeballs, mummies, skulls and coffins is right up my alley so it was a pleasure. Wish I could do it every year!
What are the differences between illustrating for packaging instead of publishing?
Generally, there’s more creative freedom in illustrating for publishing rather than packaging, because of how little space your illustrations are going to be occupying on the packaging! Much more care has to be put into ensuring that the individual assets that make up your illustration have the potential to be moved and dissected by the designer. Basically, like everything in digital illustration, it all comes down to layers and making it easy for people to work with them!
What is your creative process?
Digital all the way, I produce coloured ‘sketches’ which are just a rough version of the final piece, all blocked out and coloured. Amending comes next followed by polishing up.
What was your favourite part of the process?
I love the finalising and polishing phase. Rendering and adding final details is so rewarding, it’s like eating one of those mints after gorging out at the buffet.
What’s your favourite thing to illustrate?
Historical topics and stories are my third favourite thing to illustrate; spooky/mysterious/magic themes are my second favourite; and my number one is both of these combined! I haven’t had the chance to do a project which mixes these together, but I know I’ll love it when it does come along!
George is represented by Helen Biles. To work with George, please get in touch. You can see more of George’s work here.