Thursday, February 07, 2008

You've come a long way, baby!


Recently I contributed art to an eight poster campaign for V Energy drinks which is currently being featured prominently Australia wide.

Besides the fact that the above billboard is three storeys high and on the busiest street in Sydney (which is quite a buzz in itself), this particular billboard's placement has a special personal significance to me. You see, seventeen years ago my very first job out of school was working at Woolworths in Sydney in this very same building. The Commonwealth Bank building below the billboard was where I opened my very first bank account.

I worked at Woolworths for 6 months as a sales assistant in the confectionery department, manning the registers, serving (sometimes very weird) customers, drawing on whatever scraps of paper I could find around the counter and going down to the 'dungeon' supply room once a week to load up on the week's lollies (which I always managed to screw up. Too much of one thing, not enough of another). Also occasionally I donned a three-sizes-too-big red jacket and stood around with my arms folded looking menacing, acting as store security. It wasn't a terrible job, but it definitely wasn't drawing and not soon after, I left to start working at Walt Disney Australia.

So when I encountered this sight a few days ago I couldn't help but take a snapshot of what was my first job and my current job positioned side by side. The colourful billboard dominating the drab building exterior. It was quite an epiphany for me.

Anyway, below are some of the other posters from the V campaign. The drawn cartoon characters were merged with the supplied photographs.

21 Comments:

Anonymous Anonymous said...

Those posters are plastered all around Melbourne at the moment, and up until today I wasn't 100% it was your stuff Chris. It is of course extremely polished stuff and I'm glad you got some small personal joy out of a commercial gig.

1:06 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Congrats man - love the artwork - i can't imagine what it would feel like to have my doodles placed so prominently!

1:24 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

As Trev said these are all over melbourne chris. As soon as I saw one I knew it was your stuff. awesome :)

- darren c

8:41 AM  
Blogger Carlos V. said...

super cool, you are!! Your versatility floors me sir!

8:47 AM  
Blogger 1 said...

Cool anecdote about the billboard placement. that is just too awesome. congrats on creating the successful adds! :O)

4:13 PM  
Blogger Paul Moyse said...

Used to work in retail as well, and draw on scraps of paper behind the counter, caricaturing customers without them knowing. Kudos for the billboards!

11:27 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

Had a feeling those were your works, looking great as always dude!

- Hayden.

10:35 PM  
Blogger Erin Hunting said...

I've been looking at these posters around Melbourne & been wondering if it's been you as I was pretty sure it was. Glad to see it's cleared up.
P.S- They look great.

12:53 AM  
Blogger SEILER said...

That's great Chris, nice adds too!

2:30 PM  
Blogger Elliot Cowan said...

Chris - I'm back in Australia for a bit and took a snapshot of the Melbourne version of this billboard.
If you're interested I can forward it to you.
Cheerio!

11:26 PM  
Blogger Chris Wahl said...

Thanks everyone!

Elliot- Thanks, that would be great!

Just send it to my email address via the profile/contact link at the top right of the blog. Appreciate it.

1:03 AM  
Anonymous Anonymous said...

I knew this must surely be yours. You did a great job.

12:56 PM  
Blogger Chris Wahl said...

Thanks Shaun!

7:51 PM  
Blogger Azzamckazza said...

Hah, I was actually coming here to ask if these ads were yours. It's been great seeing them pop up around Melbourne. Well done!!

3:54 PM  
Blogger Unknown said...

Congratulations!
Very very good, as always...

7:15 AM  
Blogger The Mutation Parlour said...

Great Stuff.. would be cool to illustrate something i consume on a daily basis.

11:14 PM  
Blogger Chris Wahl said...

Thanks guys!

12:21 PM  
Blogger Pauk said...

Wow. I've been seeing these around everywhere - and my girlfriend and I actually had a conversation about how they were probably done by you... and there ya go. They were.

Nice.

9:47 PM  
Blogger Chris Wahl said...

Thanks Pauk!

10:10 PM  
Blogger G said...

Hey Chris, I wanted to comment on this earlier but totally slipped my mind! I think I first saw one of the big V posters on a bus stop here in Melbourne late last year, it was the one with the guy and his eyeballs popped out to check out the girl's books in front of him in the classroom. I was thinking, hmm, that reminds me of Chris's work a lot. And when I saw the surfing guy surfing on his foot, I was sure it was your stuff plastered everywhere!!

Anyway, a belated congrats on such a large exposure of your art and thanks for sharing your story, too.

12:09 AM  
Blogger Chris Wahl said...

Here's a belated thankyou for your belated congrats-

Thanks Gary!

8:47 PM  

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