Computer Graphics World

8 July 2009 Graphics on the Run S kechers USA designs trendy shoes for every age group, catering to the lifestyle footwear market with more than 2500 individual styles. The brand image has been built with eye-catching graphics tailored for each demographic, rang- ing from kids' cartoon characters to bold designs for teens. As a graphic artist and illustrator at Skechers, Anwar Madri- gal designs advertising graphics, packaging, and illustrations that are applied to the shoes. Working in an art department that functions as an in-house agency, Madrigal originally used a Wacom Intuos graphics tablet for design and illustration until a behind-the-scenes television special turned him on to the benefi ts of the company's Cintiq offering. "The TV special profi led the latest technology for Hollywood animators," says Madrigal. "I was amazed to see them combining a traditional draw- ing approach with editing in-betweens directly on the Cintiq screen. It was clear the Cintiq was way ahead of the technology curve, and I knew I had to have one." Madrigal lobbied art director Fred Machuca for a Cintiq, selling him on the benefi ts of Cintiq's all- digital workfl ow. Skechers placed its fi rst order for two Cintiq 21UX LCD displays. Those proved their worth in productivity gains alone, and the fi rm ordered more Cintiqs for the art department's other illustrators. The Cintiq made an immediate difference for Madrigal. Previ- ously, the artist spent a lot of time scanning his line-art illustra- tions. It was a time-consuming process, especially with larger illustrations. The Cintiq negated that process. "Just by eliminat- ing the scanning process, the Cintiq increased my productivity by about 25 percent," Madrigal says. "It has become an essen- tial tool that I use constantly." Madrigal also points out that the Cintiq saves him time in terms of creativity. "Your ideas fl ow directly onto the screen, which ensures you get a design right the fi rst time," he adds. "You can easily try different approaches without worrying about the time it will take. I love the fact that I can just turn over my Wacom pen and it'll just erase like a regular pencil." A typical Cintiq-enhanced task for Madrigal involves working in Adobe Illustrator to create characters in vector art from scratch, to adorn the boxes for kids' shoes. Opening a template, he draws with the natural- feeling cordless pen directly onto the Cintiq screen. The Cintiq fi t well into Madrigal's workfl ow. "I'll actually ink the character in Illustrator and then take it over to Adobe Photoshop to color it," Madrigal says. "I've devel- oped workspaces specifi cally for the Cintiq that have all my tools set up on the screen. We have multi-monitor setups here, and when I switch over to that environment, all my palettes appear on the other screen, or vice versa. It provides an ideal work environment." USER FOCUS: DESIGN Designers at Skechers began using Cintiqs to craft unique, eye-catching graphics for shoe packaging and advertising (above and left), but soon the footwear designers began using them for product styling, as well.

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