Beautiful simplicity: the work of Bryan Christie

by streetanatomy | October 10, 2007 at 04:57 am

1722 views | 24 Recommendations | 4 comments

Bryan Christie. I had seen this name over and over
again in the fine print every time I saw a beautiful medical visual in
a magazine. From Scientific American to Newsweek it seemed like Bryan
Christie’s crisp, clear, and aesthetically pleasing visuals dominated
medical editorial illustration. Problem was I had never heard of him in the rather small sphere of medical illustrators.

Turns out he’s not a medical illustrator.

Bryan likes to refer to himself as a 3D illustrator who just happens
to do medical illustration. And he happens to do it extremely well. “My
studio isn’t strictly a medical studio; we take on a variety of work.
It’s more of an informational design/illustration studio.”

His work falls into a variety of topics that include:

I can only describe Bryan’s work as beautiful simplicity.
He is a master at taking out all of the extraneous information, all of
the distracting details, and focusing solely on the pertinent
information. He strips everything away without ever making his visuals
boring or static.

So what makes Bryan’s work so strong and compelling?

He doesn’t find the need to try and make things look cool. “Whenever
I try to make something “cool” it tends to just look like crap.” He
lets the beauty take care of itself.

After I established my blog I finally had an excuse to contact Bryan
and tell him what a fan I am of his work. He was kind enough to answer
a few questions to share with my readers.

So who IS Bryan Christie?

Where did you go to school?

I went to “Fame” (Music and Art High School in NYC) for music. I

graduated in ‘91. For college I went to the Manhattan School of Music

conservatory.

Are you trained as a medical illustrator?

Not technically. I got all of my experience on the job. I’ve been

around art my whole life though. My mother is a painter, and my

father is an illustrator.

What inspired you to go into this profession?

Getting the rent paid. I wasn’t making a living as a musician in NYC.

In 1996 I asked my father, Andy Christie, if I could help him out at

his illustration and animation studio, Slim Films (slimfilms.com). My

father and his colleague Pete Samek were wonderful teachers, and I

picked it up very quickly. After a year I had my own studio in lower

Manhattan.

How long did it take for you to establish such top clients as WIRED and Newsweek?

Because of my connections, I was working for clients such as

Scholastic and Popular Science from the start. After my first year of

freelancing I took a job as assistant AD at Scientific American

magazine. It was a wonderful experience (that’s where I met my wife,

Molly). I also made many contacts. In fact, I first met Karl Gude

when I commissioned him to illustrate a piece on scuba tanks for

SciAm. At the time he was the director of graphics at Newsweek. That

was a very propitious hire on my part: he later hired me at Newsweek,

and now he’s curating an exhibit of my work at MSU!

My time at Scientific American was formative. It was when I first

became aware of the connection between science and art. The old

issues from the 1960s and ’70s really influenced me. Each page is

filled with the most elegant, quiet line art. It’s so beautiful. Many

of those spreads look like modern art to me. That elegance and

clarity is something I always strive for in my work. As an artist

working in 3D, I find it is very easy to be seduced by all the

possibilities and special effects we have at our disposal. My

strongest work is always the clearest work. Beauty tends to take care

of itself; it’s secondary to the information.

Do you work alone or do you have employees?

I have an associate, the indispensable Emily Cooper. She specializes

in the natural world projects we take on. I call upon freelancers

consistently, namely Joe Lertola and George Retseck.

Do you prefer to work on a Mac or a PC?

I’ve never worked on a PC, so I can’t really say. I’m happy with the Mac.

What are some of your favorite programs? (Illustrator, 3D Studio Max, etc.)

I work in Lightwave. I’ve really grown to love this application. At

first it’s a pretty intimidating interface, but as I’ve grown

familiar with it, I feel like it’s invisible, like I’m actually

holding the work. I also use Illustrator and, of course, Photoshop. I

try to minimize my time in Photoshop; I find it’s best to think of

myself as a sculptor who takes pictures of my work. So I avoid

creating content in Photoshop and primarily use it for color correction.

Since first seeing his illustrations Bryan has quickly become one of
my favorite illustrators and will continue to be an inspiration to me
and my medical work. Thanks Bryan!

__________________________________________

Bryan Christie Design is based in Maplewood, New Jersey.

Take a look through Bryan’s online portfolio at bryanchristiedesign.com.

Bryan currently has a print exhibit of his beautiful work at Michigan State University from September 23 to November 16, 2007, sponsored by The Studio for Creative Inquiry and the School of Journalism in the College of Communication Arts and Sciences.