We have been approached by a private client to redraw two side decals for his SEGA Outrun upright arcade machine which he has lovingly restored from the ground up, quite literally a nuts and bolts restoration. After approaching countless design agencies and being turned away our client stumbled across us around Christmas time and came and meet us in the new year. This, as it turned out, would be a first as there is no accurate artwork available to buy or download for these enthusiast who restore this classic and much loved arcade game. There are however some artworks out there that are not entirely accurate and have detail missing or the wrong way round.
topright are now re-drawing this classic side decal using the heavily damaged original and other reference gathered from both the client and the internet. This re-draw is, like our clients restoration, from the ground up and when finished will be in many instances better than the original. We will have created vector artwork. The client has been in touch with SEGA and has organised full permission for us to create this artwork, he has also been approached by the BBC who would like to document his loving restoration as there is much interest in the arcade and retro gaming culture.
One of the first issues with this re-draw is the reproduction of colour and the screen ruling used in the original screen printed decals. This would determine how we progressed the artwork. Trial and error and working with printed samples has revealed the route we take. The strange thing about doing this re-construction is making the artwork as shabby as the original, which is a strange way of working but if you are recreating something these are the lengths you have to go to ensure that it is believable and still retains it’s character that attracts it’s followers. Believe it or not, making something shabby takes longer than doing it well – crazy huh!
Thought we might post a few pics up of the progression of the artwork.
