Bear Crest

A pattern I designed today. For something. I don't think I'm going to use it but I'm pleased with it anyway. For my first stab at pattern design its ok.

Anorak Magazine

The newest issue of Anorak magazine (art directed by the immeasurably awesome Supermundane) is out now and features four pages worth of illustration by myself for a story about the Moon written by Cathy Olmedillas (photos sooon) Its worth a look (not for my illustrations) but for some great travel tips (aimed at 8 year olds) and supercool facts about Tapirs.

In other news Jez now has another blog. Apparently Its Nice That and Evening Tweed dont quench his desire to spout nonsense online so Woods was born. Its actually pretty good and I'm quite jealous at how nice he's made his humble tumblr look. I'm also sad that he got to those Charlie Duck badges before me. Growl.

Finally I really like this image from Dace. I wish I was skilled enough to dress so minimally.

Together

Last night we watched Lukas Moodysson's 'Together' which is easily one of my favourite films ever and remains as heartwarming and endearing as ever even after a fair few viewings. If you haven't seen it its well worth a watch especially if you have some good people around to share it with and maybe a bit of abba to play in the background.

London

Yesterday I made it to that Tim Walker exhibit I mentioned last week. It was completely wonderful and inspiring and good. Like looking at your favourite songs manifest in hazy, saturated reality. Sigh. A perfect opportunity to post two more of his flawless images.


We also went to the Penguin offices on the Strand to attend the Penguin Design Award prize giving so that Jez could get his second prize treats. The penguin offices wouldn't be such a bad place to have to work. The view from the Balcony pretty much took in every single one of London's thames side landmarks, which was a bit of treat on a sunny evening.

Also at the Penguin awards was Sophie Elm another of my favourite recent ECA graduates. Her super feminine, old fashioned print designs and lettering style made for the most summery degree show I'm sure ECA has ever seen. Surely it won't be long before she's the next Angie Lewin. Or better!

Toys & Textiles

After a long, sunny day running around Brighton I now find myself scribbling away whilst listening to Meursault (who were completely amazing last friday). Its nice.



I am totally intrigued by the idea of Bonbonkakku and am very tempted to submit something. I've long had a craving to do a bit of textile design and this may be a perfect opprtunity.




I am looking forward to the newest comic from Jeffrey Brown. Mainly because of the soon to be released vinyl toys based on the characters (but also because Jeffrey Brown is made of awesome). A girl loves a robot.



Tomorrow its off to London to have a peer at D&AD at earls court. Which'll be interesting. It'll be good to see ECA's fourth year illustrators showing off their lovely work outside of Edinburgh.

yesterday

we piled up some animals.

Imaginary Shopping trip

So if I was to have a little online shopping spree today I would buy....

A wooden ring from Somethings Hiding In Here,



Stuart Kolakovic's first ever badge set (niiice),

Mini print set by Katy Horan,




and if I was feeling especially financially suicidal this amazing bag from Mike & Chris at Chocosho

busy busy busy

I'm off to stay Brighton tomorrow for a week and bit to go to d&ad next week, accompany Jez to the penguin awards, see Why? and hopefully track down some sunshine so posting will be sporadic perhaps. After that its on home to south Devon and some summer adventures.

In the meantime I'm draining edinburgh's finest blogs for things to post...



Via the ever flawless Running Amok a nice film about one of my favourite illustrators Nigel Peake.

Worth a peek is the Topshop autumn/winter 08 collection which I came across thanks to Rosie's lovelier than ever new blog (named after my favourite frightened rabbit song). Below are a couple of my favourites but I'm yet to really delve into it properly. I love winter clothes.

Nice tache!

I'm quite taken with this shirt from Blood is the New Black.




Also the rather tasty looking cushions at Bonjour Mon Coussin.

Tim Walker & Arielle De Pinto

I'm going to be in London to nose around D&AD next week and I'm definitely going to pop by the Tim Walker exhibition at the design museum. I'm excited to see his beautiful photos on a bigger scale than the pages of Vogue.

Beautiful crotcheted jewellery by Arielle De Pinto.

Jez is coming up to stay this week to help me out with School of Language on friday (pluggity plug). I'm hoping the weather picks up as I have a roll of diana film that needs using up.

I love this textile design by Kristina Collantes. Her site is full of intricate line work and really well considered colours. The circle work is wonderful too.


Quick note to say that this week sees the replacement of my wall painting at Analogue. Thanks to all of you who've been to see and who've said kind words. I really appreciate it. And of course a colossal thankyou to Russell and Julie for inviting me to trash their nice white wall (fools).

Tea Lights & Travelling Bands

I acknowledge that I am a colossal loser for being so excited about this but I really love these light fittings from Domestic Construction. I love lights. I love cups. I love cups that are lights. OK? Fine.

As I mentioned yesterday I'm currently having a go at coming up with a childrens book (I want to have one in my portfolio but I dont want to devote my final year to it so I'm trying to knock one out now). Below is one of the images from my first complete double spread. Let me know your thoughts. If you have any.

A Year in Design

I usually try really hard not to post what Jez has already posted on its nice that (its cheating) but today I am feeling tired (thankyou flathunting!) and a bit lazy. SO today I offer you supercool collective Neon Gray. There's some really nice bookwork on their site but its mainly the above image that caught my eye. Called 'A Year in Design' this image really does some up this years rather persistant design trends.

Speaking of the young Mr Burrows you should check out his second place entry (and all the other shortlisted entries) in the Penguin Design Award. I am totally awestruck that Nick Hornby ("my favourite book is stil Cash by Johnny Cash") has nice things to say about his work. I'm so proud.

I'm working on a rough for a children's book (I'm not a children's book illustrator by any means, I'm trying to stretch myself a bit) so maybe i'll post some of my roughs up very soon. I might be in need of some helpful criticism, this really isn't my forte!

Shameless Plugging

I'm organising a gig next friday and in the vague hope that someone who's not one of my parents and is based near edinburgh is reading this I thought I'd give it a bit of a plug. Anyway....
Friday June 20th at the Ark (Waterloo Place) from 7.30pm its School of Language & Meursault. Hurrah!
Meursault are a local treat who mix folky ukuleles and banjos with postal service style beats and glitches. It's lovely, understated stuff.
School of Language is the new project of David Brewis (of the once splendid Field Music). More experimental but equally as endearing as his first musical outlet School Of Language sees Brewis looping vowel sounds and playing every instrument under the sun to create frustrated melodies that are utterly charming.
Please come. Its only £6 on the door and we (I say we...i'm trying to bulk it out...I mean I) will be playing some lovely tunes in between bands. It'd be lovely to see any blog readers. If they exist.

t shirts

So yesterday I began the seemingly endless process of clearing and packing my stuff to move out of my current flat (not that we have yet found a new one but its good to get a head start.) Anyway in emptying boxes and drawers I found that I still have a few of the t shirts I made for the Village Fete in March. If anyone fancies a shirt you can have one for £5 and the cost of postage. Each shirt is hand printed on lovely, soft American Apparel and there are three sizes available (Women's Medium is green, Men's Medium is Brown and Men's Large is Blue). If anyone fancies buying one (or maybe swapping one for something?) just get in touch.

I realised that I haven't posted a sketch or a piece of my own work for a wee while so below is a drawing I did ages and ages ago for one of the many Woodpigeon we've worked on. It was just a rough and ended up being quite far from the one we used but I found it yesterday and I quite like it. There we go.

Anders Soderberg

Oh my! I am totally in love with all of the work on Anders Soderberg's blog. Of course the Russian influenced pieces above are my absolutely favourites (that bookcover! sigh) but I also really like the imagined cover for Sufjan Steven's 'Greetings from Michigan the Great Lake State' which is pictured below. I have a feeling Mr Soderberg (who graduates from HDK Gothenburg University..uh..now) is going to do very well and deservedly so.

More from ECA

What with fleeing to Brighton and then Berlin I have neglected my plan to post my favourites from the ECA illustration degree show. SO I'm going to get back on track now with some amazing work by Alice Duke. Though not usually the kind of work I'm drawn to Alice's digital paintings are astoundingly accomplished and completely absorbing. Definitely a refreshing break from the kind of work that usually comes out of ECA. Alice also has a blog where she scares sketches and explains her working process. Good stuff.

Also:

Loving the hazy photos on Sally Jane Vintage

Dreaming of the beautiful clothes from Mine

and enjoying dreamy colours at Forms & Shapes (below)

Sprechen sie deutsch?

We (Team illustration) have just returned from rather glorious trip to Berlin mainly comprising of ice cream and aimless wandering. A good time was had by all. Above are some very poor scans of photos I took on my lovely Lomo Smena Symbol camera, the abundance of blue sky and brutalist architecture make Berlin a perfect place for a bit of lomography. Rather embarrassingly we didnt achieve a lot in terms of cultural nonsense rather just had nose around and enjoyed the inexplicable heat. We did, however, become rather enamoured with an old photoautomat machine. Below are some rather special (!?) photos of Sarah and I. We were meant to get progressively messier in each one but as it is I just look a bit mental. Oh well.



more photos are (rather unwisely) posted on my flickr

Unterwegs!

I'm off to Berlin with the illustration gang for a few days so no posts for a little while.
photo from p-d on flickr.

Brighton Degree Show

I've just got back from a brief (far too brief) trip to Brighton to see the University Degree show so I thought I'd share some of my favourite bits and pieces.

(above)
Sophie Kern's illustrations are wonderful in every way. Based on inuit folklore and mythology they mix really nice, bright colour with black and white photography and beautiful markmaking to make something really haunting and other-worldly. I am phenomenally jealous.



I've been using one of Verity Keniger's lovely bear bags for a few months now so it was nice to see a bit more of her work on show. I love the above piece about the anniversary of Haley's Comet. Verity's screen printed posters are pretty ace too.


Seiko Kato's dolls were simutaneously endearing and terrifying but indisputably amazingly well made. I cannot even begin to image how much time it took her to make so many.


Finally of course my favourite graphic designer and video game nemesis (why can't i win?) Jez Burrows of the unstoppable Evening Tweed (and the almost as unstoppable Sing Statistics). Above is the book cover he designed for the Penguin Design awards (he came second in the competetion. because he is ace) and the postcards he's giving out at the show (lovingly gocco-ed by ourselves long into the wee hours). I would have posted this because I love it but the entire world has already blogged the hell out of it.

Head to the gdi08 to see work from all the Graphics & Illustration graduates.