Latest News: On The Wall

Occasionally I get asked to produce large format artwork to work as wallpaper, which is usually then digitally printed. I have a couple of high profile pieces in the pipeline which I hope to be able to show you here soon, but in the meantime here are a couple of examples from opposite ends of the spectrum in terms of the ambience they provide. In terms of scale you have to imagine that these pieces are over 2m high so they can be quite imposing. The brief's really can vary so unlike with my illustration work there is no definite style that I produce but I hope you like them anyway.

The first piece (detail above and whole below) was for a refurbished Wetherspoons pub in the suburbs of South London. The brief was to abstractly combine London architecture, commuters and street art with a predominant colour scheme of black, gold and teal. I really liked the way this one worked out with the commuters being presented almost as ghostly characters...

A slightly more traditional request would be for a particular style of mood setter such as these designs I produced for an Italian restaurant with a Tuscan theme. I really liked the rougher, taped together landscape collage of the initial design although I have to say the final design (shown below the first) looked great on site.

Alternatively, this map of Anglesey was produced to appear weathered and more vintage with warmer tones and gives a different spin on the traditional feel.

Latest News: Thwaites Pub Signs

Last summer I posted about a pub sign for the White Horse I had illustrated for Thwaites' community pubs. The signs had been designed by Leeds based agency WPA Penfolds and they selected me as part of a roster of illustrators to create engraving style illustrations for the pictorials. The brief included the use of flat colour alongside the drawing. Whilst this takes me outside of my comfort zone since I usually work with a muted palette, it also I think demonstrates the versatility of a traditional artistic approach. Sometimes I prefer the colour version of the final design, other times I prefer the black and white - I guess it's entirely subjective.

I thought it was about time I started sharing some of these illustrations with you here, with a bit of historical background to the less common names. I'll present both versions and maybe in some cases the rough scamps too which can be quite interesting. The signs themselves are usually produced and fitted by Parkinsons or occassionally Sign Specialists.

According to Wordsworths Dictionary of Pub Names (which isn't always the most reliable sources of information I might add), The Traders Arms usually refers to:

"Those who make their living by buying and selling... particularly applied to the import and export of goods. The sailing ships carrying such goods were referred to as 'traders' and often benefited from 'Trade Winds'."


The full colour version of this pub sign illustration was entered into the Creative Match Flair competition for May 2012.

Latest News: Scents & Sensibilities

I've recently completed this project on behalf of Jane Maddern Handmade Soaps, for a series of scented candle lid designs for the Jane Austen Centre in Bath.

The candle scents were all influenced by homes and gardens that feature in Jane Austen's novels - Bergamot Orange relating to Barton Cottage from Sense & Sensibility, Honeysuckle from Emma's Hartfield and Peony Petals from Pride & Prejudice's Pemberley.

The brief required a 'Regency' feel, with a hint of the slightly later William Morris. To help achieve this I employed the use of coloured engravings by Pierre-Joseph Redoute which were originally published in the 1820's.

The Jane Austen Centre, located at 40 Gay Street in Bath is a permanent exhibition. It tells the story of Jane’s experience whilst living in Bath and the effect that living there had on her and her writing. The candles are available in the Gift Shop now and will soon be available in their online store.

Watch This Space No.3

Time for another teaser now, alluding to something I've been working on recently which is will finally be revealed in depth on these pages shortly. In the meantime I thought I'd show you the work of design studio North who designed and produced the identity and printed literature for the St. Pancras Renaissance Hotel which re-opened a year ago.

The following review, along with the image presented above featured on the pages of Creative Review last year courtesy of Michael Evamy.

"The identity could have sought to evoke the kind of barmy Victorian extravagance the building symbolised when it opened in 1873 as the Midland Grand Hotel. There's no end of visual inspiration in its restored marble pillars, hand-painted ceilings, frescos, gargoyles and period lettering. Instead, perhaps to better fit the times, North went for restraint, and a respectfully contemporary typographic identity without a hint of a curlicue or serif.

The sturdy font (Effra by Bruno Maag) and all-caps logotype instead recall railway signage and romantic notions of train travel, of escaping to the continent. The bespoke ‘A', repeated in the titling of the hotel's facilities (Spa, Bar etc), references the diamond motifs that feature in the restored decoration, on the station clock, as well as in the pattern made by merging rail tracks. There's a whisper of the old BR symbol in there, too.

Luxury and craftsmanship comes across in North's suite of printed material, which puts the patterns found in the restored interiors to elegant use. The logo, however, shows how to channel tradition and character without running into the buffers of reproduction, pastiche or hotel-chain nothingness. A first class departure."

Latest News: SeaCity Stained Glass Window

Today marks the 100th anniversary of the setting sail of the Titanic on its final voyage. It is also the day that the SeaCity Museum in Southampton opens to the public to tell the story of the people of the city, their fascinating lives and of their historic connections with the sea which can be traced back nearly 1000 years. It also means that I can finally reveal my involvement in the project with an illustration that I was originally briefed on nearly a year ago and completed in the run up to Christmas.

I was approached by London agency Wood McGrath about illustrating a medieval style stained glass window for the museum, featuring the life of a seafarer from the Dark Ages known as Bernard de Vire. The full brief detailed a requirement for a high resolution illustration to be produced measuring 3.2 metres high by 1.65 metres wide. Clearly this has been the largest commission that I've ever produced and involved a fair technical challenge for me considering I usually work at A3 size at most. Every panel was hand illustrated before being composed in Photoshop.

The design itself features elements which have survived from the era including Bernard's ale mug (shown by his feet), a jug featuring a bird (shown to his right) and also pieces of an original stained glass window design which inspired this installation. These elements are all displayed in a case below my design.

The final design was then to used as an illuminated display which integrated four Audio Visual screens, the positions of which are identified above. By producing a flat illustration for the background of the window as a whole, I then had to produced individual elements on layers which could then be animated by a third party - in this case, New Angle.

The result is an interactive display within the new museum that sympathetically harnesses the artistry and technology of the middle ages with cutting edge capabilities. The details shown below feature animated areas including sailing vessels which bob around in the waters at Southampton docks and then Bernard himself, who's eyes follow the text on the scroll before turning to watch the bird fly from the jug to his right and peck an apple from the tree.

The illustration has been entered in the Creative Match Flair Competition for April which can be viewed here and featured in Creative Match News here.