STARRY SKIES

Since December last year I have been working with the team that brought you Shambala Festival (best summer music festival in the UK imho :-), to create a brand identity for a NEW, more child & family oriented version of the Shambala festival, called Starry Skies. Above you can see some screenshots from the Starry Skies website.

POSTER:
This is the promotional poster for online use, for which I did the layout and typography, using Photoshop and Futura (an amusing sidenote - according to Wikipedia, Paul Renner, the designer of the typeface Futura 'was suspicious of abstract art and disliked many forms of modern culture, such as jazz, cinema, and dancing'):

MOCKUP:
This is a mockup I did early on, with a slightly different colour scheme and header to the final version:

HEADER DEVELOPMENT:
Scroll down to see the progression of the header from initial sketches to the final design, sketched out in graphite:

FOOTER:
This is the original drawing of the footer image, which can be horizontally repeated infinitely as a tile. Below you can see it in full colour, which was added digitally:

LOGO:
The Starry Skies logo, and a 'Wish You Were Here' banner which we were going to use on postcards:

FLAGS:
I have also design a series of flags which are being sewn by hand in Nepal to be used at the festival. I will post pictures once they are all sewn and ready and flying high on site!:

REFERENCE IMAGES:
(marimekko I think? correct me if I'm wrong):

FIRST THURSDAYS Bristol @ The Bank of Stokes Croft

Last night I was lucky enough to be exhibiting work in the First Thursdays project 'an art and music event on the 1st Thursday of each month showcasing Bristols wealth of music and art talent'. Held in Bristol at The Bank of Stokes Croft, a bar opposite my studio.

If you would like to buy any of these prints they are available for sale in my shop.

I showed some old work, but printed BIG (the two KUEDO images), some recent work (The DOLOR EP cover image, and the Flying Lotus image I did for Bonafide). But most excitingly for me, I got a NEW print made up that I hadn't seen printed before, the image I made for dj YO! MAFIA. It was really nice to see it in the flesh. Big shout out to the guys at NICHE FRAMES on Stokes Croft, who do all my printing, and did a beautiful job as always printing these...

YO! MAFIA project

For the past month or so I have working on a rebranding project for Melbourne based DJ YO! MAFIA. In her own words, MAFIA is...:

"...a renowned sneaker freak and hip hop junkie, M.A.F.I.A. has been killing them on the wheels of steel for over 15 years. Having grown up at the fruition of Hip Hop in the late ‘70s/early ‘80s, M.A.F.I.A. became FLUORO BREAKER after falling in love with Boogaloo Shrimp in Breakin’. After winning every B-Girl competition she entered, M.A.F.I.A. hung up her knee spin for the turntables after amassing a huge collection of original pressing 12 inch wax from every musical genre known to man. Relying on her acute party savvy ears, M.A.F.I.A. quickly began mashing up sounds from her beloved Hip Hop, mixing in RNB, electro, commercial bangers, cock rock and everything in between. Her signature genre smashing sets have seen her tour and DJ support a wide range of A-List artists – Stevie Wonder, Missy Elliott, Big Freedia, Ca$h Money, Die Antwoord, Clipse, De La Soul, Kurtis Blow, T-Pain, Ice Cube, Lady Gaga, Lupe Fiasco, DJ Craze, Dead Prez, MYA, Salt’n’Pepa, Pharell Williams, Dirty South Joe, J.Period, Rahzel, Arabian Prince, Spinderella, Ghostface Killah, Dizzee Rascal, Snoop Dogg, Vanilla Ice, Spank Rock, Kid Cudi, A-Trak, CSS, Coolio, Girl Talk, Chromeo, Felix Da Housecat, South Rakkas Crew, N.E.R.D, Grandmaster Flash, Tittsworth, DJ Spinbad, Russell Peters, Schwayze, Color Me Badd, Soul For Real, Jon B and Aloe Blacc to name but a few! The go-to DJ for travelling international artists, M.A.F.I.A. also had the honour of being BIG FREEDIA’S (Queen Of Bounce – New Orleans) DJ at both her Melbourne shows in the latter part of 2012 – exposing M.A.F.I.A. to massive sold out audiences and a new demographic of bounce/electronica fans."

For her rebrand I created a portrait, which we have nicknamed the MAFIA SPAGHETTI MEDUSA, and I designed a font for her YO! MAFIA brand, with a variety of medallion / logos for her to use in different contexts.

I also designed a cover for a series of mixtapes MAFIA has created to play instore in the COMMES DES POCKET store in Melbourne that opened this year - the first and only COMMES DES GARCONS store in Australia.

Scroll down to see the medallions, a colour variation on the portrait, the COMME DES GARCONS MIXTAPE design, rough sketches, and some screenshots of the work in context on MAFIA's website and phone...

ROUGH SKETCH FOR MEDUSA:

ROUGH SKETCHES FOR LOGO / FONT:

SCREENSHOTS (from MAFIA's website and iPhone):

COMMES DES GARCONS MIXTAPE COVER:

Mural in MACK DADDY's Bristol / collab with daddison

This is a mural (part drawing part painting using spray paint and paint pens) I did last weekend, on Sunday the 10th of February 2013.
It was drawn by me and my collaborator Daddison freehand in seven hours. You can see some more of me and Daddison's collabs here, here and here.

DETAIL:

Scroll down to see photos of the work in progress:

BEFORE:

Reference images:

The Next Big Thing

In response to the more woman than woman Rebbecca Tantony's tag in 'The Next Big Thing,' I have answered the following questions in regards to a couple of projects I have been working on and have coming up.
The artists recommended at the end of this blog post will then let the virtual world know what they are creating, and so on and so on, until we all know the ins and outs of each others dreams. Got it? Good. Right.......

Where did the idea come from for the artwork?

I'm working on a rebranding at the moment for a Superstar DJ in Australia, DJ YO! MAFIA. The idea came over a delicious tapas lunch at her flat in St kilda, Melbourne, with her and her beautiful girlfriend, one of my oldest childhood friends, when i was visiting Australia in December / January earlier this year. We got on really well, and she had a look at my work, and decided that I was the woman to update the style of her brand! Her brand is already really strong, so it's quite a daunting challenge taking something that's already good, and making it better... So fingers crossed, it'll all go according to plan!
Recently I finished work on a project branding and creating the website for a brand new festival, run by the same people that put on my all time favourite festival in the world ever, Shambala. I created a mural for one of the stages at Shambala last year, and the organiser of the festival saw it and liked it, and after I got in touch with him, he decided to get me on board to do some design work for him for this new project. I've seen the prototype for the finished website, and I'm really excited for it to go live, as I've never done anything quite like this before, and I think it looks great. I was lucky enough to be working with the super professional web designer Damien Doherty, who made the whole process easy breezy from start to finish. I'd love to do more work like this in the future, I find website design quite fun.

What genre does your artwork fall under?

I call myself an Illustrator, but I trained as a painter, and I consider myself an artist / designer / illustrator / muralist / vandalist / typographer hybrid. I think to survive in this multi-faceted industry you have to keep your fingers in as many pies as possible. Basically, if the job involves some type of image creation, I'm happy to do it. I also like other creative pursuits like cooking (and often burning) food, and writing shit poetry when I'm drunk.

What actors would you choose to play the part of your characters in a movie rendition?

Probably someone like Kristen Schaal. She's got a wild look in her eyes and an awkward forwardness that I can relate to, especially her fangirl character in Flight of the Conchords. At my lower points, maybe a bloated and exhausted looking Lindsay Lohan. Or if I'm really flattering myself, maybe Christina Ricci. A couple of people have told me I look a bit like her. I really can't see it, but I'll happily go with that.

What is the one sentence synopsis of your work?

Traditional drawing methods combined with digital manipulation to create striking, colourful, and often somewhat feminine imagery.

How long does it take you to create a finished image?

It can take a day or less, or it can take painful, laboured weeks, depending on my mood, the client, how far a commission is from my 'natural' style, how much freedom / restriction I'm given, whether or not inspiration strikes, the list of variables is endless...

Who or what inspires you?

The other artists in my studio and in this area of Bristol - which is one of the (many) reasons I have a studio at all. Being surrounded by such hard working, talented people all the time is hugely encouraging and motivating.
Outside of my studio, I have countless artists that I look to for inspiration. Glancing at my bookshelf, a few that stand out that I refer to frequently for inspiration are Alex Katz, Daniel Clowes, Adrien Tomine, Egon Schiele, Chris Ware, Tove Jansson, Luc Tuymans, Paul Noble, to name a few. I find the internet and sites like ffffound and tumblr a constant source of inspiration / distraction.

What else about your artwork might pique the viewer’s interest?

I hope that people like the colours, textures, and the strength of composition. In much of my work I try to capture a certain mood or atmosphere, a seriousness, perhaps a sense of melancholy...

Will your work be self-published or represented by an agency?

About half and half. I am represented by an agency, Art Department in New York, but I get about half my work through people contacting me directly. And then when I have free time I try and do my own personal projects.

My writers / artists to tag are:

Studio buddy, football fan, lanky drawer, Christopher Wright aka Bobbi Soccer.
Another studio buddy, the beautiful and brilliantly talented draftsperson and artist Anouk Mercier.
ANOTHER fellow Jamaica Street artist, and painter of all creatures great and small, Abigail Reed.
My neighbour at Hamilton house, a young graduate from studying illustration in Bath, and a bright illustration star of the future I predict, Tess Redburn.
My very own mum, a great writer, a great mum, and a great friend.

My work in LET ME ILLUSTRATE

I've got some prints of my work to look at in an illustration show here in Bristol, the Private View is tomorrow, Friday the 11th of January. Come down around 6pm if you're free and in the area. There'll probably be free booze.

From the gallery website:

'Let me Illustrate' is the January 2013 exhibition at the Grant Bradley Gallery, sourcing the best in current illustration from the region. The UK has a rich tradition in the illustration world, with internationally renowned illustration courses at University College Falmouth, St. Martins, Goldsmiths and many others. It is no wonder then that the UK boasts a rich collection of talented professional illustrators. Since the advent of the printed word, illustration has been an important tool for a great variety of industries. From commercial products that want to stand out from their competition to complex articles that are aided by the visual distillation of their concepts, the wealth of knowledge available to us and the overwhelming amount of visual imagery encountered on a daily basis means that illustration serves an increasingly important role in capturing our attention. With Let me Illustrate we aim to showcase the most interesting and exciting illustrators working in this field today.

KUEDO in Shanghai

Website facelift!

Visit my new and improved site here.
(There's still lots I have to add and it's still kind of a work in progress, but I'm excited about it - it's been too long! - so I wanted to share this 'beta' version right away :)

Illustration Saves The Day blog post

To see the post click here.

EP Cover artwork for DOLOR on Ninjatune

I made this cover artwork about a month ago for a new artist signed to Technicolour records, DOLOR.
It's a graphite, ink and watercolour drawing with digital manipulation at the end.

Work in progress:

Merry Christmas !!!

Tis the season to be jolly, tra la la la la la la la la

Flying Lotus illustration for BONAFIDE magazine

This is an illustration I did a few months ago for BONAFIDE magazine.
It's of the electronic musician Flying Lotus. It's drawn in graphite and ink and then I added most of the colours and manipulated the image a little bit in Photoshop. It's of course inspired by the famous illustration by Milton Glaser of Bob Dylan.
Hope you like it...

ROUGHS:

UPDATE (25.12.2012):

got reblogged on instagram by the man himself! nice little christmas present :))) :

Skull drawing

I made this large drawing at the start of December, as a Christmas present for Lucas.
I drew / painted it in watercolour and Derwent pencils. The size is A2.

Work in progress:

Interview with i-Event

You can read the interview here.