KELLI SAVILL: ONLINE JOURNALIST

awesome person and sex-writer extraordinaire kelli savill approached me last week asking for a logo that she can use to promote herself as an online journalist at events and online. she was un utter breeze to work with, her only request being that we avoided the colour pink.

the result was a soft and fun hand-drawn logo, in a blue gradient to match her magical hair. you can read kelli's wonderfully funny and honest articles over here: kellisavill.co.uk.

V BAR T-SHIRT DESIGN: PREVIEW

this is a little peek at an illustration i recently finished for cocktail bar v bar. it was designed as a two colour screen print to be printed onto dark coloured t-shirts. i will post the whole design, plus photographs of the finished shirts real soon!

PREVENTION TOWN CHARITY DINNER

a poster i knocked up for a dinner & auction event that kids charity prevention town are hosting in november. the only restrictions were that it had to include the brand colours blue, white & black (as is the logo).

CHAPEAU!

i recently finished collaborating with the creative co-op on a logo design as part of a rebrand for coffee & bike shop chapeau!

the creative co-op took charge of the creative direction, whilst i was involved with the illustrative side of the project.

chapeau! recently opened in colchester in the hopes to bring together people passionate about bikes, community and coffee. read more about them here: chapeauvelo.co.uk

i put this project on my portfolio, where you can also see photos of it in action.

BOOGIE WONDERLAND?

i drew a silly dancing lady tonight whilst working on some actual work. it's made me want to make a little series about how different drinks affect your behaviour (particularly on the dance floor - i love drawing people gettin' down and shaking their tail feather, if you hadn't already noticed).

i know that i certainly enjoying a punching my fist in the air when i've had a rum cocktail or two (see fig. a)

now might be a good time to mention i gave my portfolio an overhaul a few weeks ago: tinysketchbook.com

DRINK LIKE A FISH

isn't the illustration process a strange thing? you start with an idea in your head about how you want something to look. so...sketch. erase. sketch. erase. sketch. lightbox. ink. scan. play around for an hour. decide on a colour scheme. play around a bit longer. then realise that there is no way that it will ever work like you want it to. my goal this evening was to design a two-colour screen print for a run of t-shirts for v bar, in colchester, but because my idea wasn't working the way i wanted it to, i made this instead.

a blue-skined, slightly zombie-esque (shudder) martini-drinking pin-up inspired young lady.

back to the drawing board, as they say.

WALT & WINNIE'S WONDROUS WORDS!

i only found this out two days ago by accident, but a children's educational book i illustrated over a year ago has been published!

it's called Walt & Winnie's Wondrous Words and it's written by Charlie Chaleco. it's described as "a new approach to learning vocabulary - a sure way of building up a huge memory bank of wondrous words". it was a huge project to work on (the book is 100 pages long), a totally new experience and learning curve.

you can buy it from amazon HERE.

UNCONTAINED - HIGH SPIRITS PT. II

and so the colourful army of paper-shaped positivity took over the little store in box park and if the only thing we achieved today was making someone passing by glance in and smile to themselves, then that was all we wanted.

what a jolly fun day :) thanks again to shellsuitzombie for the opportunity and to 55dsl for hosting us and for being generally top chaps, and anyone who popped by to make a bird.

(i forgot my camera memory card. these photos were taken on an old blackberry phone, ha.) EDIT: shellsuit have just published a lovely write-up of the day, including some far superior photos. read it here.

UNCONTAINED - HIGH SPIRITS

"In June and July, ShellsuitZombie is taking over the 55DSL store in BOXPARK, Shoreditch, and getting thirty creative individuals, groups and companies to take a day each.

The lucky few will not only get a blank box in which to create or show off whatever they want to but also get a feature in the next issue of ShellsuitZombie magazine which goes out at the end of May.

We will have everything from illustrators and creative directors to live bands and festivals, all in one place. This won’t just be another exhibition - workshops, parties, creative get-togethers and crowd participation are not only encouraged but expected."

i was super chuffed to be asked by shellsuitzombie to take part in UNCONTAINED this month. i worked with them last year at the D&AD and have gone to various events they've hosted - they're basically the coolest and nicest people in the creative industry, and can throw a damn good party to boot.

my favourite designer/thinker heather and i are going to be spending our day (wednesday 6th june) folding, creasing and stringing up a flock of tiny colourful birds containing messages of positivity and happiness. it sounds over-the-top hippy, i know, but our intention is to create a bright and happy, constantly evolving environment that anyone can walk into and contribute towards.

find out a little bit more about what we will be doing here.

we would love everyone to get involved so even if you can't pop along on the day to write/draw/make, we'll be using the hashtag #highspirits on the run up to and including the day itself for you to submit your happy thoughts. we'll make them fly for you!

lions, dragons and type...oh my!

last month i successfully packed twenty-four years of my life into many boxes and moved into a flat with my boyfriend, jack, and now we're finally (almost) settled and i am well and truly saddled up and back on the ol' freelance horse. hello again!

and so, for now, here's a few bits and bobs that i have been working on...(what's that? a blog post that has no real narrative and is just a mish-mash of drawings? what a surprise).

here's a bonkers thing: i was shortlisted with a few other artists to potentially help with the rebrand of one of my favourite magicians/comedians/mythical creature piff the magic dragon (i was lucky enough to catch his show at the edinburgh fringe last year - he is truly daft and puts on a wonderfully grumpy performance - please do look him up if you don't know of him). nothing has been confirmed yet & it probably won't happen but to be emailed was enough. very chuffed! the above illustration was a sample i submitted.

i was also approached by euston estate, as they needed to update their logo (their current one can be seen on their website...)

as it turned out, my style wasn't what they were after so unfortunately i couldn't see the job through to the end (can't win 'em all, eh!) but this is one example of what i produced for them.



finally for now: mentor me. this is a project that not only am i involved in (as one of the mentors), but have also had a part to play in the branding of it. marc of the creative co-op asked me to design the logo as well as the hand-drawn type that accompanies the mentor photographs on the website. this is a seriously lovely and important project to be a part of, and i'm very grateful that i am.