Christmas presence

Just finished the AC Christmas concert image last night, I decided to loose the white Christmas tree and to just keep the emphasis on the presents which is a tree in itself!

If you have the chance check out the concert, if past years are anything to go by it will leave you with a feeling of good will to all men and a head full of beautiful songs.

Friday Photo

Kids bikes, Vincennes 2009

An Artic Circle Christmas, so far…

Well you can almost hear the sleigh bells, with the Grotto pop up shop and the F&F wrapping paper in the last post and now I'm working on an illustration for Arctic Circle's Christmas concert which is at Kings Place, London on the 17 December. It's become a bit of a tradition now and is well worth experiencing, for more info pop over to the Arctic Circle website.

I'm almost there with the design, the idea is formed and most of the parts for the illustration have been cut and folded, so here the progress so far…

Grotto Open

Just a quick post to say that Grotto is now open. If you're  in Manchester pop in and you will be greeted by a wide array of screen printed goodies. I have adapted the poster design for LDWR into a mathematical wrapping paper and I'm drawing another based on x-mas TV! So pop in if you're in the area.

The Fog

This morning was really foggy and it reminded me of some photos I took in London under similar conditions. Perfect weather for hot soup!

Razzle Dazzle 'em

Ah the tranquility of it all, traveling by train through unspoiled countryside when there was always 'a man' to help you with your bags at the end of your journey, not the cattle lorry mentality of 'stack em high sell them cheap' of modern travel. I can't quite see Michael O'Leary commissioning an artist to romanticise the 5.30 flight to Magaluf, ah life seems to have been so much more easier in the 1930's but of course I'm idealising it just a bit!

Well you can blame that on this man Norman Wilkinson, I recently discovered the work he carried out for the London Midland and Scottish Railway. One of his posters caught my eye (the subject was a place near where I grew up), and after a few clicks on the net I found out a little bit more about the man behind the posters.

I have always admired this kind of illustration the broad sweeps of flat colour with enough detail to make it seem real but enough stylisation to make it feel like a waking dream. Around the 1930s lot's of Royal Academy artists were commissioned by the rail networks to make the idea of travel more appealing to the masses, Wilkinson was amongst them. His illustration career began in 1898, when his work was first accepted by the Illustrated London News, for which he then continued to work for many years, as well as for the Illustrated Mail. Throughout his life, he was a prolific poster artist, designing numerous posters for the London and North Western Railway, and the London Midland and Scottish Railway. It was mostly because of his fascination with the sea that he traveled extensively to such locations as Spain, Germany, Italy, United States, Canada, and Brazil and it was the sea, or more precisely the boats that sailed on them that presented him with the opportunity to work on a larger scale and in an altogether different style.

During WW1, Wilkinson served in the Royal Navy Reserves, he was attached to a submarine patrol. While serving he was astounded by the success rate of German U-Boats and wondered how he could change this. He struck upon a way to aid the war effort through his painting. A boat could not be hid at sea from a submarine but he had the idea of making it more difficult for the submarines to make a successful strike, by using paint. The camouflage paint wasn't to make it blend into the sea but to make it harder for submarines to judge the distance to the ship therefore making it harder to judge when to fire their torpedoes.

Tests were carried out and Wilkinson was made head of a team of model makers and artists charged with creating geometric "dazzle" patterns. These were then in turn tested and then sent to other artists who applied the designs to ships at the docks.

I find it difficult to see the silhouette of this ship, sitting comfortably at home and nevermind in the wilds of the North Atlantic at night.

I was aware of these ships but I never realised that Norman Wilkinson was the man who struck upon the idea. I love the lateral thinking that brought this to life and that opened the door to modern camouflage patterns. It has echos of tribal war paint and of danger markings from the animal kingdom, but most of all I love the contrast between this and his earlier work for the railway companies, they seem like worlds apart but I suppose that was the affect of two world wars.

Proposed paint schemes for Naval ships, 1918

A print by Edward Wadsworth who was one of the artists that were charged  with applying the designs created by Wilkinson and his team. Wadsworth prints and painting inspired Saville's sleeve design for OMD's forth album Dazzle Ships

Dazzle Ships by OMD released in 1983, sleeve designed by Peter Saville

Friday Photo

Justine, Versailles 2007

Christmas is coming…

It is getting a bit more festive around my studio at the moment, I haven't festooned the place with tinsel and blinking lights or started putting my Phil Spector Christmas album on repeat, it's just that I'm all of a creative Christmas whirl at the moment. One reason for this is the pop up shop 'Grotto' where some of the releases I have done for F&F will be on sale. They will also be selling some specially designed screen printed Christmas wrapping paper, which still needs to be designed  so a few late nights ahead.  Oh well 'tis the season.

The Samphire Band

I haven't posted much of my own work recently, as I am in the middle of a lot of projects that are not finished so I have had nothing much to show, one project that has just finished is the creation of a logo for Harry Escott's latest project The Samphire Band.

An early daft of the logo layout presented on a poster.

If you don't know Harry by name then you will have heard his music. He has composed numerous film scores, along with with Molly Nyman for films such as Michael Winterbottom's "A Mighty Heart" and "Road to Guantanmo", Nick Broomfield's "Ghosts" and David Slade's "Hard Candy" and if that wasn't enough the pair have recently been nominated for a British Independent Film Award for their score to "Shifty".

I really enjoyed working on this and must say that Harry was a great client and nice guy who was really open to new ideas, wanting to challenging how an orchestra should be perceived out side of the confines of the usual frame of the QEH or Radio 3.

During our conversations and emails he mentioned that the band should be seen as 'a place for like minded people to come together', I liked this idea of place and my mind jumped to musical venues and spaces, it eventually landed on bandstands. I know very few bandstands are used now as musical meeting place but I couldn't help shake the idea of updating the concept and applying it to symbolise a new space for music.  This then led my mind to the image of garlands of bunting and of 'the celebration of music', and it was this that provided the starting point for creating the typeface that I used for the logo. I wanted to reflect different shapes and parts coming together and creating something new, not dominating but collaborating much like how the various musicians involved in this project bring something unique to The Samphire Band.

Two tone colour

The new logo placed on a proposed poster

Web mock up and the logo used simply in black and white

Rob Ryan in London

If you are in London this month pop down to the TAG gallery where there is a collection of new work by Rob Ryan, it runs until Saturday 20th November 2010. I am so gutted that I won't be over to go and see it as his paper cuts are unbelievably intricate and poetic.
For those that can't make it pop over to the TAG gallery site where  you can see a short video of Rob talking about his work, in the meantime here are a few images to whet your appetite…

All images © Rob Ryan

Paper clouds

I am working on a cloud project at the moment and came across these paper clouds by American crafters gosh and golly. I think the rainbow cloud mobile is genius, so simple but it works really well.

wall art

cloud mobile

This little piggy…

I was flicking through this weekends Le Figaro, thumbing past the usual articles on the rich and famous when something caught my eye. Between the usual ads for champagne and unaffordable watches I came across an advert for tripe, nothing strange in this I hear you cry, after all you live in France but what was unusual was that the organisation charged with promoting all things to do with selling ruminant's intestines and off cuts have commissioned Pierre et Gilles to help them out and to create the image for their campaign.

The last time I read anything about P&G they had a stunning retrospective in Berlin in 2009 and then this! Anyway I'm off to the Charcuterie to buy some boudin noir, anyone for anything else?

Type talk

Just came across this on FPO, a handy reference for all those discussions on typographical architecture. It was designed by Scott Boms, Grant Hutchinson and Luke Dorny for Ligature, Loop and Stem who produced this beautiful ampersand poster, printed on 280gsm Somerset Black Velvet stock in metallic silver and glossy transparent inks (stop drooling!) but it is unfortunately sold out so no Santa treats
this Christmas.

Friday Photo

Lomograph, Halloween 2004

Beautiful books

Books make great Christmas presents for kids! With that in mind we decided to take a trip to the bookshop to check what new books were on the shelves and I came across a couple of  beautifully illustrated books.

The first is called A Bit Lost and is by Irish illustrator and author Chris Haughton. It is a beautifully illustrated book about a baby owl that falls out of its nest and is helped by a squirrel to find its mum again, nothing new there I here you cry but the illustrations are breathtaking.  I have been reading it every night to my little girl and she lights up and says "Uh Ohh!" as soon as she sees the cover. I think Santa sack may be holding a lot of these this year!

Cover of A Bit Lost

What a beautifully drawn forest, look at those colours

Some spreads from the book, all images © Chris Haughton

The next one that caught my eye was a new illustrated version of Moby Dick. This isn't the full version that is part tale of man's vengeance and a history of whaling. This is an abbreviated version that has been illustrated by French illustrator Joelle Jolivet along with paper engineer Gérad Lo Monaco. The book is only about 10 pages but boy are those 10 pages good. I let the images speak for themselves…

The cover belies the surprise of the inside spreads!

A few spreads, they don't do it justice, if you get a chance pick up a copy.

Finally I came across a stunning book where the illustrations were not printed but laser cut. I wasn't really a lover of the story more of the technical execution of the book. The book is called Plein Lune and is by Antoine Guillope, I don't think it would last long in the hands of a 5 year old but maybe one to look at together.

Again you need to get your hands on this book to see it's true beauty

Antonio Rubino

Antionio Rubino, cover illustration 1909.

A little while back while doing some research on illustrators I came across the work of Antonio Rubino. I had never heard of him before but over the Halloween holiday I had a little time to do a bit of research on him and was amazed at his body of work.
Antonio Rubino was an Italian illustrator who was born in 1880. Having graduated in law he was bound for a life in the legal system but three poems that he wrote and illustrated changed the path of his career and saw him bound for Milan. There he worked illustrating music manuscripts and articles for journals but had bigger ideas about creating his own publication and in 1908 he co-founded Corriere dei Piccoli which if my Italian serves me it is still going strong.

One of Rubino's strips from Corriere dei Piccoli, 1911

Not only did he create beautiful character strips for Corriere dei Piccoli and countless elegant illustrations for ads but after the war he created Italy's first animation studio. In 1942 he released Nel paese dei ranocchi, followed by Crescendo rossiniano (1943) and finally L'arco dei sette colori (1955)

A child's block puzzle based on the animation  Nel paese dei ranocchi 1942

A piece of Nel paese dei ranocchi memorabilia

A still from Nel paese dei ranocchi

Rubino was obviously influenced by the Jugendstil and his illustrations have a beautiful sense of time and place that still look fresh today. What I love most is his innate understanding of space and balance, incorporating typography with image and producing magical worlds where peoples imaginations can dwell. The only publication of his that I have come across is this illustrated book by Santo Alligo which is on my Christmas list now!

Antionio Rubino, cover illustration

Antionio Rubino, cover illustration

Antionio Rubino, cover illustration

Antionio Rubino, cover illustration

Antionio Rubino, cover illustration

Antionio Rubino, cover illustration

 I also came across this child's bedroom decorated with Rubino's illustrations. The room is part of a collection in the Wolfsonian Museum, Genoa. It makes me want to get my paintbrushes out and create something magical for my two kids, I don't think I would be able to create something as magical as this though.

Rubino Bedroom. Image © Wolfsonian Museum, Genoa

A fantastic chair by Rubino. Image © Wolfsonian Museum, Genoa