Monday 21 December 2015

Trumpetting The RCSLT


Here's a cover commission for the Royal College of Speech & Language Therapists magazine Bulletin announcing this year's honours and awards. The brief was to create an appropriately celebratory image based around fanfare and crowd imagery so I turned it up to 11. You can see it on the main site here with related work.

Thursday 3 December 2015

Einsteinian


Here's the latest Einsteinian cover illustration for BBC Focus magazine for a feature on relativity on trial. The idea was to develop a previous Einstein illustration I'd created for the magazine, see here, with more of an outer space feel so I whisked up some good ol' nebulae-face. I also animated it for the iPad edition which was great fun. You can see it and previous BBC Focus work on the site here.


Wednesday 25 November 2015

Diagnostical

Here's a cover illustration for a Nature publication on the tricky subject of Diagnostics Modelling, as the header suggests modelling the impact of improved diagnostics on infectious diseases. I had to try and craft a coherent visual combining modelling data, global health elements and people that might benefit from the research. You can also see it on the main site here along with other work for Nature.

Friday 20 November 2015

Banking On Tech


Ok, it's back to Blogsville after a bit of downtime. First up is a cover illustration for Independent Banker magazine, or IB if you like, for an article on how technology plays a part in community banking now and in the future. A job lot of tablets, wearable gizmos and biometrics. You can also see this on the main site with some further feature illustrations here.

Wednesday 7 October 2015

Big Ideas And Mass Extinction


It's BBC Focus covers update time again. Here are two recent illustrations and iPad animations for covers based on tackling mass extinction and 39 ideas that are about to change our world. You can see more Focus work on the site here.

Monday 21 September 2015

Double Duty


Here's a recent cover illustration for CIO Magazine looking at doing double duty on those IT and business skills. You can see previous CIO cover work on the site here.

Tuesday 25 August 2015

Tomorrow's People








Here's a selection of work from a really rewarding book project for UKTV. I was commissioned to illustrate the cover and 8 essays for the publication, called Tomorrow's People: Making Cultures For Creativity, promoting British creativity and launching at the 40th Edinburgh International Television Festival. It's edited by Zoe Clapp and some of the contributors featured here include Piv Bernth (DR's Head Of Drama - The Killing/The Bridge), John Kampfner (Director of CIF), Chris Chibnall (writer of Broadchurch), Dougal Wilson (music video director) and Sharon Horgan (writer of Catastrophe). All of the anecdotal essays offered plenty of inspiring and funny morsels to illustrate and once I'd settled on a style and palette the job was a joy to create in a relatively short turnaround time. You can see all the illustrations on the site here and even download a copy from UKTV here if you're in the mood for a read.

Thursday 20 August 2015

Space Grub, Mammoths And Robo-Docs



It's time to catch up on the future again with a round-up of recent illustrations for Stephen Baxter's Into the Future column for BBC Focus magazine. Firstly, a look at the future of food production and how Martian colonists might grow and consume their own Spirulina. The second illustration is about how we might preserve animals on the verge of extinction and even bring some extinct creatures back, step forward the Woolly Mammoth. Lastly the future of medical technology is considered along with the prospect of entirely robotic, and empathic, surgeons. You can see the full library of Into the Future illustrations on the site here.

Tuesday 18 August 2015

Solutions

Here's a recent cover illustration for the Rocky Mountain Institute's magazine Solutions Journal. It's for a feature on the the merging of Amory Lovins' RMI and Richard Branson's Carbon War Room to create an environmental powerhouse tackling the energy revolution and low-carbon futures. Can't argue with that. See more work for Solutions on the site here.

Monday 3 August 2015

Hiroshima

Here's the latest cover illustration for the current issue of BBC Focus looking at Hiroshima 70 years on. The cover depicts the Canna flower growing from the devastation just 10 days after the bomb, defying scientist's predictions of lifelessness in the area for decades. I also created a short animation for the iPad edition. See more work for BBC Focus here.

Scandinavian Trip - Norway Or The Highway

Last October my wife and I went on a two week Scandinavian road trip taking in Norway, Sweden and Denmark with a final stop in Berlin. I've finally gotten round to sifting through the digital mounds of photos from the journey and will be posting in bite-sized chunks.
  The first stop was a rainy but beautiful Bergen. We wondered the city and labyrinthine wood-panelled Bryggen area then caught a funicular for the breathtaking view from Fløyen. In the evening we had some heart-warming grub at Pingvinen then imbibed the local Nøgne Ø beer at the cosy Henrik øl og Vinstove pub.
On the second day we hit the road and our route took us through the stunning Hardangerfjord area onto the vast glacier of Hardangervidda (Livin' le Hardangervidda!) via the Vørringfossen waterfall. After a full day behind the wheel we parked up in pretty Rjuken.
For our anniversary we continued south through some amazing autumnal landscapes to the coastal Strand Hotell in Fevik, a favourite retreat of Roald Dahl's apparently.
After a drive up the coast we spent a couple of days in lovely Oslo soaking up the sights. Highlights included a walk on the Opera House roof and a tour of the seriously impressive, and slightly warped, Vigeland sculpture park. Evenings were spent playing old school arcade games at Tilt, eating American style at the Nighthawk Diner and drinking in Japanese Bar Isayaka and cool boozer Revolver.

Wednesday 29 July 2015

A To Z Of World Music


You wait forever for a music related cover illustration designed around a front mounted CD then two come along at once. After the recent BBC Music cover illustration I was also very happy to jump on board this commission for the current issue of Songlines magazine for a feature on the A to Z of World Music. You can see more work for Songlines on the site here.

Friday 24 July 2015

Double Ali


Here's a double dose of the great Muhammad Ali in illustrated form. These two were drawn with the brush pen and coloured with Photoshop for a birthday commission for a friend. They're also up on the site in a little more detail here.

Natural Editorials


Bit of a blog catch-up day today. Firstly, here are a couple of recent editorials for Nature Journal on the truth about how we process pain and the fight for equality in African scientific research. You can see more work for Nature on the site here.

Friday 26 June 2015

Proms Reprise

It's Proms season again and I was recently commissioned to create the cover for the current issue of BBC Music to celebrate it. The design had to feature the Royal Albert Hall, of course, with this year's stars and highlights composed around a tricky CD fronted cover layout. It was great to have another crack at a Proms themed illustration after working on the main event branding imagery three years in a row from 2008-10. You can see that previous Proms work here.

Tuesday 23 June 2015

Space Hostages

Hot on the heels of Sophia Mcdougall's Mars Evacuees last year comes the follow-up book Space Hostages with a new illustration from yours truly gracing the cover. The brief for this one required a little more dynamic flying action, in place of the cucumber-cool stances of the original, and the Martian red has become a more earthy, yet alien, green. Hugely enjoyable to work on again. You can read some book extracts on Sophia's interesting blog here and see more of the work on my site here.

Wednesday 17 June 2015

Illustration Show Hitters

Very pleased to discover a couple of my entries in this year's 3 x 3 Professional Show were successful. My Post-Invasion Cards series received a Merit in the Sci-Fi category and The Life Of Maria Callas gained an Honourable Mention in the Animation category. The second Post-Invasion card, The Wreck Of Puigcerda, was also a chosen winner in American Illustration 34 this year and will appear in the online archive.

Thursday 11 June 2015

Jurassical












Here's another chunky commission for a BBC Focus cover and feature on how we could build a Jurassic World to tie-in with the impending release of the latest dino movie. I had to create a number of realistic looking environments and scenes using some very useful 3d dinosaur and people stock imagery. The cover features a baby Rex illustration based on a supplied clay model photo that I spruced up with some reptile skin, egg shells and lashings of gloop. For the iPad edition I animated some life into the freshly born critter. The whole project was  great fun to work on. You can also see the work on my site here.