Komputer Kidz

Here's an editorial illo for the current issue of Futurelab's Vision magazine looking at online self assessment in education. I'll take straight A's please and fries to go.

If Only You Could See What I've Seen With Your Eyes

It was Secret Cinema time again last weekend and it was truly, and literally, out of this world. At Canary Wharf we were herded onto off-world colony shuttles, that looked suspiciously like coaches, then disembarked amongst rows of cargo containers riddled with street urchins and hustlers. Many travellers were sporting umbrellas and goggles to fend off the acid rain as we entered the main complex to find meticulous recreations of street scenes and interiors from one of my favourite films of all time, Blade Runner. Along with the replicas of Deckard's apartment, Zhora's dressing room and Mr. Chew's eye factory the room buzzed with noodle stores and nightclubs, snake charmers and dancing girls. The Final Cut played to roars of appreciation and the rescue of Deckard by the replicant Batty was re-enacted by wire performers with a live dove chucked in to good effect. We hung around for a great party afterwards fuelled by vodka peach schnapps shots and Liz looked very fetching in Pris' eye makeup. That's the spirittttt!

Green Machine

Here's the latest editorial for my monthly Design Week illustration slot for Private View. The article looks at the state of eco-awareness in the design industry and the tendency for it to 'big up' it's green credentials at the expense of other considerations.

RHS Land

Here are a couple more illustrations for the RHS, which I did a while ago but are out and about now, promoting two of their big daddy Summer flower shows at Hampton Court and Tatton Park. The overall campaigns and typographic layouts were managed by the good folk of Sheffield's Front Ideas agency. Jeez, I'm all flowered out.

Va-Va-Varoom!

Received the latest Varoom! mag in the post over the weekend fresh from the AOI. I was chuffed to find a nicely laid out spread of some of my technology flavoured illustrations for an article entitled 'The Art Of Science'. It's a well written piece by Peter Lyle, who I discussed the subject with earlier in the year, and features many other contributors in the field beside myself. The whole mag has an 'Illustrating The Future' theme, which is right up my street, and is chock full of great images and articles so it's cool to be a part of it. Thanks are due to Peter and the editor John O'Reilly. Pick it up if you get the chance.

Cyclorama

While we're on the London Transport tip here's another entry for a joint LT/AOI competition to design a cycling based poster to promote the upcoming Cycle Superhighways and Cycle Hire scheme in the capital. Unfortunately the design didn't make it past the judges this time but, despite a punctured ego, I'm pleased with it none the less. Oh, well ... now where's that weekend at?

Skyliner

Here's my entry for a Transport For London competition to produce a modern take on London's skyline. I went for a relatively simple but dynamic collage approach featuring a cross section of London's iconic buildings. I always enjoy working the capital's architecture into my illustrations. Click to zoomify.

Chic Ahoy!

Here's a recent editorial for Continental Magazine looking at the rising interest in floating loft homes. I'd swab that deck for a dollar ... it's quite a small deck.

Kent Dash

Rented a car for a Sunday drive around Kent, the Garden Of England TM. We stopped for some oysters in the lovely Whitstable then made for the south coast to stroll around the strange and out-of-time Dungeness. It's an invitingly lonely shingle landscape punctuated with converted shacks, and the odd designer home, that buzzes to the low hum of the vast fifties power station that looms over the whole area. It feels like a simulacra of a western frontier town beamed to the English coast from Alpha Centauri. Here are a few snaps taken by my wife Liz and I that give a little taste of this curio of a place. We reacclimatised to reality with a quick zip to Camber Sands then headed back to the Smoke.