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.

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.

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.

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.