Closing The Loop

Here's a recent commission for MotorPro magazine on how the motor sector is Closing The Loop and embracing the circular economy. The brief was to create a collage of modern car industry imagery to show how the automotive sector designs, repairs, reuses and ultimately recovers vehicles and components. The composition had to work with the cover design's circular headline typography and two spot illos for the feature were also designed for the page. I had fun putting these illustrations together in Photoshop working with Art Director Ian Hart. You can see the work on the main site here.

Nuclear Escalation

Here's a recent cover illustration for Al Majalla on the Escalating Nuclear Arms Race. It was a relatively quick turnaround job and the brief was to produce an illustration on the theme with a similar tone to a previous commission on the Space Race. I'd loved making that image so immediately knew I would enjoy this one despite the ominous subject matter. In Cinema 4d I modelled some missiles based on image research of the nukes different countries were flaunting. I experimented with lighting, textures and dynamic camera positions in Redshift then rendered out some frames to produce three work-in-progress visuals in Photoshop, the other two are presented here. I was happy to proceed with the chosen illustration as it was a different composition to the Space Race piece and had an appropriately aggressive race dynamic to it. Really pleased with how it turned out, another much appreciated commission from talented Creative Director Sara Loane. See more work for Al Majalla on the main site here.

Ready For Kickoff

Here's a fun cover commission for Atlanta Magazine's preview of the upcoming World Cup 2026 this month. For this one Art Director Craig Edwards came to me with the idea for the football pitch with cover headlines painted onto CGI grass and I had to figure out a way to do it, the ball was in my court as they never say in soccer. I took to Cinema 4d/Redshift and various tutorials to create the CGI grass and then project the pitch lines and typography onto the texture. It took a lot of refining and fiddling about with grass length to get the right look for the cover. I've included a closeup and an alternate angle on the pitch to show the level of detail that could be achieved. Overall, a really enjoyable creative and technical challenge this one so many thanks to Craig for the commission. See it on the main site here.

Black Hole Fun

Here's my latest cover illustration for BBC Science Focus on new theories that could take us Inside a Black Hole. I was chuffed to receive the commission as the unofficial 'black hole guy' and take on the astronomical body again after working on both Ultra and Super-massive black hole covers in the past. For this one I needed to mix the swirling vortex look with a quantum interior map vibe so turned to Cinema 4d/Redshift to play with tubular shapes, textures and lighting. I produced a number of visual approaches in Photoshop, as shown here, and was happy with the selected illustration. Great to work with Art Editor Joe Eden on this as usual. See more Focus work on the site here.

Finely Tuned Piano

Here's the latest cover for ABRSM's Piano Exam Pieces series featuring the new brand design I developed with the team last year, covered in this previous post. It was nice to work with the template I'd helped devise but there was still a lot of invisible fine-tuning that went into getting the pianist photography just right and compositing seamlessly with the background. Enjoyable experience as always working with Darren Ellsmore and the ABRSM team. You can see the other covers in the newly branded series on the site here.

Autonomous World

Here's another fun tech/sci-fi illustration for longtime client Professional Engineering on the theme of an Autonomous World and what to expect from engineers building an unmanned future.  The brief required depicting a hi-tech Earth resembling a 'Death Star' with robots and self-driving flying vehicles. I turned to Cinema 4D/Redshift to model and light my own robot, vehicles and hi-tech Earth enabling me to work up various compositions reasonably quickly. The 3d robot also came in handy for a concurrent commission on a similar theme, see previous post. The final illustration was created from combining elements from two works-in-progress included here and designed to work with the cover layout. Thanks to Jes Stanfield for the commission. See the work on the main site here along with previous covers on the blog here.

ABRSM Revival

Happy 2026 to all. For the first post of the year I thought I'd write about the recent work I've been doing with wonderful long-time client ABRSM. At the end of 2024, and after twelve years of illustrating their music exam book covers, ABRSM notified me that they were looking to rebrand and would be inviting new designers to tender for the work. I was a little deflated but figured that nothing lasted forever. I was offered the chance to pitch for the new work and didn't want to give up without a fight so took the opportunity to see how I fared with a new approach.

The initial pitch designs were to be for the Woodwind books and the chosen style would be rolled out across all the various instruments over the coming years. Working with the supplied photography of Clarinet, Flute and Saxophone players I developed a number of illustrative approaches presented with ideas for typographic layouts and was chuffed to make it past the first round. Over the course of the three month process my big breakthrough came with a wave design I created, based on an existing marketing asset, to define the lower illustration and upper title areas. With that direction as a basis it was the consensus to simplify the illustrative approach and have the photography cleanly presented on colour gradients chosen by ABRSM to represent the instruments. This resulted in a more graphic approach than my previous work and felt like the rebrand they were looking for. When I finally heard that I had won the pitch I was over the moon that I'd get to keep the job and continue to work with ace Content Operations Manager Darren Ellsmore and the ABRSM team.

So, presented here are the first pitch-winning Woodwind book cover designs and final typographic layouts with some of the initial illustrations put forward during the development process. Looking forward to the next performance. You can see other ABRSM work on the main site here also.

The First Stars

Here's my latest cover illustration for BBC Science Focus on the theme of the hunt for the First Stars and how they are Lost in Space. The brief was to depict these mysterious first stars based on descriptions from the article so I worked through various interpretations, posted here, to send over and get the process started. As can often be the case the first 'first star' visualisation was chosen to develop as it conveyed more of a sense of a consuming gas ball rather than an emitter. I refined the digital illustration, made with Cinema 4d/Redshift and lots of Photoshop texture compositing, and ended up with the chosen final plus a more wispy alternate version, also above. Thanks to Joe Eden for another great commission. See further Focus work on the site here.

Thirsty AI

Here's a new cover illustration for the University of California, Riverside's UCR Magazine on the 'Unquenchable Thirst of AI' and the alarming reliance on fresh water by Big Tech companies. The brief was to depict the large waste of fresh water used in cooling AI server systems and its environmental impact in particular. I presented a few first visuals, shown here, featuring a leaky AI server bucket, a data centre waterfall with the researcher Shaolei Ren, and water rushing down an AI drain. The drain idea was chosen and I expanded the concept to include the power stations, servers and environments that get impacted by the water waste. The illustration was created digitally with a drain/plughole created in Cinema 4d and composited with elements in Photoshop. Thanks to Jessica Weber for the enjoyable commission. See it on the main site here also.

Energising The Future

Here's a recent illustration project for the University of Houston's publication Energy@Scale on how the 'Energy University' is shaping the future of global energy. The brief required a cover and feature collage plus individual portraits of four of the main figureheads of the University's energy programme. I devised a visual approach and palette that could work consistently across all the illustrations and enjoyed digitally collaging the Houston cityscapes with energy and fuel production imagery in Photoshop. You can also see the illustrations on the site here.

Galaxy Glitch

Here's a new, and always very welcome, commission from BBC Science Focus and art director Joe Eden. This one was a cover and spread on the theme of The Galaxies That Shouldn't Exist and strange signals from deep space that reveal flaws in our understanding. The brief was to depict a galaxy with some sort of distortion so I had fun going to town on glitch-in-the-matrix visuals. Joe asked me to try out some type treatments to accompany the illustrations and I worked up some pixel-warped ghosted headers. You can also see these on the site here and other Focus work here.

WIA2025 Shortlist

Very pleased to get the news update that my longlisted WIA2025 entry made it to the shortlist!