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.

Rio Three Ways

Here are some test illustrations I worked up for some Brazilian themed packaging that didn't quite make it to market. There are three colourful interpretations of Rio De Janeiro, the thrill of Carnival, the buzz of the big city and the calm of the beaches.

Bum Note

Sometimes a job doesn't quite make it all the way to the finishing line for one reason or anther. Here's an illustration that was approved and went to a final stage before an overhaul in organisation client-side scuppered the whole campaign. Shame, as I was pleased with the work on this one. The brief was to create a colourful image about inspiration in making contemporary music. Cue the violins.

No Balance

Here's a speculative pitch illustration I worked on last year for New Balance's New York store. This long organic strip of an image was to represent a runner's journey through the Big Apple and also a history of New Balance itself. Unfortunately the job did a runner on me and never materialised but I sure enjoyed working out with it.