Only God Forgives

Here's my entry for the latest Little White Lies creative brief to design a poster for Nicolas Winding Refn's hypnotic, neon and gore drenched Only God Forgives. I settled on a design splicing the pulped face of Ryan Gosling with his inner Thai demon rendered in the primary palette of the film. The director himself is judging the entries, all of which you can see here, so (severed) fingers crossed. You can see the design and original sketch in greater detail on my site here.

One Another

I was recently asked to dust off my graphic design skills and create a brand new logo for production company One Another Films. The brief was to come up with a design that conveyed the idea of a positive interaction between an individual and another to create something new. I worked through a few logo concepts to present and this simple, clean, overlapping letter design was chosen. The next step was to produce a logo animation fit for a cinema screen which was great fun to do. Ahhh...takes me back to the golden age of Cannon Films, Orion Pictures and Carolco. You can view the work, with some of the early concepts, on my main site here along with my full motion folio.

Microsoft City

Here's a recent editorial illustration spread for PC Pro magazine for an article asking the question 'Can Mircosoft Survive?'. The image depicts the still thriving Mircosoft-opolis surrounded by an encroaching wasteland of recent failed enterprises piling up at the (Bill) Gates. No? Ok.

Claude Debussy's Life In Miniature

Here's a great animated project I worked on earlier in the year for classical music site Sinfini Music. Their mission is to 'cut through classical' by commissioning interesting online content including animations, of which this is part of the composer's Lives In Miniature series. The brief was to capture a flavour of the life of Claude Debussy, a composer I was only vaguely familiar with I'm sorry to say, in an animation under three minutes long. It was an education delving into his lovely music and dramatic history to write the script and develop a suitable visual style for the proposal.

Debussy's music was groundbreaking and radical for the time and his personal life proved equally unconventional so I focused on those aspects for the narrative. His was also the era of the Impressionists and, even though he disapproved of any association, I thought a modern and colourful painterly approach was appropriate mixed in with an inky brush pen style for the drawn portraits. The beautiful composition Claire de Lune was chosen for the piece and all was in place. It was put together in After Effects with a single unbroken 3D camera move and was a real joy to make, hope you enjoy.

Life Begins

My wife and I hit the big 4-0 recently and celebrated with a couple of weekend reality-breaks. For Liz's birthday we headed off to Iceland for ATP's latest music festival staged in the unusual, semi-deserted environs of a former NATO Base in Keflavik. Highlights included Nick Cave & The Bad Seeds, The Fall, The Notwist and local talents Æla. In the downtime we gave the old bones a geothermal soak in the amazing Blue Lagoon and spent the last day in Reykjavik, enjoying a birthday cocktail in the stunning new Harpa concert hall.

For my 40th we popped down to Bridport in Dorset to see The Wedding Present play on their Seaside Tour at the fantastic Electric Palace. The weather was playing ball that weekend so we toured the Jurassic Coast visiting West Bay, Portland Bill and Lyme Regis while munching on some ace seafood at the Crabhouse Cafe on the Fleet.

In between those two trips we had a joint birthday do at Dalston's Cafe Oto and a lot of fun was had, if my hazy memory serves! Here's a souped-up tractor flyer invite I designed for the bash. The second illustration features an Icelandic food highlight, and our staple diet at the festival, the delicious hot dogs of Baejarins Bestu. Their jogging sausage-dude logo formed the basis of this birthday card design I made for Liz. Now, on with this 40 lark, harumph.

Hot Hot Hot

It's hot in the city so I thought I'd commemorate the good weather with a couple of drawings of the amazing melting man, Emil from the classic Robocop, as potent toxic waste strips his flesh to the bone. 'Don't tzatch me maaannn!'. Enjoy the weekend!

Autocar

Here's a futuristic illustration for Car & Driver Magazine looking at the rise of the autonomous automobile for their science non-fiction column. Just sit back and let the car drive you. Can I get a Johnny Cab from Total Recall for mine please?

ABRSM Flute & Clarinet

I've been plenty busy this year with ongoing work for ABRSM, the UK's largest music education publisher. First out of the gate in 2013 are the covers for the Flute and Clarinet Exam Pieces, both part of a complete design and illustration rebrand of all their exam publications, art directed by Kate Benjamin. More to come soon.

Flying Business

Sorry for the lack of recent posts. The last few weeks have flown by, as did this cover illustration for Business Airport Magazine (ahem) which looks at the wealth of training required in the corporate aviation world. More work landing soon.

The New World

I was very pleased to hear I'd come runner-up in a design competition set by film magazine Little White Lies. The brief was to design a cover based on a Terence Malick film. I have a soft spot for The New World and the great native American actor Wes Studi in particular so I based my illustration around his character.

360

My Italian friends at Bunker recently commissioned me to create a number of branding illustrations for logistics company 360 Payment Solutions. Truck-centric montages were the order of the day covering sea (Transferry), road (Plose), rail (Transmodal) and the payment system (Yesmoney). The illustrations were used across the website, print materials, exhibition stands and for an animation. Thanks to Francesco, Frederic and Lia.

Barcelona Mad

Another year, another glorious trip to Barcelona and the Primavera Sound festival. Musical highlights for me this year included The Knife, OM, The Breeders, Neurosis, Roll The Dice, Meat Puppets, Phoenix and Blur. After three days of festy mayhem we spent the rest of the week absorbing (a lot of) the city's amazing food & drink and checking out the incredible sights. Trips up to Montjuic, Gaudi's gorgeous Park Güell and nearby Montserrat cliff top monastery were ticked-off before tucking into great tapas at Picnic, ales at Le Cerveteca and noiry cocktails at Gimlet.

Wine World

Here's a boozy cover and a set of feature illustrations for a Wine & Spirits Top Value 100 special issue. Plenty to drink about.

Chrome Invaders

Back in the studio this week after a breather in Barcelona and ready for a bit o' bloggin'. Here's my first ever print and animated editorial commission for PC World Magazine and their iPad/Kindle edition. It's for their security tips section focusing on Google Chrome browsers. I designed the print illustration with the animation in mind so thought I'd have some fun zapping the classic space invaders characters.

Black Hole Trouble

Here's a recent illustration for a Nature Magazine article on what might happen if you ever find yourself staring into a Black Hole. Would you be crushed or burnt to a crisp? Hmmm, the agony of choice.

Glamping Matilda

Here's an overdue post on a recent Easter getaway to Pembrokeshire, Wales for a spot of chilly glamping. We spent a long weekend in the cosy converted truck 'Matilda' set in the woodlands of a nearby working farmhouse. A spot of country and coastal strolling by day with log fires and whiskey by night. T'rrific.

The Queen Of Cuba

Here's an enjoyable cover and feature commission for Washington Post Magazine on the little-known American spy Ana Montes, who leaked huge amounts of top secret intel to Cuba for nearly 20 years before capture. The article, by Jim Popkin, is a fantastic read and it was a thoroughly rewarding job all-round. More of these please.

Skullduggery

Here's a re-imagined film poster design for the 1965 Peter Cushing horror The Skull. It will be exhibited in the 'Art Of Horror' show, part of a of a Cushing centenary celebration at The Horsebridge Arts & Community Centre, Whitstable. Prints are available from the brand new online shop here.

Out To Launch

We have lift-off. The new site is now live in orbit around the planet interwebs. Prepare to engage. I'm commemorating the occasion with this space-age illustration for Imagination Magazine titled 'The Next Step In The Final Frontier'. Hope you enjoy.

Lost In The Clouds

Here's my latest illustration for New Scientist and an article looking at what happens to our digital possessions and memories in the mysterious internet cloud. In other news, my new web site should be appearing from said cloud very soon, keep em' peeled.