Circuit Tree

Here's a chunky editorial job for Dialogue magazine based on the concept of analysing big data. We ran with a tree/leaf metaphor to represent the information growth and gathering for the cover, spread and spot illustrations. It was all nicely put together by designer Laura Hawkins. You can see more on the site here.

Russia Traveller Briefing

With Russia recently being laid bare across the world's media for many reasons, positive and negative, The Economist saw fit to release a Russia Traveller Briefing App. I was commissioned to design four illustrations for the cover and subsections consisting of Curated, Archive and Intelligence Unit articles. I enjoyed mixing up imagery from the old Soviet Union and modern Russia in a palette derived from those era's flag colours. See more detail on the site here.

Watching With Friends

I recently worked on this enjoyable commission for social TV analytics provider SecondSync. They wanted some illustrations to spruce up a white paper announcing their groundbreaking partnership with Facebook, Watching With Friends. I designed a cover and six spot illustrations based on the social media analysis of TV viewing habits including ratings, demographics and methodology. The limited colour palette was refreshing to use and it was a challenge to suggest Facebook without using any of their actual branding. Once done they were transferred to the very capable hands of designer Ben Carruthers for the finished white paper.

Mars Evacuees

Here's a cool commission I've been waiting to shout about for a while. It's a cover illustration for a forthcoming sci-fi novel called Mars Evacuees by Sophia Mcdougall. She's written a great, and very flattering, post about the anticipation of seeing cover illustrations for her books for the first time. It was a real pleasure to work on so I'm glad it went down well and Egmont gave the finished cover a glorious shine. You can see more on my website here. I was also asked to write a little about the process of creating the image, so here it is...

It was really exciting news when I was asked to design the cover of Mars Evacuees as I'm a bit of a sci-fi nut and find the genre instantly inspiring. My first instinct was to make the illustration relatively simple, colourful and eye-catching as those are the covers I tend to respond to. After digesting the brief I had a strong mental image of what I wanted and set about designing my initial draft illustration in Photoshop. I worked up the red planet and background digitally using unusual textures I'd photographed and collected, including images of peeling paint from the sides of old boats! I then designed the main characters as stylised silhouettes, I prefer this approach as the reader can create the character's faces in their own mind. I found the cyber-goldfish guardian character particularly fascinating and made it a major part of the design. The first rough was sent over, as well as a version with a hand drawn type treatment. The illustration minus the type was quickly approved, which is always a relief, and with a few tweaks the cover was finalised. I'm really pleased with how it turned out and owe a big thanks to Sophia and Egmont for getting me involved.

Are You Mad?

Here's a Rorschachian illustration spread for a Focus Magazine article asking the big question Are You Mad?. The madness continued in animation form for the iPad edition. You can see the final layout on the site here.

Well, are you?

Saints Ives And Foy

Christmas and New Year seem like donkey's yonks away now but here are a few snaps to help myself recall shenanigans of the distant past a few weeks ago. As has become a personal tradition my wife and I decamped to wonderful St. Ives in Cornwall for a relaxing bit of Chrimbo-on-sea and that really is gift enough, along with some socks. As soon as 2014 hit I fled to the mountains of Sainte Foy in France for a cracking snowboarding trip in celebration of my old mucker Linguistine's 40th birthday. Had an enjoyable stay with The White Room and took a couple of daytrips out to explore Tignes, Val d'Isere and Les Arcs. Smoshing.

Post-Traumatic Growth

Here are three double page spread illustrations for Live Happy magazine in the States. The feature looks at the science of Post-Traumatic Growth and how individuals can find strength after personal tragedy. You can see the full layouts on the site here.

Obamalytics

We're a couple of weeks into this 2014 lark but I'd like to wish everyone a very Happy New Year anyway. Here's hoping for a good one. First up this year is an illustration for Pacific Standard magazine feature called 'Inconclusive Results' that looks at the contribution that data analysis whizz-kids made to Obama's successful 2012 campaign. You can see the nicely designed layout on my site here.

Lapland Games

Here's a Christmas Knit pattern design for agency Cai and Kyn's HoHoHo Journal of Christmas Creativity and upcoming exhibition at Breese Little Gallery from 17th December. It was quite a fun challenge coming up with something simple enough to work well with the knit template, akin to pixel art really. I chose to stand on the shoulders of the Atari giants and reworked the graphics from the 80's Winter Games with speed skating Santa and conniving elf. See larger images on the site here.

Baltimore Tetris

Here's a recent cover editorial for the The Baltimore Sun (as seen in The Wire!) for their annual look at the Top 100 Workplaces in the city. The building blocks of the brief were to reference the arcade classic Tetris, work in the Baltimore skyline and give the image a metallic awards-y sheen. It all pieced together quite nicely in the end. See a larger detail on the website here.

Camber via Venice

Here are a few pics from recent escapades taken from the canals of Venice to the chalets of Pontin's, Camber Sands. In October we spent a lovely week in Italy getting agreeably lost in the stunning maze of hustling alleys and bustling waterways that make up Venice before moving on to the relative calm of Lake Garda in Sirmione and Desenzano. Naturally we were forced to consume many amazing pasta dishes and copious Negronis for our sins.

In November it was the End Of An Era for All Tomorrow's Parties British holiday camp music festivals. The last ever two of which were held at Pontin's, Camber Sands over consecutive weekends and we attended both for the craic. As usual there was a great, eclectic mix of bands and ATP stalwarts including Mogwai, Shellac, Television, Loop, Haxan Cloak and Har Mar. The last night saw attendees wearing black tie evening dress to commemorate. Adios Pontin's!

I Didn't Mean To Call You A Meatloaf Jack!

This year's Serco Prize for Illustration had the largely open theme of London stories from any source, fiction or non-fiction. I had to go with my gut and choose a classic London set film and personal, childhood-traumatising favourite, An American Werewolf In London (1981). It also happens to feature a couple of gory set-pieces based around London Transport so that seemed to fit the bill. Appropriately enough, in the same week I designed the poster we had a special studio double-bill screening of An American Werewolf In London and They Live! projected on a photographic studio infinity wall to eerie effect (photo: Alex Dobbin). You can see my other entries for the Serco Prize over the years on my site here.

Setting The Pilocene

  Here's a fun commission for BBC Focus Magazine, well, as much fun as you can have depicting impending environmental catastrophe anyway. The feature looks at how rising man-made carbon dioxide emissions are returning the Earth's climate to the kind of prehistoric conditions not seen since the Pilocene epoch when the wooly mammoths used to hang out. The time-spanning montage was built around a nice bit of wooly mammoth stock and the commission included an illustrated pie chart and short animation for the iPad edition. See more of this and other BBC Focus work on my site here.

Pep Talk

Here's a recent footie themed portrait for a UEFA Champions Matchday Magazine profile on Pep Guardiola. Back of the net! etc.

Showboating

Here's my cover illustration for this year's Boatshow International guide to all the mega-yacht action in Fort Lauderdale. See more work for Showboat magazine here.

Financial Crisis In Pictures

Here are a series of illustrations for The Economist's recent weekly Schools Brief breakdown of the financial crisis. I had to create each of these with very quick turnarounds and in two different formats, a tricky super-narrow landscape print version and a more forgiving rectangular online version. The copy was quite heavy on the technical financial jargon (deleveraging anyone?) so it was a fun challenge to come up with visual ways to represent the main thrust of each feature and keep a consistent look and feel. More Economist work on the main site here.

Doc Rocket

Here's a Rocketeer inspired cover illustration for Canada's The Medical Post looking at how doctors boost their income. Probably not by wearing rocket-propelled backpacks but what the hey. See more work for The Medical Post on my folio site here.

Quantum Questing

Here's my lastest illustration for Nature magazine on the tricky subject of quantum physics. The article looked at the latest attempts by a group of physicists to reinvent quantum theory and this seafaring image popped to mind recalling earlier expeditions into the unknown.

Elsie

Doing a bit of blog catch-up today after a lengthy period of silencio. I've been busy working away on a new animation project amidst the regular illustration commissions so time has been scarce. Will report on all that soon. In the meantime here are a few pics from a recent weekend away in the Wye Valley, Herefordshire. My wife and I spent the last few days of Summer in a lovely 1950s Stirling caravan that went by the name of Elsie. Toured the local area visiting Ross-on-Wye, Ledbury, Hay-on-Wye and Symonds Yat by day and relaxed with Elsie, a stunning view and a cosy campfire by night.

ABRSM Woodwind

Here's the latest work for the ongoing ABRSM Music book cover rebrand. An all new Woodwind Syllabus cover and a colour rework of the Info & Regulations covers for 2013. See all of this year's ABRSM work on the site here and last year's here. Play on.