Pipe Nightmares

Here's another recent illo for What Car? Magazine for an article called 'Tailpipe Truths' looking at the current state of car pollution. Chokes me up every time.

For Local People

Here's an illustration for Ethos magazine about the history of Localism as an ideology, you know, whether public services should be commissioned by locals or central government bigwigs. Look, a steam train!

Stay On Target

A recent illo for Target RED Magazine. It's here. Online shopping technology in a big hand...yeah!

Down The Albert

Popped over to the Albert Hall this week to get some cheeky snaps of the Proms illustration in full swing before the festy ends next month. Lovely evening for it.

Don't Hang The VJ

Good chum and fellow studio peep Ben Cook has launched a new site showcasing his cracking audio-visual work called Synthetics. Check out the footage of his live animated projections for Finnish group Villa Nah, filmed by Tom Bunning, and good ol' boys, The Orb.

I Need A Holiday, Holiday, Holiday

I've been a bit AWOL again over the last couple of weeks catching up on the illustration work I couldn't do in July as most of my time was spent working on this music video which I can finally unleash. It's for the Australian artist Vanessa Amarosi's new single 'Holiday' and was created as another Action Stations collaboration with Mark Taplin. We came up with the initial concept, designs and storyboards with director Dan Ruttley for Metropolis Studios, assisted on the green screen shoot and then worked our asses clean-off to animate the whole video in just over two weeks. It was tiring but we're pleased with the results which you can see on my site here ... and there's a poorer resolution version of it on Youtube replete with appreciative comments such as "sack the video production team"! Gotta love that 'tube.

Heads Du Jour

First And Last

Escaped to Cornwall again for a long weekend with Liz, my brother and a few friends. This time to beautiful Sennen Cove near Land's End, home of the famous First And Last Inn where a few Rattlers were caned. The weather was meltface hot so plenty of beach action, barbies and some seriously amateurish surfing attempts were in order. When the sun took a break we walked up the coastal path to nearby Cape Cornwall, originally mistaken for the real Land's End, and hitched a hilarious ride back atop the local 300 bus...into the foggy void!

Festivus

Here's a few editorial pieces for a spread on Edinburgh's festival season in the nicely designed Velocity mag for Cityjet. Och aye!

Eat My Rust

Here's a film poster design for a recent Little White Lies competition to, yes, design a film poster for a future film of your dreams. On this particular day my dreams were filmed with flashes of B-movie madness and minotaur like savages wreaking havoc ... on Mars. Hellooo Hollywoood!

Le Weekend

For a birthday treat my wife whisked me off to Paris on the Eurostar for the weekend and it was proper fantastiche! Firstly we headed over to the Foundation Cartier to check out an exhibition by my favourite Japanese all-round whacko auteur 'Beat' Takeshi Kitano, his film Sonatine is in my all time top movie list and who can forget the mayhem of Takeshi's Castle. The show was fun and eclectic featuring comically surreal animal/warfare hybrids, crazed elephantine sewing machines, brilliantly daft interactive exhibits and striking naive paintings all topped off with a visit to a cool Japanese kiosk he also designed. The total Takeshi experience. We then popped to the Champs for macaroons at Laduree before leaving the tourist havens behind and checking out the gems of North East Paris and the 19th arrondissement. We spent a lovely summer's evening at the spectacular Parc Buttes Chaumont, walked the length of Canal Saint Martin with drinks at Point Ephemere and explored the amazing Parc de la Villette chock full of bright red post modern structures, submarines, huge mirrored spheres and a Claes Oldenburg & Coosje Van Bruggen buried bicycle sculpture. Incroyable!

And Now A Corporate Message

Here's the latest Design Week illustration for an article on corporate dissonance, the difference between what a company says and what it does...and how it can sometimes get them in to Deepwater.

As Seen On TV

It's Promsmania at the moment as the big Beeb music festival kicks off for three months. Spotted this well-made ad on the tellybox featuring my illustration being painted on a massive billboard in a park with crowds of people walking blindly into it. Can't say I had anything to do with the making of the ad but it's sure nice to be a part of it.

Notes From The Bunker

Well, July has been razed by a time consuming hurricane of extreme work and play so the blog has suffered somewhat but I'll be posting with a vengeance over the next week or so to remedy the situation. First up is a big thank you to Francesco and the Italian design aces at Bunker who I worked with on the Carraro Annual Report and kindly sent me a lovely package of notebooks made up from a couple of my personal illustrations, Pier and Cuba.

Prodeal Or No Prodeal

Here's a double page illustration for SNEWS Outdoor Magazine looking at the ups and downs of Prodeals and their impact on business performance. Got to use some of my Grand Canyon photography to play with on this one.

London To Brighton

The weather was scorchio over the weekend so took the opportunity to ride down to Brighton with a bunch of like minded folk. Tried a new route via Banstead that wound it's way through some lovely country lanes before the trial of climbing up Devil's Dyke. We took in the sweeping views of Brighton and collected our breath before rolling into town for a dip in the sea and muchos deserved cider n grub. Noyce.

Komputer Kidz

Here's an editorial illo for the current issue of Futurelab's Vision magazine looking at online self assessment in education. I'll take straight A's please and fries to go.

If Only You Could See What I've Seen With Your Eyes

It was Secret Cinema time again last weekend and it was truly, and literally, out of this world. At Canary Wharf we were herded onto off-world colony shuttles, that looked suspiciously like coaches, then disembarked amongst rows of cargo containers riddled with street urchins and hustlers. Many travellers were sporting umbrellas and goggles to fend off the acid rain as we entered the main complex to find meticulous recreations of street scenes and interiors from one of my favourite films of all time, Blade Runner. Along with the replicas of Deckard's apartment, Zhora's dressing room and Mr. Chew's eye factory the room buzzed with noodle stores and nightclubs, snake charmers and dancing girls. The Final Cut played to roars of appreciation and the rescue of Deckard by the replicant Batty was re-enacted by wire performers with a live dove chucked in to good effect. We hung around for a great party afterwards fuelled by vodka peach schnapps shots and Liz looked very fetching in Pris' eye makeup. That's the spirittttt!

Green Machine

Here's the latest editorial for my monthly Design Week illustration slot for Private View. The article looks at the state of eco-awareness in the design industry and the tendency for it to 'big up' it's green credentials at the expense of other considerations.

RHS Land

Here are a couple more illustrations for the RHS, which I did a while ago but are out and about now, promoting two of their big daddy Summer flower shows at Hampton Court and Tatton Park. The overall campaigns and typographic layouts were managed by the good folk of Sheffield's Front Ideas agency. Jeez, I'm all flowered out.