Wednesday 29 June 2011

Birthday Club

It's my wife Liz's birthday today and I've drawn one of her celluloid heroes to mark the occasion. It's the mascara-caked 'goth chick' Ally Sheedy from John Hughes' classic The Breakfast Club trying (and failing) to resist an unwanted and horrendous make-over offer. Happy birthday hon!

Thursday 23 June 2011

Optimised

Latest Design Week illo for a Private View piece on creative optimism in troubled times, taking in WW2, the sixties and the present day with Paul Smith's new scent Optimistic cited as an example of designers willing to experiment outside their comfort zone.

Barrier Grief

Here's a recent editorial piece for National Mortgage News about the legal barriers being introduced in the US on foreclosures and defaults. Red tape huh?

Thursday 16 June 2011

Spanish Castle Magic

Been back from Barcelona and Catalonia for well over a week but still there in my mind, chomping on padron peppers and slurping the gin *sigh*. Anyway here are a few snaps from the trip which started with four nocturnal days at the Primavera Sound music festival held at the concrete-tastic Parc Del Forum overlooking the Med. Musical highlights for me included Interpol, Deerhunter, PIL, Grinderman, Factory Floor, Battles and the brash Odd Future. We spent a couple of days re-adjusting our post-festival body clocks taking in beautiful Barcelona and enjoyed a memorable trip to Ferran Adrià's new cocktail joint, 41 Degrees, sampling the great drinks and bizarro snack delights such as Parmesan Ice Cream sandwiches and the mysterious Fake Pistachios, all topped by the chance appearance of the amiable elBulli celeb-chef himself at the table next to us...whoop! After the city break we drove up the coast to the lovely Dali-centric Cadaqués, where we were based for the last three days, squeezing in a daytrip to nearby medieval Besalú and crag-perching Castellfollit de la Rocha. On the final day we strolled the lovely seafront at Sitges before shooting off to the airport and home, tired but inspired.

Tuesday 7 June 2011

V&A Illustration Awards 2011 Shortlist

I was proper chuffed to find my name on the shortlist in the editorial category for the V&A Illustration Awards this year. My Urban Utopia illustration for New Scientist was doing the rounds for me again and faced some tough competition at the award ceremony last night where the excellent Oliver Kugler took the honours. I couldn't attend the prize giving unfortunately but I'll be popping along to see the exhibition at some point where I think my piece can be found on a screen with shortlisted winner's work until 17th December.

Monday 6 June 2011

The Tingler

Back in rainy London town after an excelente break in Barcelona and Catalonia, of which I'll post more about soon. While I was away though I was chuffed to find out I'd won a competition run by the Aubin Cinema to design a poster for a special 'Vincentenary' screening of a classic Vincent Price schlock horror The Tingler, originally shown with a new screen gimmick called Percepto! (which I suspect involved having a rubber worm-thing thrown at your head). I missed the film screening, unfortunately, but here's the design for the poster which was on display at the cinema.