LOGOS

 

Logo design is for me very occasional work, but I thought I'd share a few examples in one place.

I love simple, minimal logos, although some of the above examples don't adhere to this because obviously the client has wanted a more detailed image. This can be a challenge but satisfying when the little elements fit together in a pleasing way. I think an illustrated logo can add an extra little bit of individuality and friendliness compared to more slick, corporate, vector-style logos (that are best left to a graphic designer), especially with the hand drawn imperfections. 

BACK TO SCHOOL

My daughter finally started school last week, leaving me to draw all alone. Since the start of lockdown life pretty much all my drawing - well, everything - has been done with Echo and I'll miss this a lot.

Drawing urgently, often to her precise instruction and added 'advice', sometimes with odd materials (wax crayons, cheap brushes and poster paint), all at the same time as dealing with the usual random demands of a three year old, was surprisingly liberating. 

She is better at picking a subject to draw and just going for it. Often we would draw the same thing, like the portrait/self-portrait above, but her pictures are always more joyful and fun. 

Picasso once said he spent a lifetime trying to draw like a child, and I know what he meant; it is impossible to capture that purity that just flows from their pencil. It isn't just innocence or naivety, I think it's more that thoughts of who will view the picture, it's purpose or final destination, are absent, as is any pre-conceived idea of how it should look. Drawing just for the hell of it. 

I learnt quite a bit from these sessions so I'm planning on reviving my stagnant Instagram with our drawings. To chart Echo's development and as a reminder for me to continue this re-discovered habit of quick doodles, without worrying about the quality, maintaining the spirit of Echo and drawing purely for it's own sake.

KNOW THYSELF

All sorts of oddities in the current exhibition at the Wellcome Collection; a stuffed badger curled in the corner without explanation, video of Ming the tiger who lived in a New York apartment, the bill of a platypus ripped off in disbelief, diagrams of a dinner held in a Crystal Palace dinosaur, a 3D printed extinct lion's skull, various taxidermy efforts and dioramas.
I could go on, and maybe I should, because there were lots of lists, catalogues, and encyclopedias. The first edition of Carl Linnaeus' aesthetically pleasing Systema Natura was on display.
Also lots of lovely old illustrations and artefacts throughout to pore over.
A video installation of a modern fable narrated by an endangered amazon parrot, connecting the Big Bang, Om, the Great Silence and man's search for intelligent life in outer space via the Arecibo Observatory summed up the exhibition. Both were oddly profound, poetic, intriguing and inspiring.

READ, DRAWN & POSTED

At some point last year I started to draw the author of each book I finished reading. A reason to draw more faces and a record of my reading habits. Might be interesting to see the variety, or not, of my habits. Usually I have no idea what the authors look like, searching for their image can change my perceptions in the same way as finally meeting someone only previously encountered on the phone. You don't look like the face your voice painted in my head, I often think.

No hiding of any garbage I read, similarly no edits or re-drawing and no discarding. These are quick doodles. Surnames removed when posting on Instagram, the idea not to be cartoon, caricature or realistic portraits of great likeness. Just faces*. Some are simply bad drawings; hopefully the better examples will hide the weaker ones rather than the converse. Part of the process, for me, is to see what works about the faces I draw and why.

The first 16 are above. Quite a few big hitters there, (Orwell, Nabokov and Greene). Looks like I stick to what I know the older I get. Either a worrying sign of growing conservatism or an admirable display of ever more discerning taste. 

I don't expect anyone else to be that interested in what I've read, but I would be interested if other people did the same thing (illustrator or not). It could be like a survey done in a world where doodling book worms are forced to work in the National Statistics office, and we can extrapolate data like 'ooh, there's someone else who has read that book' and 'Kenneth Grahame is surprisingly tricky to draw'. It probably needs a hashtag, but that's basically admin so I'll leave that until the unlikely event of someone joining me with this idea. 


*I've left in the book titles, so the curious can find out who they are, as well as often giving the drawings an accidentally enigmatic title.

A DUL MOMENT

I recently designed the masthead for newly established local blog In Dulwich, adapted from the square version above. The site has a loose remit, often musing on anything vaguely connected to the South London area, with a (blurred) focus on drinking.  Ranging from a brief video guide to Marrakech, climate change information and local news tit-bits, this scatter gun approach is an antidote to the niche, demographically precise, argument reenforcing echo chambers we all apparently inhabit on the web these days. As they share an office with me, I do occasionally pop up; funnily enough usually when a tasting happens to be going on. Follow them on Twitter to avoid missing out on any future appearances and also to see an alternatively coloured version of my artwork.

Merry Christmas!

Here is a sort of minimalist design on mine, based on the popular carol 12 Days of Christmas, and a reason to say Merry Christmas. 

Not knowing the words by heart, I looked them up to discover just how many different versions there are. New items are introduced, wording altered and for no apparent reason the amounts of certain gifts are switched about a bit. This happens more towards the end of the song, as the mind wanders or the memory fails. It is a pretty boring song to sit through in it's entirety.

Being a traditional sort of chap, I went with the earliest recorded version as my guide.
I can see how pipers and drummers are interchangeable, and why an ancient term for Blackbirds 'Colly' morphed into 'calling', but not the inclusion of badgers baiting. Apart from being an unsuitable gift, badgers are usually baited not baiting, I think. 

Hopefully this is a useful (and pleasant to look at) cue sheet if you find yourself starting a rendition. Merry Christmas!

TROPEA

Recently, I was in Tropea, Italy. On the tip of the toe, opposite Sicily.
The place in which I stayed overlooked a monastery that sits above the sea. It feels odd to me to see robed monks going about everyday activities, probably because monks are an endangered species in England. And the sight of them was made stranger as my book of choice happened to be In The Name of the Rose, essentially a murder mystery set in a 14th century monastery. 
Anyway, I didn't draw the monastery. This view is looking the other way, showing the houses built right up to the cliff edge, or the cliff erosion makes it appear this way. Some seem like they've been sculpted from the rock. Of course, it could be anywhere by the time I finished with it, but having read this you can say 'ah, that's Tropea, right there'.

MINISTER OF THE MONTH

It was an honour and a privilege to be nominated as the immensely prestigious 'Minister of the Month' for the Ministry of Stories, a mentoring and writing centre in East London that lives behind a Monster Supplies shop.

I help to bring the kid's bonkers ideas to life with some quick doodles of the characters and stories they produce in the various workshops held in local schools and at the Ministry. 

Read about all the great work they do here and find out more reasons why I think it's a good idea to be involved with the project here.

CHRISTMAS CARD DESIGNS

I had an idea for some minimalist Christmas cards and these are the four designs I knocked up.

I was quite happy with the result and I managed to convince the Brixton Pound shop to stock the limited run I had printed off.

If they prove popular I'll do more next year.