Tis the season to get married... lalalalalalaaaaa

My beautiful bessie mate Carly got married last week to the very cool Rizqy. They met out in Indonesia, where they both live now, but got married on Carly's home island of Arran. It was a beautiful, laidback sort of affair that suited them both very well. A few of the old ECA-Team made it to the ceremony and the after-party (music provided by Carly's very musical family), and I'm pleased to report we didn't let the side down. There was champagne, there was air guitar, there was knee-sliding. In short, we rocked. Carly rocked. Rizqy, you rock too.

Carly's stepdad and Uncle are both photographers and their shots can be found here, my shoddy efforts are here. Ain't they gorgeous?

Aw. Why do all my favourite folks live so damn FAR AWAY?

Merry Mickelmass!

I've just returned from a bloody lovely couple of days in sunny Sunderland with some of my favourite folks (and a few new ones).

I couldn't blog about this poster before because it was all top secret and Mr Mick might have seen it and the game would have been up. Matt Stalker of Matt Stalker and Fables - who, you may remember, I've blogged about before - held a gig entitled Mickelmass for his big brother Mick, who was back from NZ for the first time in two years for Crimbo. I've known Mick for yonks and I've also met their eldest bro Chris before too. So there were three very good reasons to haul my ass down to Sunderland to surprise Mick and see Matt and the band play live.

Well they didn't disappoint. I've said it before, but that Matt Stalker is a talented bastard and deserves bloody great things. The set was completely mesmerising, and while I'm in awe anyway of people who can play instruments and sing at the same time, there really isn't anything like standing a few feet away from a cello, a double bass and a guitar (and occasionally more esoteric instruments!) while they are played by folks who really know what they're doing with them. Absolutely awesome.

Mr Matt even got me a bit choked up by dedicating a beautiful cover of Radiohead's 'Let Down' to me and thanking me for doing their EP and the above poster for Mickelmass. Matt, you are more than welcome, buster!

And to the lovely Mick, who'll be heading back to NZ for New Year, it was bloody marvellous to see you and your cheeky grin again. Bon Voyage baby! I'll see you real soon. Sniff. Hopefully.

Gold Rush

Brazen's Christmas theme was a tricky one this year; because the good lady, in a fit of credit crunch-induced frugality, wanted the theme to extend well into the new year. So it couldn't be 'too Christmassy'. Riiight.

Other key pointers in the (actually excellent) brief were: Art Deco, Jazz, Hollywood, 1930s, Lalique etc. With the help of the lovely Lynn McHattie the name 'Gold Rush' was decided, and I set about creating a central identity, illustrations for web and print, window vinyls and bag stuffers (for to stuff bags with). The central identity took pride of place on the lovely gold-foil blocked bag stuffer: an art-deco stylised bullet hole links back to Brazen's original 'diamond and guns' branding, but also looks just snowflakey enough to be christmassy. The photo really doesn't do it justice (I'm a shit photographer) - and I'm so glad my lovely mate and favourite client chose to splash out on the gold foil on this one. It looks sexy as f*ck.

Some equally sexy illustrations will be rotated on Brazen's brand new online shop in the new year, and in the meantime one of them is appearing as a window vinyl in the shopfront. (Pics to follow once I get myself a decent camera).

Brazen and I were so pleased with ourselves after installing the window vinyl last Sunday that we simply had to celebrate by getting trollied and 'high-chebsing'. I can't attach a photo of that but trust me it was funny.

Phone's Teeth

A wee illustration for the day job. Yet to go live so I'm showing you it in progress. Was a fun one though. I do like to get the odd illustration job at work. Keeps me happy. This one is meant to look like a mobile/joke teeth. The reasons for which will become clear once the job goes live. 3D render done in Illustrator with textures/shadows highlights/details added in Photoshop. I am so loving the 3D thing right now. Yum.

Irresponsible Auntie Alert

It was my oldest nephew Irvine's 3rd Birthday last weekend. So I bought him a guitar. I didn't get him a hotel room to trash or a TV to throw out the window though. So I'm not completely irresponsible.

End of an era

After nearly three years of fun and frolicking with the wonderful Club Noir, we have agreed to go our separate ways. My day job commitments are increasing, and Club Noir are doing ever so well and expanding out to London and whatnot, and really needed someone who could devote more time and energy to them. I've punted a couple of mega-talented designery folks their way, so hopefully they will be producing posters of graphicy vintagey loveliness for Noir into the future. Bon voyage friends! All the best. x

Before they were famous Part II

My good friend and mega-talented chappy Mr Matt Stalker is currently a very happy mega-talented chappy, as his band, Matt Stalker and Fables, have just got themselves the gig of their lives. (So far, anyway - it'll be Wembley next you mark my words).

They will be playing the amazing looking Sage Gateshead on the 28th November, supporting Scottish folksters Frightened Rabbit. And Matt is so excited he using lots and lots of capitals and exclamation marks and stuff. Bless him.

I can't tell you how much these guys deserve this gig; I'm thinking its the start of something beautiful for them. Check out the band's myspace here. Warning: screaming fandom will ensue.

Gone like Clockwork

Yet another illustration project that is destined never to see the light of day, except here on my lovely blog. Talk about vanity publishing. These lil' clockwork fellas were for a client's christmas ads. I really liked them too. My creative director however, didn't. So aside from giving him the V's behind his back and putting laxatives in his tea*, there's not much I can do about it. Do let me know if you like them though. I'm still feeling sensitive.

*this is a lie. I never make the tea. I have minions who do that for me now.

Together in Electric Dreams

My bessie mate Vivienne is having a birthday party at some point in the near future and she asked me to do her an emailable invitation. Miss Vivienne is the queen of dressing up and parties in general, so she always themes her parties. She did Alice in Wonderland one year, and had a mad hatter's tea party in a secret garden. This year it's going to be an 80s themed elecxtravaganza titled 'Electric Dreams', and in the spirit of both the excessive 80s, and Vivvy's madness, this was the final result. She likey. Yes she do.

Iconography

I've discovered I love designed icons. I've been doing loads of them for the day job. I prob shouldn't name the client or say what these icons are for as it isn't live yet; so you'll just have to guess. Or simply enjoy their gradienty splendour. Mmm... icons...

Squidge Alert

Now I think you should know the answer to this question, but: HOW CUTE IS MY NEPHEW BRODAN? Squidgy Scrumptious.

What a Nightmare

Actually, misleading post title. This was actually a pretty painless job. Here be the latest Noir poster. This year's Halloween club won't be restricted to Glasgow. The guys are taking the show on the road to Edinburgh and London too. This poster will double up for the Scottish leg, but a new poster may be required for London. We shall play it by ear!

I used both hand drawn and photoshopped elements in this one and I quite like the combination. Pencil line scratchiness meets slick looking photographic bits. A new technique methinks. Some recycling may occur.

The Halloween club is always massive, so see you there?

I have the best friends

It was my birthday this weekend, and aside from receiving lots of lovely messages on my facebook page, I also met up with two of my very favourite people and did lunch and cocktails and cava and dancing in not-so-sunny Edinburgh, and received the most wonderful gifts.

I'm always a bit surprised when people get me birthday presents. Its genuinely a part of the birthday process that I forget about, looking forward instead to having a boozy giggle in a pub somewhere. However, when you have friends as thoughtful as mine who know me so well, the gifts they give are really really touching and I completely adore them all.

My mate Lizzie found this completely glorious vanity set - something I've been idly looking for for years and never found one in quite the right colour/condition to merit buying. She found the most perfect one possible in an antiques shop in Peebles and delivered it up to me as a 29th birthday present. I nearly cried.

My other bessie mate Viv gave me a whole series of beautifully wrapped little trinkets. Not least of which was this stunning pillbox she found in a flea market in Spain. This photo really doesn't do it justice, and my shots of the other two completely gorgeous tins she got me (of paprika and violet lipbalm) are equally shoddy so you shall just have to trust me that they are gooorgeous. She also got me a lovely little purple babushka Russian doll who now lives on my mantlepiece.

Yet another bessie mate Sarah, who lives in New Zealand :-(, sent me a bloody brilliant button eyed rag doll who I have named Vern, which she bought while on a shoot in Singapore and who is going to come live on my desk at work. She knows I love crazy little characters, and florals and teal/turquoise so Vern is my new favourite mascot.

I'm a lucky lucky bugger.

Knew that would come in handy...

See? Even if a job doesn't work out, you usually find that in the process you have discovered a new style or technique that can be recycled in another job. No work is a waste of time in that respect. So even though the Smart car thing didn't work out, developing that style of illustration meant that I saved time when it came to doing this job for a very good friend of mine.

A mate of hers is getting married (seems to be all the rage) and she commissioned me to do her a series of illustrations as her wedding gift. This is the first. They are all of a theme; that this friend of hers is always throwing herself into whatever she does. At men, at the bar, out of planes, etc.

Time pressures meant that I couldn't do my post-production photoshop texture bit, as in the Smart car job, but she was very very happy with the result and toddled off to get it framed.

Style-recycling. Its the new plagiarism.

Oh poot

Wee bit disappointed this morning. A nice illustration job that came my way isn't going to happen now. Sniff.

My bessie mate Sazzle (who is 27 this weekend - the day after yours truly turns 29 - happy birthday to us!) works for a big ad agency in Auckland, and was kind enough to give me the opportunity to have stab at some illys for Smart Car. As is often the way with such projects though, my services aren't required anymore. Oh well. Nothing ventured, nothing gained. Something good may end up coming of it! And so it is posted here. Its kinda along the lines of the illys I did for my Mum's book - that sorta screenprinted, retro, grainy style thing.

I'm liking this new style, and I'd like to do some more like this so if anyone knows anyone...

Before they were famous

I recently completed the longest running job in history, and I felt the need to mark this momentous occasion with a blog post. Due to my own crapness, and various other reasons we shall put down to the fates buggering with me, I have only just managed to fulfil a promise I made to my very good and talented friend Matt Stalker a year and a half ago. Mr Stalker and his associates the Fables have produced an EP of completely beautiful and haunting folk songs called 'Press your ear to my chest, listen', and Matt asked me to design the EP artwork (in January 2000-and-bloody-7).

No doubt if the pressing urgency of a gig in Newcastle hadn't arisen, the job would have rambled on for quite a bit longer. But I seem to work better when there's a big fat deadline looming over my head. So I promptly pulled my finger out my ass and got on with it. Luckily for me, budget being an issue, the sleeve was pretty simple - just a folded card really, into which Matt, presumably with his ladyfriend Laura, had to hand apply 150 foam dots to hold the cds on. But God love em, they did it, and by all the accounts the gig was a triumph, with punters asking for the CDs to be signed (down solely to Mr Stalker's talents I might add, and not because they were so enamoured with my illustrations, but, still...).

So anyway - here is the finished result. It doesn't look like a year and a half's work because, erm, its not - but its still rather nice. We went for the carved-into-wood look to compliment the folky, crafty, love-lorn nature of Matt's music, and the swirls were inspired by the EP title suggesting breath, and snatches of lyrics relating to smoke and stormy water. All a little cryptic, but who cares? Its pretty.

Have a listen to Matt's music on his myspace page here. You heard him here first.

Word of the day: Ambigram

A lovely new client of mine is getting married later on this summer, and she asked me to have a look at doing her wedding invites. Now its going to be a very classy affair and she's a very classy lady so we are going the whole letterpress, lined envelopes and cream stock route. BUT, she really wanted me to look at creating a monogram based around her and her future-husband's initials (L & J), and the date of their nuptials (8th Sept 2008). So we can blind emboss it and do all the touchy feely stuff that graphic designers get so excited about.

Now, since the date was almost palindromic (8.11.8), we both really wanted the monogram to be as symmetrical as possible. I had a bit of a eureka moment when I realised that in some script fonts, if you invert the capital L you get something that looks a lot like a J. Cue two romantically entwined initials, bound together by the date of their wedding. Which looks exactly the same when you turn it upside down! Wow. That's, like, symbolism.

My client, however, pointed out that I had not in fact invented anything new. Such things are called ambigrams and you can find some absolutely stunning examples of them here. All of which make my efforts look a little shoddy. Rats.

Witness the cuteness

HOW CUTE IS MY NEPHEW IRVINE?! Correct answer: extremely cute, Auntie Lele.

Scrumptious. x

We wants it

GIMME!

Wallflowers take note

A one off brief came in from my lovely Club Noir clients a while back. It kept getting bumped due to other more pressing projects for them, but we've finally got round to putting something together.

They've been running sell-out Burlesque Workshops for a few months now, and felt the need to start publicising them properly, so briefed me to come up with a poster concept. I came up with the idea of an old 'before and after' ad, with real oldstyle ad-language and with the Workshops presented as the answer to all your problems. And here be the result.

Hello Dave

I have a lovely new freelance client who's been putting some nice work my way (including more SODDING WEDDING INVITES). I rebranded a friend of hers' IT company. The company was named after the street where it was based - Blackrock Road. I thought the Blackrock thing was too good a chance to pass up and decided to reference the famous black rock monolith from Arthur C. Clarke's 2001: A Space Odyssey.

The monolith, or TMA-1 as us sci-fi geeks know it, was a representative of a technologically superior race, sent to earth to advance the technological capabilities of early mankind. Which, given that the Blackrock are an IT company, was just asking for it. EVEN better, TMA-1 had very particular proportions 9:4:1, so I kept these for the logo and used a monospaced font and underscore to reference oldstyle computer programming.

End result: Client was very pleased with the outcome, despite not being familiar with the monoliths (cretin).

GODAMMIT

I hate it when a plan doesn't come together.

I recently did a rather large illustration job for my former employers that required several very late nights hunched over a desk, sketching and inking almost 40 illustrations for a document intended for the NHS, with a very tight deadline.

Annoyingly, despite meeting the deadline, the client decided to revert to a previous illustration style. I bowed out at this point as I unfortunately couldn't commit to redoing such a large job; my back just couldn't take it! It means that all my hard work will never be seen in print - so Praise Be to Blogger. Here are a few samples.

Wedding Bells

In a bid to prove to the world that I don't care that they're all getting married and I am going to be an old maid, I've also done a wedding invitation recently for my friend/colleague Keli and her man William. They tied the knot last week in a very low-key but stylish ceremony at the Ubiquitous Chip.

We agreed on a lovely palette of reds and beige as red was to be a highlight colour for the tables and the couple's outfits. We didn't wanna go full on Valentine's red though, so the dark burgundies and beige helped tone it down a bit. The typography was created by halftoning a photoshop file with lines instead of squares/dots, then live-tracing to get the stripy effect that allowed me to slot Keli and William together with an ampersand. A wee tying the knot metaphor that hopefully erred on the right side of cheesy.

The bride looked beautiful and the groom looked handsome but their invites and place settings looked EVEN BETTER SO THERE.

Hi Strangers

Ok, yes, I know, its been a long time. Its a shoddy state of affairs and I feel suitably ashamed. Although I do have an excuse. I've been working my ample bottom off. Not literally (unfortunately), I've just been doing a lot of work for friends and relatives and some freelance jobs too that have left little time to share the fruits of my labour with you lot.

The most time consuming of these not-so-little jobs was a present for my Mum, who turned 60 years young on Friday 25th April. I had an idea to write a kids book about her life that she could read to her grandkids (who she completely adores of course). My Dad's pet name for my Mum is 'Maggie Anne', so I got the idea for a title first and the story stemmed from there.

So 'Maggie Anne's Magic Hats' was born. My mum's life story is told through all the hats she's worn in her time; a metaphor for all the roles she's fulfilled - Daughter, Friend, Wife, Mother, Boss etc. The punchline being that its not the hats that are magic at all, but Maggie Anne.

I illustrated the book too (obviously), taking my cues from 60s-era retro animation (like Bewitched titles), and the fact that as a kid, whenever I drew my Mum I drew her curly hair first. So that had to be a big feature. I hope she didn't take offence. She's been battling her curls all her life.

So Happy Birthday to my totally Magic Mum. You were worth every second.