Images 36 Gallery Talk - Illustration in Architecture and Surface Design Jill Tytherleigh and Studio Weave

I was invited to talk about my work as part of the Images 36 Best of British Illustration exhibition. The AOI and Somerset House set up free gallery talks to the public on the four Sundays during the exhibition. I was very nervous, but after a little stumble at the start the Bach's remedy kicked in and I managed to present my folder of preparatory work. Maria from Studio Weave Architects was kind enough to support me and provide architectural background information to the project whilst dropping in questions.

Often when I go to talks I'm fascinated by the process and how the artist has reached the final image and so I thought it would be interesting to show my visual reference and initial sketches to the audience. I showed how the pattern used elements of the Art Deco style in ship's ballrooms, cinemas and how I tried to fuse it with the shape of the roses in Roses & Castle's visual language. For the borders on the ovals I picked out the delicate tear drops in the Roses & Castles frame. The buildings were chosen as they were along the canal path, the 3 Mills, Big Breakfast House and the brilliantly named Cathedral of Sewage.

We explained that one challenge that we had to overcome when illustrating for architecture was the large scale factor. Maria had to draw a CAD drawing of a single unit of the pattern to scale which I then had to draw over accurately using a light box. The fabric also had to be cut in such a way so the illustration could fit into 1m x 1m squares repeated and the pattern had to be seen both the right way up and upside down as the puff roof would be seen from all sides.

It was a great opportunity and even though I was reluctant to talk to an audience at first I'm glad I took myself out of my comfort zone and gave it a go! The exhibition is on until 28th October 2012 and it is free to the public.

Screenprinting Workshop at the Pilot Shop in Willesden Green

Studio Weave Architects invited me to join them in running a free stencil screenprinting workshop at the Pilot Shop in Willesden Green as part of the New Windows in Willesden Green project. Despite the teething problems of a bumpy work surface and minimal clean up space for screenprinting, we managed to eventually produce some sharp stencils prints of some of the components used in our kebab window designs. The kids we were teaching seemed happy with their printed horses, lemons and chilli peppers!

Real Charcoal window illustrations

In December I had the pleasure of working with Studio Weave Architects to collaborate on designs for illustrations for two of the big windows at Real Charcoal Kebab shop along with the projecting light box sign. I worked closely with the Studio Weave team where I was asked to fit drawings into their doner kebab spit design - one depicting the history of the kebab and one showing ingredients and steps on how to make the perfect kebab. We also decided to occupy the vacant light box sign with a persian soldier carving a kebab which turned out to be a super bonus when the illustration lit up at night!

The commission was part of the New Windows on Willesden Green project where the shop fronts on Willesden Green had makeovers to breathe life into the high street. An Outer London Fund project, NWoWG was delivered for Brent Council and Design for London by The Architecture Foundation in collaboration with Meanwhile Space and Blue Consulting. The Architecture Foundation paired each design team with a local shop owner to work together to create a new window display that both attracts new customers and forms part of a giant advent calendar in the run up to Christmas (each shop has its own ‘big reveal’ date in December).

See some of the other windows here.