Ted Baker.com

Now that I have finally broken up for the year for Christmas I can reflect on some of the biggest projects I've been able to contribute on this year. One of which was the amazing opportunity to illustrate the website for prestigious fashion label Ted Baker! A summer of hard graft paid off and here are the results!

http://www.tedbaker.com/uk/ted-at-your-service

Original rough for Ted Baker site.

Decorating Cricklewood's Windows

Yesterday I had the pleasure of working with art student Kreos in decorating some of Cricklewood's shop windows. We had to advertise the up and coming Silk Road Festival in September which is a week long event and also the Car Rally. Some of the cafes wanted to advertise their Special Breakfasts on offer. Kreos was especially talented at drawing cars so together we did three shop windows.

Emma and Asger Tattoo

I am really excited about Emma and Asger's late summer wedding in Rye. Especially as they are both fantastic designers and illustrators it will be a creative one. This was the result of their request for guests to make tattoo transfer designs as their wedding favours. Mine was inspired by the nautical theme of their wedding. I can't wait to try on others too.

Check out their invite!

One Mitcham events

A series of posters created as part of the Regenerate Mitcham project. One Mitcham market events.

2013 so far..Part 2 Mitcham Valentine's Market

Thursday 14th February 2013 brought love and romance to Mitcham for Valentine's Day in the form of the Mitcham Valentine's Market. The event was the first in a series of events designed to revitalise the town centre as part of the Rediscover Mitcham project – a multi million pound project to improve Mitcham town centre.

Organised by One Mitcham and funded by the Mayor’s Outer London Fund and Merton Council, Mitcham town centre was transformed into  a romantic haven of hearts, flowers and cupcakes. A timetable of highlights included dancing, balloon twisting, facepainting and even free tea and cake! The events ran into the evening with dozens of jazzed up stalls to invite the local community to the event.

I had the honour of working with the Architects Studio Weave to decorate the market stalls by hand lettering romantic signs such as "Hello Sauce Pot (kitchenware)" and "Get Fruity (greengrocer). The  day was an enjoyable event and I was able to have a chat with the stall holders about the project and what they thought of the revamped market. There was also a bit of spontaneous sign making on the day too which kept me busy.

2013 so far..Part 1 The Call of the Wild Exhbition

This year went off to an exciting start with the preparations for the Call of the Wild exhibition curated by my fellow Kingston alumni illustrator Laura Hughes. Artists were asked to create an original piece in documenting the wilderness in the city. There was some really exciting work from the likes of Colourbox and Sandra Dieckmann. Plus there was a jam packed merchandise table at the end of the room selling prints, cards and trinkets which proved to be a real hit at the Private View. 

My London Wild gate below with some pics of the exhibition.

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.

AOI Images 36 exhibition at Somerset House

I was pleasantly surprised to find my Floating Cinema Puff Pattern screenprint framed beautifully on the wall of the first room of the AOI Images 36 exhibition at Somerset House. The private view on Tuesday was a great event and I was proud to have work hanging  in amongst some fabulous illustrators like Olaf Hajek, Gemma Robinson, Chris Haughton and Ekaterina Trukhan. It was also very nice to bump into fellow Kingston University Alumni Rosalind Richards along with my illustrator friend Laura Hughes, and to catch up on how we have found the world of illustration after graduating. The exhibition is free to the public and is on until 28th October.