I get in touch with clients from time to time to see where we are on their projects. It’s part of the choreography in getting processes to work, individually and around each other. Which would suggest that every project is dancing the same steps, to the same tempo, in the … Read More
Thinking it through This month’s Studio Snack podcast episode is about tea breaks – their history, changes in business thinking and how we might cure our creative industry habit of skipping them. In illustrating a tea break alarm for this month’s creative experiment, I was reminded of something different: the … Read More
Behind the scenes of the Vianne’s Confession illustration… Drawing used to be the part of my design work that clients never saw – the workings-out; the thinking on paper. And though my sketch illustration is now a visible thing, I still explore that way. Commissioned to illustrate a collaboration between … Read More
I’ve designed catalogues for central London exhibitions – printed, with high production values, for sale as souvenirs. But why design one for a solo show in a café? Well, the PDF catalogue for Hello, Petal, my exhibition of botanical work, is there to help. It can be looked at via … Read More
I bring my design head to my live sketching – I love an appropriate format. So for my meet the artist day for Hello, Petal, my exhibition of botanical work at a café in a park, I made seed packet sized sketchbooks. And they’re made from waste, which is entirely … Read More
We learn something from each episode of Studio Snack, a collaborative food podcast about design. And this month, exploring seeds and sowing has given us much to discuss about the how and when of a design project. I’ve used type to illustrate stories from my inexpert gardening that make good … Read More
I do like a proof. Yes, they’re necessary to check quality – but there’s also something lovely in their utility. Colour strips. Registration marks. And on a giclée test giclée print, details of all of the prints lined up like a colour swatch… The test for my Hello, Petal exhibition … Read More
You would think that a blogpost on sketches in an exhibition has no place here. But here’s a thing: one is on glassine paper made for packaging; the other takes a technique I use in short pose life drawing and applies it to something else. Both are unpredictable – and … Read More
This has been long in the planning… The sharp-eyed will have noticed a broadening-out of the work. I’ve been looking at the array of skills and knowledge I bring together from decades of design practice, constant creative exploring and unstoppable nosiness. My most adventurous clients and collaborators are already using … Read More
A pinch of this and just enough of that… In the Mother’s Day episode of Studio Snack, a food podcast about design, collaborator Narcis and I have been chatting about the language of family recipes. So for this month’s experiment, we’ve been cooking with words. I’ve started with my Pyrex … Read More