Binding sketchbooks. It’s very Zen. It’s useful (I get through sketchbooks at a rate that’s been described as voracious). And I love a blank sheet of paper. But is it a new leaf? Well, yes and no. I make my sketchbooks from offcuts, dummies and surplus swatches and materials. And … Read More
We make Studio Snack for fun – so in each recording there are bits where we get the giggles, say the right words in the wrong order and where we are, frankly, winging it. In our 2024 finale Studio Snack’s seasonal leftovers we bring you our favourites. There are visual … Read More
It’s not the most conventional of festive repeat patterns. But bear with me… I love a pencil shaving. I make a lot of them, on live sketching assignments and on my own work. In a circle, they can be baubles or snowflakes. They’re general enough to be relevant to the … Read More
I’m an accidental illustrator… This loose, linear strand of my work was once the workings-out of my design practice. Before that, it came from a love of bande dessinée illustration. I studied at a time of specialisation, when you could be a designer or an illustrator but not both; before … Read More
What is an Advent calendar and where did they come from? In our latest episode of Studio Snack, a food podcast about design, we explore the austere, the odd and the newsworthy, we consult AI and we rethink what an Advent calendar could be. I love going down rabbit holes … Read More
It’s happened to me before: I’m working on an image, lift what’s supposed to be the thing from its background… and what’s left is more interesting. I’ve been reminded of this as I work on a new collection of illustrated garments and totes. I often wear my own designs for … Read More
In our Halloween episode of Studio Snack, we have monster feet, stories behind traditions, weird flavour combinations – and skeleton snack pictures made from the inside out. We’d come up with the idea over some properly spicy chai (digital conversation is marvellous but creatively, nothing quite beats throwing ideas back … Read More
For a talk at City Lit, I’ve been looking at how and why my creative practice has grown, and what I bring from one strand to the others. It’s been a fascinating talk to put together – and here’s what it’s shown me about how creative knowledge and skills can … Read More
I’ll be sketching at 26 Wordstock @ Bloomsbury Festival. And because my sketching is rooted in design, where I start is with what I’m drawing on. The event will be prefaced by the public launch of pamphlet format poem Berliners by John Simmons at Berliners and Other Poems. Pamphlets, then… … Read More
As creatures stash their food supplies for Winter, in the latest episode of Studio Snack, a collaborative podcast with Narcis Sauleda, we chat about inconvenience food. We explore apocalypse storecupboards, space food, preserving, what we can learn from squirrels… and as always, there are creative experiments. I start with a … Read More