I’ve been to Lille for the day, to see La Piscine, a museum of art and industry in an art deco swimming pool. It’s thrillingly good, using its setting as a fresh way to think about the objects in it. I saw much else besides; this, after two weeks in … Read More
I have several strands of work. And sometimes they overlap, bringing things from one area of work to a project or activity in another. Here are just a few examples from 2025: I’ve brought my experience in breaking down information to a plant labelling workshop at art, heritage and ecology … Read More
Studio Snack, a food podcast about design in collaboration with Narcis Sauleda, started with conversations in lockdown between two friends and former studio-mates, perched with coffees and snacks on one of the Here East campus benches. We kept saying that we wished we’d recorded our conversations. So we did, in … Read More
It’s just a label for an ingredients bottle; a simple, utilitarian thing. Except that this label is for independent perfumer Sarah McCartney’s Scenthusiasm perfume workshops. Sarah likes good stationery, fountain pens and ink – her formula books are things of wonder. So there’s no ‘just’ about it… Working with Amberley Labels … Read More
It’s easy to miss. London Bridge writes its name where passing boats might see it. But when I typeset Jonathan Holt’s poem London Bridge on London Bridge to enclose with our lithograph for 26 Bridges, a project by writers’ organisation 26 to raise money for a UCLH specialist clinical nurse, … Read More
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
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
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
Time travel. It wasn’t what I expected from my free-range Friday. But as I sketch walked my way from an exhibition recce at Springfield Park Café in Hackney, looking for a vantage point I found an information board about the geology of the view. On it was the logo I’d … Read More
Four days, two cities, a wintry beach and nerding out on Delft blue and the House of Orange… it’s been the latest leg of my project visiting places with colour stories. Delving into blue at the Royal Delft factory has turned up a story of resilience, adaptation and innovation. On … Read More