Design and illustration are often portrayed as desk work, and good service as being available on-demand. So in what’s both Creativity and Wellbeing Week and Mental Health Awareness Week, I’ve been thinking about the value of a screen break. The best design tutors I’ve taught with have a lot to … Read More
A side project of a side project… My Teemill store has line illustrations on organic cotton garments and tote bags. It sprang from Dispatches from a Small World, my three-year project reporting from my urban garden in sketches. I’ve learned a lot from this foray into retail, at the design … Read More
I was looking for a milliners’ head, a prop for a brainstorm. The only ones I could find were proper grown-up milliners’ equipment, which is, quite rightly, expensive because it’s beautifully made, or plastic. So I invented a flatpack one that could slot together and made some out of waste … Read More
Before software did the hard work of visualising typography, we had Letraset – sheets of dry transfer lettering. We’d run out of the most-used letters so we would cobble together characters from what we had. And when I did my first Nerd Nite London talk, on ampersands, I asked letter cutter … Read More
Biscuit Kintsugi… that seems in no way relevant to my work. But in the making of Broken Biscuits, the latest episode of Studio Snack, a monthly podcast with fellow designer Narcis Sauleda, there’s been more common ground than you’d think. There’s the usual delving into the subject – where we’ve found … Read More
For arts and crafts volunteering over the festive season, I had designed an activity that involved both – decorating a sketchbook and drawing in it. The paper and board were waste, from the Yodomo Circular Hub in Hackney. I like waste for workshops – it’s a good thing environmentally and it takes away … Read More
This year, by way of a Christmas greeting, I decided to sketch London places with Christmassy names and make them into a little book. The project turned out to be more complex, and more interesting, than I’d thought… The sketchwalk is made of several smaller sketchwalks, after meetings, between errands … Read More
Over the past three years, there’s been a whirlwind of adaptation to new contexts, new client needs, new ideas and brand new uses for my creative knowledge and skills. It’s been all about doing, and learning by doing. So it’s been interesting to have two rare chances to reflect. Researcher, … Read More
Behind the scenes My preparatory work for Breather, my piece for 26 Inspirations, part of the Bloomsbury Festival, started with several sketchwalks. I know the route well but it was considerably bendier than it was in my imagination of a linear drawing… And then there was rain. Biro is wonderfully … Read More
The point of playtime… Away from my desk, I grow things, I draw things growing – and sometimes I join it up, turning growing things into things to draw with. I’ve saved petals from French marigold dead-headings. For a while, I’ve been using the basic method of hot water and salt … Read More