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
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
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
I love a good clearout. I’m the daughter of an artist-designer who turned his own into an event – canvases would be ripped; pots smashed; bonfires piled high; work buried in the meadow at the end of the garden. One day, archaeologists will ponder the rituals that these might have … Read More
“Held in lime, dipped in pink.” That was one of my notes as I made a colour swatch of a daisy. Why? Well, for our Studio Snack episode on edible flowers, because colour is what they so often bring to a dish, my creative experiment looked at that by way … Read More
“Where is your studio?” That used to be an easy question to answer. I did one thing – graphic design – and I worked from one place, desk space in a shared studio. But my work is broader now. I use what I know as well as what I do. … Read More
I’ve started my new studio year by starting off a loaf of bread, to rise and prove while I get on with the overview, admin and communication that get the work under way. As I knead the dough, I think about the mindset that does this. Creative professionals are multitaskers … Read More
In a guest lecture for postgraduate students at Loughborough University London’s Creative Research and Innovation Centre, I’ve talked about how working in East London creative clusters has shaped my practice. Sketch-mapping my story, I’ve seen just how much geography has played a part in the work I’ve done, the broadening … Read More
Accessibility. Reverse engineering it into existing materials is a challenge. But in a project modifying PDF publications designed for long-term client Bowen Craggs, it’s also changed how I think about layout. As someone who loves words and visual communication equally, I’ve found it fascinating to have to consider for the … Read More
Work on design, illustration and sketch graphics for a Sphere Unpacked guide has taken place virtually, across four time zones. With its print edition produced in Europe via online supply for local delivery, I hadn’t seen a physical copy. So my client from Sphere contacted me while in the UK … Read More