A recce. On foot. With a sketchbook. Surely not, when the brief is to produce a simple sketch map and we have search engines? Well, it’s not as overdone as it seems… There’s good practice – I can’t use an image for illustration reference that may be in copyright. And there’s … Read More
Rubbish sketchbooks – a surprise hit in a trio of activities for Cody Dock’s Lea Way Celebration, part of Open House and Totally Thames… Made from waste and originally an approachable add-on to a sketch walk (nobody need worry about doing a bad drawing on materials destined for recycling) they … Read More
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
We’re busy… There’s a lot to do. Even in the creative industry, taking a break in the working day can feel impossible. We even apologise for it (or maybe that’s just me…). But leading a lunchtime sketchwalk for The Trampery on the Gantry, I encouraged chat about what getting outdoors … Read More
Sent anywhere, I will find time to explore… Thus, travelling to Taunton to be a mentor for Ideas Foundation’s Platinum Jubilee Pageant workshop day at Bridgwater & Taunton College, I travelled early to enjoy the luxury of looking. People-watching at Paddington station. A wander to French Weir Park just because … Read More
Weird year: new insights… Well, 2020… over here, the entire pattern of studio life was thrown into disarray. But I was brought up by parents who had to adapt countless times, decades before pivoting was a thing. So in the silence of the first lockdown, I started rearranging things. New … Read More
Why personal projects matter… I’m a big fan of making my own work as well as work for clients. Why? Well, think of it as an R&D playground. At the start of the London lockdown, working from home, I decided to report from my garden in place of my daily … Read More
Why mucking about matters… Art. It’s one of the things keeping us going in the current crisis. But people don’t necessarily have a room-full of art materials – so in my lunchtime workshop for The Trampery, I wanted to show how to get creative with stuff we happen to have around … Read More
I bring the same curious-minded approach to illustration as I do to design. So when I was asked to run a Zoom workshop on flower drawing for East End WI, we found ourselves looking at – well – looking! Drawing a flower is a wonderful opportunity to spend time with it and … Read More
Well, this is weird. Workspace swapped for work-from-home, deserted streets, food shortages, heightened spatial awareness… But designers are adaptable creatures. Agile thinking is part of what we do. We have ideas, we brainstorm, explore alternatives, test, adapt and refine. We spend a lot of time asking the question, “Why?” – but … Read More