Cover artwork for the subscribers edition of Empire Magazine – September 2020. As it turns out, the team at Empire were so chuffed with my cover for their August edition that they kindly invited me back for seconds! Whether it’s another helping of fries, just one more hotdog, or another bowl of ice-cream, everybody loves a second serve! ;)
…The world is still navigating it’s way through a global pandemic and cinema’s are still very much closed. But if I’ll be damned, people still want their movies!!! So Empire asked me back to do something a little bit different (again). For this one, we created a really exciting composition that referenced a classifieds ads page from those dusty old 70s comics in ya grandpa’s garage. From this, The Ultimate Movie Playlist was born and the end result was, well, pretty FUN! And once again, something quite DIFFERENT and unexpected for the readers of Empire.
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
Jackson Hole Mountain Resort, together with Culture Trip commissioned me to illustrate a number of detailed, panoramic scenes (or landscapes) showcasing the wintery experiences to be had and nature to be seen from across this world-famous ski resort and mountain area. The result are these painstakingly drawn and textured illustrations showing the scale and beauty of Jackson Hole and The Grand Tetons.
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
Cover artwork for the subscribers edition of Empire Magazine – August 2020. This was an interesting project as the world is living through a global pandemic with lockdowns in full-effect in most major cities. As a result, cinema’s were closed and a lot of movie releases put on indefinite hold. So Empire approached me to do something a little bit different, and rather than focus on one singular film, I created a montage of several releases (on hold) in a 50s/60s event poster style. The end result was something quite fun, bold and DIFFERENT for the readers of Empire.
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
Ski North Pole is an illustration I created for my UK/USA agents Handsome Frank as a part of their 2019 Christmas marketing.
The illustration was transformed into a wonderful 500 piece jigsaw puzzle that was given to select friends and clients of Handsome Frank. But only if you are on the nice list ;)
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.
Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
The University of New South Wales (Australia) and its Centre For Ideas approached me - with assistance of Jacky Winter and Flutter - to produce bespoke illustrations, type and texture assets for a short animation in support of a VO by Columbia University associate professor and staff writer for New Yorker Jelani Cobb.
The end result is a positive propaganda message about the importance of us creating a genuine (inclusive) civilisation where we are not threatened by the presence of someone who looks different from us, or prays different from us, or who loves differently than we do, or who has a different language than we do. That we are all the same, but different. Different, but equal.
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
A series of illustrations I created in cahoots with ESPN to support an epic story that revolved around a particular college football game between Alabama and Georgia focusing mostly on Alabama quarterback Tua Tagovailoa's famous pass with just 10 seconds left on the clock in OT to win the championship game 26-23 - pictured throughout as Alabama #13 player - and how this created a college QB trading race including other great QB's Jalen Hurts, Justin Fields and Tate Martell. I'm not a huge follower of American football, I don't even have a team - maybe Alabama because the team was featured in Forrest Gump - but this was a pretty amazing (gives you goosebumps type) sporting moment. Check it out here
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.
Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
Palm Springs asked me to design a special cover for their issue around Coachella Music and Arts Festival. Sadly, due to Covid19, the festival was cancelled and therefore the editor of the magazine ended up running something in place of this wonderfully fun cover. Sniff. Sniff. Damn Coronavirus!
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
I always love working with Miller Lite. Their briefs are always so fun and challenging, and require lots of detail and texture. For this poster, the team asked me to illustrate a towering, mechanical robot-type character made up of wonderful music devices, instruments and leads as part of their generic music marketing campaign throughout the US territories. Drawing on reference from Steampunk, Transformers comics and the Jaegers of Pacific Rim, I created this badass-lookin’ Music Bot. Imagine this guy coming at you with all his trumpets blowing and speakers blearing?!?!? What would you do? Would you pack it in and run for your life? Or would you stay and boogie? boogie-on-down, I say!
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.
Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
For their FLOWER POWER issue, EMBER - A journal about Cannabis & Culture, and designed by the team at Paper Magazine, invited me to create an artwork (featuring hidden cannabis buds) that both represents the peace, love and happiness vibes of the 1960s/70s, and weed culture. The brief was pretty simple: Program the summer of 1969 into my super-duper-time-travel computer thingymajig and document everything that I see flash before my tripping eyes – turning it into a magical, LSD-fuelled, psychedelic image that captures the essence of a flower-powered cannabis high. Far out, man! This was a fun project. Peace out!
Navigation tips:
Scroll down to see more images.
Use the +/- buttons to move ahead to the next (or previous) gallery, or continue scrolling down to return to the thumbnails. Easy peasy, lemon squeezy!
A series of illustrated campaign posters to support a couple of Miller Lite’s Summer Festival events. These two artworks were created for the New Orleans Jazz Fest and NYC’s Gov Ball in the typical styling of ML’s creative guidelines, only using the brand blue, gold and red standard colours and rich with halftones and dynamic POVs.
The following typographic opener and spot illustrations were to support an 8-page feature in Popular Science magazine called BIG MACHINES OF SCIENCE. It's about the biggest machines in [science], which include massive man-made inventions (machines) like satellite arrays and the hadron collider.
The brief was to reference retro trading cards, the kind that came with a stick of gum, featuring 10 trading cards for each of the features chosen machines. The art was to look authentic 60s/70s in style and use a chosen colour theme. The result were these 10 mechanical marvels...
This is an illustration for The Ringer, with a portrait of the cult sci-fi writer Philip K. Dick to support an editorial piece about the legacy of PKD in 2017 around the release of Blade Runner 2049. The editorial was to compare Blade Runner to the book Do Androids Dream of Electric Sheep, and touch on The Man In the High Castle TV show. There were also mentions of movie adaptations of PKD’s books like Total Recall, A Scanner Darkly, and Minority Report.
With this as my brief, my art direction focused on PKD in a neo-tokyo, Blade Runner-esque setting complete with references to most of the film adaptations mentioned throughout the editorial piece in the background.
You can read the editorial piece here
For The Grip Of Film, iconic London publishers Faber & Faber contacted me to work closely with the writer/director Richard Ayoade (umm, a dream!!!) on his latest book cover, The Grip Of Film - a fictional A-Z novel written by Richard's alter-ego Gordy LaSure on the historical importance of The Action Hero and how in the hell film actually works. Richard's brief to me was simple: to create a likeness of him as if he were an 80s action man. Complete with torn sleeves and that cold - I could kill you with only my eyes - stare whilst gripping a handful of torn celluloid film, i.e. The Grip Of Film. But truthfully, I think I was secretly fulfilling Richard's dream of seeing oneself as a bulked-up male adonis! haha. It's safe to say that this was one of my favourite projects, ever! So I get to draw an action hero? check! And it's about film? check! What? Richard Ayoade is my subject matter?!? check, check, check!
Your can purchase the book here
As part of their ongoing world refugee awareness campaign, World Vision Australia invited me to respond to a series of short films that shared heart wrenching stories from child refugees about their experience of living day-to-day in crisis areas. My challenge: To create an illustrated poster that is a powerful piece of propaganda that could be exhibited, in print, and shared across social media with the hope that it captures the hearts, and help of many.
Art Rationale:
After watching all of the videos in the series (and crying, a lot), I came to the understanding that at such young ages, these children have lost their innocence. Through the constant bombing of their towns and having to flee their homes, to watching family members die right in front of them, each child has been forced to grow up too fast, too horrifically. It is this thought which gave me the inspiration to create the artwork INNOCENCE LOST. If you look closely, within the composition, you will find that all of the children toys featured within my illustration, in some way, reference a harmful device that causes harm, death and painful thoughts and feelings from a blown-up Barbie, to bullet-shaped crayons and a wounded teddy bear.
Playboy Magazine asked me to create a fun data graphic for their July issue in a new section called DRAWN DATA – a nice play on words! They had me at the pun. The brief was pretty straight-forward, but complex - to create a great visual using type and spot illustrations to get a lot of information across in a fun, non-conformative approach. Some of the stats and facts revolved around Independence Day and given that this issue was out around July 4th, I made this pretty patriotic in colour, most certainly with the playful Firework wielding Hot Dog at the graphic's centre. I had a lot of fun with this one. Thanks to Chris Deacon & Cat Auer for the fun brief!
This Summer (2016) I was commissioned by the lovely folks at Juniper Park/TBWA to create a visual advertising graphic for their client Miller Lite in lead up to current baseball sporting season. My job was to create a base illustration that could be customised to the branding of well-loved teams adding a touch of localisation to the campaign. Throughout the project I worked closely with Juniper Park making sure both the team colours, logos and Miller Lite's own branding was true to their respective brand guidelines. Hey batter, batter, batter, Saaaa-wing batter!
For the November 2015 issue of Little White Lies Weekly I illustrated the cover for The Hunger Games: Mockingjay Part 2 featuring a portrait of mega-babe-a-saurus Jennifer Lawrence. My inspiration behind the artwork was the 'propo' (propaganda) angle so heavily featured in Part 1 and early on in Part 2. I worked on the cover with my own contemporary spin on WWII Soviet-era style propaganda posters. C'mon, with Jennifer Lawrence leading the fight, tell me you wouldn't sign up?
Type, illustrations and layout (including icons) for WIRED Magazine UK who asked me to develop a 6 page feature section on 'Why The Block Chain Matters' - a story on bitcoin currency and the importance of digital currency protection. I personally find the whole digital currency movement a bit weird. Like with Monopoly money, it just doesn't seem real. You know? So for the styling, I went back in time almost to the beginning of money as we now know it and chose a late 18th century Jules Verne look. Steam punk dollar bills yo!
My groovy illustration of Joaquin Phoenix for Little White Lies Magazine issue 57 - INHERENT VICE, directed by the amazing Paul Thomas Anderson. The film stars Josh Brolin as BIGFOOT the detective and Joaquin Phoenix as a stoner private investigator on the search for his foxy girlfriend who goes missing at the hands of an elusive syndicate of bad dudes. Inspired by 1970s psychedelic wallpaper and hippy floral prints, I hand-illustrated and digitally coloured this portrait of Joaquin for the cover, who, almost blends into the background a little like his character in the film, a tripped-out wallflower. I mean, far out, man.
New York Pawn is a urban-inspired illustration for South African T-Shirt brand Mingo Lamberti and their limited-edition PAWN SHOP range. The brief was pretty simple, and open and so I chose to focus on a make-believe environment in which a pawn shop could (or would) exist. In my illustration I've tried to capture all the would-be dodgy references you’d find in and around a Pawn Shop in Brooklyn, New York including the basement adult video store and XXX peep show next door, to the scantily clad woman getting dressed in an upstairs apartment window to the classic american muscle car and alley cats. The shop itself is derelict, closed down, tagged with graffiti and covered in grime a relic of a time-gone-by. A wink to New York’s fading identity.
Dunlop Racing invited 3 illustrators to graphically interpret 3 key eras in the 100 year history of the famous 24 hour Le Mans endurance race. For the project I was asked to interpret the 1950s during which time the famous 'running start' was still an iconic part of the race. The cars would be lined up and the drivers would have to run across the track, into their cars, and then take off! For this poster, I chose to focus on this aspect. The finished illustration is a combination of hand-drawn and vector designed elements in a warm and summery mid-century colour theme.
Illustration of a gritty Oscar Isaac for Little White Lies Magazine issue 51 - INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS, directed by the one-and-only Coen Brothers. Starring Carrey Mulligan and Oscar Isaac (as Llewyn Davis) INSIDE LLEWYN DAVIS follows the story of a struggling folk musician during a bitter cold winter in 1960s Brooklyn. Inspired by 1950/1960s era music bill posters, I hand-illustrated, collaged and digitally coloured this portrait of Oscar for the cover. To this day, it remains my all-time favourite Little White Lies cover.
"This life is temporary but the soul is eternal". This powerful line of lyrics is from 'Thieves In The Night' - a recording by Yesin Bey (Mos Def) and Talib Kweli, together, known as Black Star. This typographic poster was originally illustrated for the group exhibition 'Rap Graphics' at 71A Gallery London as a collection of A2 posters inspired by the poetry of rap lyrics. Curated by influential London Film Director Ed Andrews, 12 influential illustrators & typographers were asked to interpret a line of lyrics from a pre-selected rap artist and into a poster combining illustration and type. Just a few of my favourite things...
Various illustrations for everyone's favourite tshirt brand and notorious prankster Johnny Cupcakes. I've had the pleasure to design a number of limited edition tee designs for JC and of all the projects I've ever worked on, these have been some of the most fun. Johnny's charming personality and overall attention-to-detail with his brand makes for a pretty great person to work with and the message is in the playfulness of these artworks. And, who doesn't love a good cupcake or two?
A selection of various type designs, experiments and letterforms from over the years. Some hand drawn, some vector, some a combination of both. What's your type?
