And then I went for a run…
Sean Conway is an extreme endurance adventurer and the first man to cycle, swim and run the length of Britain.
I first heard about Sean through my Dad who showed me a documentary about him taking on the challenge of running from John O’Groats to Lands End. As an ultra runner myself I took a particular interest to Sean’s story and challenges so have continued to follow his journey ever since.
When I saw that Sean was running a book competition I knew I had to enter, as it combines both my love of design and running in one! I haven’t done much hand lettering work in a while and felt this would be the perfect opportunity to get back to it and rekindle my love of creating pieces by hand. Sean’s unique and quirky character lends itself perfectly to this style and allowed me the freedom of expressing his personality through the type.
The process I took for this project started with researching similar style book covers then sketching out the covers in pencil before tracing these and neatening with pen on the light box. These were then scanned in and digitalised on the computer adding colour, texture and typography.
2018-02-09
Show me a sign (Part 2)
This weekend I went back up to my old university to run the second half of my awesome hand lettering workshop, Show me a sign, with the other half of the second year Lincoln Graphic Design students.
I started off by speaking about the history of signage, sharing examples of hand lettering that inspire me and showing some of my own work. The students were then set the task of creating their own signs. Some began researching for more inspiration while others went straight to pen and paper to work out some ideas and experiment. This time the theme of the workshop focused around food and drink items and looked at representing a quality of that item through the typographic style and illustrative technique. There were some lovely end results and some great play on words including 'Low-Cal Zone, Calzone'.
The students engaged well with the task and there was a variety of exciting pieces created. I really look forward to seeing what the students have to offer in the future and also to going along to the third year end of year show in May with Natasha! (We will be taking advantage of the free booze!)
2015-02-17
Aldwych – The Secret Station
One evening over the weekend I went on a tour of the disused Aldwych tube station; run by the London Transport Museum. The disused stations of London have often been thought of mysterious places, holding memories and secrets of London's forgotten lives. These tours do not run very often and it is a rare experience to be able to visit the hidden location with its original features and boosting some lovely old posters and signage throughout.
Aldwych, or Strand station as it was previously known, opened in 1907 and was shut in 1994. Throughout its history the station has been used for many things such as a Blitz shelter in the wars, a place for storage of museum artefacts, a space for emergency planning and most recently for TV and film productions, such as The Prodigy's video for 'Firestarter'.
One of the two platforms the station hosted was previously used to test different paint, glue and tile techniques to be rolled out onto the network's underground stations, it was lovely to see the variety of these techniques and spot the ones still in use today.
2015-02-09
The act of cooking meat over fire
Over the past few months I have been working on an illustrative hand lettering project for a small pop-up food company called 'Braaicycle'. They cater South African BBQ food at weddings, private and small to medium events, markets, intimate dos and really anywhere or anything a bike with a barbecue can go!
The process started back in October when Jules (the owner) approached me about doing some designs for the bike after a friend, Sam from Mystery Meat, kindly recommended me. The idea is to start with just one bike with future plans to roll out designs onto more bikes; each with a design done by a different artist.
Jules mentioned he was fond of my lettering work I had done previously, so this was the basis of my design. I then added illustrative elements to reinforce the kind of food products they would be selling with bright colours and complimentary blues creating a friendly but sophisticated feel.
The past few months have seen me travel over to East London every weekend to a small garage in Homerton to paint the bike. With a little help from my assistant Jess and protection and man power from Nathanuel the bike is nearly at completion.
There has been a lot to learn from this process, including working outdoors in the elements to adjusting to using different paints and techniques. I can't wait to see the bike whizzing around London in the Spring/Summer time. Make sure you pick up some BBQ delights if you spot it!
2015-01-14
Show me a sign
Last week I visited my old university to carry out a talk and workshop on hand lettering. I graduated from Lincoln three years ago now and it was strange being back, the building I did the workshop in was completely new, clean and modern unlike the 'art school-esque' one that I was taught in. Barrie, my former tutor, met me from the reception area early in the morning, where after I had a brief tour of the new facilities and then set up in preparation for the morning session.
I introduced myself and a brief history of hand lettering, followed by how designers are using it in current practice and how I use it in my own work. There were about twelve second years in the first group, I asked them all to pick a word or letter that represented a part of their personality and to paint it. They could either sketch the piece out by hand or go onto the computers to help design this initially, then to paint it and use illustrative techniques to bring their chosen word or letter to life.
After a Nandos, that decided to take forever and mean I was late, I started on the second afternoon session. The group was bigger and seemed a lot more lively. Interestingly more people opted for designing the pieces on the computer. There were some lovely pieces that started to emerge towards the end of the session after everybody had settled into it a lot more. It was also great to see that some people who didn't finish in the workshop completed it at home.
Hopefully the students will look at using more hand lettering in their work and realise the potential of combining both digital and traditional methods. I am going back up to Lincoln hopefully in February to do the workshop with the other half of the year.