Winning Portfolios

I was recently informed by Cath Caldwell a lecturer at Central Saint Martins that my work had been featured in her new book 'Winning Portfolios for Graphic Designers' which has just been released for sale in the United States and Canada.

I had given Cath permission to photograph my portfolio after its submission for final assessment at the end of my last year at CSM, and my work is featured on pages 16 and 73 as examples of how designers and illustrators can bring their work to life through illustrated books.

The featured work includes my picture book documenting the final days of Woolworths (Page 16) and my Grapes of Wrath (by John Steinbeck) illustrated storybook, which took selected paragraph's from the book and coupled them with illustrations to help tell the story. (Page 73) Also included on this page is one of my sketchbooks from another final project and the sleeve that I enclosed my original paintings for the Grapes of Wrath storybook within.

Cath very kindly sent me a free copy of the book, that funnily enough will be added to my Portfolio!

The book is available to buy in the UK from Amazon:
Winning Portfolios book

High Fidelity Book Jacket Design

I recently decided that for my next self initiated Illustration project I wanted to mock up a selection of book Jackets for some of my favourite books, High Fidelity by Nick Hornby is one of these!

There is something very cool about the idea of owning a record store and Hornby really emphasises this in High Fidelity! I've always been a little fascinated with Old stores with deep history, and Record store's fall into this category. I decided to experiment with the idea of the front exterior of 'Championship Vinyl' (Rob's record store in the book) and see how I could make it work as the front cover.

Playing around with imagery and sketches I have collected, I created the exterior to the shop, giving it the kind of run down feel that all good record stores are attributed with. In the front window, hang various records from Rob's Top 5's. (This is also incorporated onto the outdoor sign infront of the store!) Above the storefront, held up by scaffolding is an over sized vinyl, with the books title in its centre.
I decided that the jacket should be a wrap around, to give a little more information about the stores location within Islington, London. I created a wooden fence, with a local estate behind it, also on the fence sits an advertising hoarding, which features the slogan from the book "Championship Vinyl: Everything for the serious Record Collector!"

I'm happy with how the jacket turned out, and look forward to hopefully posting some more designs for some of my other favourite books up here soon!

London Olympic Stadium

I recently had the opportunity to take a tour of the 2012 London Olympics construction site, and got some great sketches and photographs of the Olympic Stadium.
It's been given a fair amount of negative press over the years, but now that it's nearing completion, and having the chance to see it up close, I think it is a very elegant example of sustainable architecture.

Above is an illustration that I have composed of the stadium, focusing on the different interweaving angles that build up the structure. The Olympic rings float above it in the sky, signaling the stadiums impending completion.