Walk the Line...

We were contacted by the illustrator Estelle Morris last week, and from the many portfolios we receive, her fluid, off-beat and slightly abstract work caught our eye in particular.

There's a spontaneity to her pieces which grabs hold of real-life moments, and her blog showcases some of her as-they-happen drawings from walking around Cambridge, where she's based, to a Sunday afternoon at the pub.

Estelle uses a combination of hand-drawing and digital colour-blocking to create her collage-inspired pieces, which have a freshness mixed with modern-day motifs.

Estelle currently works as a freelance illustrator, and her work has been submitted as part of Amelia's Magazine, (a great supporter of emerging illustrators), as well as illustrations for events and promotions in London to Brighton.

We'll be launching our first newsletter in a couple of weeks time, and amongst all our up-coming news, we will have an extended feature on Estelle with an interview to find out a bit more about her, her inspirations, motivations, and plans for the future. This won't feature anywhere else, so if you want to find out more, simply hit subscribe...

Paper Cuts...

A new designer-maker to welcome to the fold is Polly Tucknott, a London-based teacher who has always been creative, with a particular interest in fairy-tales and far-away lands.

Experimenting whilst drawing, led her to cut her designs out of paper, and naturally her interest took a lean towards screen-printing.

As an introduction to Polly's work featuring in our shop, we have a step-by-step series of photos showing the process she uses to create her delicate designs...

Quick sketches

Checking scale and proportion

Adding detail

The completed design

The cutting process

Exposed onto silk screen

Transfered onto material

Finishing touches

Ta-da!

Polly's whimsical work has been translated onto a series of silk and vintage lace cushions, which will be available to buy from the shop very soon... 

University Press...

A big thanks this week to Wolverhampton University for featuring our Pop-up exhibition on their blog, with a special mention to one of their alumni Kayleigh Hadley...

The University has posted about us before, so we are very flattered to have been included for a second time to celebrate the achievements of one of their former students, as well as the other designers involved.

The full article is available to view here

Sugar and Spice...

One of the things we love about what we do is pushing the promotion of our designers as much as possible. Exposure through our blog, shop or exhibition is always great, and then a few weeks ago we were contacted by the award-winning design company Brinkworth. 



Having known the guys at Brinkworth for a number of years, they were looking for an illustrator who's work they could use to grace the walls in a new Indian restaurant project they were finalising the design for.








We instantly thought of Ben Phe as the perfect addition to a modern Indian establishment, as his intricate illustrations on both paper and glass, have a certain ethnic quality to them. Brinkworth were looking for a quick turnaround, so we put them in touch with Ben, so he could arrange a selection of his prints to be used.



The restaurant in question was Cinnamon Soho, the newest addition to the Cinnamon brand owned by Vivek Singh, with previous restaurants Cinnamon Club and Cinnamon Kitchen already established eateries.











The moody interior with a few flashes of colour provide the perfect back-drop to Ben's work, the first of many walls we hope his detailed pieces will be on show for all to see...

And the winner is...

A couple of weeks ago we launched a competition to win our first limited edition canvas bag, plus a £10 voucher to spend on-line at Look Like Love...we asked who we had chosen to grace the bag itself from the six designers taking part in the Pop-up, and the answer is CM Carter.

We looked at several illustrations for the final bag design, but felt the piece from CM Carter not only best represented us, and our collaboration with The HouseWith, it looked pretty cool too!

Everyone with the correct answer was put into a hat and the winner picked at random, and we are pleased to announce that Amelia Irta is the winner! Well done Amelia, we will be sending the bag, and £10 voucher this week, as well as a set of the designer postcards produced for the Pop-up itself.

But don't be disappointed, we have the bags for sale on-line right now for the bargain price of £5!
Head over to the shop to pick up your own limited edition bag, or if you are in South London over the next couple of weeks, we have them available to buy directly from the Pop-Up...

Animal Magic...

We might be heading off to places in the sun, but we still keep a look out for any talent that catches our eye, it's been a long time, and we are excited to get back to showcasing one such designer.

Julia Kisselmann is a designer who graduated last year from the University of Bedfordshire in Illustration. Her work leans towards nature, with a hand-drawn aesthetic, and a bold use of colour and scale.

We particularly like pieces from her Transmutation collection, where animals themselves cross-over into nature, and the exploration of flora and fauna become intertwined.

With the creation of her brand, and business in mind, her creativity doesn't wane, and its great to see a range of strong products being built around a true talent...

Just New...

A new year always brings a sense of optimism, a fresh set of challenges, a new creative project, an energised and motivated approach, and for us this is no different.

We start though with bringing back our showcase of some of the great, and the good work that goes on out there by graduates and part-time designers...

Art School Disco are an illustrative collective based in the UK is made up of six designers that each take their own style, and apply that to a new theme each week.

Made up of Ben Phe, (we featured his work back in August in 'Just Super Cool...') Simon Abbott, Ed Brown, Johnny Ace, Keiron LeVine, and Katie Allen, their individual interpretation makes their blog an eclectic mix of creativity, sometimes a little quirky, and maybe even crazy at times.

There's a definite sense of a dark undertone, and a touch of morbid humour with some of the works, but this all adds to the appeal for us, and showcases pure creative vision at it's experimental best...                             

I would go out tonight...

We're really excited to be featuring work by CM Carter on the shop, and for all you lucky lot, here's a preview of the collection of prints which will be available to buy in a few weeks time...

In an homage to Morrissey, CM Carter had taken lyrics and interpreted them into illustrated pieces of art. Our personal favourite, 'I haven't got a stitch to wear...' but we kind of what all of them, but will resist!

There will be five different prints available in all, here are three to whet your appetite!

Nature vs. Nurture...

We've been having a little less time than usual on the blog over the last couple of weeks, things have been pretty hectic juggling our full-time day jobs & the imminent launch of our on-line shop, but somehow we are still managing to function...just! Our to-do list may be growing, but our commitment to our likes & loves continues...

Now it may not be immediately apparent that we have showcased the next graduates work before, but when we met with Liva Cabule last week, it was obvious her talent doesn't fit under any one genre. We featured her fashion illustration back in July, & loved the darker side to her interpretations, but her other work has a much more considered approach using block colour & stylised graphics, it reminded us very much of the work of Saul Bass. (The 50's & 60's from furniture to print, being another love of ours!)

We are very excited & pleased to say that we will be featuring some of her work in the shop, from the one-off illustrated book you see above, to limited edition screen-prints, which will be revealed at our launch...

The bold & the beautiful...

Now it might be a typical British Summer day out there, cold, grey & the heaviest rain, but to brighten the spirits we have to introduce you to Annie Rickard Straus. She was brought to our attention by a friend, & we were lucky enough to have a very quick chat with her whilst she was busy working on-site last week on a commission.

As I'm sure you are well aware, anything with either a bit of colour or sparkle tends to catch our eye, & Annie ticks the colour box in this instance. We like her confidence & boldness when it comes to her large-scale murals, as well as the smaller illustrative pieces adding an intimate approach.

Annie told us about her work being on display at Look Mum No Hands this Friday where an exhibition entitled, 'Art Crank' a poster party for bike people is taking place. We are hoping to pop by ourselves, without the bikes I have to add...

Just Super Cool...

We are busy in the midst of pencilling meetings in with a selection of our showcased graduates, & we've had such an amazing response, we can't wait to share our 'soft launch' with you all... 

But our work must go on, & today's recent graduate Ben Phe's work was actually introduced to us through a friend, who is collaborating on a project with him at the moment. Well of course, we had to check out his site, & absolutely love his illustration style and approach, (Ben works on glass).

Again feeding into our love of colour & a touch of humour, these pieces had to take pride of place on the blog this week, enjoy...

A Typographic Lyricist...

Last, but by know means least this week, comes the work of graphic design graduate Kayleigh Hadley. We absolutely loved her hand-made type pieces on display at the recent D&AD New Blood exhibition. Especially in a world completely awash with digital representations, Kayleigh's passion for keeping it real is evident in every stroke of her fine-liner. They are rebellious & cheeky & we love it...!

More than Skin Deep...

University of Bedfordshire graduate Liva Cabule had a great collection of pieces that caught our eye on display at D&AD New Blood, unfortunately we didn't get to me Liva, but having picked up her card, & delving through her website, we had to share some of her lovely fashion illustration with you...

We love the fluidity & softness to the illustrations, but there also feels like a harder edge & darker undertone at work with them too, which makes them much more intriguing...

I'm sweet enough...

We had a lovely chat with graduate Olivia Askaroff, and we had to show the real diversity she displays in her work. 

On show at D&AD New Blood was a small book she had created filled with obscure words, each page pain-stakingly made by hand to include a pull out for each letter of the alphabet...we also loved her 'Counterbet' poster on display, which looked at the negative space created when the letters are removed...and last, but by no means least, was a piece found on her website. A lovely book called 'Sweet Tooth'. Olivia has a food intolerance, which means she can't have anything with sugar in it. She decided to immortalise all the sweet treats she loves, but can't eat, creating this book of gold screenprinted illustrations...they are every-day beautiful...