This week i have mostly...

Yay its Friday!!! Not that i have anything special planned for this weekend but it'll just be nice not to be at my computer 24/7. Although i'm sure i won't be able to resist doing some work and checking my inbox for emails - seeing as i've apparently developed on obsession with doing this lately.
Anyway this week i have mostly been designing logos. Two logos to be precise and i would lie to share them with you.

I was given the brief to produce a logo for a start-up business based in Florida called 'I Hope You Never Need It.com'. It will be a sister company to an already well established business there called 'Florida Flame'.
It is still under development but the basis of the company is a bag which contains everything you may need in an emergency situation - such as a mobile phone, water bottle, a bit of money - that kind of thing. The idea is that if you need to get out of the house fast and you don't have time to pack anything, such as in the event of an earthquake, tornado, fire, etc you can just grab this bag by the door and go. Its mainly for places in the world which suffer from a lot of natural disasters. Seeing as these seem to be occurring a lot lately they'll be a very welcome new product.

So with the business plan in mind i came up with the idea of basing my design around the fire exit 'running man' icon to get the message of across of an emergency situation across. It was quite tough coming up with a design which would be visually interesting and convey the message, but i think this works well.

Next up is a logo for a new handmade jewellery business called 'Forever After...' offering gorgeous vintage inspired pieces by Hollie Cable.
Hollie was very clear on the design she wanted - a blue bird on a crooked branch with a necklace hanging from it.










You can visit Forever After... jewellery on Facebook .
Hollie is currently in the process of setting up an Etsy shop so soon you'll be able to buy her lovely products from there too. I also created an Etsy banner from the logo design:





Well have a happy Friday everyone. I'm off to work on an illustration that has been bursting to get out of my head and onto paper for ages.

New illustrations

It occurred to me that i haven't posted any of my most recent work up on the old blog so i thought I better get onto it.

Tree House Retreat. This first image was in my head for ages before i finally had the chance to get it onto paper. There are two versions with different colour schemes, one representing Spring/Summer and one Autumn. This is basically because i couldn't decide which i liked best. The spring one was 1st (how appropriate), then i started messing about with the colours and came up with the Autumn version. Anyway i'll stop wittering... here they are:


My second new illustration is the Home Sweet Home image. This wasn't an idea i had in my head for ages, instead it just popped in there one day and said 'let me out!'. Although part of me was reluctant to give it an airing, as it was an image which would (or should) by its very nature include birds and i'm sorry, but i for one am sick to death of seeing and producing illustrations/designs featuring birds as they're ten to the dozen. I love birds and yes the designs almost always look fab, but i strive to create images that are totally out of the ordinary.

Anyway i succumbed and to be semi true to myself i avoided putting a bird in the main part of the image and instead concentrated my energies on making the bird house as perfect as possible. So here it is:

It struck me after finishing this illustration that much of my work of late has trees in. Its really strange as this isn't something i've set out to do purposefully its just kind of snuck in there.
Its fair to say i do like trees a lot and maybe feel i was somehow deprived in my childhood by not having a treehouse. So much so that I've been making suggestions to my other 1/2 that we should make a trip to Kyloe woods in Northumberland, pick a tucked away tree and start getting to work on building a treehouse. I'm sure no one would ever care. But he's not convinced and neither am i after he told me about this story: http://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/uknews/2117951/Boy-ordered-to-tear-down-treehouse-over-planning-permission-row.html

I guess its just not meant to be, so i'll just continue to make treehomes in my head :)
I've another couple of ideas for illustrations brewing in my teapot of a head. I can't guarantee that they won't have trees in but i can say that there will be many more to come as i've now gone full-time as a freelance illustrator, so i'll have more time to let my imagination run wild.

Thanks for listening.