Paper V Pad

I was talking to someone yesterday about the digital portfolios and old school physical ones. I’ll be honest, I really don’t miss dragging one of those big black leather portfolios around with me, but I do miss having something tactile to show. I’ve been at this designing lark for so long, i used to paint prints in gouache and colour my fashion illustrations with pantone pens. I miss the slight smell of spray mount (god knows i don’t miss spray booths and slightly crunchy arms from a day of cutting out and mounting boards), mixed with pantone and new plastic insert sleeves. I even miss those annoying black paper sheets that you could never get back in if you took them all the way out.

Afterwards I had a look through some of my really old work, stuff I did in watercolour paints for Esprit Baby, how I miss all that! Then there was scribbling onto tipex sheets to get texture and oil pastels and metallic gold pens.

Maybe it’s time to step away from photoshop, get some back to basics, produce work that is great because of it’s blemishes, it’s happy accidents, not it’s perfection.

Memories of Summer

The rain is currently lashing against my studio window one minute and the sun is beaming through the next… I’m hoping this is a sign that winter is starting to lose the battle to spring. It seems a long way off into the distance until we will be back in the heady days of summer.

This little girls high summer story I designed for Uttam Kids was inspired by memories of growing up in the 70s, playing in my grandparents garden, summer holidays where we explored country lanes with little cottages covered in roses.

As I worked on the prints, a slight Clarice Cliff influence started to emerge, I went with it on the garden print as it felt right. But then where did the 70s get it’s inspiration from after all?