Design Jones

Portland based agency, Bureau of Betterment have created a “modular ‘patchwork’ design [which] spans easily from web and print to signage applications. Iconic illustrations speak to the natural diversity The Intertwine offers and accessible, playful language evokes the simple pleasure of being outdoors”.

Some really nice clean, open illustrations and great typography, find out more HERE.

(via DesignWorkLife)

Loved looking through the portfolio of Italian illustrator, Bombo AKA Maurizio Santucci today. In particular the paper cut pieces are fantastic. Lots of depth and personality – I’d love to see a behind the scenes video of how they are created especially some of the really complex pieces. You can visit his site ‘Bomboland’ HERE.

A glimpse into the creative process of author and artist Oliver Jeffers, focusing on his latest book ‘The Heart And The Bottle’.

THE HEART AND THE BOTTLE by Oliver Jeffers from Expanded Books on Vimeo.

It’s been a long time since I’ve posted anything, apologies for that. As well as some interesting freelance projects that have been keeping me very busy, this month sees the launch of a website and book project. Design Jones have been involved with creating both the cover and character illustrations throughout the book. You can find out more and view the new site HERE.

Loving the work of this Swedish illustrator, you can view his work HERE.

Last Friday I travelled down to London to hear one of my favourite artist, illustrator, authors… Oliver Jeffers. He was at the Association of Illustrators to talk about his career and approach to making picture books.

First of all this man has one of the greatest moustaches I have ever seen! But apart from that it was so inspiring to hear him discuss the way each of his books have come about and showcase some of his other work – the paintings and in particular a glimpse of some fantastic sketchbooks! I thought I’d share a few highlights from my notes.

• He fell in to children’s books almost by accident. Oliver had been trying to choose between a career in fine art and illustration and was always fascinated by the interaction of words and pictures. Picture books seemed to be the perfect medium so he created ‘How to Catch a Star’ as his final year project.
• He describes himself as a picture book maker not a writer & illustrator. He allows the words to be in formed by the pictures and vice-versa. This allows him a lot of freedom to avoid saying the obvious and avoid being too ‘cutesy’ or sentimental despite covering serious topics.
• He always set out to be proactive, authorial and almost entreprenuerial in order to avoid beconing the kind of illustrator that is simply a designer’s play thing. He always saw the boundaries between discilines such as fine art or design or typography as being unnecessary.
• Oliver stressed the importance of sketchbooks. He will often have one for each book project as well ones for fine art projects and another for random drawings mixed with shopping lists!
• “Never let the truth get in the way of a good story”
• Oliver wins work as much for the way he thinks as the way he draws!
• He was very clear about his job being to entertain rather than educate. His books appeal to both adults and children alike and that duality is certainly intentional – after all it’s the adults that have to read these books to their kids!
• Don’t confuse playing safe with being predictable. Take risks even though it’s a risky thing to do.
• Look everywhere and listen to all things.
• Draw what you like in the way you like to draw, how it feels right. Don’t try to emulate others.

Thanks Oliver! If you’d like to see more of Oliver Jeffers’ work click HERE.

Check out InspiredMag HERE for a showcase of “Strange but Absolutely Beautiful Illustration Portfolios”.

Just wanted to say a belated Happy Mother’s Day and share with you a print that Ray and I gave to Michelle aka ‘The Mothership’ yesterday!

“TypoFlat is a personal & experimental project of designer Branislav S. Cirkovic. A set of EPS fonts and vector files free to download and create with. It’s a really nice set of resources and you’re free to build on them and share the results. You can take a closer look HERE.

Dan Taylor is a Midlands-based illustrator specialising in children’s books. His latest, ‘Milo and the Moon Kangaroo’ will be available to buy on April 29th. I’ve worked with Dan for a good few years and love his approach, distinctive style and personality he injects into each of his pieces. We caught up with him recently to ask how he broke in to the industry and his plans for the future.

What are you’re influences at the moment?
I’d have to say a lot of Mid 20th century design, whether it be packaging design, animation, interior design or architecture from this period seems to filter into my work. Post war America is a subject I find fascinating, and I never tire of looking through books about this period. I’m a big fan of a European illustrator named Abner Graboff who created a lot of children’s books during this period that have a wonderful simplicity and still look fresh and inspiring today.
I also enjoy Looking at concept art from a lot of animation studios very inspirational, and it’s fascinating to see how characters are formed and and the worlds they inhabit developed.

What is the usual process you go through when creating an illustration?
Usually a lot of tea drinking and thumb twiddling to begin with!  Since having bought a new camera, I’ve recently got into photography, and I have enjoyed going out taking pictures, and then drawing characters directly onto these photos in Photoshop using a wacom tablet.  I personally sometimes find it helpful to draw characters inhabiting our world before you dream up an imaginary one!
Usually I sketch characters in a book when creating ideas or getting a feel for them.  Later on in the process I will trace the original sketches to get a more refined look and then scan them in and add colour digitally.  Sometimes scanning paintbrush marks or bits of old recycled card and fabric for texture.

How did you get into this industry?
During my time at university, I decided to enter The Macmillan Prize for children’s books – which was open to all UK art students nationwide.  I came Third in the competition with my entry “Mike and the Moon Kangaroo and then entered again the following year with “Mr Gloomy” which was commended and displayed in the exhibition. After the two awards, I figured I had a knack for it, and decided to pursue children’s books as a possible career.  After sending work off to different publishers, I had some interest from Macmillan, which didn’t really take off, but then received a phone call from Simon and Schuster who were interested in my work and wanted me to illustrate a story for them. I’ve since gone on to illustrate “Dogfish” by Gillian Shields which was featured on CBeebies Channel and shortlisted by Richard and Judy, and my re-written Macmillan entry “Milo and the Moon Kangaroo,” will also be published by Simon and Schuster in April.

What advice would you give to anyone wanting to do their own picture book or become an illustrator?
Do a lot of research into what’s out on the book market, visit bookshops take note of what’s selling and look at the current trends.  Make sure your characters and ideas are commercial too, unfortunately publishing is all about selling, and from my experience publishers aren’t keen on taking risks.  Once you have a portfolio of suitable characters and work, just keep sending work to different places. But remember to research publishers and the sort of books they sell… will your work be suited to them?  Try and chat to an editor first, by phone if you can or even arrange a possible meeting to show your work – and if you can’t get through, keep pestering until you do… don’t give up!  But remember to be patient too, publishing houses are busy places and they deal with lots of people submitting work. Another point is to be thick skinned and expect criticism, art directors can have a lot of opinions and you might not always agree with them!

Where do you want to be in 5 years?
Hopefully still writing and illustrating books!  It would be fantastic if I could create a character or story that could be developed into an animated series! I can only imagine how satisfying it would be to see your character come to life!

Thanks to Dan for taking the time to speak with us, we certainly wish him every success with his latest book – can’t wait to read it in full.