The Hand Drawn Creative Blog

Time for a Spring Clean

If you've not dropped by recently, you'll notice a few changes. I tend to get bored of my own logo pretty fast, so now & then I play around with things (just to keep my design muscles in check). At the minute I've got a real thing for black & orange as well as employing a new marque which is great fun and gets the illustration theme across. I've also get to roll out one of my favourite typefaces Square Meal from Font Diner

There's more to see on the Hand Drawn Creative website where I've also been updating my various portfolios with some exciting new pieces.

Good Espresso, Sharp Pencils & Sunshine

We've had good weather lately in N. Ireland. Quite a rare occurrence around these parts, so I've been taking advantage of it by revving up my stovetop espresso maker in the mornings, sharpening up a nice old 2B and taking a little time to doodle outdoors. You know what they say – make hay while the sun shines.

  

A Good Day…

I've been eagerly awaiting the opening of Shawn Stussy's new clothing enterprise for quite a while now. And once the  s/double online store was up & running in April, I made sure I was one of the first to get my orders in. I plumped for this smart hoody and tee shirt…

My new kit arrived today and very comfy it is too. But what made the delivery really worth the wait was the personal, hand written note attached to the tee…

If you know anything about skate, surf & b-boy culture over the last 30 years, then you'll recognise the handwriting instantly. This is going in a frame, without a doubt! Like I said, today is a good day.

Back to the Old School…

I've recently enrolled on a screenprinting course at a Print Workshop near my new place on the the recommendation of an old friend. It's the first time I've signed up to anything vaguely educational for a very long time, but two classes in, I've got to say I'm really enjoying myself. It's a creative endeavour I've promised I'd undertake for a few years now and learning the principles of  printing by hand is really making me think hard about the creative process as a whole. Here are a few snaps from the workshop to show how I'm progressing – I'll be selling a few of my efforts on the store real soon. I'll make sure to keep you all notified…

 

  
 

Alex Chilton R.I.P.

I've always been a confirmed Big Star fan, so I was shocked to hear of Alex Chilton's recent passing. I've put together this typographic piece by way of a memorial to the great man using lyrics from one of my favourite Big Star songs "The India Song".

 
I've recently started studying screenprinting and this is the piece I'm using to work with in the print workshop, so I'll post up some images to show progress from the Mac to finished print.

Don't call it a Comeback…

So I’m back then – it’s been a good move for us to get out of Greater Belfast and along the coast into the heart of Bangor, North Down. We’ve got more space for baby (and business) to grow and we’re surrounded by tranquil parks, beautiful gardens and bracing seaside walks – all very inspirational stuff. Hand Drawn Creative has very much been on hiatus the last month or so while we’ve been getting our house in order, but I’ve popped together a few examples of projects I’d been working on before our relocation.

Client: My Tour Talk

 

 

Client: Innovation Ulster

 

Client: Mark Thompson Design

 

 

Gotta keep on keepin' on…

 Some of you may or may not know that my family and I have been searching for a new home for quite some time, two years in fact. We put our house up for sale long before Hand Drawn Creative became an ongoing concern and quite some time before our daughter Melissa was even thought of!

Over the last few years we've explored the possibility of moving to Melbourne, Cambridge, even as far away as California, but destiny obviously had other things in mind for us. As a business, Hand Drawn Creative is flourishing (that explains the lack of blogging this year) and one thing self employment in my chosen field has taught me is; that these days, it really doesn't matter where you work from – if the finished product is good enough, people will come calling.

With all this in mind (as well as in infant daughter to contend with) we'll be sticking to Northern Ireland for a little while yet, Bangor to be precise. It's close to the sea (plenty of positive ions) and not too far from grandparents either. We should be moved in and settled and ready to start working properly again by early April.

I'll keep you all up to speed with everything (new addresses etc.) as Spring continues.

Reasons to be Cheerful…

 

Hooray! Daddy Website now live…

I've been running this blog for well over a year now and have been putting off designing the official HDC Portfolio Website for almost as long! Mainly for two reasons:

A. I wasn't certain this venture would last very long, so blogging is a cheap, low risk way to represent myself online
B. I know virtually nothing about web design!

Luckily, I was approached by web wizard Norbert Laposa around November last year, who kindly offered to help me out with a neat little folio site. In return I've been working on some Corporate Identity work for Norbert's Onxshop project. It's turned out to be a mutually beneficial partnership for both of us and I'm very happy with the results. Here's the finished Onxshop identity I've completed for Norbert:

 

Don't get me wrong, I love blogging – it's still the best way to keep you all up to speed with my latest endeavours. But an official branded website can really help me win some new clients (in fact I've already had some serious offers of work through it). I'll keep you all up to speed with fine tuning to the new site as well as new email addresses etc. 

Greetings from North Down…

Hey Guys, just keeping you up to speed with a little project I'm dabbling with. I've produced a short run of Greetings Cards featuring my Illustrations – what do you think? Each one is up for sale on my Etsy Store for $4.00 each, I've had a couple of sales already, but I'm just wondering whether I should invest in a larger print run? Feel free to leave comments and by all means take a look at other exciting new prints I have for sale.