The Hand Drawn Creative Blog

Hoorah! New Illustration

Here's another lovely new vector image I've rustled up in my spare time. I have plans for this one too. I'll keep you all up to speed very soon.

Backfield in Motion…

Here's a great illustration brief I've just completed for the good people at front 9 technologies in Buffalo NY.They're currently designing a new American Football app for the iphone and naturally  enlisted yours truly for character illustration duties. Here's the finished result. My wife likes this one a lot (not sure why though). I'll post links to the finished app as soon as it's up on itunes.

Artwork for sale

In case you missed my emailer & tweets on Friday morning, I have a handful of new prints available on my Etsy store. Business has been rather brisk, so I'll be replacing depleted stock very soon. Well what are you waiting for… go and have good look around.

New HDC Mascot (or, How I learned to stop worrying & love my job!)

Hey there guys, if you live in Northern Ireland or the UK in general, you must have noticed how crappy the summer weather has been this summer. Bad for playing frisbee – good for flexing some creative muscle! The appalling Bank Holiday weather has given me plenty of time indoors to fiddle with my brand image. As well as tweaking the old header up at the top, I've taken a leaf out Illustrator Scott Jackson's book and drawn up my own Web Mascot. Whaddaya think?

I've worked in design & advertising offices for years and have created hundreds of clean, corporate logos using razor sharp sans serif typefaces in Pantone 280 blue They always looked cool, collected & most importantly very, very  serious & businesslike. I guess that's why I love working with my own HDC brand so much – it's the polar OPPOSITE of all those logos. I hope it portrays everything Hand Drawn Creative stands for; irreverence, good fun, a love of great design & illustration… and NOT TAKING IT SO SERIOUSLY!

Sunday Sketch Sessions

I love doodling at the weekend. Some of my sofabound sketches make it to the Mac. This one is a work in progress which I thought I'd share with you. I may be using this illlustration in future projects.

Fame at Last!

As you may already know, I recently completed a series of illustrations for Sheffield's GB Eye. I believe the poster is doing brisk business and you should be able to find copies in most major high street music stores like HMV or FOPP.  And that, should be that really, just sit back and wait for the odd royalty cheque to come in. Imagine my surprise then, when GB Eye contacted me last week to ask for clearance for the poster to be used in a movie!

Yup, my illustrations will be appearing as part of the set decoration in Mike Leigh's latest film which is currently in production in London. So maybe I'm not quite walking down the red carpet, but it'll be fun seeing my work in a movie by an internationally renowned Director. If you're not familiar with the name; Mike Leigh is responsible for films such as Vera Drake, Life is Sweet, Naked and Secret & Lies. He made his name in the 1970s, writing memorable television plays like Nuts in May and Abigail's Party.

The folks on set were kind enough to mail a pic of the poster on set. So remember to keep 'em peeled when you go to see the film in cinemas.