The Hand Drawn Creative Blog

Another Interview

I seem to popping up everywhere these days. This interview was published a few weeks back in the Belfast Telegraph's Business section. Nice to be asked – and finally a bit of local exposure. Props to Chris Harrison for the PR here.

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.

Say Hello to Mini Mac...

After a seemingly unending pregnancy, the fledgling McCullough family welcomed it's latest arrival at 4.45am this morning, an 8lb 1oz. bonny, baby girl! Like I say, julie & I are barely married a year and we were expecting to wait a long time for kids, but destiny clearly has different ideas for us! Mother and daughter are doing remarkably well following a relatively swift 5.5 hour labour in an exclusive birthing pool in the Ulster Hospital. Right then, I'm off to wet the baby's head properly with a Guinness! See y'all soon.

Obamarama…

A hearty congratulations to our colonial cousins on their choice of President Elect, an excellent race was run by the Democrats and the always ice cool Mr Obama. I can't help but think how much they were helped by excellent design choices - that fantastic roundel, great, clean sans serif typography and the work of great designers like Shepard Fairey, Scott Hansen and Lance Wyman who, as you can see below, produced some truly iconic poster designs for this successful campaign.

Good Times – Bad Times

I always seem to find time to listen to Radio 4's Today Programme in the morning, it can be pretty heavy stuff at 6 in the morning (especially in these economically turbulent times). Luckily there was a shaft of sunlight in the form of author Jonathan Franzen.
Franzen was referring to the current global financial crisis, and, instead of the usual doom-mongering the BBC are fond of broadcasting, came an inspiring message; "We're entering some bad times financially, but maybe some good times creatively and artistically"

Seems like a good credo to me.

Incidentally, Jonathan was initially being interviewed about Charlie Brown – it's well worth a listen.

Unfortunately the next article was all about the death of blogging. Not what I needed to hear the day after I've started my own!