Hand Lettered Illustrations for Nebianax plus Journaling Addict

I was excited to work on this challenging job for Mass Agency, creating hand lettered illustrations for a brochure for Nebianax, a new treatment for Cystic Fibrosis.

Attention to detail and constant revision helped me build up a series of word as image illustrations to get across the problems related to the illness. 

The restricted colour palette and clean design work well as a foil to the intricately expressive imagery. You can see the rest of illustrations, along with a larger detail view, on my portfolio.

Journaling Addict

Since the beginning of year, I've been enjoying playing around with imagery in a series of journals, which I post sporadically on my dedicated RR Mapmaker FB and IG pages. A chance to flex my hand skills and experiment with new media, it's great fun and an opportunity to hook up with people with similar interests. Head over to my online accounts if you'd like to see more of the work ...

Save Kids Lives Poster

I love it when my work supports a good cause, so when Scholastic contacted me to work on a poster for Save Kids Lives, I jumped at the chance.

Scholastic, Safe Kids Worldwide, and its partners invite families to help keep kids safe on the road. More than 500 children die every day in traffic crashes and thousands more are injured. This inventive new campaign offers parents and teachers information and advice to highlight the problem to policymakers by writing letters and posting #safies or selfies online. The sites include family action packs and curriculum-focused road safety awareness lessons amongst a wealth of other helpful information.

My part in the campaign was to design and illustrate a poster for inclusion on both parent and teacher sites. Entitled, Our Declaration for Global Road Safety, its aim is both to appeal to and speak out for children. I wanted to keep it upbeat with bright, eye-catching colours and had fun combining naive letterforms, stencilling and textures with simple spot illustrations. A pdf of the poster is available to download on both parent and teacher sites.

If you have a minute, support the cause and sign the Child Declaration to help keep our kids safe on the roads.

Ruth Rowland Interview

This month I was interviewed by my agent, Illustration Ltd. We discuss how I became interested in hand lettering, starting out in the record industry, the creative chaos of my East London studio and secret obsessions! The interview also includes a free download of the specially designed poster you can see below.

If you like to read the entire interview, they've posted it on their site here.

Mapping the Dolomites

I was delighted to be commissioned to illustrate a map for the American Automobile Association, AAA Traveler Magazine.

The article describes a drive through the beautiful Dolomite mountains in Italy. Small spot illustrations mark the main towns along the way and the loose brush lettering was also used throughout the copy as a visual link between word and image.

I've travelled to Italy frequently over the last few years and was delighted to explore an area of it that's new to me - now I just need to visit!

You can see more of my maps on my image>maps folder on my portfolio site.

Wishing you a Happy Valentine's Day!

This design is for a gift card for sale in Europe this Spring. You can see more of my greeting cards in the image>greeting folder on my portfolio site.

Get the festive spirit with Ruta 40!

Ruta 40 is a supplier of Argentinean boutique wines, all sourced from small and independent bodegas connected by the legendary road. I was asked by the Ruta 40 team to develop a logo to reflect this exciting new venture.

Ruta 40 is the name of the longest road in Argentina. From La Quiaca in the north to Punta Loyola at the southern Atlantic coast, it crosses every significant wine making region in the country and was the inspiration behind the visual work. My client wanted the logo to capture something of the raw beauty and energy of the landscape combined with their own drive and passion for the wine.

Along with the logo, I was asked to provide a set of imagery that could be used alongside it to unify the brand. The starkly beautiful landscape dictated my approach to the illustrations - rough, grainy pen marks for an earthy, textural quality and erratic, organic line work for the twining vines and mesmerising sun.

You can see more of my packaging work and logos on my website.

Meshminds Interview

I was recently interviewed about my work by Meshminds.com.

Meshminds is a support network for artists based in Southeast Asia and the UK. If you're interested in reading the interview or would like to know more about the site's aims click here.

One of the images featured is a personal piece inspired by the song Wild Thing by the Troggs. I started my career as a lettering artist in the 1980s working mostly for the music industry. My personal work is usually inspired by either music or literature and I always like to have a project on the go that I work on between commissioned jobs. You can see some of this work in my image>text folder.

If you're a student or would just like to know how I started out - you can read more about it in an article I posted on my blog last year. I've also been asked to present a talk about my work here in London in the Spring - I'll give more details nearer the time!

Mapping the World

Recently I've been asked to illustrate some maps. This is a relatively new area of work for me and something I'm enjoying immensely. Maps allow me to combine my interests in lettering and illustration with my love of travel.

The Wall Street Journal Asia asked me to produce an illustrated map for their latest City Walk article for the colourful city of Mumbai. These maps involve quite a bit of research - luckily I'm helped by the journalists in situ who will answer questions and send images of anything I can't find online - between us we aim to capture the flavour of the city. The article it illustrates describes a walk through the city streets and I'm asked to read through the copy, pulling out any places I'd like to illustrate while highlighting the street names on the route. An image from the map is used on the second page of the article, I chose to develop the Joy Shoes illustration - somewhere I'd definitely like to shop!

The second map was commissioned by Food and Travel Magazine - two of my favourite subjects. This is a much simpler design for their current pull-out magazine on Flanders. I enjoyed playing around with the fresh colours and open textures on this one. It will be printed quite small so it needed to be clear enough to be legible at a small size.

Two maps with very different solutions!

Happy Valentine's Day!

Valentine's Day falls on February 14th here in the UK and to celebrate I have a card on sale in Waterstones, Selfridges and Harrods. 30 pence from each sale is donated to the Kiss it Better annual Valentine's appeal for Great Ormond Street Hospital Children's Charity, raising funds for research into the causes and treatment of childhood cancer.

To see more of my greetings cards click through to my online portfolio.

Happy New Year!

Wishing you all a creative and prosperous year ahead.

Speak Out For Understanding

It was great to be was asked by the Southern Poverty Law Center to illustrate an article in their magazine Teaching Tolerance. It talks about a powerful and moving film created by a group of students at Vermont High School, USA. Made on a tiny budget, Speak Out For Understanding, the award winning documentary gives viewers a close look at the real lives of four students who have learning disabilities and tries to teach a new way of talking about people who have them.

My work included a full page opening illustration, title lettering and a spot illustration for the magazine article. You can see how the illustrations work in their page layouts in my editorial folder in my portfolio. It was such an inspirational subject that I put together several roughs - this 'note pad' style proving to be the most popular with the design team at SPLC. The casual marker pen lettering, scribbles and doodles echoing the students enthusiastic approach to their subject.

If you'd like to learn more about SOFU, you can go to the projects webpage.

Eid Mubarak!

The festival of Eid starts on the 20th September this year and if you'd like to celebrate by sending a card I have this one available for sale with 12% of the order value going to charity.

Aruba Revisited!

Following the success of the first campaign earlier this year, Lowe NY asked me to develop some more lettering and spot illustrations to promote the beautiful island of Aruba.

The lettering is created specifically to give each Aruban a distinctive voice - personalising the poster campaign in keeping with it's central theme: 'ARUBA - 90,000 FRIENDS YOU HAVEN'T MET YET.' These large format posters can be seen throughout the US on subways and bus shelters. See the first campaign in the advertising folder on my portfolio site.

Map for Wall Street Journal

In a month when I've been working for the UK, Germany, France and the US - I was delighted to receive an e-mail from Hong Kong requesting a map for the illustrious Wall Street Journal, Asia.

A piece for their travel section, the brief was to illustrate a walk around the vibrant city of Brisbane, picking out key features from the accompanying article and tracing the path of the walk through the city. It was great fun to work on - having never been to Brisbane I now harbour a burning desire to visit - and I shouldn't have any problems finding my way around!

Back Dated News - Oct 08

Oct 08

HAPPY HALLOWEEN!

In celebration of all things dark and gothic ...

Out this month, Random House asked me to letter the cover of a new book by Dawn French - Dear Fatty. A collection of personal letters - she wanted the title to reflect her own style of handwriting.

Back Dated News - Aug and Sept 08

Aug 08 

NEW ILLUSTRATION PORTFOLIO LAUNCHED THIS MONTH! 

Folders include lifestyle, wildlife, garden, food and text. 

 

Sept 08

STOP PRESS! Newsweek Magazine in the US commissioned me to letter their latest cover. I created this effect by working directly onto glass with my favourite lipstick! Trick but fun ...

Just out in the shops, Headline Publishing asked me to hand letter this author logo for the cover of Everything Nice by Ellen Shanman. An increasingly popular approach to the problem of visibility on the shelf - see more author branding in my work > publishing folder on my site.

Back Dated News - June and July 08

I've decided to archive the last 5 months of news from my website on my blog. So here are some edited highlights of my work published over the last half year.

June 08

I won the Creative Match Flair Typography Award for May with this lettering done for the prestigious US store Neiman Marcus. The lettering - for men's and women's designer wear features in their stylish brochure, The Book. You can see more of this work in the word > fashion folder on my website.

July 08

Out this month the Aug issue of Psychologies Magazine features an article in which the model has been hand lettered! I worked at the photoshoot with the art director and photographer using body paint. You can see a page of the article in the editorial folder of my word portfolio.