Category: Blogpost

A Whale of a Tale, Act 1

Post author By Carl
Post date March 19, 2015

The Bradford University Society of Operettas and Musicals – BUSOM for short – performed their 2015 main show last week. Moby Dick! The Musical sees a St. Trinian’s-like girls school (complete with headmistress played by a man in drag) putting on a musical version of Herman Melville’s novel to save their bankrupt institution; hockey sticks for harpoons and all.

BUSOM’s staple poster creator has graduated, moved away, and become very busy. I was picked to work on the main show this year. That meant it was up to me to get that ‘play within a play’ message across.

First up, posters for the cast auditions. Over the post-Xmas holidays I came up with the below pic, for the production team to surround with the relevant text. This was the birth of Audition Whale, drawn with Illustrator’s standard but useful Charcoal brush.

Audition Whale quickly gained fans.

Chalk drawing of cartoon whale on blackboard — Look at its stripy school tie!

Tags BUSOM, illustration, poster

Take Any Heart

Post author By Carl
Post date March 1, 2015

This year’s Valentine’s Day celebration / penance wasn’t cards for selected individuals: It was a benevolent lucky dip for everyone at work. Here’s how it came together…

The first task was learning to make an origami heart – these are the instructions I followed.
I bought a roll of red paper, cutting it into 7cm squares.
Why a roll of paper? There needed to be one heart for every member of staff present that day, plus a few spares.
I assembled 121 of the things.

Tags craft, design, feelies, valentines

The Hours

Post author By Carl
Post date February 6, 2015

Another year brings another February 1st. I’ve completed Hourly Comic Day 2015; my fifth. It was quite eventful considering it was a Sunday.

Tags comics, community, event, hourly comic day

Thought Bubble with a Vengeance

Post author By Carl
Post date November 18, 2014

This was my third year visiting the Thought Bubble Leeds comic art festival. Usually I will do a lap to see what’s there, then second time around buy items and get them signed. It took longer to get around this year: Firstly, they’ve gone from two large rooms to three. Secondly, I was taking notes…
Picked up a heap of stuff. Click that photo for artist names and details!

There’s the old stereotype of guys who are always ‘working on their novel’. For me, it’s a comic book. Three short comics, actually. There are plans to get them done, self-published, sold. Those plans are currently like clay plonked on a mat; going though a lot of moulding before they’re stuck in the oven. So I talked to the experts attending and selling at Thought Bubble. The guys with book deals and large hardback editions, and the new starters, their baby fresh off the work photocopier. Picking up tips on process, production, contacts. Here’s a few simple pieces of advice gleaned…

Tags comics, community, event, thought bubble

Inking All Month Long

Post author By Carl
Post date November 1, 2014

There’s a chap who calls himself Grickle, who I discovered via his work on the Puzzle Agent games. Have you heard of recent film The Boxtrolls? He helped create the titular creatures.
One day, he tweeted the below swamp creature, with the hashtag #sketch_dailies.

Sketch Dailies (website / Twitter) tweet out one drawing suggestion every weekday, around 5:30pm UK time. They help lead an event called Inktober, where you do one drawing every day for a month (or you can do one every two days, etc.). You can take on Sketch Dailies’ proposal, or do your own thing. Despite the name, it’s not strictly limited to ink – People use their tablets, watercolours, whatever they please.

Tags community, event, illustration

Who’s Got the Time?

Post author By Carl
Post date October 1, 2014

…said the March Hare to the girl wearing a pinafore. Lots done, and lots to do.

The Bradford University Society of Operettas and Musicals (BUSOM) hold their 24 Hour Show this month. They enter the New Bradford Playhouse on October 10th, learning that evening what musical they’ll be performing a scant 24 hours later. It’s exciting, it’s team-building, and it’s funny if the actors mess up due to sleep deprivation (in a charming way).

I need an un-lined notepad!

There’s only a handful of ways to do a logo for a 24 Hour Show, and they’ve all been done a dozen times over. Being original is hard, but worth having a crack at!

Tags BUSOM, community, design, logo

Motorhome Maladies

Post author By Carl
Post date July 17, 2014

The perilously perched Motorhome is introducing another thing wot I did at work… I put together an infographic / illustrated stats which cover the last few years of Caravan Guard’s motorhome insurance claims.

You can see the whole thing on the company blog here, via the below image, or on visual.ly. You can click it again in the C.G. post to go super-big. I’ve chopped the full-length preview of what awaits you into three, so you can see it at a reasonable size: To soak in all the graphical fineries, though, you should just click through already!

Tags Caravan Guard, illustration, infographic

Caravans and Bicycles

Post author By Carl
Post date July 6, 2014

In February I started working for Caravan Guard (and it’s sister company Leisuredays), a medium-sized, family run insurance company. It’s no secret: My CV’s available on this website, after all. I’m in the Marketing department… as a Graphic Designer. Last month I moved to ‘Permanent contract’ status.

Success Kid approves.

I’ve been doing a huge amount of wonderful stuff, both straight-laced and silly, for both the Leisuredays re-branding and more general tasks. Making the sky blue on overcast photos. Adding and removing signs. Removing people. We’ve got new and updated booklets, flyers, folders, tiny stickers and big banners into production. I’ve made a truckload of icons, graphs and graphics, while correcting and refining the existing sets. I even got talking cows into a milk-bottle shaped mailer.

Tags Caravan Guard, event, illustration

Oh Boy!

Post author By Carl
Post date May 31, 2014

A couple of friends had their first child this week – a baby boy – and there was much rejoicing.

This card came together around Easter-time, hence the theme. The main decoration is felt, with pen for the eyes and mouths. Kids love felt. Lightly concerned that kids love to eat everything too, considering UHU binds it together. I rounded the corners at least.

The process of construction was roundabout…

Tags card, craft, design, feelies, felt

The Ravages of Age

Post author By Carl
Post date May 14, 2014

Twitter rolled out new look profiles last month, allowing higher resolution avatars than before. I opened my Photoshop file to export a larger copy, made sure the glasses resemble my current pair… then lopped off the quiff (as I no longer sport one).

The official Twitter logo had its hair cut in 2012.

The human self-portrait, displayed on my portfolio cover and in the top-right of this blog, has also been shorn and contemporised…

Tags illustration, site update