Jemillo Blog - Illustration and Design Studio

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2010-04-21T12:49:00.001+01:00

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Website updated

2010-04-19T12:31:00.002+01:00

Just a quick note to say I've updated the website with a few new images, if you're a regular visitor to the blog then you'll probably have seen most of the new stuff, but it's always useful to have all my work in one place.

I'm a little concerned about the loading times, I'm going to tweak it to speed it up a little, but I'd appreciate feedback if you found it unbearably slow!

Back to life, back to reality..

2010-04-15T11:32:00.003+01:00

not only a Soul II Soul reference but also a fair reflection of how I've spent my time since returning from the U.S.A. Accounts have been sorted, meetings had and various bits of administration dealt with.

Amongst all of that I had some excellent news on the Illustration front, I found out that my Pedal To Enlightenment image for the Ride Journal has been selected for American Illustration 29. Here's the blurb around that:

"From an impressive 8,033 pictures...the jury selected only 388 images by a majority vote or better to appear in the book and represent the best images from 2009. AI29 will be printed in full color and distributed world-wide in hard-cover immediately after The Party, November 11, 2010, again as part of Illustration Week in New York City...
A slide presentation announcing the winning images will be sent to all entrants and to our member list of over 30,000 creative professionals in May."

Obviously I was pleased to be selected as previously I've only been 'chosen' which means you get to be on the website, but not in the book. Alongside the kudos of being selected it also helps on the promotional front as hopefully a lot more people in the US (and the rest of the world) will get to see my work now and fingers crossed it will lead to some commissions. Here's the image again as a reminder:

I think this means another trip to New York is on the cards for November, it sounds like Illustration Week in the city could provide good promotional opportunities.

In other news I've also done some new work for the Indy, this week I was asked to create an army of Tories in suits using the Tory Party rosette as a pseudo shield. It was a straightforward brief as the writer had this visual in his head as he was writing the article so all I had to do was bring it to life. I was really pleased with the result, especially as it was tricky doing that many people in such a short space of time!

The article is here and unusually my illustration is also online alongside it.

I think that's it for now, I'm currently in the process of updating the website in preparation for a massive promotional push, but if you like what you see you don't have to wait for that, instead just commission me now!!

Enjoy your Thursday (and don't forget the televised pre-election debate on ITV).

Houston we have a problem..

2010-03-31T09:21:00.000+01:00

Greetings from the floor of departure gate E10 at George Bush Intercontinental airport, Houston, Texas.

It's 2:07am as I type this and I've been stuck here since 8pm after missing my connecting flight to New York through no fault of my own and after landing from Grand Cayman 5 minutes early. A combination of poor staffing, poor scheduling and a denial of information and then the presentation of incorrect information as fact has seriously dented my belief in America as the home of good service. But onwards and upwards, I have 4 hours to kill until my new flight leaves and nowhere to sleep so it makes sense to spend that time productively!

I'm in transit back to the UK after several weeks of international travel, some of which has been documented on here and on flickr and some not so much, but I'll endeavour to keep the blog work related and save the travel tales for family and friends.

First up is an Indy from a week ago about the Irish Catholic priest scandal and how it was covered up. I think this is the article but having not seen the paper yet I can't be 100% sure, but it seems likely. My idea was all to do with generating atmosphere, creating a sense of hidden instances that occurred behind closed doors and were kept there by the Church's inability to embrace transparency, so in my image the Rosary Beads literally hold the doors closed as the Priest and young boy disappear.

I was happy with this image, especially with the eerie feel I managed to generate. It was a tricky topic to visualise without using the obvious iconography in a stereotypical manner, but I'm pretty confident that you don't get too many illustrators using Rosary Beads to secure door handles!

The Indy image that appeared in Monday's paper dealt with a very different topic and consequently provided me with a new challenge. I felt this image is much more conceptual, despite also being scene-based. With this weekend's brief I was asked to visualise how the 'special relationship' between the UK and USA was no longer so special. The full article is here and my illustration centered on the notion of the 'marriage' between the two countries breaking down.

It was Winston Churchill who first referred to the special relationship in his 1946 Sinews of Peace address and I started with this as the basis of my interpretation. I translated this ethereal notion of a relationship into an object, in this case a wedding band, designed to denote the ties between the two countries and worked with the premise that the band was to be returned to sender now that it had lost its meaning. Much as a divorcee removes their ring to signify a break with the marital state, the hand in the image is seen holding the ring rather then wearing it. The visual suggests that Gordon Brown is returning the ring to the U.S in the same envelope in which it was originally sent to Winston Churchill. The ring also has the motto of the USA inscribed in it. This was designed to say that it is the UK that has recognised it is no longer special to the USA, rather then the other way around, and that by returning the ring the country is embracing a new period of life, as a single country striking out on its own and free to disagree with the choices made by the U.S.

On a less serious note it gave me plenty of excuses to do some fun research into the correct stamps used for airmail in 1946 and have a go at recreating an aged envelope complete with weathered postage. This was great fun and again I was really pleased with the final image:

Besides the Indy I also had an image in the Daily Mail at the weekend, unfortunately the image wasn't credited to me, which is always disappointing, but it was definitely mine:

This image was for the Bel Mooney advice column again and responded to a reader's letter in which the author talked about her fears for her unborn child in a world that she believed was full of dangers (exemplified by the James Bulger case) and her inability to protect the potential 1/10 children who (according to statistics) are abused in her role as a teacher to 40 children. I think that summary sums up what the image was trying to convey, 4 of the 40 children shown are marked out in red, as the women cowers in the centre hiding and simultaneously protecting her child. The full article is here

I also wanted to quickly upload two sketches I did whilst out and about with blogging buddy Bowerbird in Grand Cayman. The first is a sketch at Smiths Cove in Grand Cayman, as we watched an American family contemplating the waves and their ability to jump into them and the second is at the Turtle Farm, looking out onto the fresh water pool. It might not be the sort of thing I normally seek out but there was something extremely relaxing about sitting in companionable silence sketching in the sunshine (or, as in the first image, under some potentially stormy clouds).

My apologies for the poor photography, I've just shot these on the airport floor (I'm sat down here as it's comfier then the chairs!) as I thought it would be nice to show some 'rougher' drawing in contrast to the more polished final illustrations.

Happily writing this blog post has taken over an hour, which has brought me a lot closer to my flight's departure time. It's a weird limbo here at the airport, with the abundance of overhead lighting reflected against a large mirrored window one can almost imagine it is daytime instead of the early hours. I'm not sure this will help prevent jetlag. I would photograph the space, in fact I tried earlier, but it's really rather bland and the lighting strips it of any sense of atmosphere, which as a lone female traveller I'm actually quite happy about. I can't always be thinking about the visual properties of an environment!

I guess I should also take a moment to give a nod to the fabulous fast wifi provided by Boingo, I really don't mind paying for internet provision when it's super efficient, easy and fast. Plus it's helped pass the time... Luckily there are also plenty of these Samsung Mobile Charging Stations about:

I am totally in love with Samsung for these and it has definitely made me think more favourably of a brand I normally associate with my football team's main rivals. Now it's back to listening to Ellie Goulding, who is the current soundtrack to my travels as I sit firmly on the bandwagon. My week in the Cayman Islands was also accompanied by the wonderfully quirky track "Eat That Up, It's Good For you" by Two Door Cinema Club, check it out if you fancy a summery tune infused with Mario Bros. type sound effects.

Night/Morning/Afternoon*

*delete as appropriate!

St Patrick's Day in NYC

2010-03-17T18:15:00.004Z

I promise I'm not just blogging to show off about my travels, seriously!

I'm now in NYC and although I didn't get around to finishing off my chatter about Chicago I wanted to do a quick post today of some drawings I've done at the parade this morning just in case the sketches get too smudged by the time I make it back to my hotel.

I wasn't particularly prepared for drawing this morning, but I managed to cobble together some quick reference drawings using the 3 pencils I had available and a lined notebook. I was trying to catch the things that stood out to me, the empty Fifth Avenue (in terms of cars) before the parade began and the shadows falling on the buildings as the parade occurred. As well as the helicopters whirring overhead and the different people that passed by on parade. I did quite a few pages, it was tricky, trying to lean my book against the barriers, look, record and keep my balance as people pressed into my back but I just about managed it and really enjoyed being able to work in my sketchbook live, which is a real rarity.

Here are some (admittedly dodgy) photos of my pages, forgive the photography, I've taken these in Bryant Park and haven't had time to crop or adjust as my battery is low. Off to see the Tim Burton exhibition at MOMA this afternoon, trying to avoid the hordes of drunken 'Irish' people on route.

Before the Parade began

Passing troops

Looking down 5th Avenue

Looking up

Looking on

Happy St.Patrick's Day!

Hello from the windy city

2010-03-10T13:31:00.005Z

So this week in March finds me in Chicago, the windy city, which actually isn't too windy for this time of year according to the locals. It is a little grey and drizzly, but that didn't stop me from picking up some new sunglasses on my trip to Wicker Park yesterday!

I came to Chicago last year and didn't get chance to head over to the Wicker Park area, so yesterday we took a trip on the blue line of the El to Damen and wandered around. I loved it over there as it was characterised by all of the elements that make a visit to a city worthwhile for me; lots of interesting aged signage, a mishmash of architectural styles and a sense of discovery.

As well as taking pictures of the area I also spent a bit of time browsing in book stores, first up was the second hand store Myopic Books. I only made one purchase here picking up Ogilvy on Advertising, the 1983 book by David Ogilvy, the extraordinary founder of Ogilvy Mather (as it's now called). Although over 20 years old the book discusses principles that still hold true today and should be an interesting read, if only to show how different (or similar..) the world is now to how he predicted it might be when writing in the early eighties. It's also worth confessing that my current binge watching of Mad Men has stoked my interest in American advertising agencies through the ages, which may have also influenced my purchase.

Speaking of American advertising I keep seeing adverts for U.S Cellular and I am really taken by their use of typography. It feels very European, contemporary and trendy which is not something one traditionally associates with American cellphone companies (as a broad generalisation).

The website is similarly styled and a quick click on the about section of the website shows the company is based in Chicago, which explains the ubiquity of the advertising and also informs me the company was founded in 1983, the same year Ogilvy published his book and (more importantly, some might say) the year I was born! The advertising for U.S Cellular is credited to Publicis and Hal Riney, a San Fransisco based agency, whose website is currently under construction unfortunately, but some of the TV ads they've done for the brand can be seen here. For the type lovers amongst us apparently the typeface is Rosewood filled, although that may be proven incorrect (I read it on another blog) and if you'd like a different opinion on the adverts this guy here isn't a fan! Readers of Grazia and those living in the U.K might think they've seen this sort of thing before, which we have, but it was more the fact that I'm in the U.S right now that made this stand out as it looks rather different to a lot of the other stuff on the billboards.

I shall continue my tales of Wicker Park, including my purchases from Quimby's bookstore later. Right now I have to go and get ready to register the students, run a crit on their sketchbooks/visual documentation and then get to the Chicago Gangsters tour!

Independent 22nd February

2010-02-23T10:27:00.004Z

It's unusual to be thankful for this as a freelancer, but last week was a quiet one and I have to say I enjoyed the breathing space. It gave me time to get stuck into some Laurence King work and finally wrap some projects up, as well as prepare for my upcoming trips to the USA. I'll be jetting off to Chicago and New York with my Second Year students at Loughborough, for the Illustration and Graphic Communication study trips respectively. It's a great experience for the students and usually has a profoundly beneficial effect on their work, making them more ambitious and (as much as it's a cliche) opens their minds to a whole new world of possibilities. Most of the students have travelled to the States before, but holidays are different to study trips and visiting a city with your 'studio' head on, surrounded by your peers, makes you see it in a different way and ensures you really start to connect your method of communicating visually with the environment you find yourself in.

As a student my study trip was to New York and it kicked off my love affair with the city, so of course I'm excited to return. Hopefully it will give me an opportunity to create some personal work inspired by the city just like it did last summer. Excitingly I'm then flying onto the Cayman Islands to visit my friend, sometimes-collaborator and regular blog commentator Bowerbird in her new Caribbean home and to have some deserved R&R time. We have plans to discuss a new online project, so watch this space for details of that.

Finally I'll get round to this week's Indy illustration. It was about Israel, and its self image in the wake of the recent revelations about Mossad. This was a nice graphic representation of the Star of David made from Israeli weapons. It doesn't really need much more explanation, so here's the image:

Article here.

Enjoy the week!

Super round up

2010-02-15T10:44:00.005Z

Hello,

today is an action packed, image-tastic blog post incorporating a bit of the Indy, some U.S work and a new magazine cover.

First things first, today's Indy illustration is attached to an article with a striking title, "We not only have a right to use torture. We have a duty". As awful as it may sound articles like this are much more 'fun' to work with, given that they have a greater range of visual connotations then your average Westminster policy article. I decided to go with a strong, simple spot illustration rather then a busy scene based image. My intention was to show the connection between the Union Jack and the alleged torture of prisoners in relation to the War on Terror. The British Intelligence Agencies may not directly engage in torture, but the addition of the flag as a gag on top of the hooded prisoner is meant to show that Great Britain has received information gained through torture, which it has then hidden. Our Government may not have put the hood on the prisoner, but we have helped to keep it/him quiet.

In complete contrast last week's Independent illustration was about David Cameron and how it was his time to step up and stamp his authority on the Houses of Parliament and ensure that Brown's wobbling was turned into a topple and Cameron could lead the Tories to power. I was asked to show Cameron as a sort of invincible Superhero ready to march into power, complete with Comic book style shining light. Because of this the image was a little more graphic then usual, but I think I managed to combine the vector based shapes with my more painterly style.

Inbetween these two illustrations I found that my oft-mentioned, never before shown, illustration for the Urban Land Institute in the USA had finally gone live on their website and thus I could now showcase it. The image was designed for the 2010 Annual Conference poster but will also grace the conference itself in the form of extra large promotion boards to welcome the delegates to the event.

The brief was to use my illustrative language to create a vision of what Washington (the home of the conference) might look like when the visitors descend and wrap it up in bold, bright colours. Given that the client was the Urban Land Institute it was a dream brief for me, as they really wanted to place a lot of emphasis on the urban environment and the infrastructure inherent in a city, so signage for the buses and metro was a necessity!

I was really, really happy with the outcome and enjoyed working at a large scale as I could squeeze in all my layers of detail and actually have them seen by the average viewer, a real luxury given most of my work appears in print at A4 or less. Unfortunately it won't be clear on here given the size restrictions in posting stuff securely on the web, but I may do an update to this post later on and put some zoomed in versions on the blog. But for now here is the image itself and a screengrab of the final poster as seen on the ULI website:

Phew, o.k not too much more visual goodness to go now. Just before Christmas I was approached to create the cover artwork for a new publication that was launching in late January. The magazine is called 'The Beat Book' and is affiliated to this website. The magazine is about drumming, in a word, and is designed to be a one stop shop for everything British drummers might need to know about, covering equipment, set-up and insight from musicians and teachers. My brief was to create a Jazz club scene, with a dirty, grimy vibe, focusing on a drummer. Again another brief that completely played to my strengths of creating atmospheric, slightly decaying environments. This is one of my recent favourite images and I'm just waiting on the arrival of my magazine copy so I can see how it looks in real life, but in the interim here's the artwork:

And finally, as you may have seen on twitter, I had an illustration in this weekend's Daily Mail. It was for Bel Mooney's 'agony aunt column' and the article is here, although I'd prefer it if you looked at my illustration here as the image has been cropped online and the colours aren't great. I was given an open brief for my image, which was nice, so I chose to create an image based around the idea that the woman in the middle is trapped by the need to work, when she is envious of the women 'who have it all' but the shadows are cast by her family who she needs to support. This is a bit of a quieter image for me, but I was pleased to get the opportunity to respond to a different type of article and work with more emotional content.

And we're done. I told you it was a comprehensive round-up!

February 1st Independent

2010-02-01T16:32:00.003Z

February already, wow! I can't believe how quickly this year is speeding by, only 6 weeks now until I'm back in my favourite city in the world (sorry London), New York.

This week is a busy one, lots of work at Oil and a networking event at Wieden + Kennedy, as well as some urban golfing..! A day in the life of Jemillo is always pretty varied. I have a day off this week due to it being Assessment period at Loughborough so I'm hoping to update the website and do a big promotion push, as I've neglected the promotion a little in the last few months.

So today's Independent is about Tony Blair and the Chilcot inquiry. The article is a lot broader then that and a really interesting read (see it here).

I was asked to create an image about Tony Blair that suggested that with regards to Iraq he saw himself on a 'mission of enlightenment' and a 'Christian warrior charging forth'. I came up with a few roughs, some more literal then others, and it was decided to press ahead with the following image which is more atmospheric and suggestive. As it's meant to be a loose interpretation of the brief I'm not going to heavily analyse it here. So take a look at the image below and see what you think:

Indy Monday 25th Jan

2010-01-25T14:15:00.003Z

Just a quick post to show today's Indy image, no need to labour (ha) this one as the idea is self explanatory. The article is about Education, so I wanted to create quite a graphic image that showed enthusiasm for the topic and would sit well within the page. This came to mind straight away and then I created the artwork.

The colours on this version are slightly different to the press version, but it gives the same impression.

The article isn't online at the moment, so you'll just have to buy the paper!

In related news I'm back in London now after my extended stay in the North, I'm hoping to get to the V&A this week for the Decode exhibition so I'll post about it here if I do.

Indy 18th January

2010-01-18T10:03:00.005Z

As is to be expected the front pages of today's Independent are dominated by stories about Haiti; the earthquake, the aftermath, the politics and the recovery. Since my association with the paper began the depth and readability of its international news coverage has been the thing that has impressed me most and the coverage of Haiti has been first rate. The other thing about the Independent that really appeals to me is the bold use of the front page, the paper isn't afraid to make a statement with both picture and words and today's cover is no exception:

But enough of the Independent love-in and instead let's move onto me! So as you may have guessed my illustration yesterday was about Haiti and the brief I was given focused on the notion that Haiti was a disaster area long before the earthquake. Not knowing enough about Haiti, beyond it being the poorest country in the Western Hemisphere, I decided to do a little research on the topic so that I was better able to visualise how and why the country would be described in such a fashion. I discovered some truly awful statistics: Haiti is approximately 98% deforested, with most of the land reduced to rubble, meaning food is scarce and approximately 80% of the population live below the poverty line, with a 75% unemployment rate. A legacy of corruption and political instability contrives to hamper any attempts to push forward, thus the country was ill-equipped in terms of infrastructure (both physical and political) to deal with another natural disaster.

Armed with this information I tried to generate roughs that would loosely suggest such points without contradicting an article that may follow a different narrative. I presented an idea that depicted the Presidential Palace with piles and piles of shacks, huts and crumbling homes perched precariously on top (in a Jenga fashion) with cracks rushing towards it to suggest that there was a physical instability relating to the country's leadership over the years. I also showed a map of Haiti being squeezed by a fist and cracking to suggest how violent dictatorships had weakened it.

But the idea the art director preferred was more suggestive. It shows a hand reaching up and out for help, a hand which shows roughly healed scars and badly stitched up wounds and one large open gash that is bleeding. This image was intended to be a visual representation of Haiti's problems, the old scars being the legacy of french occupation, which still looms large over the country today and the badly stitched wounds representing the democracy that replaced dictatorship and hasn't really solved the problems. Of course the open, bleeding gash is a symbol of the earthquake, currently an open wound and occurring within the same physical boundaries of the previous issues. As an extra touch I tried to make the hand roughly resemble the shape of the country, at least in terms of the thumb's position, and have the cut be vaguely in the area of Port-Au-Prince.

I was really pleased with the way it turned out (considering I found out that scarring is a really tricky thing to recreate quickly) and happily the layout of the column really enhances the image (as I hoped it would) all in all creating rather a dramatic spread.

I'm sure many casual readers will just assume the hand is meant to show someone reaching out for help, someone trapped in the rubble, which is fine, it kind of does and I always intend for my images to work immediately. But the thought process leading up to the artwork was more complex then that and it's nice that having a blog such as this allows me to share that.

The full article is here and if you should wish to donate to the International Aid effort then the Global Giving website is a good place to go for more information and to make a donation.

Independent 11th Jan

2010-01-11T13:02:00.002Z

Hello,

I'm back on the blog with today's Indy image and last week's too. It's election fever in the opinion columns (and will continue to be so for a while) so the images I've been asked to create recently have been quite abstract visuals alluding to power; more specifically the inability to grasp it completely (David Cameron) and the ability to hold onto it (Gordon Brown) despite multiple attacks on the leadership.

The political climate is really rather interesting at the moment, it reminds me of studying European Politics in my History A Level. Though I have to say the attempted coup last week was a lot less bloody then those of the French Revolution!

Without any further ado here is today's image:

This was quite highly art directed, I was specifically asked to show a rose (symbolising Labour) growing tall and strong despite axes attempting to chop it down. With the image functioning as a spot illo (in the paper text flows close to it) I decided to have the axes broken and wrapped up in the flower, rather then hacking in the air, as I thought this would work better.

This is definitely one of those images that works better in context and I'll take and upload a picture of the paper later today. The article is here

Last week the focus was on Cameron and that he "still has yet to show his authority/ convince the electorate that he is a leader in the making". Often when the brief is centred around the personality rather then the party or wider society I am asked to try and avoid drawing the protagonist, as my illustration's proximity to the daily cartoon in the newspaper can mean that it becomes a little repetitive. This was one such case, hence I was asked to focus more on the action of asserting one's authority. The resulting image was a pounding fist, simple, but again due to the layout, effective in context.

This is the image:

That's all for now. I must now attend to my various portfolio sites and update them with all of the work I have done in the last few months.

Last Indy of 2009

2009-12-28T18:47:00.002Z

In actual fact this is my last Indy illustration of this decade, something that only dawned on me in the last few days. In the busy, mad year that 2009 has been I hadn't even realised that the noughties (I hate that term, but it does the job) were drawing to a close. It's been an interesting decade for me and maybe I'll write a proper round up in the next few days, but for now I'll post today's Illustration and urge you to read the article here, as it is an interesting read.

The brief was straightforward, I had to visualise a book that should act as a glowing beacon drawing society towards it. So rather then worry about constructing an idea that communicates, my focus here was on producing an image that was powerful yet ethereal, suggestive but simplistic and most of all filled with hope and redemption. I was pretty pleased with the result and happy that I had created the right sort of atmosphere using the minimal colour palette I had chosen.

Here's the image for you to look at and see if you agree:

Christmas week Indy..

2009-12-21T17:27:00.002Z

but unsurprisingly my brief was nothing to do with the impending festivities, which was a shame given the snow covered ground outside my home and decidedly Christmas feel all around.

Instead I was asked to illustrate the perceived failure of the Copenhagen Climate Change Conference. It was quite a specific brief this week; to create a distressed, cracked and patched up version of the Mermaid of Copenhagen. I was happy to oblige and did so in the manner shown below:

The article is here

I'd also like to wish everyone a very Merry Christmas!

December update?

2009-12-15T13:18:00.004Z

As I remarked to a friend recently, it seems I went to sleep one day when it was October and woke in December! I honestly have no idea where November went, but I do know I spent a lot of it working flat out on various creative projects. The Indy continued weekly, but I also created several images for an agency pitch in NYC, did a couple of editorials and carried on teaching and working at Oil. Busy times.

Obviously it's been a little difficult keeping the blog and website updated, but hopefully the New Year will see me get back on top of it. For the first time since I started freelancing I am taking a full Christmas break (well, bar the Indy) for two weeks so after Friday I won't be accepting commissions until 2010. This should give me chance to relax and recharge, tie up some loose ends and finally iron out any things on my to-do list.

I'll post my Indy illustrations over Christmas, but besides that I don't intend to do much blogging. So until those messages have a great Christmas (or winter holiday), enjoy the New Year celebrations and keep an eye out for 2010 calendars featuring my artwork and supplied by my agents NB Illustration

Finally here is a snap of yesterday's Independent illustration, accompanying this article with the brief for me being 'dishonest labour, a general take on cover ups, spin and deceit featuring Iraq, the pre-budget report, Brown, Blair but not showing the people specifically' so a shot of Labour MPs walking over (and discarding) newspapers with negative headlines emerged:

Double Indy.. a Dindy?

2009-11-30T14:10:00.003Z

Last week was a blur of busy-ness and most of it business, hence the lack of posts, it really is a manic time of year.

So (with a small build up) here is last week's Independent image; a vision of the realities of the Iraq war being erased as a response to my brief, which was 'The Chilcott inquiry - it shouldn't be a whitewash'. My interpretation was that the Inquiry owed it to the soldiers and families of soldiers who fought, suffered or died in Iraq to be thorough (and hence not a whitewash) so I wanted to show that they shouldn't be erased from history by a politically driven Inquiry. Simple idea and a simple execution. It's rather difficult to show an image being erased without actually doing so, hence I had to keep the actual image quite flat and shape-based to help create the 'erased' textures.

I was pleased with it, especially the colour combination, but it wasn't as nice in print, which is always a shame. The article is here

However, today's image I am much happier with. It looks really atmospheric in print and is one of my recent favourites. I can't say this is because it's highly conceptual or astonishingly intelligent, rather it's nicely composed with limited colours and containing several of my favoured elements (moody urban structures, figures and a sense of foreboding) when I'm illustrating.

The brief for today's illo focused on the Conservative party and the Centre for Social Justice Think Tank (run by Iain Duncan Smith). I was asked to visualise this as an attempt by the Tories to 'go red' to reach out to the poorest parts of society and was given quite strong direction that the red of the image should focus on the Tory figure and not the background. The image below was the result and both the art director and I decided the background should be quite foreboding to suggest the Tories reaching out into unchartered, potentially dangerous (given that they could alienate the base) territory.

The article to this is here and it's an interesting (if somewhat complicated) read.

Hopefully I'll have a few non-Indy related posts soon, but at the moment everything else I have to share is still unpublishable until it goes live or the pitch is over.

Have a great start to December!

Independent 16th November

2009-11-16T14:05:00.002Z

Super quick update with today's Independent image, as time is something I don't have at the moment!

My brief had 3 options to it, and for this illustration I chose to work with 'How it's the UK's mission to restore peace'. I went with the idea of rebuilding Afghanistan after it had been (metaphorically) shattered into a thousand pieces. Conceptually the image isn't too complicated, but it's nice to change the pace and instead this week I spent a lot of time experimenting with the texture and feel of the visual, rather then communicating a complicated message. The full article is here and the illustration is below.

Independent 9th November

2009-11-10T10:35:00.002Z

As anyone who follows me on Twitter will know this has been a manic work week. I completed some broad development roughs for a pitch piece, did the artwork for my agent's promotional 2010 calendar and created an illustration for the Independent.

I can't post the first two examples of work just yet, but I can bring you the illustration that appeared in yesterday's Independent.

The brief was related to the Fort Hood shootings and raised the issues of how to deal with being a Muslim in the West in the wake of such events and also the more specific question of what was in the mind of US army major Nidal Hasan. I did not want to speculate about the motives for such actions, given that I have no knowledge of what occurred beyond what has been reported in the press, so I kept my artwork relatively abstract. I also generated some roughs about the difficulties facing peaceful, law abiding Muslims in the West but the Art Director chose to go with the idea about the motive and this is what I created:

The image ties in quite nicely with the article's headline (about not knowing what the motives were) and similar to last week allowed the text to run around the image. Unfortunately the article doesn't seem to be online, which is odd. But I'll add a picture of the paper this evening for context.

Update-arama

2009-11-03T11:45:00.001Z

Hello, hello.

I have recently become a little bit of a liar, all these promises of updates 'later' and then later never seems to arrive. But despair no longer, the images I have been promising (bar one) are featured in this blog post.

First up is my image for The Ride Journal, a cycling magazine with an emphasis on storytelling and experience swapping nestling amongst beautiful design and evocative illustrations. Happily I was asked to contribute an illustration to the Journal to accompany an article called 'Pedal to Enlightenment' which told the tale of the writer's fight through the pain barrier to a zen like feeling of calm as he rode the roads of California.

So the art director asked me to do something a little more abstract then my usual work, focusing on my love of colour and strong compositions to convey the feelings referenced in the article. I had great fun doing this and was really pleased with the end result. It was nice to do something a bit more experimental and I got to play around with all of the textures that I collect on a daily basis to build up hundreds of layers which then come together to create the overall image.

This image will feature in The Ride Journal III, which is launched this week at the Pebbledash Gallery in Stoke Newington (London) on Friday at a Private View of the 116 TO SEA exhibition. To quote the site 116 TO SEA is "an exhibition of photography by Joe McGorty in collaboration with The Ride Journal. The Dunwich Dynamo, the annual 116 Mile all night bike ride from London to Suffolk coast, took place on the 4th of July 2009 the Saturdays nearest full moon. Joe McGorty's distinctive photographic style captures the spirit and fell of the unique ride."

I'm looking forward to the Private View and will report back with some pictures (promise). If you have a moment over the coming week the exhibition should be worth a look as Joe McGorty's work is really beautiful.

On a slightly different tip, the image below is my recent-ish one for The Sunday Herald about teen drinking. It talks about the contradiction between adult attitudes to teen drinking and their own vastly different actions, which set a bad example, and the lack of understanding of the serious effects of teen drinking on the still developing brain. This was more of a classic Jemillo illustration, lots of figures and a strong narrative underpinning an image of composite scenes around the same theme, all combining to convey the contradiction visually (I hope). So in a nutshell we see the adult hands appearing to toast the drunken antics of the youths on the right hand side. Colour wise it is a lot darker then a lot of my work, deliberately, to show the behaviour that tends to occur mostly in the evening and also to suggest the negative implications of such actions.

I also spent a great deal of time creating artwork about Washington for the Urban Land Institute in America, but alas I am still unable to publish this image online as the work is not yet in use given that it advertises the 2010 ULI conference and the 2009 event has not yet taken place! But the minute I get the nod I'll pop it up here. I do have roughs for two alternative ideas that I will publish when I pull them together.

Finally then I have added two of the three images that have been selected for Images 34.

These are 'PDA', the image from the 'We Have A Nice Day' project that responded to the statement:

"My life is a public spectacle.
Enjoy the show.
I’ll be here all week."

The second image is 'Storm', also from We Have A Nice Day and this image responded to:

"Close atmosphere today.
Need the rain to breakthrough.
Heady, clammy, intense air.

Storm on in."

Many thanks to Michelle Bower aka Bowerbird, regular commentator on this blog, friend and collaborator on the We Have A Nice Day project. Her clever, thought-provoking or inspirational words were an instrumental part in my selection for Images 34, as without them I would not have had the starting point to create some of my favourite pieces of work, so thanks to her.

Finally the third selected image was my Harry Patch illustration for the Independent. I was really pleased that this image was selected as again it is another of my favourites and also talks about a serious subject matter, which I think is important to recognise in Illustration awards as sometimes the serious gets overlooked for the shiny, showy or shallow and it is nice to see something less 'trendy' be recognised. Especially when it's my work, ha ha. Anyway the Harry Patch image is already on the blog, so if you wish to see it please scroll down!

That's it for today. Phew. As mentioned on yesterday's posts the website has been updated so if you want to see all my work in one place please visit

Have a great Tuesday!

Today's Indy part 2

2009-11-02T13:11:00.003Z

The brief I received yesterday began as the Tories v Europe, but quite clearly from the image that was published in today's paper that brief was shelved in favour of the story that broke over the weekend about Professor David Nutt's sacking from the Advisory Council on the Misuse of Drugs and the subsequent resignations (and threat of resignations) from other council members.

It was a really open brief, I was asked to create something about the story that conveyed the notion that the cannabis comments had lit a blue touch paper to a wider issue within the government about advisors and policy. Originally I had the spliff in the image dropping ash onto a 'normal' Houses Of Parliament building (which is just starting to set alight, to suggest the idea that the cannabis issue is going to grow into a full inferno - which judging by today's news reports may just be the case). But at the rough stage the art director asked me to make it more druggie and create a building from cannabis plants and leaves. This took a while and required a lot of pieces in various green tones to create a depth to the shape and make it visually interesting, rather then just being one shape repeated ad infinitum.

You can see a close up of the cannabis plant based Houses of Parliament below:

As you can see in the post below I'm really happy with how the image has appeared in print. I sent the art director both an image with a background and one without, so that if the opportunity arose the illustration could be set into the text a little more and cropped to fit. He took the opportunity to do this and thus there is less dead space in the paper's version and the composition is a little more dynamic. Obviously with the nature of the grid it is not always possible for the images to appear like this so when they do it just gives my work a little extra oomph and takes it away from being a standard rectangle.

The article is online here and the picture in print can be seen below or in more detail over on twitpic

Today's Indy part 1

2009-11-02T12:53:00.004Z

A brief post about today's Independent; here's a quick snapshot of the image in the paper. Loving the art director's crop and placement of the image, really makes it work as a composition.

I'll upload the full image and discuss the brief when I can...

Blue?

2009-11-02T11:51:00.001Z

Hmm somehow my blog title has disappeared and was (for how long I'm not sure) replaced by the word blue. Random! I will get this fixed..

Breaking news

2009-11-02T11:40:00.002Z

My apologies that it has been a bit quiet on the blog front. I have an update post in draft, but it's pretty mammoth so I haven't quite got round to finishing it. However, I intend to do so later today as well as posting today's Indy image and some other recent illustrations.

But as for the breaking news I found out last night that 3 of my images have been selected for The AOI's Images 34 annual, which is great news. I'll post which ones later.

I also have some work in the new 'The Ride Journal' and there is a launch party for that this week on Friday in Stoke Newington, London. I'll also post more details about this later too.

Thanks for checking back in on the blog and normal service will be resumed shortly. Don't forget I have updated the website so do hit the link and visit to see some new work.

Freedom of speech

2009-10-18T22:24:00.003+01:00

This week's Indy illo is about freedom of speech, and more specifically about the recent Jan Moir Daily Mail article and the upcoming appearance of Nick Griffin (the BNP leader) on Question Time.

The rationale presented to me was that Jan Moir has been labelled homophobic and taken to task by the blogging, commenting and twittering community for her article about Stephen Gately. Yet in contrast the BNP get away with much more openly offensive comments and actions with a lot less furore.

Interestingly and unusually I considered my personal response to this statement before I began my ideas, just because the argument had piqued my interest. I wasn't sure how I felt as I think the BNP do get a lot of negative media coverage and I also thought Jan Moir's comments were nasty and snide and I agreed (in principle) with the shocked response (if not the faux outrage that accompanies these things once the mainstream media report it) but of course I could see the point of the argument. As much as the Daily Mail article is hurtful to friends and family of Stephen Gately and offensive to a wider audience by its very nature as an opinion piece it has limited influence and is much less dangerous then the BNP, who as a political party have the potential to affect and influence Government and the wider European community. Thus the response to the two things should technically be proportional to their power. But that's not how things work, emotionally charged arguments always win out and the entertainment industry will always trump the political arena when it comes to popularity.

So these were the thoughts swimming around my head as I worked out my roughs. It took me almost double the time this week as I tried to create a composition that would effectively convey the argument and be visually interesting and not repeat any of the elements I featured in my recent illustration about free speech.

Finally I settled on an image set in Trafalgar Square, imagining a scenario with a large outdoor BBC screen I set about creating a world where Nick Griffin on Question Time was ignored in favour of protesting against Jan Moir. This image gave me a chance to reference the two points made in the brief and hopefully sits well when given the context of the article.

I'm writing this blog post without the final article for reference, so I am not sure how pointedly Jan Moir or Nick Griffin will be referred to, or if the article will be more generalised. Hopefully the article will do enough to ensure my image makes sense. I'd also like to point out that I am not attempting to link Jan Moir and the BNP or commenting on the death of Stephen Gately. As I've discussed on this blog previously my visual responses are just that, visual responses to the brief I am set, this one may have caused me to consider whether I agree or not, but that has no real bearing on the images I produce.

On another note after completing the illustration above I settled in for a night of XFactor and noted this beautiful advert for American Express during the commercials. I think it's gorgeous and wanted to share so click the screengrab to see the full advert over at the 'Add A Dog' website, credits can be found there.

Finally the website update is underway, should be live by Tuesday.
Updated: the article is here now.

A random tuesday

2009-10-13T15:17:00.002+01:00

or if we are to be exact Tuesday 13th September, the birthday of one of my good friends and two days before my sister's birthday (an event akin to the Queen's birthday in her eyes!) so this week I have been mostly present ordering and card buying (to steal an old Fast Show line).

However, inbetween that and my little jaunt to Paris I did my illustration for the Independent. I can't say this is one of my recent favourites, sometimes an image that works well with the brief just doesn't inspire the same affection as a piece that resonates with your personal interests or develops over a longer time frame. But both the Art Director and I were happy with the outcome and it looked good in print yesterday, so that is the main thing.

The article for this image discussed the lack of ethnic representation in the recent party conferences and subsequently it seemed silly not to work in a two colour image, with white being one colour and using a slightly murky red (to suggest the blue of the Tories mixed in to Labour's red) as the other.

Besides the Independent I am back at Loughborough teaching there and things are hectic as they always are at the beginning of term, I am also still working at Oil. But I intend to do a full update of the website this weekend as I have both my macs working and ready to go! So check the website at the beginning of next week to see all my recent work.