Wallpaper at MozFest
Recently our wallpaper featured in MozFest alongside other coded beauties from the Artcodes (was Aestheticodes) team. Unfortunately neither Lilli or I were able to attend but Emily kept us posted with updates and photos and we were so pleased to hear the wallpaper was well-received! have a listen to this little snippet of an interview with Emily if you're interested in hearing how it all works... click here!
Sussex Thatching
Recently I was asked to create a logo for a thatching business. Greg, an excellent thatcher from Sussex, initially approached me with some ideas about a logo being inspired by 1930s railway posters. I was super excited as I had never tried to work in this style. I love a challenge and a reason to try something different.
Straight away I started looking through posters for research, trying to soak up the style through the use of colour, tone and composition. Greg had some sketches of his own ideas already which gave me a good starting point and, since they involved the cliffs at Seven Sisters, they seemed perfect to translate into a 1930s landscape like the ones I had been looking at.
Straight away I started looking through posters for research, trying to soak up the style through the use of colour, tone and composition. Greg had some sketches of his own ideas already which gave me a good starting point and, since they involved the cliffs at Seven Sisters, they seemed perfect to translate into a 1930s landscape like the ones I had been looking at.
I quickly began working towards a logo, playing with colour and referring back to the posters; I particularly love their use of purples and pinks.
The finished logo shows the Seven Sisters cliffs in the distance with a thatched cottage (that I hope is up to Greg's standards) within a crest of wheat.
And then for the most exciting bit...Greg had the logo transferred onto his van...
So if you need a thatcher, you know where to ask.
This is what happens...
...when you leave a pineapple on a window ledge outside for a year and a half...
World Book Day
A rather delayed post as I was so busy it totally slipped my mind to blog about World Book Day!
Lil and I were invited to Ravensbourne College to run a screen printing activity for World Book Day. We created a design each for students to choose from and print onto a tote bag to take home.
We met so many lovely students who seemed really intrigued by the printing process and it was great seeing so many of them turn out brilliant prints.
Many thanks to Billie and Jessica for being wonderfully welcoming librarians and also wearing brilliant costumes! We had such a great night!
Lil and I were invited to Ravensbourne College to run a screen printing activity for World Book Day. We created a design each for students to choose from and print onto a tote bag to take home.
We met so many lovely students who seemed really intrigued by the printing process and it was great seeing so many of them turn out brilliant prints.
Many thanks to Billie and Jessica for being wonderfully welcoming librarians and also wearing brilliant costumes! We had such a great night!
Cactus Prints
I've been making the most of the summer holiday by working on a new cactus lino print...and catching Pokemon of course.
Hen Do Printing
Here are some photos from the first hen do printing workshop I've ran. Each person had a piece of lino to cut their own design from and was provided with a selection of draw string and tote bags to print onto with a number of different coloured inks to choose from.
Wedding Invitations
When my wonderful friend, Beth, announced that she was getting married I instantly offered to print her wedding invitations for her. It was such a lovely opportunity to be able to use my skills to help her out and contribute towards what turned out to be a wonderful day.
We began discussing what her and her fiancee would like on their invites and decided to incorporate the flowers that would be in Beth's bouquet, fireworks (as they got engaged at Lewes bonfire night) and their pet rabbits.
I wanted to screen print the invites so that i could achieve a clean, clear finish with the fine lines in my illustrations. After agreeing on a design I prepared my screens for a two colour print and began printing.
We began discussing what her and her fiancee would like on their invites and decided to incorporate the flowers that would be in Beth's bouquet, fireworks (as they got engaged at Lewes bonfire night) and their pet rabbits.
I wanted to screen print the invites so that i could achieve a clean, clear finish with the fine lines in my illustrations. After agreeing on a design I prepared my screens for a two colour print and began printing.
Ruby's birthday party
It's been a while since I posted and there are a few things I've been busy with that I have been meaning to add on here. First off, Ruby's birthday party.
Lilli and I were really excited to run this printing activity as we had never ran one of our workshops at a birthday party before. Ruby's mum had been busy brainstorming lots of exciting things for Ruby's party to run along a dragons and princesses theme. Since she had been planning to put together some little party bags for Ruby's friends, we decided that this would also be a perfect print opportunity. Lilli and I created a selection of lino cuts for the children to choose from and they were able to print a design onto their own canvas party bag to take home with them, filled with sweeties too of course!
The day went really well and luckily the rain held off and we even had a bit of sunshine! We had so much fun printing with some wonderfully adorable children and creating personalised party bags. Here are a few photos from the day...
Lilli and I were really excited to run this printing activity as we had never ran one of our workshops at a birthday party before. Ruby's mum had been busy brainstorming lots of exciting things for Ruby's party to run along a dragons and princesses theme. Since she had been planning to put together some little party bags for Ruby's friends, we decided that this would also be a perfect print opportunity. Lilli and I created a selection of lino cuts for the children to choose from and they were able to print a design onto their own canvas party bag to take home with them, filled with sweeties too of course!
The day went really well and luckily the rain held off and we even had a bit of sunshine! We had so much fun printing with some wonderfully adorable children and creating personalised party bags. Here are a few photos from the day...

And I've also been practising another skill for children's parties...
Interactive Wallpaper
Yesterday Lilli and I finally finished our digitally interactive wallpaper and we're so pleased to hear that the team at Aestheticodes like it.
The project was really challenging because, although at first Lilli and I thought we had very similar styles, we very soon realised that collaborations can really high-light even small differences. We spent a lot of time discussing, drawing, re-drawing, colouring and re-colouring to make sure that the final wallpaper flows naturally and the illustrations sit well with one another.
It's been an exciting project too because since I last worked with Aestheticodes, the app has been developed even further opening up with so many more opportunities for design as well as adding endless possibilities for codes. For example, whereas before the app would always attach the same numerical code to an art code it scanned, it can now read different codes depending on the angle at which an art code is scanned. The perspective alters the way the art code is understood and therefore allows different codes to be read and different experiences depending on where the viewer is standing and the angle they are scanning. This got us really excited…although it did also boggle our brains a little in the process. But we are pleased to say that all of our art codes scan with three different possibilities.
So what's next? Well, we're currently in the process of getting test prints to double check colours before producing a sample roll of the wallpaper. Once we have a physical product we are hoping that we will be able to find somewhere suitable to install it. We have designed the wallpaper with both private and public environments in mind, it would be wonderful if we could find a public space to display it and encourage people to interact with the art codes.
Encoded progress...
Lil and I have been working on our colour palette and playing with possible layouts to put into repeat for our wallpaper. It's starting to come together!
Since 66
The 50th anniversary for Vans has just passed and it was so much fun being involved in the family weekend celebration at House of Vans. Sam took care of a market stall full of our hand printed goodies while Lil and I ran a mug printing workshop for visitors.
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