Flat Footballs

June 9, 2016

Experimenting with the Radio Times UEFA football cover. I love the silkscreen look of this

Radio Times Euro Football covers.

June 1, 2016

4 covers for the same issue - the Scottish cover with the balls (they don't have a team in the game) is an illustration but the 3 badges are almost straight photo's - the first I've taken for a long time. Getting all the studio gear out brought back a lot of memories. And dust!

My favourite unboxing video

March 16, 2016

It's good to see somebody enjoying my efforts - those are my images on all those boxes. Of course the geeks amongst you noticed straight away that this Indonesian version of the keyboard isn't available here. The UK/US version is the G410 that only comes in black. Sadly.

Letter from America

January 17, 2016

I just got an email from a very kind stranger in California. A Macintosh fan, he was clearing out his place & found a copy of the first MacWareHouse catalogue. He found my credit for the cover & asked if he could post it. It's one of my favourite ancient illustrations too, originally created for a T Shirt for MacUser magazine.

That is so cool Steve Pruneau, I'm really touched!

Christmas Quiz 2015

December 9, 2015

It's that time of year again...there are 50 visual clues to popular TV programmes in this image from The (legendary) Radio Times Christmas issue . How many can you find?

Cool

October 14, 2015

It's October & this new keyboard is launched. Sometimes it takes sooooo long: I made this image last December. It's difficult to keep up a blog when I can rarely tell anybody what I'm doing until months later.

This version is only available in Japan, where Logitech are called Logicool. I can't imagine why they don't use that name here...

Rugby World Cup

September 8, 2015

I seem to spend a lot of time fiddling with balls...

Postcards

March 17, 2015

The fancy lenticular postcards that I created with hiveassociates.co.uk started going out today. I've never promoted myself as an illustrator before so we're in uncharted territory here.

Want one? Send me your address. Your real on this earth address.

Logitech G910

March 4, 2015

Logitech's latest all singing all dancing gaming keyboard. Each individual key lights up with any colour you can imagine. When you first plug it in there's an dazzling light show as waves of colour move over the keyboard, amazing visitors to the studio.

I created the images used on the packaging & promotion, made before the product entered production & there's always a lot of changes along the way. It's with trepidation that I opened the box when I was sent the real thing & I get to see if we got it right.

Southern 50

February 14, 2015

This is what the river Chess looks like at dawn on Valentines day.

Orienteering in the muddy landscape of the Chilterns. 50 kilometres took 12 hours, so we had to make a very early start. My poor feet! Everybody was staggering around like zombies that evening.

Peak District

January 31, 2015

Hiking in the Derbyshire Hills. Incredible but very challenging conditions: 2 metres of snow in places, 20 degrees below zero with 60 mph winds on the summit.

We spent the following day abseiling down a old railway viaduct before driving home. Scary? Oh Yes!

MacUser Magazine Covers

January 22, 2015

Sad news today. MacUser is to cease publication. The final issue made no mention of the fact, except for an image of the first issue without any caption or comment.

I was an associate editor of MacUser (both the UK & the US editions) for many years & photographed, illustrated (& even wrote) for many many issues. The UK offices were 5 minutes walk from the studio & I really enjoyed those trips to New York. I made many friends.

I had the pleasure of seeing the Macintosh evolve from its earliest days, exciting & revolutionary times. I even met Steve Jobs a couple of times. He was horrid!

I originally created this cover for another magazine before MacUser started: MacUser upcycled it a year later. The Macintosh 128k in the photo was my own, one of the very first to arrive in the UK, long before it was released here. I used it to create the images for Apple's advertising campaign that launched the Mac in the UK. I've still got it. Model number M 00001. It even works.

A few years later we had a cat & I realised how inaccurate that image is. This was before Photoshop, this is a straight un-retouched photograph using studio flash and a long exposure to capture the screen.

Christmas Quiz Radio Times 2014

December 25, 2014

I know Christmas is getting near when the call comes to create one of these picture quizzes for the Radio Times Christmas Double Issue. Hidden in the picture are clues to the names of 50 television programmes broadcast during the year. It's a competition & the winner gets a huge TV & lots of other goodies.

A combination of illustration, photography, stock images & a lot of retouching (the background image was actually taken in summer for example, in Lewes, Sussex) they take ages to create. It's easy to make the clues too hard (we always put in a few easy ones to get people started) so it has to be tested by the people in the RT office.

If you need help the couple in the centre represent 'Strictly Come Dancing'. Paradoxically I rarely watch television so I've no idea what half of the programmes are, but I enjoy doing the research.

California

August 1, 2014

Spent a fantastic couple of weeks in California, seeing friends & clients who I never met before, even though we've worked together on many projects for many for years. And cycled, climbed, hiked & took photographs. This one's taken near Big Sur

Woven Cloth Scout Badges

May 4, 2014

These arrived in the post this morning, a badge I designed for a local Scout troop. I can't wait to see them wearing it. KX = Kings Cross.

I've never had an image woven before. Maybe I should design a woven business card. Do people use business cards anymore?

Christmas comes Early

April 8, 2014