How much does illustration cost? How does it work? These are questions I get often get asked when approached from clients considering new artwork. In this article I talk about the process I use when given a commissioned illustration project. It's about art style and content, but moreover it's about meeting expectations and getting clarity […]
Every year I do a 'Christmas Card Campaign'. It's a very enjoyable way of doing a bit of marketing, doing my own Christmas cards (well, postcards). I've been doing it on and off since my days at university. It was always intended as a bit of fun but has really become useful in the last […]
"I’d long been an admirer of John Cooper’s artwork, so when I needed an illustrator for my first book, John was my first choice. His work was always inventive, and often greatly improved on my original ideas. He can work fast, to a deadline, and can adapt quickly to a change of plan. Working with […]
I've recently completed new illustration, HTML5 games for the online e-learning platform, Manchester Children's University Taking their original content from the older flash format and converting it to new standards was a challenge, but also a great opportunity to get really creative with illustration, and I wanted to push the boat out on this one […]
Most years I do my own Christmas card illustration artwork. What started as a way to show off back when I was a student, has now become a tradition of sorts. “You don’t need big ideas, you need cheap experiments” said Micheal Schrage, talking about innovation in a digital economy, but he might as well […]
What can get done in a day, or even half a day? I've had a few illustration designs recently that had very tight deadlines, mostly to get the artwork to the printers and meet submission deadlines. You might think commissioning original illustration work on a quick turnaround might sound a little crazy, but in truth, it might […]
It's been a busy year here at JCU, with a lot of illustration work appearing on the slate where once it was mostly web. From Album Covers for Rock bands to the trickier end of design, finding the right style for infographics describing IP Cloud solutions, times are as busy as they are diverse. The […]
Get Your Festive Greeting in First and show 'em your not a Scrooge at Christmas. Now is a good time to start thinking about a Christmas mail out. Getting your own piece of artwork is the best way to show you care at Christmas, it also raises your profile and fosters good relationships, professionally and personally. […]
Sitting in my office doing some illustration I had a flashback to my first 'real' job as a designer back in the late nineties. There were two bosses, they were chalk and cheese. Where one saw creativity the other saw only hard-to-define labour costs. I was working on graphics for an 'online shop' selling the […]
