Polish paper cuts: Wycinanki

Do you remember seeing these when we visited Poland a few years ago? I am sure Rob Ryan has taken influence from these. They must require so much skill and patience. But worth every effort.

Lamarche & Type cuts

Hi Leanne,

Here is a link to a couple of designers whose work might be of interest

Greg Lamarche
http://www.typecuts.com/

Linzie Hunter

Debbie Greenaway suggested I look at the work of Linzie Hunter, an illustrator who also creates hand-drawn lettering. The style of her lettering doesn't really interest me but I do find it interesting and quite positive that more and more illustrators are creating unique, hand-drawn type rather than relying on generic fonts.

More work at: www.linziehunter.co.uk

Rob Ryan

For a long time, I have been an admirer of the work of Rob Ryan, but have never really looked at his work in depth. Rob Ryan is well-known for his style of illustration, best known for his extremely intricate cut-outs, such as the image above. What strikes me about his work is how individual and unique it is. It has a hand-made quality to it and this has made him successful in his field. I find this surprising as I initially believed illustrators with more of a digital quality to their work would be more successful but it is reassuring to know that people value the time and effort gone in to creating completely individual work.

More work at: www.misterrob.co.uk

Jeremy Pettis

It was suggested to me by Tamara to look at the work of Jeremy Pettis, a graphic designer/typographer. One of his projects, "Twenty-Six Types of Animals", is a range of different typefaces that relates to a certain animal, in order of the alphabet. For example, A is for Alligator, B is for Bear and so on. What I find remarkable about each of the 26 different fonts is that, without referring to the appearance of the animal, they perfectly represent the characteristics of each. They contain an essence of what makes that animal unique. For example, the fluid line of the word "Dolphin" in the image above reminds me of the splashes that dolphins can create when diving but I wonder, if the font spelled a different word, would it still remind me of a dolphin? I think each typeface works best representing the animal in which it is spelling as if the above text spelled the word "Bear", it would be clear to see that the style of the type and the characteristics of the animal do not match.

See the entire Twenty-Six Types of Animals here: www.jeremypettis.com

Debbie Greenaway

Over the past few months, I have been in contact with a newly-graduated illustrator called Debbie Greenaway whose work I really like, I have spoken about her work in a previous post. After seeing her work at the New Blood exhibition, I decided to contact her regarding her work, and we have stayed in contact, which I hope will continue. Debbie has been fantastic in responding to my emails and it is interesting to see how she is coping since finishing university. Here is some of our correspondence:

LEANNE: I recently saw your work exhibited at the New Blood exhibition in London, and of all the work there, yours was my favourite.

I really liked your Robber Bird character and your use of type in the "Wanted" poster. I am really inspired by your character designs and was hoping that, as part of my research, you could tell me about you inspirations and work processes.

DEBBIE GREENAWAY: How are you? I was wondering if you had any specific questions you would like to ask me that I could answer in order to be of more help. I am just struggling to explain my work and myself at the moment. I am having a bit of a mental brain freeze moment as no sooner have I come back off holiday, I have has to work my socks off part time at the cafe to keep my cash levels high as well as doing illustration work in the spare time. My next free day/time is Thursday evening so I will brainstorm a bit more about what to write and email back to you.

Thank you for the comments about my work. Your words made me smile as daft as it sounds, but they did. As a recent graduate it is very nice to know people like yourself like my work. Do you have a blog or web address with any of your work on so that I can see your work?

Hope you are well and sorry for the delay in getting a proper response back to you. I think I know what to write now, it's just having the time to sit and do it properly for you. I hope you other dissertation research is going well.

LEANNE: I have a very basis website: www.leannehughes.com that has some of the work I have done but at the end of my 2nd year, I had a nervous breakdown and feel I have lost my way!

Some of the questions I have are:
1) How and where do you get your inspiration?
2) What print techniques do you use and why? (I most often use mono-printing but I hope you learn how to screen print this year)
3) How did you develop your style to the point where you are now? (I'm finding it quite hard to find my "style")
... and basically anything else you think would be helpful to me!

DEBBIE GREENAWAY: How are you? I hope you are well. I am so so so sorry that I have taken forever and a day to reply to you when I promised to reply asap. My organisation is a bit all over the place since finishing uni. There are so many odds and ends to chase up and tie knots in. I hope I am not too late to help you out. If you would like any further information etc please email me and I will try and reply alot quicker next time. I hope your projects are going well. I wish you all the best for your final year. Make the most of it!

Answers:
Sometimes I find it difficult to explain my work or where I get my inspiration from. Through really thinking about it, I would say I get inspiration from many things, things that surround me. My inspiration is hard to pin point, as I might just get an idea from out of the blue but more often than not, some ideas are a combination of many little ideas. Inspiration comes in many forms. I particularly like looking at children's books and some editorial illustrations. I also like finding my own inspiration while I am out and about. I do a lot of observational drawing and think about people or situations I have seen. Sometimes conversations I have overheard sometimes spark off little doodles in my sketchbook as well as things I may have read about. I suppose I absorb my inspiration though it is all a but random at time.

Simone Lia, Oliver Jeffers, Donna Child, Shaun Tan and Calef Brown are some of my favourite illustrators. I like drawing things as other things. For example at the moment, I am trying to improve my characters by doing observational drawings with a twist. I used to always draw the same things, repeatedly. For example, robot fish, fish, robots and teeth but they were getting very boring. It is unfair to say they were getting boring but I was just looking for something new. I still like drawing these things but anyway, when I was younger I really liked lions and drew them all the time. For some reason after I finished uni, I decided not to leave it too long until I picked up a pencil and just wanted to keep drawing so I thought about what I used to draw and thought, I wonder what it would look like if I drew it now. So off I went out and about drawing people I saw as lions and now they look much more me. My style. I don't like the work style but I think as an illustrator you develop one over time without knowing it. During foundation year and first year of uni, I was worried I did not have a style and used to avoid thinking about it.

In a way, I gave myself my own style when I stopped thinking that I should have one - I hope that makes sense. So currently, I like going out and drawing people I see as lions. It has helped me with my character development. I am still afraid of colour but the print-room and screen-printing in particular is helping me learn more about experimenting with colour. I am still a bit wooden when it comes to playing with colour but I do try.

I love printmaking. I love handmade mass-produced things. Printmaking is quite calming, hands-on, physical and methodical. I first started printmaking in 1998 when I did my A-level at college. I was not really interested but we had to do it as part of our course. It was compulsory. I always wanted to do big things back then. Big pieces of work. We used to get given small pieces of lino or small etching plates and were asked to pick a section of our work then then etch or lino print. I always wanted to pint my entire image and was often the last one to finish my projects but I learnt a alot more by choosing to tackle large images via printmaking.

There was a three-year break in between my A-level and foundation year. During foundation year, I did a lot of printmaking and I loved staying in the print room all day long. I picked UCLAN at Preston when I saw the print room. It was huge. We did a little printmaking introduction during the first year but the projects moved so fast that there was never enough time to make use of the facilities. I started living in the print room when I entered my second year of university. I made it my mission to screen-print and to learn about photo etching. I never left the print room, even when I graduated as I still go back now for the artlab printmaking group.

I like all types of printmaking. If I had to pick one, it would be screen-printing. I like it because as I have issues with colour, once I have my images and if so - all the layers - I can print all day to my hearts delight, playing with different colour combinations, different coloured paper, materials, fabric, cardboard, t-shirts etc without worrying about the outcome of my final image. Being able to replicate my image, in a variety of ways on a variety of surfaces allows me to experiment as if I was to paint it by hand, I suppose I would only get the one chance to get it perfect. I wouldn't be able to paint my illustrations by hand as it would terrify me. It is something I am trying to overcome at the moment. I like both creating screens by hand using screen filler and soluble paint and by exposing transparencies via a light box whether they be photo-realistic ones or ones drawn by hand etc.

I would suggest trying simple things with printmaking. Do not ever be scared to experiment and combine printmaking techniques. In addition, you can combine print made images with day, traditional techniques, you can draw over screen prints with pencils or stitch into etching plate prints that you may have printed onto fabric. Remember that once you have a plate, or a screen or a lino block, you can print on to anything to create anything. There is a whole range of products you can create.

LEANNE: Thank you for your fantastic reply, it is really useful. Also thank you for looking and commenting on my blog. The blog is part of my professional practice project, rather than gathering research in a file. I also went to the Little Big Planet shop, the game is really addictive. I heard that you were doing a session there but I was unable to make it, it would have been nice to meet you.

Also, I was wondering if I am able to send you some more questions? It might not be for a while yet as I need to better prepare myself but I hope that will be okay.

DEBBIE GREENAWAY: How are you? I am sorry it took me so long to reply but I got there in the end! Please feel free to ask me any more questions etc. I won't take as long next time. I was good for me to think about my work but it was a bit difficult to write about. I forgot to write about combining screen-printing and fabric to create plush type items and typography. I really enjoyed reading through your blog about the various illustrators/artists and what other things you have been looking at/watching, like the many circus films. I have put your blog on my "following" list so it tells me when there is a new post etc.

LittleBigPlanet is a wicked game! I was so lucky to be involved in that workshop! The game is great to play but I get frustrated with all the control buttons on a PS3. I think the game is released at the end of this month - 24th October according to Amazon UK. It would have been nice to meet you but there are other times, if you have an exhibition or anything please let me know and I will see if I can come along.

Thank you and I hope you are well.


Visit Debbie's fantastic blog: theimaginationofladysnail.blogspot.com

Selina Pan

Selina is another illustrator who exhibited at the New Blood exhibition in London. Her work consists of images that are created purely from type. I think the way in which she creates her work is very delicate, as from a distance the piece above appears to be created from line. In August, I contacted Selina regarding her typographic work.

LEANNE: I recently saw your work exhibited at the New Blood exhibition in London and was really inspired by your work. I really like the way you use type and sentences to create imagery. I am about to start a project called "Illustrated Typography" and so I was hoping you could tell me the inspiration behind you work and the processes you use to create it.

SELINA PAN: Thank you for your email. I am glad that you enjoyed viewing my work at teh exhibition.

My style emerged during my final year of my Graphics degree at Staffordshire University after seeing work by Sam Winston, who uses type as a method to convey stories.My background in fine art and my passion for typography triggered the urge to experiment with letters. I started cutting letters out by hand and composed designs out of them, or I'd experiment on Adobe Illustrator.

I hope that helps. You could send me some of you work for some feedback if you want.

LEANNE: I sent Selina a link to my website, www.leannehughes.com, and sent her some of my typographic work.

SELINA PAN: I've just had a look at your typeface and website. Some good work there!

Perhaps some suggestions: The typeface is unusual, i like the feel of it. Maybe you could look at the contrast as some letters appear stronger than others? Do you know what I mean? What about the colour scheme. Perhaps the use of rustic browns and earthy tones of green would enhance the type?

The stuff on your website seens quite experimental which is good. I have a feeling you will do really well because you seem original. Do you know what direction you want to go in?

I find that the serif blog or even deviantart can be good platforms for criticism (if you aren't already on it!).

I hope that helps!

LEANNE: Thank you for your suggestions, I'll apply them to my new work. I've joined Deviant Art but not put anything up so I'll give that a try thanks.

I'm not too sure what direction I want to go in yet, but I'm starting to get really interested in typography and printing. I still feel a bit lost about how I fit into illustration yet, but hopefully my work will soon come together!

Mika Jane Shephard

Mika Jane Shephard is one of the illustrators who exhibited at the New Blood exhibition in London. What I liked about their work is how text has been taken out if its usual context, from the page, on to a new and exciting material. These acrylic cut-out letters remind me of the work of Rob Ryan, because of their hand-made feel. In August, I contacted Mika regarding their work.

LEANNE: I am about to begin a project called "Illustrated Alphabet" and I was hoping you could provide me with information about your typographic work and the inspiration behind it. Also, I am curious as to how you cut out shapes and letters from the acrylic fruit shapes.

MIKA JANE SHEPHARD: I am really pleased you liked my fruity compliments. I enjoyed that project a lot and I am so happy with all the positive feedback I have had from it!

I had the acrylic laser-cut using a new machine that the textile department has just funded for uni. I drew the illustrations by hand and then transferred then into illustrator, via scanning and then creating an outline around each shape (a time consuming process but worth it in the end!)

Inspiration came from everything really, from current advertising for similar brands and products to contemporary illustrators. Have a look at the following books...

Hand To Eye (Contemporary Illustration)
Hand Job (Hand-rendered type)
- for these two, Amazon's used and new is the cheapest!

Good luck and all the best for your final year!! Make the most of it!!

Vault 49

I have always liked the work of Vault 49 and in August, I sent them a letter regarding their work.

VAULT 49: Thanks for your letter.

I do hope the enclosed interviews will help you learn more about our company.

Interviews:
Self Promotion
Working Abroad
Profile
Setting Up in Business
Advertising Ideas

As Vault 49 are a design collective, I believe that these articles will be of use to me when writing a response to the issue: "Lone Wolf or Gang Warfare?" (The tradition of the illustrator working alone seems to be changing, increasingly illustrators are forming collectives and working together in studios, give examples of set up and compare and contrast. What are the advantages and disadvantages inherent in each method of working? Which approach do you feel would be most desirable for you?)

Linda Verbruggen

This is the work of Linda Verbruggen whose work I first saw at the New Blood exhibition in London. I really liked the typographic work she produced so in August, I contacted Linda regarding her work and influences.

LEANNE: I recently saw some of your work exhibited at the New Blood Exhibition in London and I particularly liked your "Surname Posters".
As I am about to start a project called "Illustrated Alphabet", I was hoping you could please tell me the ideas and processes behind the surname posters.

LINDA VERBRUGGEN: Thanks for the compliment!
The posters were for ISTD, a brief called 'Doing my nut in'. It was about diffirent languages and dialects.
Because I'm form the Netherlands I wanted to do something with the Dutch language. My research went way back to the beginning of language and especially the Dutch language. I also researched the Dutch history what made me come to the beginning of the use of surnames in the Netherlands. I knew I wanted to do something with that because we have some funny ones in the Netherlands. Then I started looking at all the typography that inspired me, just by looking in books and on the internet. I found some really cool 'woodcut' posters from the 19th century. Those were my inspiration for my own posters because surnames where required in the Netherlands in the 19th century. I looked for every woodcut poster I could find and tried to use them for my own designs. I looked at the fonts, sizes the layout everything. It was a very long proces to get mine like the posters I had for inspiration. There isn't much more to it.. Just keep trying to copy them and blend it with your own style.
I hope this helps.. if you have more questions feel free to ask!
good luck with it!

For more information, visit her website: www.linda-verbruggen.com

My Work - Consequences (Final)

These are all of the separate parts for the Consequences project together. I think the style of the body and legs sections are very similar, but the head is a completely different style and looks a bit odd combined with the printed style of the other sections.

My Work - Consequences (Legs)

These are the "legs" that I have created for the Consequences project, though as you can see, they are not legs at all. I was first inspired for this part of the project by looking again at the Circus theme from my personal project, and came up with the idea of creating a unicycle. When researching this, I came across a picture of a penny farthing and decided to base my idea on this. Though I don't feel the colours look quite right, I like the use of texture in the image.

I Love Typography

I found this website which I think you'll like :)

http://ilovetypography.com/

Keep up the good work Leanne

Your blog is looking great Leanne. Don't forget to start making contact with people in the industry as you did so well in Year 2 and keep on top of writing thorough reports from the guest lectures such as Gillian's. Don't forget to use your blog to document correspondence with people in industry, show that you are engaged with current issues in the profession by reading journals / magazines and document what is relevant to you or has had an impact on your work.

My Work - Consequences (Body)

This is the body that I have created for the Consequences project. I like the style of it a lot more than the head, as I like the rough texture of the monoprints that is combined with blocks of colour and simple shapes. I don't think it looks very good on its own, but I have confidence that when combined with a head and feet, it will look right.

Kveta Pacovska

Have a look at the work of Kveta Pacovska, she does lovely things with alphabets and her themes seem to be based on 'circus' or similar and is always full of fun and mischief.

My Work - Consequences (Head)

In association with Kingston College in London, we were given a "Consequences' brief, where you design a head, and somebody else designs a body, and another person designs the legs to create a completely unique design. This is the head that I created. It began as a cut-up from photocopies and manipulated in Photoshop. I think I preferred the original cut-up piece, as it looks more personal. I am not sure I like the style of this piece and when I create a body for this brief, I will try to include more texture and not rely so much on Photoshop.

Jason Munn/The Small Stakes

This is the work of Jason Munn/The Small Stakes. I like the style of their work as it has a printed quality, similar to my own work. I emailed them in August regarding their inspirations, particularly those related to typography.

LEANNE: I am about to begin a project called "Illustrated Alphabet" and as part of my research, I was hoping you could tell me where you get your inspiration for your work and the design processes you use to create your work, particularly work containing type.

JASON MUNN/THE SMALL STAKES: I'm not around much this week, so it may take me awhile to get back to you. Here is a link to a recent interview that should help you out.

http://trapdoorsun.com/art/jason-munn-small-stakes.aspx

If you have any other questions just let me know. Thanks, Jason

For more of their work visit their website: www.thesmallstakes.com

Adrian Johnson

One of my favourite illustrators is Adrian Johnson. He's created work for Robinson's, Vodafone and Mastercard and is a very successful illustrator. I love his work as I feel it has similar elements to my own work, such as the printed texture, but I also think his work contains a large amount of humour and he is able to communicate a message through imagery really well. See more work at www.adrianjohnson.org.uk.

Jessica Hische

Jessica Hische is an illustrator and typographer whose work I came across whilst reading Steven Heller'g blog, "The Daily Heller". Her work reminds me of nostalgia and the 1950's. I think it is interesting to see how she adds typography to her illustration work and the style in which she creates purely typographic work. See more of her work at www.jhische.com.

Hammerpress

Hammerpress is studio based in Kansas City. They create posters, greeting cards and stationary using a letterpress. Their designs are really unique and ornate but because of the process used to create them, they have a very rough quality and old-fashioned style. They remind me of Western-style imagery. I really like their work. For more work see www.hammerpress.net

Alphazeds

Hey Leanne, I've just been looking at some of Milton Glaser's work and found this. It's a children's book about letters turning into words, thought it may be useful for your work :)