Ten Questions 024 – Jon Burgerman

February 1st, 2012 by Mat Dolphin

Jon Burgerman is a multidisciplinarian artist and illustrator who has created a unique, distinctive style of his own. Often working on a large scale, his loose, colourful creations are instantly recognisable and have graced all manner of client commissions, personal work and solo gallery shows around the world. Alongside drawing on stuff he lectures at a number of universities and produces lots of lovely things for you lucky people to spend your money on in his excellent shop – in need of an laptop sleeve, pillow or pair of socks? Get them all and much, much more at Burgerplex.

Mr. Burgerman kindly agreed to be the first Ten Questions participant of 2012 and we’re very happy to get him involved in the series. Read on for plenty of random ramblings, beautiful doodles and a glimpse inside the mans mind – it’s an interesting place to be.

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Five Things 015

December 8th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

We realised recently that it’s been AGES since we last posted a Five Things. For the uninitiated, it’s a regular series in our blog in which we share five interesting, creative things that we’ve spotted on the world wide internet over the course of the last week or so. It’s always a mixed bag, and this post in no different. Jelly hand grenades, flying dogs, sitting on Hercules’ face and festive booze are just a few of the things you can expect to see this time round. Take two minutes out of your day, put your feet up and have a look at what we’ve found for you.

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Ten Questions 020 – John Paul Thurlow

September 14th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

A retreat to Japan in an attempt to escape London for a while was the starting point for John Paul Thurlow’s best known work. Whilst drawing the contents of his room he came across a travel sized copy of British Elle and recreated the cover as a pencil drawing (amending the title to read ‘Hell’ as an expression of his mood). From that point on John Paul has made it his mission to ‘recreate cover art for every great magazine and record’ he owns. The meticulously intricate drawings are far from perfect reproductions – they are filled with his own additional scrawlings, notes, thoughts, feelings and scribbles to make them a one of a kind piece of art based on a mass produced piece of media.

John Paul was kind enough to take the time out to answer our Ten Questions.

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Ten Questions 018 – Liam Brazier

August 10th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

We first became aware of the work of Liam Brazier through the image bookmarking site Ffffound. His illustrations of Star Wars characters and superheroes in a distinctive, skewed style caught our attention = simple, stylish and refreshingly original. We checked out his portfolio and saw a wide range of varying styles and techniques in both static and moving image for clients such as Dazed & Confused, Creative Review, Design Week, Glastonbury, the Museum of London and Virgin TV. So, we thought we’d get in touch to see if Liam would be interested in answering our Ten Questions. He kindly obliged and gave us the following insight into the life of an illustrator – although please, don’t call him that.

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Ten Questions – 015 Ben The Illustrator

April 21st, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

For the latest installment of our Ten Questions series we got in touch with Cornwall based Ben The Illustrator. For over a decade Ben’s unique views of the world have been wrapped around cars, stretched along shop walls, solved problems, covered magazines, advertised fruit juice, satisfied clients, accompanied orchestras, adorned underwear and welcomed you at airports. Having worked with the likes of BBC, Cadbury’s, Girl Scouts of USA, Michelin, Honda and Land Rover amongst others, Ben has helped make the world look a better place. He likes to keep busy too. If you haven’t already seen he’s dreamt up a new way to market himself with bensseasonalbillboard.com, and recently oragnised www.therenmenproject.co.uk.

Ben kindly took time out of his busy day to answer our Ten Questions.

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Ten Question 013 – Johanna Basford

March 16th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

An Aberdeenshire fish farm is not necessarily the typical breeding ground you’d expect for developing young creative talent, but the flora and fauna surrounding Johanna Basford in her early years had a lasting impact on her work. Her intricate and beautiful illustration style is organic and free-flowing, and she uses the highly futuristic medium of pen and paper — with Photoshop coming to the rescue to remove any tea stains. We’re big fans of her work and it seems we’re not alone — clients such as DKNY, Channel 4, H&M, Creative Review, Heals, The Tate Modern, The Body Shop and Johnson & Johnson have formed an orderly queue to commission her work. And no doubt you know already know about her love affair with Starbucks?

Johanna put the fineliner down for two minutes to answer our Ten Questions.

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Ten Questions 012 – Alex Trochut

February 22nd, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

For the latest installment of our Ten Questions series we got in touch with Barcelona based Alex Trochut. An illustrator and designer who’s elaborate ‘more is more’ style has gained him a huge amount of attention and a great client list. Having worked with the likes of Adidas, MTV, Coca-Cola, British Airways, The Guardian, Converse and Nike amongst others, Alex has created a look of his own, fusing beautiful typography with fluid, intricate illustrations. His work has gained him a great reputation in the design industry and a number of imitators have emerged in his wake – none of whom can keep up with his constantly evolving style. With numerous personal projects and a recent foray into collaborative 3D sculptural work, Alex certainly keeps himself busy.

He was generous enough to take some time out to tackle our questions. See below to read what he had to say and check out some of his work.

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Sharing is Caring

February 8th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

Being the kind, sharing types we are, we thought it was only right to shine the spotlight on a few other design blogs out there. We regularly stumble across new blogs and thought it would be an idea to share some of the best ones with you. We’ve catagorised them by discipline but most of them tend to cover a wide range of topics so you’re bound to find something of interest. By no means a defintive list, the sites we’ve listed below should at the very least be a good starting point. Get bookmarking!

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Ten Questions 010 – Mario Hugo

January 13th, 2011 by Mat Dolphin

The new year sees the continuation of our Ten Questions series in which we ask fellow designers, illustrators, photographers, directors and other random creative folk the same set of questions. The answers always vary and always give an insight into the thought process behind the work. You can see the others in the series here.

I’ve been a fan of Mario Hugo’s work for a long time. I came across his original site, the now defunct loveworn.com and found the beautiful illustrations and intricate, playful typography a constant source of inspiration. Since I first became aware of his work Mario has gone on to work with clients such as Dolce & Gabbana, Wired Magazine, Microsoft, Channel 4, Interscope Records and, most recently, Stella McCartney. His talent has also caught the attention of design agencies such as Non-Format and Spin, who have called upon his distinctive style for various projects. Somehow he’s also found the time to work on numerous personal projects and exhibitions.

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Ten Questions 008 – Hellovon

November 5th, 2010 by Mat Dolphin

Hellovon is the name of the London based illustration studio run by Von. Since 2006, Von has been churning out distinctive, beautiful illustrations for a great client list including Nike, Liberty, Glenfiddich, Ministry of Sound and Habitat. His appeared in a number of publications including Creative Review, Dazed and Confused, Rolling Stone and Playboy.

He was kind enough to answer our Ten Questions.

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