Monster Friday

Today I am a lucky girl and can do one of the things I love the most; surface design and drawing characters. Today's theme is monsters and the coffee pot is full, the play list is loaded, the sun is shining and I am really excited about a new project that I am involved with - I could not ask for a better Friday.

Here's a little sneak peek from my sketchbook and some work in progress, but I think that these monsters are way to well behaved and cute for me so I have to get back to my sketch book for some more wacky monsters, the kind that you would not like to have around your house.

Have a lovely weekend everyone!

I Like: Work for Money, Design for Love

It has now been 2 and a half year since I graduated from Camberwell College of Arts and I remember the stress, what do I do now? I did not study to become a Doctor, a nurse or a teacher, I went for a ego trip and my dream instead, to use what I felt was my biggest asset, my creativity,  and turn it into my profession.

Yes, I decided to put myself heavily in debt and try to make a living out of drawing and knew that once I graduated I would not be guaranteed a job just because I had a degree, no, I would get a job depending on if the client liked my drawing style and visual language or not.

Quite a tuff deal.

And while College and University courses are great for development, learning who you are and how you work, learning skills and getting a portfolio together there is seldom any talk about how to actually survive once you enter the real world. You might practice writing a cv and discuss what your niche is, but is it enough to send a cv around to get work today?

How do you actually approach clients and get work and how do you charge for your work? How do you brand and promote yourself ? And what about legal matters, moral and integrity issues and copyright?

I have survived for 2 and a half years now (yeay, it's worth a little celebration!) so I most have been doing some things right but now I found a very good book, "Work for Money, Design For Love" by David Airey, that discuss all these matters and that I had to share with you.

It is written in a very straight forward and honest way which almost makes it feel as if you are having a cup of tea with the author while he tells you about his own experiences and what he has learned from his years as a freelance designer and what others in the same industry has shared with him. The book deals with subject from working at home vs having a studio, how to handle projects and clients, how to set up your own business, integrity issues etc.

Somethings you will already know, somethings will make your brain shout out a little "ah". I do recommend it.

You can get your copy here

X-mas in east London

I found this photo that I took on a sunny day last spring when someone had sat up and old abandoned sofa and a half dead Christmas tree on a street and sat down and enjoyed a can of ginger beer, it reminds me of why I love this city which, trust me, can be a real shit hole sometimes. It also made me think of the brilliant books Shit London, which I am a big fan of. If you are not familiar with them then please have a look here.

Then I finally got a snap shot of the gardener and his dog who lives next door, you might see them passing by on their bike as well as he takes care of a lot of different gardens and park areas in London and his lovely dog is always with him and as you can see, really enjoys the bike ride.

The last picture is of a sign on my street, I love that someone made the effort to leave a comment on it - and what it actually says.

PS. Thanks for all the comments, it's nice to know that someone reads the blog and it's very nice to get some feedback!

It worked quite well.

Today has been a real shit day, but I think we need some of those sometimes as well?

Yo!

I was going through old sketch books and found this old hip hop bat that made me laugh, which is well needed today as I am doing my tax return…

Work: Tribe Pattern

I just wanted to show some of my personal work that I have been working on lately, for me it is very important to take some time now and then to play and develop myself and during this Christmas I had some time to do so which was great. 

One of the thing that I worked on was pattern making and here is my new Tribe pattern and as you can see I have turned slightly obsessed with Giraffes lately, I think it might have reached it's peak now and it might be about time to move on to another species but I do love working with graphics and photography in my pattern making, I like the contrasts of real and organic and controlled vector shapes, or maybe I am just running slightly mad, what do you think?

Colombian Flower Market

Happy New Year everyone!

I have not been very good at blogging lately, I have been busy gaining weight.

It happens every winter, the constant darkness makes me want to eat things I normally don't even like, like cakes and artificial tasting sweets and anything fried in half a pack of butter will also do, and of-course, chocolate. I think I have gained a few kilos this winter and hope that spring will come before I turn Jabba de Hut.

But I haven't just been eating, I have been hardcore working and created a lot of new designs and patterns that I unfortunately cannot show yet.

And I have been out walking. One of my favourite places is just around the corner so I do not have to walk to far and risk not gaining weight - very good. The market is not very big but has  a great variety of herbs, cut flowers and plants - especially if you go in summer. The area itself is very charming with its old buildings from what I have been told what used to be a very poor part of London back in the beginning of 1900. I tried to take some photos but they don't really show the atmosphere with all the little design shops, street musicians playing and flowers, flowers, flowers and more flowers - I was a bit to lazy to play photographer, but you can at least get an idea and if you ever are in London on a Sunday then Brick lane market and this, the flower market on Colombian road, is a must and they are 10 minutes away from each-other here in east London.

Time for a sandwich.