Thursday 21 January 2010

Kaleidoscope is Coming!


My long in development promotional booklet 'Kaleidoscope' is now finally on the way to being finished.

The 10 page glossy brochure collects together over 30 of my best unpublished self-promotional drawings produced mainly over the last 12 months and will have a initial print run of 200, these will then be making there way into the hands of not only art directors I already work with, but also to those whom I wish to work with throughout 2010.

The whole production of the book has been a massive undertaking, something I've likened to creating a album, in that you want only your very best to make the final collection, and of course there should be a coherence about the thing as a whole.

The image above is a sneak peek of the cover, I wanted something elaborate and dense, which let's face it runs contrary to what is seen as good design, particularly for a cover, the picture is really a celebration of not only things I like to draw, but also has a definite 80's kitch undercurrent... if this image boggles your eyes then it has done its job.

There will be more about Kaleidoscope here once it finally sees print.

Friday 15 January 2010

Men's Health Ire-phone


This is a recent job for Men's Health UK, who i've been working with over the last 7/8 months, the art department fellas there always comes up with great ideas for images. So it has been a dream job really... you'll not here me say that often!

The idea behind this is that Apple create a new phone, the Ire-phone created to be a celebration of all things Irish..a portable St.Patricks day if you will! Along with doing all your basic phone stuff, it makes a great pint of Guiness, tell jokes, and can generally do any number of odd and outlandish things; hence the chainsaw etc..

This was a real fun illo to do, mainly because I am generally hired for my figurative work so it was a welcomed change of pace to do something out of the norm, also had a great time put all those apps icons on screen; I'm not sure what happens when you press the leprechaun button!

Wouldn't it be nice if such a thing existed; a phone that could pull you a pint on a warm day, now that's what I call a technological breakthrough.

Thursday 14 January 2010

Hey there World!



Hi there everyone, well as you can see i've finally got around to creating a blog, which I dare say is long overdue.
Expect to find plenty of illustrations here, but first of all seeing as I haven't had time to post any pics up on my website with regards to the Wellcome Image Award I picked up in October 2009 then this seems the ideal place to show them.
Wellcome Images (which is part of the Wellcome Trust) is a medical image library, which just so happens to have a few of my images on file, and I was delighted and a little surprised when they informed me in 2009 that my work had been selected for a award.
What was more surprising is that this was the first year that the category of illustration had been added..so I was doubly thrilled, not only to be nominated but to win too!
The big and rather fancy awards ceremony was held at the Wellcome Trust down in London Town, I was accompanied by long time friend and chief troublemaker Mr Steven Blunt, who when not eating canopies was in charge of photographing the shenanigans.
The picture show me collecting the award from none other than nice lady off the TV Dr Alice Roberts, she then proceeded to interview me in front of a live audience about said image, never been more scared in my life!
The other picture shows me with the award in front of the winning image, this had to be taken the next day, as I seemed to forget to do this on the big day.. must have been all that free wine!
The most alarming thing believe it or not, but Steve has a degree in photography! Again I blame the free wine for these blurry snapshots.
That's it for now, i'll make my next blog a bit more up to date and with some illos.

VBW

Bill