De La Soul

Recently i've been listening to alot of De La, for those who aren't aware of who they are, they pretty much pioneered hip-hop throughout the early 90's until guns bitches and crack took over the scene. yeaaa sweet, anyhow, for my own personal gain i decided to design a t-shirt for myself which i hope to screen print very soon :)

Nook & Cranny

We were asked to design a publication for a series titled 'Nook & Cranny' exploring the proverbial pair “Cloak and Dagger”.




My concept for cloak and dagger emerged from researching undercover missions.
My thought processes were — in order to keep a mission secret succesfully, it is imperative to keep yourself/your identity concealed. In order to keep concealed you need to have a tactic, some form of defense to protect you from being detected, whether it be embarking on your mission at night or via assisted techniques such as camouflaging and smoke screening. I then developed these thoughts and asked myself — Why do humans need assistance? Why do we not have any natural defense mechanisms other than our basic instincts to run or hide? This led me onto my idea about the defensive techniques animals are born with. After research, It occurred to me that much of our inspiration for defending ourselves with the likes of camouflage, ammunition etc has derived from studying animals, their behaviour their ability to defend themselves without any assisstance whatsoever.

My book is designed to firstly explore the animals in their concealed state, giving only small clues as to what kind of animal they might be and how they might defend themselves. Secondly, with the aid of perforated french folds, the book uncovers the animal and enters the miniature world of their defense mechanisms. The animal in question is named and supported by typographic representations of their defense mechanism.

Hope

We were asked to design a piece of direct mail to raise awareness of homelessness and the work of the homeless charity Crisis.

My concept for Crisis emerged from researching the emotional struggle of the homeless person.

After uccesfully completing my primary research with my friend Lewis via video interviews, it became apparent to me very early on that homeless people not only have a battle with the awful conditions they are faced living in everyday but they also have to battle with the public’s
distorted perception of them. They are seen as a nuissance; lazy no-hopers that have chosen this life and that it is down to their own fault when in reality, the tragedies of losing their job, their flat or even someone very close to them has chosen this life for them.

My thought processes led me to consider the emotional minds of the homeless people through their own poetry, writings and experiences. All 4 of the homeless people we interviewed said similar things when we asked them “What do you think the public think of you when they see you?”. The collective answer could be rounded off by the word “hopeless”. Together with a quote “Nobody can go back and start a new beginning, but anyone can start today and make a new ending” I came up with the idea of producing a book (typically having a beginning and an end) that represents typographically how the emotional spiral of a homeless person can be turned around by Crisis Homeless Charity.

The book explores a short story of the collapse of a homeless person, from the moment he or she loses their home to the point where their mind has made them believe there is no hope for them and deemed them mentally and emotionally unstable. The book mechanics then revert, subtly introducing the turning point where Crisis enters their life and “turns it around”. The book is then read backwards from right to left appearing to go back to the beginning when infact the beginning is now the end, the “start ending of a new ending” as the quote I found suggests. I thought “Hope” was an appropriate title for the book but with “less” written behind it. Hope stands forward of it, indicating that nothing is hopeless, and that hope can be brought out of something that is considered hope-less. All materials used were 100% recycled or salvaged to further stress the idea of making use out of something useless.



here's a video clip of me buying a big issue off of Rob, by far the most creditable homeless person we bumped into. great guy and outrageously funny. see, they are normal people after all :)

Midday Music

We were asked to design a poster for a new music event held in the Southbank Centre thats promotes live roots, jazz and cultural music from around the world. We were also asked to design an identity for the event.

poster//

Too Many Shiny Xmas

Last year, I was commissioned to produce a double-sided flyer for an electro event held in Shoreditch. The only criteria was to make it fun, cute and colourful so it was a nice open brief!



Really enjoyed making this one, as i got to play with illustration aswell. Its a little winter wonderland of ice-cream mountains garnished with christmas tree flakes :)

Front//

//Back

'Hang Loose'

I had a dream a little while ago about my good friend Chewish tattooing a sloth hanging upside-down on a branch with a speech bubble saying "Hang loose" inside it on my leg. It was too good to forget and perhaps too daft to go through with...



so I decided to draw it and share it with everyone. A constant, memorable reminder of how haggard my dreams are :)

Break Hearts, Sink Ships

Before I began studying at Hertfordshire, I had a short lived "career" in a pop-punk band called Paige. With the demand of merch sales rising, I decided to have a go at creating a t-shirt design for my band (on Adobe Illustrator which i wasn't so familiar with at the time) with the intentions of sending a batch to print.



Unfortunately, due to procrastinating, my lack of solid background illustrator skills and our lack of funds we were never able to get them printed. shame, but hey, you can't knock a guy for trying! Thought I would put it up anyway