Hallo everyone, seasons greetings and all that.

As promised, this is the first of four retrospective blogs in which I try to recall some of the work I’ve done since November 2009 when my old blog ground to a halt. Being a considerate fellow, I’ve separated it into four manageable chunks to make it a bit easier to swallow between all those hot mince pies and cold turkey sandwiches, and included as many pictures as possible to punctuate the waffle.

We pick up in late ’09. A call from a man with a dream, a dream about a world without wrapping paper. He had invented the Evergreen Wrap; a reusable fabric wrap designed to replace conventional wrapping paper, reduce the number of trees felled in the name of celebration and basically help our poor old planet a little bit. The thing was, there were loads of traditional Furoshiki techniques – different ways of tying fabric to wrap gifts of all shapes and sizes – but he needed someone to illustrate them in a contemporary way that matched his branding. The finished illustrations feature on the packaging, but you can also see them here.

I went on to complete a number of projects for the guys at Evergreen Wrap, from brochure illustrations to greetings cards and animation assets – it was a great experience and I can certainly recommend their wraps if you don’t feel like wrestling with wrapping paper this Christmas.

It was shortly after this that I was approached by Claire Sambrook, who I had previously worked with on the Southsea Deck Your Chairs project, who asked me and fellow illustrator Ken to produce a bookmark and poster for her new project. Visual Libraries was a project designed to stimulate interaction between communities and their local library, encouraging collaborative creativity and self-expression. Participants could borrow a visual diary from their library and make their mark on its’ pages before returning it for the next person to interact with. We designed the posters to promote the project, and the bookmarks to mark the pages of each diary.

Following on from the Visual Libraries project, Claire asked if we would like to submit some work for another project of hers – Love Your Bike Portsmouth. I may as well come clean now, I haven’t ridden a bike since I was ten and even then I spent more time bleeding in the gutter than on the saddle, but it was a good excuse to draw something so I happily obliged. We each designed a spoke card to promote the event, and as usual I went for the most uncool approach possible – taking inspiration from the Victorian school of cycling. Jeeves, ready my velocipede!

Thus, we arrive in early summer 2010, concluding the first part of the retrospective. I’m hoping to get these wrapped up – excuse the pun – before Christmas to clear the decks for a new year of blogging, so keep those eyes peeled for part two. Until then, good luck with your Yuletide preparations!

Wow, hello old blog. Been quite some time since I last wrote one of these but here goes.

When I first started writing blogs, during my final year at university, I thought to myself that this was probably a massive waste of time. Nobody will want to read this rambling prose, it’s not really making a point about anything in particular and so far I’ve yet to be visited my a smiling Mr. Pulitzer or his prize committee – and yet, blinded by youthful naivety, I persevered. Alas, experience (and Google Analytics) soon taught me that my instincts were probably right, and the thought that I was writing for nobody in particular made it difficult to find the motivation to continue – hence the gaping chronological void between this blog and the last.

Anyway, that was then and this is now. Now I realise that what this blog really is, and has been from the start, is a sort of career diary. It doesn’t matter that my mother makes up 50% of the readership, it’s just nice to throw up a quick blog about my latest project or something that I found particularly inspiring, because then I’ll always have a record of my creative journey to look back on.

One day, when I’m old and drunk and homeless, I’ll pack up my chalks and leave my paving-slab canvas to the rain, stagger into an internet café and hand over my hat-full of change to the clerk. I’ll pour my creaking bones into a plastic chair, warm my hands with a coffee, visit my old blog and smile, sans teeth, sans regret, at past glories and silly doodles.

Therefore, as not to deprive my destitute future-self, I’ll be writing a series of short retrospective blogs covering the two-year blackout since my last blog. There have been a fair few projects since then, but I’ll try to keep it short sweet, painless and picture-packed for the brave few who choose to read. If you follow me on Twitter or Facebook, you’ll see a notification whenever a new blog is posted, which should alleviate any niggling worries and bouts of insomnia caused by the thought of missing one.

That’s all for now, thanks for reading, enjoy the new site and I’ll be back soon.

Well, so much for regular blog updates. It’s not my fault, honest, I mistakenly purchased a Playstation 3 and lost a month’s worth of free time to Metal Gear Solid. Blogging has suffered, but on the bright side I’d probably be able to infiltrate an enemy base armed only with a chloroform-soaked hanky and a swanky bandana – if ever I needed to…

Thankfully however, the design work has continued parallel to bouts of virtual espionage. Mostly I’ve been working on small commissions to try and raise a bit of cash, but there has been time for personal work too. It’s definitely important to keep the fun stuff going alongside professional commissions, as it helps to maintain and develop your individual style.

Early last month I was cordially invited by my talented friends Chrissy and Leanne to collaborate on a fun little project for Peperami, who were looking for innovative ways to advertise their new ‘Peperami Bites’. Leaving the expert character designer to work up some expert character designsand the expert storyboarder to produce an expert storyboard, I set to work on a couple of print campaigns to support the main concept.

I thought the combined results were fantastic, but only time will tell if the Peperami-folk agree!

So overall I suppose three lessons have been learned this month:

1) Personal work is good, make work for fun not just for money.

2) It’s good to collaborate, different people have different strengths and you will learn a great deal by working with them.

3) No matter how much time you waste playing games, you will never be as cool as Solid Snake.

In celebration of all things horrific, I’ve submitted three new abominations to the Threadless Loves Horror II Competition.

Nyctophobia II is the sequel to my original Nyctophobia design, Lily is a more subtle approach to the theme taken from my old project on Phobias, and Elemental Rapture is a re-imagining of the old biblical concept of apocalypse.

If you get a chance, swing by and cast your vote.

Thankies!