Spring Song

As David Hockney recently said "they can't cancel spring!"

Working Digitally - Putting it all together

You may not have time to read my various recent blogposts about all the different ways I can help you with drawing - so to put it simply, I've done this drawing in procreate. The program has tracked the marks I make and plays it back as a short film:

And here's the final image it lands on:

Working Digitally - 4) Live Digital Scribing

So this is a new way of working for me, and a lot of us out there, using conference video calls to keep everyone communicating and keep businesses running.

I was asked to capture some live presentations at a 'Dragon's Den' style event for the Future Water Association. I wasn't given much background information than that so was thinking on my feet during the presentations. 

I drew on my Ipad and the program tracked the drawing and can play it back at the end. Each presentation was about 8 minutes long.

There were people joining from all over the world and the businesses shared the short films digitally after the event.

It goes by in a bit of a flash so here is the final image:

And here are a couple more of the other presentations:

Working Digitally - 3) Storytelling

Do you have a story to tell? Most of us use stories instinctively every day.

This way of communicating can also be be really powerful, especially when it involves individual struggles of overcoming obstacles - something we can all relate to, especially at the moment! But it could also relate to a product you're trying to launch or a new way of working that you're trying to instil.

These were about an individual's journey from homelessness back to belonging within a family and community. They were commissioned by Camden Council and interspersed with text for a presentation:

A looser, comic strip style here telling the story of a process of social care and engagement within the community of Camden:

And this is a more traditional approach using a comic book style to tell the story of one person's life (my grandmother!) in a short story:

Working Digitally - 2) Illustration

Here are some examples of my illustration work. Illustrations can be full page or individual 'spot' illustrations, or can top and tail a piece of writing. Also tweeted and shared on Instagram.

I usually spend time finding out what the client needs, before either verbally describing the image, using image references, or sketching out a draft sketch to check what's needed, before drawing up the final image/s. Examples below:

This was used for a twitter campaign to celebrate the ten year anniversary of a health organisation, (it was also turned into an animated gif):

This was for Camden Council's social services, illustrating their way of working:

For an e-learning module for Public Health England:

Some individual spot illustrations for a website:

This was for a workshop to explain what makes a good story:

Working Digitally - 1) Poster Design

As we're all learning to work remotely I thought I'd share some of the work I've done for groups of people and organisations. These were all designed and executed 'remotely' and supplied as digital files.

I'd say they fall into four categories: Poster design, Illustration, Storytelling and Live Scribing during virtual meetings.

1) Poster design

Process: This is an ongoing dialogue usually over a couple of weeks (depending on the number of stakeholders). First I am briefed on what you want to communicate, I then come up with a draft sketch and we normally have 2 iterations on top of the initial sketch, and after that I draw up the final image.

These were for research projects for various health and social care organisations - they showed the progress made and learnings.

This was a more traditional poster design for a specific messaging campaign:

And this one for a 10 year anniversary celebration:

This was to advertise an organisation's purpose and available services:

Illustration for Children in Care

These were commissioned for a leaflet to help explain what being in care means to your life if you are a child/young person.

The main aim was to help make the process as friendly as possible and take some of the fear and inevitable stress out of the situation, when becoming looked after. The leaflet is given to the child/young person and they are encouraged to personalise it, and keep it safe so they have the information they need.