Illustration by Sarah J. Coleman: Kingsley, April and Tom Are Ten Years Old.

Thursday, February 17, 2011

Kingsley, April and Tom Are Ten Years Old.

The Design Conspiracy are ten years old this year, and are spending the year partying! Well, they spent one Wednesday night partying at least; with ten pieces of artwork to celebrate, one from each of their mates, some bowls of my favourite chickpea-coloured mush hummus, and some pop and jelly.

Kingsley, April, Tom and the late Ben (he left actually, I realise that sounded very grim and possibly libellous) set up TDC a decade ago, from their humble quarters at Garden Studios in Holborn, to their own studios and gallery space now in Stukeley Street, Covent Garden. They were some of the earliest people to trust me with a proper advertising job, and I've done bits and bobs for them ever since - selection below. They're all from the North (April's from Loughborough, which is sort of The Middle), so I understand their accents, and they understand mine. And every time I see them, I know I can flop down in a chair, talk about anything from pies to serifs to home-made 'specialist' films*, and it's all in the course of a weekday discussion at TDC.

And they've now been drawing for clients like Sainsbury's, Sodexo, Jemma Kidd and 3 Mobile for ten years. Where's that time gone, then? I picked 2006 as my year to illustrate, since it not only had real significance for me but it had some whopping news stories too that I was completely gripped by.

Ahh...I like posting new things, but there's nothing like a bit of reminiscing too. Kingsley, April and Tom: here's to you, my friends in the big noisy town.

*that isn't a randomly-generated item: there is a story attached.