The Inkvent Calendar

My latest project, released this week and already sold out at the time of writing, is this first-of-its-kind Inkvent Calendar - for pen and ink nerds like me!

This calendar has not 24 but 25, brand new shimmer, sheen and plain inks specially created for the calendar. The colours are beautiful, and VERY Christmassy, but the names are exquisite: Ho Ho Ho, Purple Bow, Midnight Hour, Polar Glow, Fire Embers, Winter Miracle, Gold Star, Gingerbread, Triple Chocolate...so much fun must have been had coming up with those!

The calendar has been two years in the making and was the brainchild of Diamine Inks, who I've worked with for many years (more on that later!) Director Christine and her nephew Phil are an inkredible (*drum roll*) couple, having taken on a company established in 1864 and taking it to the modern, mega-successful company it is today. Having designed all of their packaging since 2014, when Phil The Ink Wizard asked me to work with him on this project, I was ecstatic, even though my first thought was 'why didn't *I* think of that!'

Intended for fans of ink and fountain pens, artists and collectors the world over, the calendar was a massive investment and risky project to undertake: would it sell? who would buy it? would there be enough demand? will the inevitable price point put people off? Regardless, Phil and I ploughed on, putting all our faith in the mad ink love of scribblers and artists worldwide.

The artwork was created in ink on cartridge paper, after first being sketched out in pencil around the busy template that the manufacturers had worked out. This was a deep box, to accommodate the tiny but girthy glass bottles of ink - and the Special Thing underneath number 25. Unusually, Phil had taken the decision to introduce a 25th window, so that there was something special to open on Christmas Day. Another first!

There were a number of technical problems that needed solving both in terms of the preparation of the art (which needed to go from organic ink-on-paper to colour-separated vector-ready for a RIP machine) and the placement of numbers over windows. Not as easy as it sounds, each number had to be large enough and clear enough while being different from the last, and not every one could sit exactly over its window - or that would have looked too symmetrical and regimented.

The manufacture of the 225 brand new colours of ink in their specially-made bottles was another challenge, particular for an already-manically busy little company. Diamine are a robustly hands-on team, and the sheer scale of the man hours required to make this, the first batch of calendars, was not to be underestimated. Initially planned for 2018, the postponement until 2019 bought us time to review and tweak the artwork, refine the copy on the back and really get it into perfect shape.

And then: it was launched. We needn't have worried. Launched just 4 days ago at the time of writing it's already sold out, with shops requesting more stock to fill demand. If you've ordered one and not had it yet, they're planned for despatch mid-November.

Watch the film of me looking around the finished product and revealing SOME of the content!


Here are some places you can get one in the UK, there's still stock in the US here and here.

Large and colourful thanks go to Phil and Christine at Diamine for inviting me into their colourful world, and the opportunity to be involved in so many of their projects. Here's to the next ones!

GIANT BAUBLES IN THE SKY

We've spent the last few weeks (well months in total) working on the Christmas window display for Cocoa Amore, the new chocolate shop of whom we were appointed Creative Directors this year.

The job's been very involved - music, merchandising, signage, branding, interior decor, other aspects of the store that you can't predict being involved in! - but these massive ink baubles have been a lot of fun. Last year's windows were hand-painted snowtrees - so this year had to be a big contrast:

Here was my Photoshopped vision for the windows:

The baubles were to be enormous versions of the tiny ones drawn for my Christmas 'Vintage Bauble' wrapping paper:

I bought A1 paper, foam board and the fattest Japanese brush pen I could find, and set to with my 50s and 60s baubles references from my own wrapping paper, recreating them with bright, dry, coloured acrylic drawing inks:

Left to dry on top of the wood burner, the design was repeated for the back of the each bauble, then spray-mounted onto black foam board - haven't spray-mounted that much since I was a student!
O, the smells...the toxic vibes!

And they were hung, courtesy of some ladder-based acrobatics and drills held aloft to the ceiling, over the shop's window of goodies, flanked by fresh Christmas tree branches and (real) red sparkly baubles, a handful at a time:

Here was my Photoshopped mockup of the plan for the windows:

...and the real thing!

cocoa-amore.co.uk

Wellies.

As my friend Kellie said to me yesterday, "We know it's Summer because the rain's warm".

This is what happens when you leave inky artwork upstairs in a rainstorm with the roof lights open. I couldn't have created this effect if I'd tried - well, in fact I have been trying, ever since, and I can't seem to recreate what nature did in 5 minutes!

But I will get there.

Where It Went: Original Artwork en route

About to be united with the author of the book it was made for: original artwork for Midnight Without A Moon, out next year.

I love it when artwork makes its way to its rightful home. My archive has over twenty years' worth of material, so it's lovely when some of it travels away for a better life elsewhere!

They new owners get to see the nuts and bolts of how a piece is made.

More at

inkymole.com/tagged/whereitwent

Me and Coke: Part 2!

So fast forward from 2006 to nine years later and I’m drawing for Coke again - this time, a very clever campaign which took the Tweets of selected lady Diet Coke drinkers, and turned them into physical objects sent as gifts to them Tweeters themselves, under the hashtag ‘ReTweetsOfLove’.
They had no idea they were going to receive them!

They took the form of T shirts, pads, ice sculptures, PARK sculptures, jewellery and prints, even a digital display in Times Square.

I did 7, with one was cancelled; a necklace, which would have made a fiiiine piece of work but is posted here anyway, as me and the art director did a lot of work on it so it deserves an airing!

Here’s my poster, from sketches to completion. The Tweeter’s name and original quote had to go in verbatim (which meant including any strange grammar or punctuation issues - sorting that one out was an interesting discussion for a grammar perfectionist!)

Then there was the iPhone case:

A T shirt:

Two notepads (sent to writers!):

And then the best bit, my own Coke can!

And here is the necklace which SO NEARLY made it…technical issues with the fineness of my calligraphy meant that they used a font in the end, and chunked it up a bit so it could be made quickly with fewer technical concerns, but here is the set of four necklaces designed to be worn together, on my ‘borrowed’ décolletage (sorry lady whoever you are!)

The necklace gave me a right old taste for 3D printing though, so this isn’t the last you’ll hear of THAT!

Thanks Bernstein & Andriulli Coke, Droga5 and Fast Horse for a great job, and nice to have a solid collection of pieces.