Our next show in the Factoryroad Gallery is...

www.h099.com
Opening night Friday 21st October, from 6.30pm.
More gallery information here: factoryroadgallery.net
Richard will be taking over the wall space of Factoryroad Gallery with his brushes and paints!
Richard is an artist and designer who also makes videogames such as Poto and Cabenga, Frobisher Says and  Hohokum. Originally from Leicestershire, this will be the first time he is showing his work in the town since his A-level exhibition (he got a B). He currently lives in Crystal Palace, South London. Richard used to be a part of the notorious design company Airside. He is also in the band Satan's Cock. 

And if we are very fortunate, he may also be wowing us with his world-famous pumpkin carving skills.
His work is sprightly and charming, and never fails to plaster a smile on our faces!

RSVP please - since this is a working studio as well as a gallery space, we need you to let us know if you're coming. Thanks!

Thank you Mr Jobs.

The Secret Members' Show, or How I fell In Love With Ink Again.

I'm an illustrator, which means I'm a pen-wielding gun for hire; proficient at answering briefs, often to short deadlines; navigating the demands of as many as sixteen clients at once (that's my record to date) and firing work out of the studio like so many curlicued ping-pong balls.

I can do this for months on end, but it takes its toll. You see I love doing books covers, and adverts, and packaging, but there's an itch that constantly waits to be scratched until an opportunity arises. It can only wait so long before the equilibrium begins to distort, and the urge to create some personal, entirely self-generated work becomes all-consuming. Like any bodily need - thirst, sleep, hunger, sex - if this is continually denied, I start to feel physically out of sorts.

 

So. When Leigh and I - in our capacity as curators of Factoryroad - wrote the brief for our Secret Members' Show, I knew there was a chance to do something I rarely get the time to do: express...and play.

The brief was thus:

"As you’re already aware we would like you to grace our new gallery with your interpretation, celebration, homage, tale or observation of the male member.

Be aware this isn't some 'just for laffs', cheesy feminism show; it has nothing to do with girl power or porn or Ann Summers. Neither is it a sombre acknowledgement of the weapon of mass production/oppression shared by the fairer sex.

No! This is a celebration of each creative female's feelings about this extension of the males who have coloured their lives, or which inspired the exchange of stories. Only female creatives are taking part.

The subject is apolitical, universal, timeless; it is variously a symbol of hope, new life, love, but also of war, fear, threat and oppression. They can be funny, characterful, and as unique as the men who wear them."


I did three pieces for the show itself, but the collection was held together by the poster. Since the subject matter was to remain secret to everyone but the participants, I wanted it to hint at peeping, vaudeville, burlesque, Victorian pornography, but also craftsmanship and exuberance. It was all hand-drawn at A2 in black Talens Ecoline ink with a variety of nibs, and a 0.2 and 0.3 fineliner for the very small type, on Fabriano 230gsm 100% recycled paper. The RSVP hand and the 'censored' little boy were also drawn in pen and ink.

It took three days, and with the exception of the three show pieces themselves - one video essay, one sculpture and one large-scale drawing in coloured pencil - I can't remember enjoying a piece of work this much in years.

Here's the original A2 art, done in one take - no digital, just planning, patience, and the odd little blob of Tippex:

 

Here's the little boy having his tender eyeballs protected (the show was thoroughly 'unsuitable for children'):

 

And for the postal invitations, I added a simple serif font (Niew CroMagnon) and rejigged the elements. The motif was used on all the information panels, the welcome poster, the tea towel wrappers and the leaflets. We've hung the original, appropriately enough, on the Victorian door of the bathroom.

You can read about the show and its opening night on the Factoryroad Gallery website, and see most of the work. If you would like a print of the piece, please get in touch.

Announcing 'The Secret Members' Show'

Humbled by the response to our last two shows, we're most excited to finally pull the silk sheet off the next one: The Secret Members' Show.

Featuring specially-commissioned new work by one male and 17 female international artists and craftspeople, this is the first group created by Factoryroad, and will showcase work in a bewildering array of media by

Andrea Gibson, Boulder, Colorado

Anne Coleman, Hinckley 

April Ball, London

Beth Robinson’s Strange Dolls, Vermont

Caroline Allen, Brighton

Drew Jerrison, Leicester

Florence EMA Blanchard, Paris

Inkymole, Factoryroad Gallery

Jacquie O'Neill, Cornwall

Jill Calder, Kingdom of Fife

Kelly Merrell, Leicester

Lily Blythe, Stoke on Trent

Lisa Hayes, Hinckley

Melanie Tomlinson, Birmingham

Rebecca Lewis, Reading

Rebecca Lupton, Manchester

Shirley Gibson, Glasgow

Tracy Walker, Hinckley

Guests and contributors are invited to the opening night on

Saturday 24th September, 5pm till 11pm

Factoryroad Gallery

Hinckley

Leicestershire

t: 07545 599801

e: gallery@factoryroad.net

w: http://www.factoryroadgallery.net

The exhibits will remain on show until Friday 11th October. If you'd like to come during the week, just let us know. gallery@factoryroad.net

Since this is a living/working space as well as a gallery, attendance is strictly by RSVP to gallery@factoryroad.net

Once you email we'll send the full address! 

And if you need accommodation or help with travel plans, do email, we have information ready.

Please note that although youngsters are usually welcomed to our shows, this one contains adult themes, so is:

We cannot wait!

Enzo + Nio vs Inkymole.

Funny what you find on Twitter when you spend some time looking rather than just dashing in breathless, twitting and running away again!

Someone's purloined some of the 'Walls' wallpaper and created this little firebomber with it, somewhere in Williamsburg. I love it, it made me laugh. Nice to know this piece of work, now 5 years old, is still in someone's creative conscious! They've called it 'If A Girl Writes Off The World', named after my original show and Sage Francis' lyric as well as having some resonance over here of course, given the alarmingly low age of some of the 'looters' of a couple of weeks ago.

http://enzoandnio.posterous.com/future-now-enzo-and-nio-williamsburg-44963

Stuff on the walls, in frames.

The original illustration I did for The Natural History Museum is on show, in a fancy black frame, at The Association of illustrators' Images Show - somewhat grandly subtitled the 'Best of British Illustration'.

Organised by the Association of Illustrators, I first entered the 'Images' competition in late 1992 as a second year degree student and got into the book and show, which I didn't expect to do at that time. The piece is below; an A1 pastel pencil drawing showing my flatmate's knees! Work offers rolled in as a consequence, but with so much work to do on what was a very packed, old-fashioned degree (27 briefs in the first 9 months, 19 briefs in the second year, and 22 separate pieces of work for my final project plus third year briefs, competitions and collaborations) there wasn't time to take them up, which was a shame.

I've entered it almost every year since, and sometimes I'm chosen, sometimes I'm not. I like the fact that I can't just assume I'll get in - depends who's judging of course! (I've been a judge too, which was immense fun but bloody hard work) - and whether the work is any good...

Billed as 'the premier and longest running jury-selected illustration annual and touring exhibition in the UK', the exhibition is a showcase for some of the busiest commissioned illustrators in the UK today. This one features new work by illustrators whose work you'll have seen out and about as well as graduates and excited newbies.

You can win prizes too, in the categories of Advertising, Books, Children's Books, Design, Editorial, New Media, Self Promotion and New Talent. I have never won a prize, but then I'm not the gong-winning type!

Images 35 tour dates and venues:

26 August - 2 September 2011
Bankside Gallery, 48 Hopton Street, London, SE1 9JH

Darlington Civic Theatre and Arts Centre: 26 Sept-30 Nov 2011
University of Derby: 5 Dec 2011-5 Feb 2012
Viewpoint Gallery, Plymouth: 13 Feb-14 April 2012
Aberystwyth Arts Centre: 30 April-10 June 2012
Prescot Museum: 3 August - 16 October 2012

When I was 14, I wanted to be...

either:

a) a 'graphic designer' with a Filofax, sports car and a flat on the top floor of a block in Birmingham, because my Dad had taken me and my mate to Aston University and impressed us with its paternoster lift

b) a concert violinist / pianist or

c) a writer of fiction...possibly for a newspaper (I'd have been snapped up by the Daily Mail!).

I became none of these, but as often happens in life, all three things stayed relevant. I do fiction book covers and write blogs, I play music constantly albeit other people's (I still have my violin, I don't play it anymore), and I work with graphic designers - even doing the odd magazine cover.

This was my first attempt. I oversaw the design and layout of the school 3rd year magazine Reflection, replete with hand-rendered masthead in Stop, which I'd learned to draw with my eyes closed from copying Thompson Twins album sleeves. Note the different typographic treatments for the contents list, which are comparable with the Sight & Sound covers I was doing last year. Inside are hand-drawn headers (I'm doing one of those now for a client) and adverts, which also pepper my folio.

It's a magnificent time capsule, with a guide to what computers we were using. You'll see Apple weren't even on the scene then, but you could have an Amstrad, a Dragon or a Sinclair, as the article by the school computer nerd shows. Record (yes record) reviews were for Duran Duran, Madonna, King, The Eurythmics, Divine and Howard Jones - Dead or Alive in particular get a very dismissive one-line review for 'Sophisticated Boom Boom'.

Fellow designer Jason Bailey I'm still in touch with now, he and his wife running their own Berlin studio, Bailey und Bailey. Julie Neale went on to become a wedding stationery designer, and Kevin Rose also made it to the creative industry. We're the only three that did, but I'd love to show this to the whole gang, as I suspect copies are as rare as that jigsaw-shaped Thompson Twins picture disc still upstairs in the pile.

Lily's blog.

We have a guest blogger this month, Lily Blythe from Stoke on Trent, who is working at the Inkymole studio just a month after graduating with a first in Graphic Design. Lily has something of an obsession with - and incredible flair for - typography, and was in the audience at the last college lecture I did in 2010. When she approached us at the D&AD New Talent Show last month, we were only too pleased to get her involved in our current projects.

Watch this space for more about What Lily Did Next!

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This month I was invited down to the Inkymole Studio to lend a helping hand in this month's installation at The Factoryroad Gallery space.

After bumping into Sarah at the D&AD exhibition in London in July, on the last day at around closing time, we got chatting and she was kind enough to give me a project to help keep my hands and mind busy. The brief was to use all of Inky's unfinished creative scribbles, which were a result of years of process work showing an insight in the life of a busy creative.

I kept an open mind and when shown the three crates of work, thought…this isn't that much. Little did I know that once I started to delve into Sarah's work, it was like Pandora's box. Thousands of tiny treasures on scraps of paper, ones which folded out, ones which were covered in coffee stains, blue-tac and ink splurges, and ones which were stuffed into folders along with many other different versions. All of which were done with love.

Whilst taking this sneak peak into Sarah's work I saw that being a creative with such love and passion, it really isn't a job, but it's her life. All the stains on the work showed hard working nights, and early mornings, thousands of drafts trying to get the right solution for a client (and yourself). Every picture really did tell its own story.

After reflecting on all the hard work we put in as creatives, many of us with little money in our pockets, many sleepless nights and cluttered work spaces, this experience has made me realise that I really do love what I do and I can't wait to get my first foot in the door of the creative industry.

* * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * * *

The show is on the walls of The Factoryroad Gallery until our group show in September, 'The Penis Show', opening Saturday September 24th. If you're interested in calling in for a look, please get in touch on gallery@factoryroad.net and we'll get the kettle on.

11 book covers.

I was interviewed by Computer Arts a couple of months ago and I was asked what I was working on at the time. I couldn't remember what I'd said, so when I read the interview back recently it was a shock to read my answer was

'two ad campaigns, some point-of-sale for Crabtree & Evelyn, a logo and 11 book covers'.

Hmm. That would explain why my holiday was welcomed with such wide open arms and strained eye sockets, then.

But actually, that's really not an uncommon scenario. I'm grateful of course, all busy freelancers are, but there are times when the work flies out so fast you genuinely can't remember what you've done. Here, in the name of remembering that period, is a round-up of some* of 'The Holiday Eleven' - those covers which were all jostling for position in the weeks before I disappeared for a gratefully-received rest!

*some can't be brazenly waved around in public yet, since I've not had the 'final word'!

'Boys for Beginners', for Quercus - this one's gone into my file of 'favourites ever'! Mainly because Debbie, the art director, loved the felt pen look and just went with the flow.
(looks even better in miniature on Amazon's site, for some reason!)
Working on the follow-up as I write.

'A Month Of Sundays' for Macmillan, USA. I like a bit of drama, can you tell?

'The Memory of Blood' - the latest in the Bryant & May series, all of which I've done covers for.
Above is the published version - but I prefer the version I first sent in, this one:

...in fact, the VERY first version is my favourite...if a little dark:

'Booze for Free', for Transworld. Looking forward to making these!

'Unraveling Isobel', for Simon & Schuster, USA. Inspired by this self-promotion illustration from my website!


'The Blue Sword', for Fanucci, Italy. I love non-English titles, they challenge my brain/pen architecture. (At the same time as this, I did a Polish version of a cover I originally did in English a couple of years ago.) This one's a proper 'fantasy' story! Swirling long hair, medievel dresses, swords...brilliant.

Finally, three titles for the New York Times' crossword series, all done in felt-tip pen.
For some reason I've been asked to do a lot of cake lately. I'm doing one now, in fact...
I love the wobbly warts'n'all quality of these - it's not that often an art director embraces that - see Boys for Beginners, above.


Particularly pleased with my ice cream on this one!