studiospooky

Haven’t done an update in a while. We’re doing a few things here at the moment which we’ll post up in due course. We have some editorial work on the go for Amelia’s Magazine, a cover story illustration for TI magazine from our good friends in Dublin, we’re wrestling with the final edit of our Pecha-Kucha presentation and we have an amazing project on the go that we’re ITCHING to reveal but can’t because its super-top-secret at the moment, but we feel very fortunate indeed to have been invited to contribute to that.

In the meantime, if anybody wondered what a day in the studio here is like, this is about as close as we can get to conveying it to you in audiovisual form. Picture the scene, its 9.00am, the wrought iron gates of Studiospooky open, and in we come…

Well, we got caught short so hadn’t made any announcements, but the studio has pretty much been closed since Christmas and today is the first day back. It was nice to have a long rest to be honest and to get away from the studio for a while and think about something else. The something else I have been thinking about is my second daughter, Lottie, who was born on the 17th January.  She’s doing fine and piling on the pounds at an alarming (but healthy) rate.

Lottie, Day 01

3 colour print for Technology Ireland

Last thing before we broke up for Christmas, Horp created this retro-style graphic art for Technology Ireland.
The article was about the imminent arrival of ‘Nanotech proper’ and evoked a sense of us being on the cusp of
a brave new world. Horp decided to approach it as though the stuff of comic book science fiction… after all, it
isn’t here yet… and to evoke the graphic style of the 50’s, a time of great scientific excitement.

Deliberate mis-registration and crude edging with coarse screenwork achieved the effect of magnifying a detail
from a comic book.

Artwork in position on spread

The latest in a series of drawings inspired by pub names.

Below: Orbit has been at it again. First he broke his allegiance to the pencil and started working in pen, now he’s started using paint.
We are worried about where all this might lead and anticipate his arrival in the studio one day wearing a beret and black turtle neck.

Editorial piece for The Retail Trade Guild's members magazine

Below: Various sketchbook pieces that Orbit has noodled up over the break
using his brand new set of paints that he got from Father Christmas.

Sketchbook noodle

“Not For Sale” For sale

^ Orbit says:
I actually saw an item similar to this on sale in an antique auction in Lewes a couple of years ago.
I was there to bid on an old dentist’s chair but there was this job lot of 150 mahogany, bakerlight and stained glass
“Not for sale” signs from the 30’s. They had these tiny little lights, like fibreoptics, that illuminated the coloured glass
slab on the back of which was etched the lettering (filled with gold leaf or paint). Presumably you could slot in different messages.
It struck me how beautifully engineered and sturdy these things were, as though to enforce the exclusivity of whatever item was not
for sale, and yet here they were, years later, themselves on sale. I really wanted one but they were only selling all 150 as a job lot.
I couldn’t even take a photograph as I didn’t have a camera on me.

Below: A few tiny watercolour paintings I did in my Moleskine over the Christmas break.

Super tiny watercolour paintings.

Super tiny watercolour paintings.

Below: Ranger Roy is a long-standing joke between my friends which amounts to little more than asking ‘What would Ranger Roy do?’.
Ranger Roy was originally based on Roy Schneider who once cracked us up in some film we have long since forgotten, but Ranger Roy
has evolved over the years into a character who doesn’t give a damn about anything. He’s our excuse to misbehave.

Ranger Roy, not to be messed with.

Below:
This is a very old piece of work that was never finished, but I thought about it whilst painting over Christmas.
It was originally done for an exhibition at The Conningsby Gallery London entitled Voxpops, and was entitled
“You distract them while I pump them full of junk” and was a comment on the way colourful graphics and
illustration is often used to dazzle and distract people while they are fed a branded sales message.

It was an early attempt at painting but I didn’t like the result so I abandoned it and did something else.
I may re-work the piece with my new-found love of paints….

From the archive: A concept piece for Voxpops @ Conningsby Gallery 2005

From the archive: A concept piece for Voxpops @ Conningsby Gallery 2005

From the archive: A concept piece for Voxpops @ Conningsby Gallery 2005

Here’s a sneak peek of some of the things we’ve been working on in November…

First up, Orbit’s been using his pen again in this book cover illustration for this independently published ode to optimism.
Originally a blog that attracted 2million devoted readers, the artwork features Sneeze, a character developed by Orbit to run through
Eamon’s covers and internal artworks and will be appearing on the blog as an animated character too once his re-designed
site is back up and running in 2010. 

Book cover illustration

The Market magazine approached Horp with the task of creating a front cover magazine that highlights two seemingly opposing lead articles. One article focusses on the need for product companies to move into a more service oriented mindset, and the other article discusses service providers learning to package their wares as products. First image is a crop of a full bleed artwork that runs behind the mast-head…

Cover art that breaks down into 2 article illustrations for The Market

Below are a couple of take-down suggestions for re-working the elements for page illustrations on each article.
The designers responsible for producing the magazine will be re-working the items to fit the available space in the page layout. 

Individual elements that make up article illustrations (not actual composition)

Individual elements that make up article illustrations (not actual composition)

^ On a closely related matter, Studiospooky are pleased to learn that our client has won the award for best magazine design at the Irish Magazine Awards. A scan from the award program below, which features Spooky’s recent cover artwork too, so we’re going to bask in a the reflected glory of that little coup, and say congratulations to Boyle Design for their well deserved win!

Boyle Design's winning work

A quicky doodle created for the end of decade round up of current affairs, politics, lowlights and highlights of the last ten years. Orbit chose to do a doodle for a story about Cherie Blair’s real estate ambitions…

"Cherie"... Doodle for the Decade in political review supplement, Financial Times (published 2010)

Bazooka prints, studio wall …

Bazooka proof prints drying on the studio wall.

Thunderbowl…

Bazooka print for retail promotional signage, window display, in-store banners

Café…

Bazooka print for retail promotional signage, window display, in-store banners (refreshments)

Hair, accessories and cosmetics…

Bazooka print illustration for retail display and press advertising.

Footwear on floor 2

Original pencil drawing, translated into a Bazooka Print for the cover of EcceHomo by M.R.James.

Book cover illustration for EcceHomo by M.R.James

Bazooka print from Orbit’s pencil drawing for book cover.

 Bazooka Prints drying on the studio table….

Bazooka prints drying on the rack

Bazooka Print for Orbit Lesser’s personal project

These next three are design elements and character developments being created for a new children’s sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction title for Quercus books. The first cover is not in production yet so we can;t show it here, but here are a few bits and bobs….

Horror fiction title for Quercus Books

Individual element from children's sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction title

Character development for children's sci-fi/fantasy/horror fiction anti-hero

The dynamic architecture of politic-speak.

 Orbit Lesser, staunch pencillist, never seen without his two trusty Cross mechanicals, has picked up a pen.

He has always told us, and we have always accepted it, that he was always a pencil illustrator, is devoutly a pencil illustrator, and will always be a pencil illustrator. He has said many time he will never, ever, work in ink. Just when we’d got comfortable with the idea, he turns up in the studio with his latest piece, and its all pen work. “I just thought I’d give it a go” he said, quite casually, as if its no big thing, as if picking up pens is an event that occurs on a daily basis.

Now he tells us he may never go back to his pencils. Frankly, we don’t believe him.

Colin the Robot.

 ^ This is Colin. Colin came to Orbit earlier in the week via his sketchbook. Colin wanted to know if Orbit could help get him a job in the fashion industry. Sadly Orbit has no connections in the fashion industry, but suggested he came along to Studiospooky to take part in an editorial commission instead.

Orbit’s original sketches.

First thing that happened was Orbit drew up some shapes. Colin had a make-over by stylists and we dropped him in to the piece. He looked good. A natural. We felt the job needed a different angle though, and the beauty of Studiospooky is we’re all here under one roof. So we got Horp involved.

Horp translated some of Orbit’s sketches into simplified vector block diagrams and added some Design Sherbet 3.0. Next he shaved Colin’s eyebrows off as they made him look a bit grumpy, and we applied some conical contact lenses. Horp also felt a brighter hue would compliment Colin’s natural tin tones, so we re-painted him.

The client loved it and its gone to press. Colin is now studio manager. He hopes one day to pose nude for T3 Magazine. 

Title Illustration.

Additional column dressers.

King George style victory crest doodle.

I found myself deeply concerned this weekend by the casual way Cherie Blair admitted that her husband’s decision to go to war was not the ‘morally obvious’ decision that he presented to the people at the time. I found myself drawing this piece as I watched the news and considered the greater implications of such a situation, and its detrimental impact on the whole argument for global good based on western democratic ideology. The idea of good is fundamentally compromised by such casual manipulations. The piece is largely abstract as most preliminary sketches are, but the words and the general idea should be obvious.

Things are rolling along nicely at Studiospooky.

Spooky… has been commissioned to work his magic on an exciting new series of children’s fiction titles for a new client here at Studiospooky. Creating and mixing up plot relevant imagery as well as devising some character depictions in a crisp sci-fi style, he’ll be working his magic over the coming month so watch this space for visuals just as soon as we can post them.

Horp… is also going to be working on a major new title for a regular publishing client, expected to commence within the next week or so as soon as the brief is locked down.

Orbit… is creating some really lovely editorial work at the moment which is going into our Laboratory section as its a new style of working and we want to keep it for the eyes of potential clients only.

Spencer... I am running around doing all sorts of things and when possible finding time to collate and shoot things for my own section. Its a tough job for some projects, particularly the large rebranding jobs I’ve worked on over the years such as Barclays, the Prudential redesign and The Royal Observatory Greenwich. To be honest I’ve been stumped about how to present those as they are huge and can’t really be summarised effectively on screen. However, a glance this morning at our good friend Mike Giesser’s brand new design portfolio has inspired me to break out some grids and get busy with thumbnail images. Check out Mike’s stunning design work and website via the url below…

http://mgiesser.com/home/approach

Overall things seem to be getting busier with Summer out of the way and we have a number of other projects on the horizon that we will be rolling out between now and Christmas.

Thanks for looking!

Posted by Spooky…

In 2004, just after I left my design studio to pursue illustration, I did a freebie for musician Mike Weston and his band Adult Cinema, who had been signed and subsequently recorded an album only to see the label collapse leaving him with studio masters and nothing else. I was due to work on his campaign artwork anyway, and I loved the music more than pretty much anything I had heard for a long long time, so I offered to produce the artwork for free in the hope it helped Mike get a new deal, or get some exposure on his own.

Mike set up his own label, Birdsoup Records, and I provided album artwork and the cover art for four singles. It was handed over and the album was produced in limited numbers, and that was that. Another sad story from the turmoil of the music industry…

Maybe not though, because ‘Supercool’, a track from the album (my favourite track in fact) was picked up as the title track for the Sidney Lumet directed movie “Before The Devil Knows You’re Dead” starring Phillip Seymour  Hoffman, Ethan Hawke and Albert Finney.

Not bad going!

Here are the artworks I did, way back in 2004…

Eponymous album sleeve

Extended format single artwork

Inner Slipcase for the track ‘Time Machine’

Outer Sleeve for ‘Time Machine’

Inner Slipcase for ‘All A Dream’

Cover art for ‘All A Dream’

Cover art for ‘Witches’