Lighting a Guinness

What kind of cake do you get a cake for the man that only drinks Guinness?

Well, you could look out Nigella's Gunniess Cake recipe and make such a cake... from scratch. You could devise some sort of floating candle palava in a bowl of Guinness jelly. Or, if you only have an hour or two before said man's impromptu birthday celebration, you could make a Guinness glass topper.

This simple bit of (not patented) Themo-Blue Peter magic helped to make an ordinary pint of Guinness a 'birthday pint' for a good friend of mine. You only need an A4 sheet of paper, some coloured pencils, scissors and tape. Yes, there was cake and cards and singing, but how much fun would it be to have a pint delivered to your table that looked like this?

Happy birthday, Twin!
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The knot's undone

The booklet for the Thebans' 10th Anniversary is finished!


I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The idea of using Celtic knots has remained an integral part of the book's design. However I've distilled it down to something less obvious. To design a book that was totally illuminated was not only crazy time consuming but it looked, well... old. It didn't really reflect the ground-breaking accomplishments of the club. However, I still wanted the Celtic connection to be part of the book as, after all, it is a Scottish rugby team and 'Caledonian' (Latin name for Scotland) is in the team's full name.


NOT coincidentally, the book is typeset in a font call 'Scotch Roman MT'. There is no 'Scotch Latin' font but it is as close to poignant as you're going to get.


I used the knots primarily as section dividers in the book and as decorative elements at the end of chapters. I think it was a far more elegant solution for incorporating the Celtic element than anything more obtrusive like full-on illumination.

For the cover, I wanted to find an image to represent the ideal of 'brotherhood' which is part of the team's original motto. Like a gift I came across this match picture in Newcastle. The facelessness of the players coupled with the huddled embrace shows that they no longer stand as individuals but as a team.


For the title, I also added in the 'Thebans Knot' into the text. This 15 crossed knot represents the unity of a team on a rugby pitch. 15 crosses for the 15 players of a full squad in the shape of, you got it, a rugby ball. It coincidentally fit perfectly into the cleft of the 'C' so I was well pleased with how the integral elements of the book could be brought together on the cover in a very tasteful way, if I do say so myself.

Not only writing the book, but getting to design, typeset and illustrate it has been such a joy for me. It's a rare thing for an artist to have the opportunity to oversee every aspect of a project on behalf of someone else (Stationery fetish appeased as I even got to choose paper weights, etc at printer!). And even more special for the fact that it is my rugby team. I hope that not only the design, but the writing does justice to the decade of success that the team has seen.


You'll be able to buy a copy on the team's website after the Anniversary Dinner (14th July). Or, buy a ticket and you'll get a copy free on the night! Might even get it signed if you're lucky. ;-)
Now it's done, I suppose I have to get back to working on THE book!


Enjoy!
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Containing a a thunderstorm

So, we've arrived at the major point in the book where Gemmy is captured and contained. As part of his imprisonment he's made to wear a containment suit that keeps his power from spinning out of control. The theory is it will need to be head to toe. The suit is designed to syphon any excess energy he generates at 'collection points' around major muscle groups. These points serve a two way function which can send a pulse that paralyses the major muscles to prevent escape. Here are some initial sketches for what the suit may look like.


Enjoy!
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We can be heroes!

I've recently been designing the posters for Edinburgh Showcase. Showcase is a great group that puts on a concert every year to raise money for Macmillan Cancer Support. This year's show is called 'Heroes' after the David Bowie Song.
Overall I want the posters to have that classic comic book 'noir' feel to them, so quite poppy and mysterious but exciting at the same time. Think 'The Incredibles' meets 'The Dark Knight'. Here are a few design sketches for ideas for the poster.
The first idea (which is my favourite) features two 'average joes' who are hidden heroes. The idea is the people who donate to Macmillan are the actual heroes.

The second sketch puts a Macmillan twist on Bowie's Ziggy Stardust make up but still has the 'BANG! ZIFF!' of old school Batman. I'd still like to play with placement, etc, but I think it's a very striking and iconic picture that people would stop and look at.

Burfday drawings

So, it's a the big 30 this year. I'm planning to have a bit of a shindig and, sadly, the thing I'm most excited about is designing an invitation! I've got several projects on all at once, so I won't be able to properly get stuck in until at least June. But, I had a crack at an illustration and I think I'm going to go for an Alphonse Mucka style image. Here's a first draft of Gemmy lounging reading a book.

Thebans and the Argoknots

So, I'm up against it as usual with getting the Thebans' 10th Anniversary booklet done so I've stopped toying with knots and have settled on the 3 major ones. They're not as fancy as the ancient Celts rocked out in the Book of Kells. But, pretty good for a novice. And, best part is I have something the Celts did not... Adobe Illustrator! The original drawing are scanned and then redrawn in illustrator. Best part about symmetrical knots is you only have to draw one half. Then you can copy it and do a mirror image and it links up properly! I'm also keeping the illumination simple and elegant because we're a modern people. If the Thebans' 10th Anniversary book was as illuminated as illuminated manuscripts it would look like an illuminated manuscript. Here are the knots I've come up with:

Thebans Knot

For use as a centre piece on pages. This is the only one completed in illustrator so far. It's in the shape of a rugby ball.

Text Knot

This will be used as a border in combination with the Thebans' knot and can also be used on its own to underline headers.

Corner Knot

This will be used as illumination in the corners of the pages. Can also be linked with digital ninjary to connect to the simple text knot.

What knot to do

I'm currently designing a 10th Anniversary booklet for my rugby team, Caledonian Thebans. I was very keen to come up with an some interesting graphics and theme to incorporate into the book's layout.

As we've branded ourselves as the Celtic version of the fabled 'band of brothers' I thought, 'What symbolic band holds our brotherhood together'?. Well, other than a love of rugby, there is plenty, including the group's Celtic roots. And, what better to illustrate that than through the symbolic 'Celtic knot'.

So, I set to studying good ol' fashioned illuminated manuscripts and the techniques of drawing Celtic knots. Besides being beautiful, they find a an almost mathematical precision to organic forms. They appeal very much to both my analytical and artistic sides.

The first thing I learned about knots is that they are plotted in a series of right hand crosses. There are various 'rules' for how to connect and cross at points as well as creating breaks and backwards loops that create the mind-blowingly intricate patterns.

So, I've set about creating a 'rugby' knots that are made up of 15 right crosses for the 15 players on a rugby team. I'm starting with very basic knots and then learning to embellish from there.

The first 'rugby' knot I've done I call 'the brotherhood' knot:


It's a square 'shield' knot and are said to offer protection. Perfect for a rugby team! I like that it incorporates 'rugby ball like' finishes at the corners, 'infinity' in the middle but also, there's the heart shape which implies our passion for the game.








The second rugby knot is a Theban cross:


I think it may be a bit to 'religious' looking as I wanted it to look like a 'T'. So I'm currently working to embellish it in different ways so that it might someday look good on a Theban's t-shirt (hint hint).

I'm currently attempting to make a rugby ball out of a knot, but this may be beyond my ken at this stage.

I'm staying away from the Triskelion patterns in my illumination at the moment because, geezo! they are crazy!