The Customized show is currently running at the 5 Kingly Court (London), hosted by Double Identity.
10 Artists were asked to customise sneakers in their own personal style, and included in that number is Handsome Frank’s lovely Michelle Thompson, who created this head turning pair:
Vote for Michelle’s design here and you’ll be entered into the draw to win one of 3 pairs of Double Identity sneakers. Vote Michelle Thompson!
As part of a forthcoming self-initiated project, Matt Saunders has created a series of ‘too cool for school’ Hipster animals. Have a look around your studio/office. Remind you of anyone?
Girlcore is an all-female music and art collective based in London. To celebrate the launch of their new art book, Girlcore Magazine, they’re hosting an exhibition which opens this evening at the Orange Dot Gallery and both the book and exhibition feature the work of Handsome Frank’s wonderful Seiko Kato.
Other artists featured in this evening’s exhibition include:
Aela Labbe | flickr.com/photos/aela
Boo Saville | boosaville.com
Ellen Rogers | ellenrogers.co.uk
Ina Jang | inaphotography.com
Julia Corsaro | juliacorsaro.com
Lone Eriksen | loneeriksen.com
Rachael Haines | rachaelhaines.tumblr.com
Tatania Leshkina | tatianaleshkina.com
Tanya Johnston | tanyajohnston.com
Exhibition runs from 3rd- 27th February
Private View: 2nd February 6pm – 9pm
RSVP: jack@theorangedot.co.uk
New Scientist magazine asked Michelle Thompson to create an image to accompany an article which considers whether sharing is a genetic trait an acquired one. In truth, science has never been our forte, but like a playground bully this image certainly grabbed our attention.
Looking for the ultimately gift for your design conscious valentine? Look no further. You need Penguin’s new edition of the Karma Sutra, complete with a beautifully illustrated cover by Handsome Frank’s Malika Favre.
Malika was approached by Penguin’s Paul Buckley who art directed the cover. Inspired by her earlier work such as this Sexy Alphabet she was asked to create a cover that really pushed the boundaries of book cover design. As part of Penguin’s Graphic Deluxe series the remit was to make the cover as collectable as possible.
You can see more of Malika’s work here.
The very first issue of Computer Arts Collection, a new annual series of six in-depth guides from the chaps at Computer Arts, is now on sale in the UK.
Being the trend defining type that he is, Frank’s Jeffrey Bowman was approached to design a series of illustrations to accompany the magazine’s Trend Report. Printed in bright pink fluoro ink, the work looks superb and jumps right off the page (beware). If you’ve not seen a copy get yourself down to the newsagents.
For more information have a little looky here.
You may have seen a copy of The Good Times on your travels yesterday, a newspaper created to brighten up Blue Monday (January 16th), the so-called ‘most depressing day of the year.’ Created by agency The Church of London the idea was to publish a newspaper that leaves people feeling happy and inspired (unlike the usual morning doom instalment).
A plethora of the countries finest writers and illustrators were approached to contribute and amongst them was our man Jon Boam who produced this rather silly cartoon strip:
If you didn’t manage to pick up a copy you can order it here.
Apparently, according to the good people at Google this is a true fact. This, and a whole host of ‘six times’ facts makes up the content of a new book created by agency DCH to promote The Google Display Network (which promises to deliver click through rates six times higher than it’s competitors.)
To create the book’s imagery DCH approached a host of talented illustrators to help visualise their facts and naturally came knocking at Frank’s door.
First up Judy Kaufmann created this image to support the lesser known fact that “Per square metre, London has six times more people than Scotland.”
Meanwhile, not to be out done, Stephen Cheetham was asked to create two illustrations for the book. The first to accompany the fact that: “Free-range eggs contain six times more vitamin D”.
And this image to represent the fact that: “You are six times lighter on the moon”.
Nice work.
Happy 2012. Her’s some photos of Judy Kaufmann’s recent illustrated map in Frankie Magazine (Australia).
Everyone knows that the best thing about Christmas is getting stuff! Right? Well maybe that’s not quite the Christmas spirit but like the Ambassadors reception a few of you have been postively spoiling us recently with all sorts of goodies landing on the HF doormat.
Here’s a few of our faves:
First up the guys at Maddison Graphic sent us this rather dashing graphic tea towel. That’s Mrs Frank’s stocking filler sorted.
Next up, this curious little parcel complete with wax seal.
Inside was a ‘Party in a box’ for the good people of RGB Photographic, complete with a smorgasboard of festive goodies, balloon, choclate money etc…
Our favorite item however is the Polaroid SX-70 temporary tattoo. Granny Frank will be sporting this on Xmas day.
Frank’s Becca Thorne sent us a rather fetching desk top calendar featuring 12 of her classic lino cut images.
We also received this charming little piece of festive self promotion from illustrator Matthew McGregor (AKA @ididadoodle). The booklet features a lonely Snowman by the name of Chilly Will but urges the reader to dress him and cheer him up. The rest of the booklet is made up of a selection of clothes and accessories for our lonesome snowman to sport.
Complete with festive nipple tassels!
Finally we made it onto a few Christmas card lists it seems:
Christmas greetings from our Emma Kelly.
This lovely concertina card from our Lesley Barnes:
And Christmas greetings from the guys at the Wrapper left us wishing we had nicer handwriting:
A huge thanks you to everyone who sent us things. Wishing you all the Merriest of Christmases and the Happiest of New Years.
Frank.
So the cards are sent, the presents are bought but are they wrapped? If you’re short on wrapping paper then get along to the Soma gallery in Bristol and pick-up some sheets of this beautifully designed Lesley Barnes wrapping paper.
To purchase Lesley’s paper click here.
Matt Saunders was approached by Manchester agency The Neighbourhood to help brighten up their studio. Six days and a lot of paint later and they’re now the proud owners of a nine meter long Matt Saunders mural.
Landing on door matts from this morning are the 2011 Handsome Frank Christmas cards.
Inspired by our favorite Christmas film ‘It’s a Wonderful Life’, the cards were illustrated by the brilliant Stuart Whitton. We hope you like them!
And for those of you that don’t know the film, here’s a little taste of what you’ve missed out on
Saffron Walden based Michelle Thompson is once again throwing open the doors of her lovely home studio this weekend and selling a selection of prints and originals.
If you’re in the area, be sure to pop along and take a look around (59 High Street, Saffron Walden) and if you can’t make it take a look at more of her work here.
Helen Musselwhite was approached recently by the Telegraph with regards to a rather festive brief. She was asked to build a paper cut cover for the their Christmas gift supplement and they were delighted with this beautiful snow laden sleigh scene.
Stephen Cheetham has been working on a project to promote the forthcoming Hostess Club Weekender in Tokyo and created this poster for the event.
Great line-up too. With no Glastonbury in 2012 it’s almost worth the air fare to Japan!
Some of you may remember this festive image we blogged earlier in the month by Andrew Lyons.
Well the agency who commissioned the piece (Palmer Hargreaves) and the client (Mercedes) decided they liked it so much they’d blow it up to a 48 sheet billboard. So here it is wishing all visitors to the Mercedes UK Headquarters a Merry Christmas.
Handsome Frank’s Malika Favre has teamed up with the guys at Gifted Co on their first project, a 2012 calendar.
Malika is one of 12 artists who has produced new artwork for the piece. Gifted have chosen the best print process and the finest paper and they’re all ready to go… but here’s where you come in. They need 100 people to pre-order the calendar in the next 4 days in order to hit the button and produce it.
As an added incentive, early supporters of the project you get 15% off the final price plus some exclusive goodies.
So if you’re looking for the perfect gift for a design conscious loved one, or just want to treat yourself, then check out the site and get ordering here.
Earlier in the year, Matt Taylor worked with Penguin Books on a series of covers for reissues from John LeCarre’s backlist. You may remember seeing them here.
Recently he was asked to do another and here it is: The Spy Who Came In From The Cold.
TEENS magazine contacted Handsome Frank illustration agency after they saw Mrbowlegs ‘I am bored’ illustration. They thought it’d be the perfect thing for their front cover. We agree. Nice.
Illustrator Andrew Joyce was approached earlier this year to lend a hand to rather special project under construction in East London. 21 Wapping Lane is a stunning new property development by the Ballymore group. The first of it’s kind in the area for some 10 years. Andrew was tasked with applying his skills to provide a little magic to their marketing suite.
Working with the talented chaps at Mark Smith Design, Andrew was tasked with creating an incredibly detailed hand drawn map. As Jonathan Young from the agency explains: “The map was used to illustrate the various amenities, restaurants, pubs, places of interest etc. in the Wapping area. Using Andrew’s illustration style was a more arresting way of doing this rather then using aerial photography or an OS style map.”
The finished results are stunning and have been used as an 8 x 2 meter print in the buildings main foyer. It works as both a decorative part of the marketing suite as well as an information-graphic.
The illustration also appears on the inside of the sales folder that is given to prospective customers. I’ve attached a couple of photo’s of the folder to this email.
As the weather takes a turn for the worse and the nights draw in you’d be forgiven for forgetting what the sun looks like. Thankfully, help is on hand in form of a new series of illustrations by Malika Favre. Created for Orlebar Brown online magazine, this series accompanies a feature about the “Travel Connoisseur”. It certainly transports us to sunnier climes, you can almost taste the cocktails…
See the images in context here.
213 days after Starbucks rolled out the red cups, and four months after the lights went up on Oxford Street, today (being December 1st) it is finally, OFFICIALLY, Christmas.
To celebrate we thought we’d bring you a couple of festive images that our illustrators have been working on recently.
Firstly Emma Kelly has created this nutcracker inspired piece for her 2011 Christmas cards. So if you’ve made the cut this year and worked your way onto Emma’s Christmas card list you may be receiving one of these very soon. If not they’ll be for sale in our shop shortly (details coming soon).
Meanwhile, Andrew Lyons was commissioned to created this image for a Mercedes-Benz Christmas card. Santa has never looked so good.
Finally, the December issue of UAE based What’s On magazine looks like this. Santa illustration courtesy of our very own Malika Favre
Happy Advent. HF
Stephen Cheetham recently created this image for Bloomberg to accompany an article on cyber-security.
And here it is in context:
You can read the article here.
Microcosm, an exhibition of work which includes images by Michelle Thompson opens in Hong Kong this evening.
For more details see here.
It’s great to see two of Handsome Frank’s finest featured in this month’s Creative Review Monograph.
The subject of December’s Monograph is the Screenadelica gig poster project run by graphic designer Horse. We teamed up with Horse earlier this year to create two gig posters for the summer’s Bestival festival. Both posters were selected by CR for their Monograph publication this month:
Above (left) – The Cure by Matt Saunders
Above (right) – Brian Wilson by Lesley Barnes
Due to popular demand, Stuart Whitton’s clothing alphabet print is now available to purchase. The giclee prints on 310 gsm Hahnnemuhle German ethcing paper are signed and numbered and for sale in both A3 and A2 sizes – just in time for Christmas.
To celebrate, Stuart has given us an A3 print to give away to our Twitter followers. We’ll be announcing how you can win them at midday (Tuesday 29th) so if you’d like one, keep your eyes peeled…
If you’re not lucky enough to win one then you can buy one here
Three of Handsome Franks artists are founding members of Artistic.ly, a new online community for illustrators who want to change the way people consume limited edition prints.
Cleo & Lea by Malika Favre
Malika Favre, Michelle Thompson and Lesley Barnes have all created new works for James Old’s new venture. As the founder himself explains: “Everyone buying fine art prints is guilty of the same thing. We purchase works we love but we never get around to having them framed. They remain in tubes, under our beds or stuffed at the back of wardrobes. We want to remove this barrier, ensuring everything we sell actually gets consumed.”
The result? Artistic.ly’s limited edition prints will only be available pre-framed and ready to hang. Each order will be hand numbered, debossed with the Artistic.ly seal and limited to editions of just 50. All Artistic.ly framed limited editions will cost £125 with free delivery to anywhere in the world.
To celebrate the launch of the initiative an exhibition opens tonight (Thursday 17th November) with a Private view party from 6.30 – 10pm, at The Loading Bay Gallery, Unit 4- 5, Dray Walk, 91 Brick Lane, London, E1 6QL
Knightday and Knightnight by Lesley Barnes
PlusOne by Michelle Thompson.
All of the work featured in this blog post will be available to purchase.
Helen Musselwhite was recently commissioned by the ZMG Group (the Marketing Organisation for German newspaper publishers), to create an illustration using newspaper.
The image is just one of a series of illustrations created to promote Newspapers in the time of digital media and all the works were made from German titles.
Helen was asked to work on a piece that focused on the newspaper industries’ place in the industrial age (the factory), its green credentials (the animals and countryside) and its place in the future (the wind turbines).
Here at Handsome Frank we love magazines. So we were particularly pleased when two of our favorite titles got in touch last month and commissioned our illustrators.
First up, Stuart Whitton was approached by Wallpaper* to create an image for their December contributor’s page. Stuart worked from photographs and drew the six contributors portraits on a scrunched napkin.
Meanwhile, the folks at Wired asked MaricorMaricar to create a hand emberoided piece for their features introduction page. The result is this beautiful geometric pattern which contains the issue number 12 11.
The intricate process was also filmed under studio lighting and a stop motion film was created which Wired used as their loading page for this month’s iPad edition. We’ll be posting the film on the blog later this week.
