Late last year Little Brown publishers took on a project to repackage twenty of their most famous titles in a special new series. Embroidery duo MaricarMaricor were picked to create the cover of the brilliant Fortune’s Rock by Anita Shreve.
You can see much more by MaricarMaricor here.
The Baltic is a new title from publishers Think and for their very first issue they approached Matt Murphy to create the cover art.
When commissioning the cover, Think’s Darren Endicott was looking for someone who could bring “a sophisticated, stylised aesthetic” to the new magazine. As Darren explains. “the image needed to be compelling and understandable to a non-core audience, but also technically accurate for the membership.”
The finished concept fused Matt’s art deco style with Chinese propaganda art bringing a human face to the subject matter. The results delighted both client and art director. An extended version of the artwork was also used inside the magazine.
You can see more of Matt‘s work here.
Matt Saunders was recently commissioned by The London Magazine to illustrate a feature about American novelist Audrey Niffeneger, in which the writer describes London as a huge source of inspiration.
Matt created this gorgeous gothic style border drawing insipration from Highgate cemetery with it’s twisting ivy and vines, crumbling brickwork.
You can see more of Matt’s work here.
Summer is finally here and nothing quite says summer like a Malika Favre magazine cover! This month Malika’s sun-kissed work is gracing the cover of super stylish estate agent magazine Fabric.
A second illustration inside the magazine continues the summer vibe.
You can see more of Malika’s work here.
Dutch Airline KLM produce one of the finest looking in-flight magazines around in the Holland Herald publication. So when it came to illustrating the lead article of their ‘Dream Issue’ they came straight to Handsome Frank illustrator Jonathan Burton.
Jonathan created two illustrations which are used across two spreads in the issue. Here they are as they appear in the magazine.
You can see more of Jonathan’s ‘dreamy’ work here.
Stephen Cheetham was approached by Waitrose last week and asked to create an infographic which presents the companies eco friendly policies. The illustration appears in this week’s Waitrose Weekly.
Here it is as it appears in the issue itself:
You can see more of Stephen’s work here.
Lesley Barnes recently created new imagery for a special issue of magazine. A collaboration with Japanese fashion chain Via Bus Stop.
Lesley (along with four other illustrators) created illustrations for the SS 2013 Via Bus Stop range. Including womenswear, menswear, accessories and homeware. She was also asked to illustrate the accessories including shoes by Nicholas Kirkwood.
The design was included in the final publication as a pull-out paper and was also chosen to adorn the cover.
You can see more of Lesley’s beautiful work here.
Barcelona based illustrator Judy Kaufmann has recently been collaborating with the people at Tattly – purveyors of ‘designy temporary tattoos’. Judy has created two designs, which are showcased below.
You can find out more about Tattly here and see more of Judy’s work here.
Michelle Thompson has recently been working on a imagery for a new play at the Chickenshed Theatre in Southgate. ’All I’ve Known’ is written and directed by Rachel Yates and deals with the delicate subject of fostering in childhood.
Michelle’s specially created artworks will appear as projected layers during three scenes of the play in which real life stories of foster children are retold.
Doors open on Wednesday and more tickets and information can be found here. You can see more Michelle’s work here.
For their special Awards issue Empire magazine came calling to Handsome Frank looking for a striking typographic introduction page. We recommended the brilliant Martina Flor who came up with the goods producing this stunning ‘Great Gatsby’ inspired full page opener.
Here it is in this month’s issue.
You can see more of Martina’s work here.
This week’s New Scientist magazine has a very special cover created by the brilliant Tim McDonagh. We thought we’d take the chance to share the secrets behind Tim’s process and show how he creates such amazingly detailed work.
The brief for this project centred around a recent discovery of life forms in the lower reaches of Tau Tona, the deepest mine in the world, 3.6 kilometres beneath the surface.
Tim’s work always starts as a pencil draft. Even at this early stage he includes a huge amount of detail. Below you can see an early draft of the cover which started to depict the mysteries of the bottom of the ocean.
Once the concept is approved Tim starts to ink up. He uses indian inks and an incredibly fine brush which allows him to pack in a huge amount of detail.
As the concept evolved it was decided that a main feature was required. Below you can see the source imagery provided as reference and Tim’s ink drawing.
Finally once the inked drawings are finished they’re scanned and coloured digitally. Tim often opts for a stripped back colour pallet of just two or three colours, allowing the complex line work to be fully appreciated.
You can see more of Tim’s work here.
It’s been a busy few week’s for Martina Flor as she’s been working on a number of commissions for a range of clients.
First up, Martina was delighted to be asked to create a very special cover for the New Statesmen‘s celebratory centenary issue. The title has been a fixture on the British newsstand since 1913 and they wanted to mark the landmark in style. Below is Martina’s beautiful typographic cover, printed with a gold emboss.
At the same time Martina was working on another typographic illustration for online title Aeon. Given the phrase “The overexamined life is not worth living” (a paraphrases from Socrates don’t you know) Martina created this beautiful illustration for this article.
See more of Martina’s fabulous work in her newly updated profile here.
This weekend saw the second Secret 7″ event held in London. An event which combines music and art for a very good cause (this year, Art Against Knives).
For those that don’t know, the premise is this. Once a year seven tracks from seven of the best-known bands and artists around are chosen. Each of those tracks is pressed 100 times to vinyl then creatives from all around the world create bespoke one-off artworks in their own style for the record sleeves. The 700 sleeves are exhibited for a week and then on Record Store Day they go on sale for £40 apiece. But the buyer won’t know who created the sleeve, or even which song it’s for until they’ve parted with their cash – the secret lies within.
So being a big hearted bunch it came as no surprise that a bunch of Frank’s finest threw their hats in the ring and created sleeves for the big day. And now that it’s all over (and the secrets are out) we can reveal the artwork by our artists and which song they were for.
Rider on the Wheel, Nick Drake – by Judy Kaufmann
The Beast, Laura Marling – by Lesley Barnes
Rider on the Wheel, Nick Drake – by Matt Murphy
You can find out more about Secret 7″ here.
Our fourth and final Pick Me Up London workshop is one for all you big kids out there. A chance to learn the secrets of clay modelling with our resident expert Alexandra Bruel.
Alexandra builds incredible models and sets using the old classroom favorite, modelling clay. Her unique and enchanting work has seen her commissioned by the likes of Vogue, Wieden+Kennedy and Honda.
In this one hour session Alexandra will introduce you to the medium and let you in on a few secrets. Each particant will be schooled in the art and tasked with building and personalising their own monster face.
Tickets cost £15 and include one hour of tuition and all materials. Participants will get to take home their creation at the end of the session.
The workshops take place on Wednesday 24th April at 2pm and 4pm. You can book a place on the 2pm session here and the 4pm session here.
PLEASE NOTE – payment for this session will be taken on the day of the event at Somerset House and is payable in addition to the PickMeUp entry fee. Booking a place prior to the day incurs no charge but allows us to manage numbers. PLEASE contact us if you can no longer attend as groups are small and you will be depriving someone else from the opportunity
Ethos, a journal full-to-the-brim with eye catching illustration commissioned Matt Murphy to create a series of illustrations for the VIEWPOINTS section.
To celebrate the 150th anniversary of London Underground, Norwegian Airlines magazine – N, asked Jan Kallwejt to create the opening illustration. Here’s the results, which depicts the instantly recognisable tube map inside a brain.
Everybody’s favourite Welsh illustrator Stuart Whitton has been super busy the last few weeks, creating this amazing piece for the Secret 7″ charity project. Computer Arts magazine featured Stuart’s work, including step-by-step progress of the illustration. iPad owners can watch a stop-frame animation on the digital version of the magazine. Some people say Stuart was forged from a Welsh charcoal mine, explaining his incredible capabilities with the material (and jet-black hair).
Secret 7’’ combines music and art for a good cause. What we do is take seven tracks from seven of the best-known bands and artists around. We press each of those tracks 100 times to vinyl then get creatives from around the world to interpret artwork in their own style for of one of the 7 tracks; resulting in a one-of-a-kind sleeve for every single one. We exhibit these for a week, then on Record Store Day (April 20) you can get your hands on one, or more, for £40 apiece. You won’t know who created the sleeve, or even which song it’s for until you have parted with your cash – the secret lies within.
The third in our series of Pick Me Up London workshops is really one not to be missed. An introduction to the world of paper craft, hosted by the brilliant Helen Musselwhite.
Working with paper, both coloured and painted, Helen creates stunning models and complex multi-layered scenes that defy the medium she works with. Her phenomenal talents have seen her employed by some of the biggest brands around including Nokia, McDonalds, Audi and Cadbury’s.
In this one hour session Helen will introduce you to world of paper craft and let you in on a few secrets. Each particant will be schooled in the art and tasked with building and personalising their own paper house (see below).
Tickets cost £15 and include one hour of tuition and all materials. Participants will get to take home their creation at the end of the session.
The workshops take place on Thursday 25th April at 2pm and 4pm. You can book a place on the 2pm session here and the 4pm session here.
PLEASE NOTE – payment for this session will be taken on the day of the event at Somerset House and is payable in addition to the PickMeUp entry fee. Booking a place prior to the day incurs no charge but allows us to manage numbers. PLEASE contact us if you can no longer attend as groups are small and you will be depriving someone else from the opportunity
Norwegian Airlines magazine N asked Thomas Danthony to illustrate a feature article detailing the remarkable story about how The Scream painting was stolen and then later recovered. Thomas is the inaugural winner of our Handsome Future Award and has been in great demand since adding him to our roster.
Those of you who regularly read The Sunday Telegraph ST magazine will have spotted this striking illustration by Jonathan Burton at the weekend (7th April 2013). The piece talks about the ingenious ways watchmakers show different time zones simultaneously on new watch designs. Jonathan cleverly used a colour-blend to depict the different zones and a floating character to get across the narrative of the article.
Last month the good people at Artist & Illustrator magazine got in touch wanting to feature Handsome Frank in their magazine. The article talks about the work we do as illustration agents and covers the history of the company and the way we work. I also got to have my photo taken and my (proud) mum now has something to show her friends.
We’re very happy to announce that the second in a series of Pick Me Up London workshops will be a painting with egg tempera session hosted by Joël Penkman.
Joël‘s meticulous, graphic paintings are created using the traditional method of egg tempera. Almost a forgotten art, Joel works exclusively with the medium producing stunning results. Her skills has been employed by clients such as Phaidon and EAT and she was chosen to exhibit at last year’s Royal Academy of the Arts Summer Exhibition.
In this one hour session Joël will give you an introduction to this beautiful method of painting. Working with hand prepared gesso boards she will teach you the techniques and help you create your own work of art.
Tickets cost £15 and include one hour of tuition and all materials. Participants will get to take home their creation at the end of the session.
The workshops take place on Sunday 21st April at 2pm and 4pm. You can book a place on the 2pm session here and the 4pm session here.
PLEASE NOTE – payment for this session will be taken on the day of the event at Somerset House and is payable in addition to the PickMeUp entry fee. Booking a place prior to the day incurs no charge but allows us to manage numbers. PLEASE contact us if you can no longer attend as groups are small and you will be depriving someone else from the opportunity
As part of our Handsome Frank Emporium at this year’s Pick Me Up London we’ll be running a very special series of artists led workshops. First to be announced is a drawing with Indian inks workshop hosted by the very talented Tim McDonagh.
Having signed with Handsome Frank three years ago Tim is fast becoming one of the most sought after Indian ink artists around, working with clients including Nike, Random House, Vodafone, Port and The Church of London.
In this one hour session he will give you an introduction to this traditional approach to illustration. Working with brushes and Indian ink Tim will give useful tip ands advice and then oversee the group as each person inks their own unique creation. e
Tickets cost £15 and include one hour of tuition and all materials. Participants will also get to take home their creation at the end of the session.
The workshops take place on Friday 19th April at 2pm and 4pm. You can book a place on the 2pm session here and the 4pm session here.
PLEASE NOTE – payment for this session will be taken on the day of the event at Somerset House and is payable in addition to the PickMeUp entry fee. If you book a place on the workshop we will reserve it for you until one hour before the session begins, but it is not guaranteed until your arrival at the venue on the day and payment. PLEASE contact us if you can no longer attend as groups are small and you will be depriving someone else from the opportunity.
As we announced a few week’s back we’re delighted to involved is this year’s incredible Pick Me Up event at Somerset House. What we haven’t told you yet is what we’ll be doing there, because to be honest we’ve only just decided. So with out further ado we present ‘The Handsome Frank Emporium’
(above ‘HF Emporium’ by Martina Flor)
So what the hell is an Emporium? Well friends, it is (we hope) going to be hive of activity, a melting pot of creativity, a place for peers and likeminded individuals to gather and ultimately look at some really cool stuff.
HF Shop – We’ll be stocking prints and various other ephemera created by our incredible group of artists, many of which will be exclusively available at PMU. Including work by – Sarah Maycock, Malika Favre, Jean Jullien, Emma Kelly, Thibaud Herem and many many more.
(above – Magpie print by Matt Murphy)
Live Workshops - We don’t want to just show you awesome things, we want you to get your hands dirty and make awesome things. We’ll be hosting a series of artist led workshops during the event which will see our illustrators spend an hour telling you some of the secrets of their trade and then they’ll invite you to have a go yourselves. Workshops are one hour long and cost £15 per place. This includes all materials, expert tuition and you get to take home your creations at the end. They can be booked on the day at Somerset House. Here’s the full schedule:
Friday 19th – Drawing with Indian Inks – hosted by Tim McDonagh
Sunday 21st – Painting with egg tempera – hosted by Joël Penkman
Wed 24th – Clay Modelling worskshop – hosted by Alexandra Bruel
Thur 25th – Introduction to paper craft – hosted by Helen Musselwhite
The Handsome Frank Sound System - Here at HF we’re big fans of music and we’re constantly boring you (via Twitter, Instagram etc) with what we’re listening to. Now’s your chance to come and share with us. We’ll be firing up our portable turntable (picture below) and inviting you folks to bring some records down and play us some tunes.
Meet the Illustrators - Throughout the ten day show a number of our illustrators will be down at the HF Emporium helping out and quite possible even working from the space. They’re a friendly bunch so if you’re an aspiring illustrator drop by and say hello!
Pick Me Up Details:
8 – 28 April 2013
Daily 10.00-18.00 (Last admission 17.15)
Until 22.00 Thursdays (Last admission 21.15)
Embankment Galleries
£8, concessions £6, Festival Pass £15
More information here.
We look forward to seeing you all there! HF
Inspired by a holiday last summer, Manchester based illustrator Jeffrey Bowman recently decided to up sticks and move his life (and job) to the Hemsedal mountains of north Norway.
The move has had a huge impact on Jeff’s view of the world and in turn on his illustrative work. He recently held an online and physical exhibition entitled ‘Soke‘ which explores the themes of nature and ‘the beautiful things in life that money can’t buy’ through illustration.
As Jeff explains: “We are all living different lives with different opportunities to experience the outdoors. Some of us are fortunate enough to be surrounded by forests, mountains and wildlife. Others have to search different landscapes to find nature like the home, the office and the city. If we look hard enough, in our everyday lives we can find ourselves surrounded by nature; from the chairs we sit on to the boards we ride.
Soke presents this idea through the forms and shapes that wood can make. Wood can be seen in such a way that, through the simple shape of a circle, to its arrangement in a pile, it can resemble natural and man made structures. But it’s the one constant that is present in all our landscapes.”
Here’s an interview with the man himself were he discusses the concept further.
You can see more of Jeff’s work here.
We’re delighted to announce that we’ve teamed up on a very special initiative with creative agency Music to support, develop, and ultimately find, the hottest up-and-coming illustration talent: The Fish Tank.
The Fish Tank is a unique glass space in the Manchester studio of Music which will operate as a platform for a selected students to respond to a brief set by a different Handsome Frank artist every two months.
Over the next year a selection of the Handsome Frank artists will pick a favourite music track which will become their brief. The artist will then personally mentor the winning student, selected from all submissions, to develop and install their visual interpretation.
This unique collaboration gives students the opportunity to work alongside a professional illustrator whilst also operating in an agency environment, giving them insight into a commercial way of working and an understanding of the day-to-day challenges briefs can present.
The project will also hopefully lead to commissions and involvement in Music’s creatively award winning work, as well as an opportunity to be recognised and spotted by us at Handsome Frank HQ.
We’re really excited about the project and we can’t wait to get cracking. More news soon…
Jordan Metcalf‘s new exhibition ‘Heart of Gold’ opened at Salon91 in Cape Town last night. The exhibition is a collaboration with fellow artist Daniel Ting Chong and playfully explores the concepts of money, consumerism and greed.
Following on the from their previous project Fear.Less, the artists have played with scale and medium to re-contextualise consumer-based iconography and lexicon as art. The pieces are stark, sleek and graphic, using limited colour palettes and diverse mediums such as glass, paper, wood and ceramic.
The show runs from 27 March – 20 April 2013 at Salon91 Contemporary Art Collection. 91 Kloof Street, Gardens, Cape Town, South Africa.
You can see more of Jordan’s work here.
Stephen Cheetham was recently asked by US news giants Bloomberg to create a series of illustrations to accompanying a five part article on economic deflation.
Balloons seemed the natural solution to bring a little fun and colour to an otherwise complex and somewhat bleak subject matter and the series worked delightfully well.
The economists amongst you can read the articles and see them in situ here and you can see more of Stephen’s work here.
Stephen Cheetham has created the illustrated front cover for the latest issue of London magazine The Clerkenwell Post.
Art directed by design duo Cai & Kyn, the cover invites readers to join ‘The Breakfast Club’. The article inside names the best places to have breakfast in EC1.
You can see more of Stephen’s work here.
Judy Kaufmann was recently approached by Levi’s to create a special illustration for a collaboration with wetransfer.com.
Levi’s are asking a selection of their favorite artists ‘What do your 501’s mean to you?’ Judy created this artwork as her response to the brief.
You can see more of Judy’s work here.
We recently got hold of issue two of US soccer magazine Howler, in our humble opinion one of the finest looking magazines around. Once again Tim McDonagh‘s illustration work features prominantly. Below is Tim’s imagining of Joey Barton as he settles into his new home town of Marseille (love the Tevez tatto).
We thought we’d also share Tim’s illustrations from the first issue in which these images accompanied an article about a Mexican football teams and their fanatical fans.
You can purchase Howler here and see more of Tim’s work here.
Those of you who picked up a copy of Shortlist yesterday will have seen this eye catching illustration by Matt Murphy. The piece was a guide to staying invisible on the net and while using your computer – how we don’t realise the trail we leave with every search and action we do.
Sarah Maycock was recently commissioned through our Tokyo sister agency BUILDING to create a map of Paris for Japanese style title Figaro.
Here it is as it appears in the magazine.
You can see more of Sarah’s work here.
From this month Andrew Lyons will be illustrating the Hugo Rifkind column in British GQ.
Rifkind, who also writes for The Times, has a monthly ‘How not do…’ column in GQ in which he regales readers with amusing stories and antidotes from his life.
April’s GQ is on sale now.
You can see more of Andrew’s work here.
As part of her ongoing lettering v’s calligraphy project Martina Flor has created this splendid Super Duper K.
See more of Martina’s lettering work here.
We’d like to wish all of you Mum’s a very happy Mother’s day by dedicating this beautiful Helen Musselwhite image to Mum’s everywhere.
You can see more of Helen’s work here.
Completely London magazine recently dispatched illustrator Sarah Maycock on a slightly unusual assignment. They sent her to a life drawing class in London on a mission to create illustrations to accompany an article about the pastime.
Sarah, a self-confessed lover of life drawing had a great time and produced these lovely images which appear in the the newly published issue of the magazine.
Completely London is out now and you can see more of Sarah’s work here.
Here’s an illustration by Jeffrey Bowman that featured in French magazine Télérama. This illustration accompanied are article criticising new French building laws which see that all new properties built with disability facilities (regardless of the fact that the occupant may well not have a disability). Jeff’s illustration providing a lighthearted tonic to a complex political situation.
Jan Kallwejt was recently presented with a pretty much his perfect brief. BA Business Life asked him to create an illustrated money map, which needed to be “fun, lively and colourful”.
As you can see he delivered exactly what the client was after.
Jan also developed a series of icons that were used throughout the editorial piece.
You can see more of Jan’s work here.
Handsome Frank’s Lesley Barnes is one of a group of 18 designers and illustrators who have been asked to collaborate with Node on a very special project.
Node are a non-profit social business who promote and champion fair trade. For this project they worked with a very select group of 18 image makers and asked them to design a rug. The designs were then put into production and handmade by a fair trade group of traditional Nepalese carpet makers.
All the rugs are limited editions of 10 per design and are hand signed by the artists.
They measure 1.75m x 1.15m and are available from the Design Museum shop for £950 including delivery.
You can see all 18 designs here and see more of Lesley’s work here.
