Recently I discovered Darren Di Lieto’s Mail Me Art project for the first time, and at the time he was putting a call out for submissions so I sent him an email and was chuffed to be sent an invitation to be one of 200 illustrators involved.
“Mail Me Art is a fun little project that was created by Darren Di Lieto of The Little Chimp Society in late 2006. He was looking for a way to connect on a real world level with all of the brilliant and talented illustrators who had become part of his community and network. Mail Art was the perfect way to accomplish this task. The Mail Me Art project has held exhibitions up and down the UK, and was published as very nice book by HOW Books. It has also been featured or mentioned by Digital Arts, Computer Arts, Design Week and The Telegraph over the years. Mail Me Art is still going strong to this day and there seems to be no stopping it!”
Here’s my finished envelope, raring to go!
Darren has been busy organising an exhibition for the project which will show all of the illustrations submitted, and I believe there’ll be a book published alongside it. Exciting times!
Recently I’ve been working on the cover artwork & lettering for the almost-ready-to-buy book “Bicycle Kicks” by Simon Hood. Now that the work is signed off and with the publisher, I can share a little! Check out the links below to keep an eye on updates and release info, or to find out more about the book/author.
@BicycleKicks
@GJBPublishing
“Bicycle Kicks” by Simon Hood on Facebook
Buy/pre-order the book here from 1st September
This year I submitted 3 postcards to The International Postcard Show, here they are in all their glory!
You can visit the exhibition at The Surface Gallery, in Nottingham, from now until 11th Feb 2012.
Surface Gallery
16 Southwell Road,
Nottingham
NG1 1DL
Photo by Paul Lockton.
“Diamonds” Illustration – available as wallpaper. See Creative Commons License below for restrictions.
Pack contains 6 sizes;
1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1152×864, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480
Click here to download.
Diamonds by Lee-Ann Donaldson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
A couple of years ago, former student and Graphic Designer Mark Andrew Webber visited the college I was studying at to give us a talk on his career progression since he’d attended the college. The main focus of the talk was on his “Where in the World City Maps” – huge typographic maps cut into linoleum and printed – which were hugely inspiring not only because I’m a typography nut, but because I admire the more traditional method of design.
As I’ve progressed from Graphic Design into Illustration over the last 2 years, I’ve found myself stepping away from the security of Photoshop & Illustrator to develop my drawing and work in different mediums, while also exploring different areas of design. Printing is something that’s always lingered as something I’ve wanted to attempt – particularly screen-printing, as I’ve done 2 mini modules on the subject over the time I’ve spent in education and love the process that goes into it. Recently I went back to look at the work Mark has on his Flickr page and from there looked into the process behind linocut printing. I bought a kit online and when it arrived yesterday I thought I’d give it a go.
The first cut I done was a lettering piece I’d drawn up while I was away last week, which was pretty small in terms of size but quite time consuming as it was my first attempt. Despite stabbing my finger (which hurt, a lot.) it all went smoothly and as I’ve seen mentioned several times, the finished cut block is just as interesting as the overall print.
I’m going to carry on with linocut printing and see where I can take it from here, I feel like I need to experiment with different inks and papers because the overall finish on mine – while quite interesting in texture – doesn’t give as smooth a finish as I’ve seen while looking around online.
“Balloons” Illustration – Available as wallpaper. See Creative Commons License below for restrictions.
Pack contains 6 sizes;
1600×1200, 1280×1024, 1152×864, 1024×768, 800×600, 640×480
Click here to download.
Balloons by Lee-Ann Donaldson is licensed under a Creative Commons Attribution-NonCommercial-NoDerivs 3.0 Unported License.
Our final project for the Packaging & Branding module was to create our very own Boite en Valise under the title “The Things I Have Learned So Far” to show – well, what we’ve learnt! I absolutely love the design of the box, and spent more time on that than I did considering/placing things inside. I was quite put out when our tutor announced he wouldn’t be grading us on the past projects, because they weren’t projects, they were exercises – so my Cravendale carton was useless, I thought. I decided that I and the contributors to that project had put too much time and effort into creating it for it not to be considered at all, so I put that in the box, along with a few little wrapped objects (as part of our wrap it exercise where we looked at Christo and Jeanne-Claude) and a little indicator that I’d grasped some understanding of Semiology. I also put together and printed my own zine which contains small summaries in note form of what I learnt from each of the exercises set for us over the 12 weeks.
As for the design; I wanted to combine different elements I use in my own work to create a “brand” for myself that’d be placed on top of the box lid. I used custom lettering, illustrated the emblem, and then after transferring these onto the lid I decided to cut it into the greyboard. I took the idea used in Sagmeisters book cover and built a little shelf which was attached under the lid, and I put in a few different pattern illustrations I’ve done so the box design can change. I’m hoping I get this back in one piece because it’s one piece from this year I’d like to keep (maybe minus the contents!)
Anyway, here’s a few pics, you’ll find more over on Flickr!
I’ve always liked the works of other artists where they seem to have taken something that’s been discarded, or is no longer in a usable condition, and have turned it into something else – and I’ve often wondered if I could come up with ideas for recycling something in such a way.
A few weeks back, I spotted the numbers ring of a dart board hanging on the wall at my brothers. When I saw it I immediately thought it’d make a nice – if different – clock. So I took it away and started planning, and left it with the lovely gent at the local metals workshop. Today I picked it up, and other than breaking the battery socket trying to put the battery in (seriously!?) it’s exactly how I visualised it. I’m really happy with how it’s turned out and love that it’s so different to the average clock you’ll find in a shop. Once it’s had a quick respray and a new battery socket fitted it’ll make a great – and rare – design feature somewhere in the house.
Another overdue giveaway! I have 5 mini copies of this Rupert print, printed at 5″ x 5″ with a matt finish.
All you have to do to enter is follow me on Twitter and tweet the link to this page.
You can use this to tweet:
Win one of 5 mini Rupert prints by @MsSoprano, find out how here: http://wp.me/p10EYs-px – please RT
You can enter via Facebook & Tumblr too by following these links and either 1) on Facebook, like or comment on the competition status, or 2) Reblogging the post on Tumblr.
Facebook
Tumblr
Entries welcome until next weekend (15th May) then I’ll announce winners.
