Know your knives

Have you ever wondered what all the different knives are actually called?
Nope, me neither, not until just recently anyway. I was trying out a new recipe and it was very specific with its instruction on correct use of implement as well as ingredient.
The food turned out OK (not my best) but for future reference, this is whats' hiding inside the knife block in your kitchen.

Auto. Correct? #2 Should...I text him?

Auto. Correct? #1. When...

First in my new series of hand-lettered artworks taken from Google's Autocomplete function.

This week, 'When...will the world end'

Nuts - Updated

As you might remember, a short while ago I wrote a brief post on the editorial work I did for the Nuts Sex Survey 2013. Since I originally posted I realised that I never actually posted any photos of the piece in real life. With that in mind, what follows below is not super new work, but new photos at least!

Oh, and check out the sexy way the editorial guys credited me for the work...haha

Apathy

This piece, as you might have seen from my Instagram feed, has been developing over the last few weeks. At one point there was a black watercolour wash on the background which sadly really wasn't what I was hoping for.  So now you can enjoy the type treatment free from distractions!!

What things we have to imagine...

Howdy,

Yesterday I dusted off the old paint and brushes for the first time this year and decided to play. I must admit, it's great when you have client work to do every day, but on occasions when you have a little more spare time it's so important to have the opportunity to experiment a bit - it's these experiments and trials that eventually filter into your 'practice'.
I tried a variety of things yesterday with the old paintbrush, this was the most successful.

It's Playtime!!

A heart on a sleeve - 2.0

Since I authored this phrase (actually true!) and I still like it, I decided to hand-letter it again differently. I might even get a simple version of this written on my skin - anyway, I digress. Here is version 2.0

xx

Too many cooks...

Guardian Sustainable Business

You may have seen not long ago from my website and on twitter that I was recently fortunate to be asked by the folk over at the Guardian, as part of their Sustainable Business team, to make a fully hand-lettered A2 poster for them to send out to their business subscribers. Great fun!

The idea of the poster is that the team at the Guardian asked their subscribers to submit their  new years resolutions for sustainable business over the coming 12 months. The team selected the best 10 suggestions and sent them over to me to draw.

x

NUTS Sex Survey 2013

I was asked last week by the guys over at Nuts Magazine whether I'd be able to work with them on special project - Their annual Sex Survey. I'm really pleased to have been able to get involved with the project. The final result was two double-page spreads of hand-lettered sexy content all cleverly shaped to spell out the letters S  E  X.

British Heart Foundation - Magpie Studios

A while ago I was asked by the fantastic Magpie Studios whether I'd like to work on a project for the British Heart Foundation. I was, of course, keen to work with a really important charity and the project was great.
I was asked to illustrate and letter the phrase 'Rock and Roll'. The illustration was then printed onto a baby grow for a photoshoot.

Birthday card experiment

You might've recently seen the festive Christmas card that i recently released and which is now available to buy in my online store. The style was quite painterly, and whilst I had the brushes and paints out I decided to do another :)

Keep an eye out for it in the new year!

Jolly holi days...

Hi all,

Just a very brief post today - I'm ill, but I'm battling through it!
I've just launched what is actually my first ever Christmas Card. I've always avoided doing one before because I didn't want to draw all those obvious snowmen and presents etc but this year I figured I'd have a go. Here it is

They're available now here - http://olifrape.bigcartel.com/product/jolly-holi-days-christmas-card

Proverb...

A little midweek type fun :)

Hackney Empire

This is a picture I drew of the Hackney Empire at night. Just because I wanted to.

Wedding Type

Last month I had the pleasure of attending the wedding of two good friends of mine, Tom and Sophie. I was really happy to be able join them on their special day - truly they looked so very happy and excited about the future, as they should be :)

As part of their wedding prep I was asked by the guys to produce a selection of hand-drawn type for the table names on the big day. The plan was that each table would be named after a famous artist that the couple loved and i would produce a unique typographic drawing of each name paying reference to the work of each artist.

I was given a Green, Orange and Yellow colour palette.

Quite an enjoyable challenge. Below are a selection of my favourites.

Anish Kapoor

Piet Mondrian

David Hockney

Wassily Kandinsky

A little snap of the table names also being used on bunting in the entrance to the marquee

Notice the lovely red type underneath - yep, that's my Welco font!!

Congratulations to Tom and Soph xx

Photobooth Festival - Boothnation and Seamus Ryan

Another quick update from me today whilst I bask in the luxury of broadband ( I'm awaiting installation in my new studio ) this is a project I recently completed working with the fantastic portrait photographer Seamus Ryan and Boothnation. A fun project all round, I sent them over the main image and the background and let them add on the necessary details so i got just to concentrate on the rolling hills, unique photobooths and header type. Nice :)

Find out more about the event or Boothnation here

or visit Seamus Ryan

xx

Hand Lettering for Tate and Lyle and BergHind Joseph

Hi all,

I've spoken several times recently on here and on Twitter about projects I've been doing recently that I couldn't show you. The good news is that I can now finally show you one of them, and it's a biggy!

Back in April, I was contacted by a fantastic creative communications agency called BergHind Joseph who were working with Tate & Lyle on a large print project . Essentially the brief was to hand-letter a selection of posters for the client expressing key brand messages. Once we had successfully designed and styled the lettering for the UK versions, it was then necessary, working with translators, to re-draw the type in different languages but with the same treatment for the same phrases of sentences. In total I hand-lettered in 12 different languages on over 90 different posters as well as doodling other drawn elements throughout.

Translating from English came out very differently in the various different languages meaning in some cases we had to fit a lot more letters into the same amount of space and in other cases the phrasing was completely different meaning more drastic changes to the layout.

This was a really enjoyable project to be involved in. I was working in-house throughout the process so I got to work closely with the guys at BergHind Joseph who were a fine bunch of ladies and gentlemen and very passionate about what they do!

Promotional Prints - East End Sports Day

Well I've finally had the time to get some decent promo stuff printed and this is what it looks like!

Printed in a limited batch run of 100 double sided on A3 paper. Will you get one??

Stickerbomb Letters

For those of you who follow me on twitter this will old news, but for those who don't here is a little peek of Stickerbomb Letters. It's a whole book of peelable sticky stickers for you to go out and plaster your neighbourhood/flat/bike/etc.

As you'll see above, I am in this book alongside a load of other talented boys and girls who draw stuff.

I apologise for the low quality photos but I gave my promo copy away to a client and I haven't got around to replacing it yet.

You could pop over to Laurence King Publishing and buy one here if you want.

I should also big up Studio Rarekwai who put he whole thing together - nice work one and all.
Now let's get sticking.......