My First Book Cover

Nearly a year ago on a research trip with a lecturer, I met welsh poet Grahame Davies. He commissioned me to turn one of my illustrations from this project into a cover for his next book of poetry which is now for sale at Seren Books. I was thrilled to receive my copy in the post this week.

Imagined Places

I read a wonderful book a few months ago about a journey into the Peruvian cloud forests along the Inca trail. It got me a bit wanderlusty...

The book was To The Last City by Colin Thubron, and I instantly wanted to make images from its lovely descriptions. I've never been to South America so it's all imagined, but I hope one day I will go there.

These were very simple paper cut and drawn elements. I could see them being matchbox labels, couldn't you?

Boffins in Coffins

..is the unofficial title of Giants Beneath Our Feet, a Heritage Lottery Project run through Chesterton Community College, Keystage Arts and Heritage, and Fitzwilliam College, Cambridge.

It was based on a local cemetery where many famous Cambridge University alumni were buried and I was asked to illustrate a map to support it. I'm really pleased with the result.

Being able to control all the design and illustration from the outset was a nice challenge, and to end up with a real thing that hundreds of people will use is exciting. I enjoyed designing my own typeface too. If you've not tried it before, I'd thoroughly recommend yourfonts.com.

The map can be found at the Tourist Information Centre in Cambridge.