Sumatran Orangutan Society - T-shirt design

Going..going..gone? t-shirt

This blog entry should really have the subtitle, Kicking-off a Career in Illustration. The easy part of illustrating, is illustrating, the hard part is getting the work. Volunteering is not only good for gaining experience as a professional and coming across as such, it also helps by contributing to great causes. I first made contact with SOS (Sumatran Orangutan Society) a few years back. I heard they were looking for an illustrator who could come up with a few pictures for a colouring book. After talking to the charity via phone and email, the few pictures became a lot of pictures, which then became The Orangutan Book, which in turn started my illustration career off very nicely.

Orangutans make their nests high up in the trees, from The Orangutan Book

There is widespread naivety about the plight of the orangutans within Sumatra. The farmers see them as pests, the big businesses want their habitat for lucrative palm oil plantations and the illegal capturing of babies for use as pets (most unsuitable ones) is rife. I had to distill and communicate each individual problem the charity had identified into an activity book, but we also had to make the project fun. 
When the Sumatran version was finished and printed they were handed out for free to schoolchildren in the hope that the conservation message would come across. And if the book was enjoyed it might just find its way home and be seen by their parents.
After the book came out I seemed to get bigger and better projects to work on. When SOS were offered the opportunity to become charity sponsors in the London Elephant Parade, I was the artist they turned to. Harapan soon spring-boarded my opportunities in another direction and I am now painting my third elephant - this time for Singapore.
This is the first t-shirt design I have undertaken. The Sumatran Orangutan Society put out the competition to design one a few months back and for old times sake, I decided to enter. 

Original design that went to a popular vote

The t-shirt can be purchased from the SOS website. 

Geddes & Bub web identity

Ideas for Geddes&Bub

Every job has its own requirements, its limitations, and you might be surprised to hear I'm always quite relieved when they do. The job of briefing an illustrator is a specific one. Time is usually of the essence and therefore communication is vital. I always like it when the 'rules' for the task are made clear from the outset. And my heart sinks when I hear "we don't really know what we want", because this usually means the commissioning client or designer have not considered the job's needs.


Geddes&Bub is a business consultancy which appeared to have a very wide and varied requirement for its identity. The brief from the client included the following words; organic, nurture, growth, collaboration, direction, aspiration, inspiration and humanity (plus many more).

Doodle page from initial conversation

Magpie Studio had already designed the classy filigree G&B logo when they contacted me. Now they had to get all the aspects of the business into a working image for the website. Cleverly, they'd already come up with the idea of using a series of modular images which could be connected and disconnected by a single line.  How very pure.


So we talked and I got scribbling and when we'd distilled the images down to a select few they were applied to the Geddes&Bub web pages. The line was always going to be animated, traveling swiftly along to make up the icons. You can see what I mean here: http://geddesbub.com/


I never underestimate the job of the designer and am privileged to work with many of the UK's finest. For  it is their ability and experience that liaises and interprets the client's needs, delivering an identity that can ultimately make all the difference to the success of their business.  

Geddes & Bub webpage

I worked with Jamie Ellul on this project. More about Magpie Studio is here. 

Beijing Smiler Sheet - Royal Mail

Dragon lantern, Royal Mail smiler

I've been drawing dragons all day and thoroughly enjoying it. I've sent the sketches off to my client who has already got back to me and seems very pleased. Unfortunately, as with a lot of 'live' jobs, I'm not allowed to show anything to do with it until it is published, so I thought I'd find a dragon from the archive to show instead.


The image below is a smiler sheet. It was issued alongside the Royal Mail's official Beijing Olympic stamp set. It's purpose is a bit of fun really. The lantern stickers cheer up letters as well as commemorate the 2008 Olympics. It's a collectible item, which is a big and very important market for Royal Mail. 


I rendered all the illustrations in pen & ink, which were then applied to the lanterns by a clever graphic designer.


Each lantern depicts an aspect of Chinese culture.

Beijing smiler sheet

Today's dragons might appear some time next year. If all goes to plan.