ABRSM Revival

Happy 2026 to all. For the first post of the year I thought I'd write about the recent work I've been doing with wonderful long-time client ABRSM. At the end of 2024, and after twelve years of illustrating their music exam book covers, ABRSM notified me that they were looking to rebrand and would be inviting new designers to tender for the work. I was a little deflated but figured that nothing lasted forever. I was offered the chance to pitch for the new work and didn't want to give up without a fight so took the opportunity to see how I fared with a new approach.

The initial pitch designs were to be for the Woodwind books and the chosen style would be rolled out across all the various instruments over the coming years. Working with the supplied photography of Clarinet, Flute and Saxophone players I developed a number of illustrative approaches presented with ideas for typographic layouts and was chuffed to make it past the first round. Over the course of the three month process my big breakthrough came with a wave design I created, based on an existing marketing asset, to define the lower illustration and upper title areas. With that direction as a basis it was the consensus to simplify the illustrative approach and have the photography cleanly presented on colour gradients chosen by ABRSM to represent the instruments. This resulted in a more graphic approach than my previous work and felt like the rebrand they were looking for. When I finally heard that I had won the pitch I was over the moon that I'd get to keep the job and continue to work with ace Content Operations Manager Darren Ellsmore and the ABRSM team.

So, presented here are the first pitch-winning Woodwind book cover designs and final typographic layouts with some of the initial illustrations put forward during the development process. Looking forward to the next performance. You can see other ABRSM work on the main site here also.

Merry Xmas 2025

It's a Merry Xmas to you all from Pottsblog towers where I've been conjuring up a festive illustration and animation in the studio chimney. This Christmas it's, naturally, all about the souped-up Santa space cruiser and matching reindeer capsules circling a cosmic tree with orbiting planet baubles and a nifty worm-ho-ho-hole star topper. Shown here is the final animation, created in Cinema 4d/Redshift and After Effects, a front/back card design put together in Photoshop and a process shot of the untextured 3d models. You can also see this up on the main website here with other illustration and motion treats to check out. I hope you all have a very Merry Christmas and a Happy New Year! See you in '26.

The First Stars

Here's my latest cover illustration for BBC Science Focus on the theme of the hunt for the First Stars and how they are Lost in Space. The brief was to depict these mysterious first stars based on descriptions from the article so I worked through various interpretations, posted here, to send over and get the process started. As can often be the case the first 'first star' visualisation was chosen to develop as it conveyed more of a sense of a consuming gas ball rather than an emitter. I refined the digital illustration, made with Cinema 4d/Redshift and lots of Photoshop texture compositing, and ended up with the chosen final plus a more wispy alternate version, also above. Thanks to Joe Eden for another great commission. See further Focus work on the site here.

Thirsty AI

Here's a new cover illustration for the University of California, Riverside's UCR Magazine on the 'Unquenchable Thirst of AI' and the alarming reliance on fresh water by Big Tech companies. The brief was to depict the large waste of fresh water used in cooling AI server systems and its environmental impact in particular. I presented a few first visuals, shown here, featuring a leaky AI server bucket, a data centre waterfall with the researcher Shaolei Ren, and water rushing down an AI drain. The drain idea was chosen and I expanded the concept to include the power stations, servers and environments that get impacted by the water waste. The illustration was created digitally with a drain/plughole created in Cinema 4d and composited with elements in Photoshop. Thanks to Jessica Weber for the enjoyable commission. See it on the main site here also.

Car Talk

Here's a little catch up on some commissions for longtime client Car And Driver magazine from the last year. The most recent was for an article on the state of data-hungry connected vehicle technologies such as OnStar in the US. The illustration was designed to work for a specific page layout with floating elements and a full bleed background as well as a more open online format. The second was also an unusual vertical format for a rather niche sidebar tracing the history of Mercedes Benz naming schemes since the first vehicle in 1886. Always enjoyable commissions, thanks to Darin Johnson and Nicole Lazarus for these. See more Car And Driver work on the site here. 

Energising The Future

Here's a recent illustration project for the University of Houston's publication Energy@Scale on how the 'Energy University' is shaping the future of global energy. The brief required a cover and feature collage plus individual portraits of four of the main figureheads of the University's energy programme. I devised a visual approach and palette that could work consistently across all the illustrations and enjoyed digitally collaging the Houston cityscapes with energy and fuel production imagery in Photoshop. You can also see the illustrations on the site here.

Saudi Entertainment

Here's a recent commission for Al Majalla on the current state of Saudi  Arabian entertainment and the expansion of country's culture and the arts. A large part of the article looked at the film and television industry so I focussed on that for the main illustration, particularly the burgeoning cinema and film festival scene. The digital collages were created in Photoshop. Thanks to Sara Loane for the commission. See more work for AL Majalla here.

Dreamscapes

Here's a fun commission for a BBC Science Focus feature 'Welcome to the Dream World' on technology that might harness the power of lucid dreaming. The brief called for a couple of dream scene illustrations and a composition based on some of the tech and people involved. Really enjoyed digitally collaging these in Photoshop using a combination of stock imagery, 2d/3d elements and textures - a dream job you might say <groan>. Thanks to Joe Eden for the commission as always. See more Focus work on the site here.

Dance Doubles

I've recently been moving studio and off on my hols for a couple of weeks so playing catch up with a double hit of Dance Dance Dance posters. These are my 13th and 14th designs so I've tweaked the art and typography style again to try and keep it phresh and interesting. I'm still enjoying playing with mysterious psy-fi characters mucking about in abstact landscapes and future cities though so sue me. Thanks to Katie & Joe as always. Dance on! See the whole series of posters on the main site here.

Submissions

Over the course of the year I love to enter competitions with a creative brief. They come with a ready-made theme, the similar artistic freedom of a personal project and the potential bonus upside of some nice exposure if your submission does well. If they get nowhere then you've had fun making it and spread your creative wings a little at the same time. Here are a few of my recent submissions that fit firmly into that category.

I really enjoy tackling The Folio Society Book Illustration Awards literary briefs every year if I can. The subject matter is usually something I wouldn't typically get commissioned to do and the stories are always imaginative and worth exploring creatively. This year it was the classic Grimm Brothers dark fairy tale Rapunzel and I found the immortal 'Let Down Your Hair' passage irresistible. The previous year was Neil Gaiman's similarly dark and strange The Truth Is a Cave in the Black Mountains and I depicted a climactic scene within the titular cave 'From Out Of The Shadows It Came'. Both of these stories coincidentally featured red-haired characters prominently and I seem to have gravitated towards that for some reason. I really enjoyed exploring more painterly atmospheric digital techniques with these. You can see other Folio Society submissions here and an entry for Sherlock that made it to the shortlist in 2018 here.

Another project with a great creative brief, and a good cause to boot, is Secret 7" . People are invited to submit a 7" cover artwork for a choice of a track from seven musical artists with the final selected 700 submissions sold to auction for charity. I didn't make the cut this time but I've been lucky enough to get selected for the show a few times in the past and love giving it a go at each opportunity. For 2025 I created covers for Scissor Sisters 'Return To Oz' and The Cure's 'Warsong'. For the former I focussed on a druggy depiction of Emerald City and the latter an out of left field response to vague lyrics and a sudden obsession with a tech-militaristic portrayal of a Portugeuse man o'war. I experimented with a 3d style for these, creating and lighting the models in Cinema 4d with digital comping and finishing in Photoshop. There's a couple of rougher alternative takes added here also. See all previous work for Secret 7" here.