Laura Carlin

Amelia’s Magazine | V&A Illustration Awards 2011 Review

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V&A Illustration Awards 2011 review-Hannah Simpson
Hannah Simpson with her award.

Last week I attended the annual V&A Illustration Awards ceremony for the first time on Monday 6th June. Judged by luminaries such as Rob Ryan and writers Bel Mooney and Francesca Gavin, remedy this award has a long and illustrious heritage.

detail_kugler__editorial__a_tea_in_iran
Olivier Kugler won the main editorial award for his depiction of a truck driver’s journey across Iran, viagra buy but I was more interested in the work of some of the runners up.

the_iron_man_2011_cover
V&A Illustration Awards 2011 review-Laura Carlin
Laura Carlin floral
Laura Carlin produced a beautiful re-imagining of The Iron Man by Ted Hughes to win Best Illustrated Book. She is an accomplished ceramic artist, thumb isn’t this bowl beautiful?

lorenzo_petrantoni_book_cover_boxer_beetle
Best Book Cover was won by Lorenzo Petrantoni for his bold Boxer Beetle front cover, which employs a style that stems from a love of curious old world illustrations. He recombines found imagery to make collages, giving new life to forgotten art. He currently lives and works in Italy.

mike_redmond__before_the_dive__awkward_people_in_funny_situations
RCA illustration student Mike Redmond won the overall student prize for his intricate Awkward People in Funny Situations. Most of his studies begin in sketchbooks, where he notes down the thoughts, things and events which prompt him to explore relationships in his narrative illustrations.

V&A Illustration Awards 2011 review-Hannah Simpson portrait
But I was perhaps most interested of all in the work of the student prize runner up – that of Hannah Simpson, who is just finishing her second year on the Illustration course at Kingston University and has recently begun contributing some wonderful artwork to Amelia’s Magazine. Her Bacteria series was made using round zinc plates, reminiscent of Petri dishes. The microscopic shapes of the bacteria have been replaced by minute human bodies arranged in bacterial patterns to emphasise the hold that bacteria has over humankind. The prints were made in coloured ink to echo the way that bacteria are stained to become visible to the human eye.

Plague by Hannah Simpson
Plague by Hannah Simpson.

cholera by Hannah Simpson
Cholera by Hannah Simpson.

Anthrax by Hannah Simpson
Anthrax by Hannah Simpson.

The V&A Illustration Awards exhibition is on until 17th December, so next time you are lurking around the area why not duck in and take a look?

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday June 15th, 2011 7:29 pm

Categories ,Anthrax, ,Awkward People in Funny Situations, ,Bacteria, ,Bel Mooney, ,Best Book Cover, ,Best Illustrated Book, ,Boxer Beetle, ,Cholera, ,Collaged, ,etchings, ,Francesca Gavin, ,Hannah Simpson, ,Iran, ,Kingston University, ,Laura Carlin, ,Lorenzo Petrantoni, ,Mike Redmond, ,Olivier Kugler, ,Plague, ,rob ryan, ,Student Prize, ,Ted Hughes, ,The Iron Man, ,V&A Illustration Awards, ,va

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Amelia’s Magazine | Introducing Up Side Up: an interview with founder Angharad Lewis

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Up Side Up logo
Up Side Up is a brand new design website that comes to you courtesy of the wonderful Angharad Lewis, formerly of the much missed Grafik magazine (as well as many other superb design projects). Up Side Up is an innovative platform to help graphic designers create goods beyond the standard fare: where they are helped by future buyers to develop and make interesting objects that are then sold exclusively on the website. Think Kickstarter, created exclusively for the graphic design community. The beautiful first limited editions include:

PELLICCI TRAY by A Practice for Everyday Life

Up Side Up APFEL_Pelliccitray
Inspired by famous Bethnal Green eatery Pellicci’s, Emma Thomas and Kirsty Carter of APFEL have designed a handmade serving tray, with a trompe l’oeil marquetry top depicting drink spills and cup-rings.

Up Side Up APFEL_Pelliccitray close up
APFEL’s studio is situated in a converted marquetry factory in the heart of Bethnal Green, East London, which was a centre for cabinet-making and marquetry in the early twentieth century. The local cafe Pellicci’s (est 1900) has a remarkable interior of walls clad floor to ceiling in marquetry. Inspired by the history of their studio and the local area’s links with the art of marquetry, APFEL’s Pellicci Tray will be made in an edition of twenty-five, with the body of the tray handmade by London-based cabinet maker Daniel Bradley; and the marquetry surface laser-cut and hand assembled by ACE Marquetry, Wiltshire.


Watch a video of Emma and Kirsty discussing their Pellici Tray here.

STACKED BOWLS by Ben Branagan and Laura Carlin

Up Side Up three bowls prototypes
A collaboration between designer Ben Branagan and illustrator/ceramicist Laura Carlin, Stacked Bowls is a set of three interlocking earthenware vessels. Each bowl is designed with a particular function in mind, defined by its shape, size and construction.

Up Side Up-AM Bowls
The bowls will be made in an edition of 40 by a traditional ‘potworks’ in Stoke-On-Trent, the heartland of pottery manufacture in England since the seventeenth century. Each bowl is hand-glazed in different colour and finish. The three bowls have been designed to fit together in a stack that forms a totemic, anthropomorphic shape. This is the first set in a wider collection of bowls that will be released in coming months via Up Side Up.


Watch a video of Ben and Laura discussing their Stacked Bowls here.

I caught up with Angharad Lewis to find out more about Up Side Up:

What prompted the inspiration for this idea?
Through ten years’ experience working as a journalist and editor in the graphic design world I’d been lucky enough to see the amazing depth of research that the best designers put into their work. Lots of graphic designers are making and selling printed products these days but I wanted to create an opportunity for them to push the ideas and experience from their client work to a new level in a self-initiated project – leave the tea towels and tote bags for dust.

Up Side Up APFEL Emma And Kirsty
Emma And Kirsty discuss their design.

How do you find designers and makers to collaborate with?
I’ve approached people who I admire and think I would enjoy working with – designers who I feel will embrace the challenge and who I know will think in an interesting way. Their response has, without exception, gone beyond my expectations – every idea so far has excited and surprised me. I feel very lucky to be a part of these collaborations.

Who do you hope your customers will be and why should people shop with you?
It’s not all about the designers, in fact the customers are the most important people in this equation. They are the catalyst to turning ideas and prototypes into fully-fledged editions. Without the buyers these objects will not get made: we document the development of the products online and ask the audience to pre-order them – the customers’ funding allows us to take the final leap and put the editions into production. Each and every buyer is a key player in the story of the objects.

The success of each object stands or falls on it’s qualities – the idea and the execution have to be so brilliant that enough people want to invest in making it come to life. I hope that Up Side Up a place people can visit regularly to discover the most thoughtful, new, inventive products. The aim is to make really special, unique objects that are affordable, to make collecting amazing design accessible.

Up Side Up Ben and Laura in their studio
Ben and Laura in their studio.

What has been the most exciting part of the process so far?
Seeing the finished prototypes in the flesh for the first time. After all the conversations, sketches, samples and mock-ups nothing beats seeing all that hard work emerge in a three-dimensional form. Another bonus is that meetings have become universally brilliant! Every time I visit one of the designers who has a work in progress for Up Side Up I come out feeling uplifted.

How often to you hope to launch new collections, and any sneak ideas about what you hope to make?
The next two products will be launched in January, they are well under way – I’ll give you a few clues. Crispin Finn are doing something beautiful by screen-printing on glass and The Entente have made the most ingenious small storage solution I’ve seen. After that there will be two products launched every two months. I’m very excited about objects already underway by Anthony Burrill and Michael Marriott and Astrid Stavro.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Wednesday October 30th, 2013 10:28 am

Categories ,A Practice for Everyday Life, ,Angharad Lewis, ,Anthony Burrill, ,APFEL, ,Astrid Stavro, ,Ben Branagan, ,Crispin Finn, ,Emma Thomas, ,Grafik, ,Kirsty Carter, ,Laura Carlin, ,Michael Marriott, ,Pellicci Tray, ,Pellicci’s, ,Stacked Bowls, ,Stoke-on-Trent, ,The Entente, ,Up Side Up

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Amelia’s Magazine | An interview with Steph Moulden: Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featured artist.

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steph moulden budgie blue
Steph Moulden has created a surreal space scene inspired by her own life activities for Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion. The Hereford College of Arts graduate shares her journey from graduation to professional illustrator.

steph moulden portrait
What persuaded you to pursue illustration rather than fine art?
I thought I was a fine artist for a while. I always liked to paint surreal images but would end up frustrated when trying to be photorealistic (and failing). My college tutor, who was totally brilliant, introduced me to a graphic novel by David Mack called Kabuki Dreams. It’s miles away from my own style now but it opened up a lot of new creative processes, taught me a bit about narrative and helped me link together what illustration was and could be. The same tutor also said that to not have the structure of illustration would be dangerous for my mind! Best advice I’ve ever had!

steph moulden dog over moon
What was your course at Hereford College of Arts like, and what were the best things about studying there?
Hereford College of Arts was a strange little university. Freshers nights were all about local real ale testing and picnics at the local art centre as opposed to the more traditional day glo events. But this setting made everyone who went really close from the beginning. I shared studios with animators, graphic designers and filmmakers alike. For a small place we had a great host of professional illustrators and makers come in. Mostly as requested by the students! Top lectures I can remember were by Laura Carlin, Karoline Rerrie and Dominic Owen.

steph moulden angry heads
Can you tell us about the Little Boxes Collective?
It was at HCA I met two other illustrators and we formed a collective before the first year was even up. That summer we even shared a sketchbook diary and posted it to each other week by week. We developed a way of producing 3D displays using cut out cardboard that we’d paint and draw on. Not a very typical route for illustrators to follow but it meant that Little Boxes Collective has been the gateway to some of my most loved projects that perhaps would not of been commissioned as a single artist. At the end of our degree the university asked us to create a signage system, leaflets and a huge window display advertising the 2012 Summer graduate show.

steph moulden stb bris window
steph moulden wooden dog
What did you do during your time spent living in Bristol?
My favourite Bristol project was an installation we did in the window for Start The Bus. It was a 3D ‘winter camp’ made entirely of painted cardboard and cut out characters. We all lived and worked together in Bristol selling wares for Made in Bristol Christmas Fair and creating cardboard installations for local shop windows and events. After nearly two years, I moved back to Hereford.

steph moulden pinapple
How does your day’s work reveal what is going on in your head?
I love to draw creatures or people. It’s my biggest procrastination at the desk but also a little insight into what’s going on in my mind. My fiancée will come home and look at the funny faces I’ve doodled and can work out my mood quicker than I can explain how my day has been. I also have two budgies so they appear quite frequently in sketches.

steph moulden little boxes work
steph moulden inky sketch
What is your favourite way to produce an illustration?
My over active imagination means I dream a lot and if I’ve had a good dreaming night I’ll have a good drawing day. Although I rarely use a pen or pencil. I’m most comfortable sketching with a paint brush and some cheap ink. I also love folk art acrylics, which were used in my colouring book entry. A quid a bottle and such beautiful thick colours you wouldn’t guess their value.

steph moulden double page update
What inspired your surreal space scene for my colouring book?
My colourful space scene is inspired about a few of the things I loved doing over the summer. Exploring the great outdoors, the season of garden sitting, warm days wild swimming and sadly, as a tribute, walking my dog for the last few times. My surreal universe is brightly painted and then collaged on to Photoshop. I wanted it to feel like an invite a party you wanted to go to. Admittedly, I’ve also caught the space bug brought on by the new Star Wars films…

steph moulden doone
steph moulden sign work
How have you set about finding work in your home town?
As much as I rely on Instagram, Twitter etc. to network, I have had more opportunities from selling myself face to face. I installed a blackboard wall at my place of work and covered it in hand lettering and illustrations. Another business then got me to do their blackboards and now I have a wall to design for a new shop opening for The Great British Florist.

steph moulden budgie sketch
You have only recently set up shop as a freelance illustrator with a stand alone website – why did it take you so long and how has it been going?
Moving away from the Little Boxes Collective has propelled me to take on a new identity. I feel like even though I graduated in 2012 I’m brand new to this all over again. Style never stops developing and you never stop learning. Although I have finally let myself have a website! I always put it off for fear of it looking fake but it just gave me reassurance that I can call myself a freelance illustrator. It is really good to have old contacts back again. The biggest challenge has been balancing a creative and work lifestyle. Since moving to a cheaper city I’ve made the brave decision to drastically lower my day job hours so I can properly focus on Illustration. I have a spare room studio all to myself. I want to build it up though to include a printing area. It’s a slow and steady journey it but has been rewarding already. In a month I had my first magazine commission for Fourth Trimester Magazine who are gearing up to print soon. And with the work in the running for some local businesses, it’s the first time in years I can say things are happening!

It’s been great to gain an insight into the world of Steph Moulden. Make sure you place a pledge on Kickstarter (coming soon) to grab your copy of Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion featuring her delightful work.

Written by Amelia Gregory on Tuesday October 20th, 2015 8:52 am

Categories ,#ameliasccc, ,Adult Coloring Book, ,Adult Colouring Book, ,Amelia’s Colourful Colouring Companion, ,Coloring, ,Colouring, ,Colouring Book, ,David Mack, ,Dominic Owen, ,Fourth Tri Magazine, ,Fourth Trimester Magazine, ,Hand Lettering, ,Hereford College of Arts, ,illustration, ,Kabuki Dreams, ,Karoline Rerrie, ,Kickstarter, ,Laura Carlin, ,Little Boxes Collective, ,Made in Bristol Christmas Fair, ,Star Wars, ,start the bus, ,Steph Moulden, ,The Great British Florist, ,typography

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