Aerial Design

Have you ever noticed yourself trying to rebel against popular culture? Like… “hey everyone, come see how different I am”? It’s not easy. That unknown band you love now will soon be No.1 in 18 countries. Beards might be cool, but not for job hunting. More than 2 billion people live on less than $2 a day, but everybody you know has 2 iPods.

In contemporary culture we tend to construct our identity based on the things we own and wear. We associate products with a certain lifestyle or type of person and so when we buy that item, the real value is in buying the lifestyle more than the product. As Calvin (friend of Hobbes, not the 16th century theologian) puts it, “Endorsing products is the American way to express individuality”.

Sometimes I like returning to my school days… going back to the art disciplines I was once forced to do, except this time out of choice and on my terms. I hated doing portraiture back then and to be honest I still find it rock hard, but now that i’m free of curriculum I can use whatever medium I so choose! With that in mind I decided to have a go, and was pretty pleased with how they came out. If only my old tutors could see me now, There would be tears for sure!

The Something For Sophie lads have been close friends of the studio for a few years now and we love them. They are a young pop rock outfit from Brighton with catchy tunes and interesting breaks. Big fans of the uplift, they believe ‘melody loves company’, and the whole thing is awash with harmonies that just want to pull your face into a smile.

When they approached us about the launch of their EP Any Note Will Do, we were super excited. We love doing album art and their ‘glass half full’ attitude made this project one of our favourites so far.

The EP was due for launch some time around September and they wanted the main artwork to focus around a winter scene. Our goal was to get that winter feeling whilst echoing the positive sound of the songs. We decided to go with clean-edged vector illustration that focused on the bright blue sky more than the sombre greys. We drew some inspiration from Greg Abbott and his incredible character design, bringing some animal life into the landscape. Is it a beaver, groundhog, or sacred bear? You decide!

안녕하세요, 그래서 어느 날은… Oh wait, um, let me explain..

When come up with t-shirt ideas, we pretty much make them up into designs straight away, even if they’re not for a client. This means we don’t lose or forget any great ideas, and also provides us with a bank of designs that we can sell on to companies or bands, with all the hard work already done. Woohoo for instant cash! About mid way through last year, we received a request from a shirt company called Culture Twist. They were after a custom text design, similar to some others they had seen of ours. We love our type tees so needless to say, we had a few spare…

We picked one out and sent it through. It looks a little bit like this: