Spotlight: Elise Rose | Photographer

I LOVE finding new creatives and artists to be inspired by, and after reading an article about one of my favourite humans Travis Alabanza on ItsNiceThat, the accompanying photos caught my eye:

Elise Rose is a British photographer who’s creative aesthetic is Punk expression. Elise uses her imagery to convey raw and authentic narratives, and originally started off with a project called POC Punx – a photography series focusing on the black experience of Punk.

Growing up, I was one of 3 people of colour involved in a scene that felt unquestionably white. In an effort to visually dismantle the idea that punk is essentially a white thing, I began to take photographs of friends and inspirational people of colour in punk and alternative music scenes. Within this series I wanted create straight-ups, intimate snapshots and images that capture the energy and power of their presence at shows. On many occasions, particularly with the straight up’s, I’ve used different compact and disposable cameras as I feel theres’s something really unpretentious and unfiltered about the snapshots they produce. I feel that it compliments the movement.

I love how Elise’s portfolio sways from untamed edge to editorial art direction, but still maintains a strong aesthetic. What a talent!

Pride: Gavin Grimm | My Trans Hero

Pride has fully kicked off here in London, and with that I have created this illustration as an ode to one of the most inspiring and tenacious young men to have taken on the US judicial system. Gavin Grimm is a 19-year-old from Virginia, who came out as transgender to his fellow classmates at 15. The school he attended had allowed him to use the male bathrooms, however revoked this right after an uproar of complaints from “disgusted” parents.
What should have been a private and intimate discussion for a child, turned into a worldwide spectacle. As a child, Gavin had to stand in front of his peers, teachers and the court to fight for his right to use a bathroom. A CHILD. Gavin sued his district for violating the Title IX (US Education Amendments of 1972 prohibits discrimination “on the basis of sex” in education) and was immediately thrust into the spotlight as the face of bathroom rights for trans* people. Two years later in 2016, a 2-1 decision marked the first time a federal court had ruled that Title IX protects transgender individuals and their right to use the bathroom that aligns with their identity.

The battle continued as a district court initially ruled against Gavin, but was ordered to review its ruling after the Obama administration issued a guidance advising public schools to let trans* students to use whichever bathrooms they like. The case entered the Supreme Court but was quickly suspended as the Trump administration withdrew the previous guidance on bathroom use, therefore sending the case back to the lower courts.
Fast forward to May 2018 where the case has been revived and could end up making lasting changes to transgender rights in America. The school requested to dismiss Gavin’s case, but a Virginia court has rejected this request as US district judge Arenda Wright Allen’s refused to throw out his case, even suggesting that Gavin might win:

As Mr. Grimm contends, attempting to draw lines based on physiological and anatomical characteristics proves unmanageable: how would the Board’s policy apply to individuals who have had genital surgery, individuals whose genitals were injured in an accident, or those with intersex traits who have genital characteristics that are neither typically male nor female?

Gavin graduated from high school in 2017, but has continued to fight this battle, leaving behind a legacy of transgender activism. From the moment I heard his story, his determination and perseverance stunned me. Children should not be forced to grow up so quickly, nor should they be forced to justify their existence to a court, and to the rest of the world. Gavin is a true American hero and has pathed the way for transgender rights.

Gavin is what makes me proud to be a part of Pride.

DUMB FUN | Tim Moore

Designer Tim Moore has explored the combination of collage art, AR/VR and photography in an app (launching soon) called “DUMB FUN”. The app allows users to add a plethora of virtual imagery to their surroundings and explore 16 different “worlds” all created with their own unusual and unique aesthetic:

DUMB FUN is described as an interactive art experience for iPhone that has the freedom to explore photography and collage in digital worlds. The worlds were created using Apple’s ARKit where users can “walk through” the 2D layers and textures:

 

DUMB FUN originally started as a newsletter that delivered one new piece of artwork by PRVCTICE weekly: “The concept behind the project was to treat the newsletter as a zine at its most minimal form: publishing original work and nothing else, just the imagery.”
Tim Moore is the designer behind one of my favourite apps, VSCO, and I absolutely adore his wonderful visual identity that is prevalent throughout all his work. Moore’s work is actually very reminiscent of my Foundation final project, so I wish I had discovered his work all those years ago!

Project Embrace | #AFROVISIBILITY

Ad agency (and previous place of employment for yours truly when I had just started out) Quiet Storm were commissioned by branding agency Vine Creatives to create a series of posters for Project Embrace.

The campaign aims to shine the light on every day women of colour who are proud of their natural hair. #Afrovisibility is a reaction to the fact that Afro hair is rarely seen in any advertising, let alone on giant city-centre billboards, but these will feature in London, Birmingham, Manchester, Southampton, Newcastle and Glasgow.

The outdoor campaign by Quiet Storm features beautifully shot, powerful imagery featuring black women, all cast through an open audition, which includes a teacher, a finance manager, a writer, a receptionist, a student and an HR partner. The tag line “Proud to be me” boldly overlays these real women who are celebrating their natural hair.
In the last few years I have taken an interest in educating myself about the pressures placed on black women to change their hair to more European styles, and this is very evident in film, TV, music and advertising. With more and more more women of colour bravely sharing their stories of traction alopecia (hair loss from sewn in weaves and braids) and their stories of hating their own hair, it is a wonderful for black women of all ages and backgrounds to see that they shouldn’t feel pressurised to spend money on expensive weaves or straighten their hair, and should embrace the ‘fro!

CALM: Project 84

CALM (The Campaign Against Living Miserably) is a charity dedicated to preventing male suicide, and a charity that has a big place in my heart. I am a ig supporter of the charity and always enjoy seeing what campaigns they produce to lift the lid on a subject that is unnecessarily, and dangerously taboo. Male suicide is the single biggest killer of men under the age of 45 in the UK, and ad agency adam&eveDBB collaborated with CALM to raise awareness of this statistic.

Project 84 is a stunt campaign that placed 84 mannequins on the ledges of London’s ITV Southbank buildings to represent 84 real men who committed suicide. The number originates from the statistic that every two hours, a man takes his own life, making about 84 deaths per week. Sculptor Mark Jenkins, created this work of art alongside friends and families of those who have committed suicide:

This campaign is about both raising awareness and showing that there is no shame in men talking about their mental health. I love this kind of work, and I think it has been executed perfectly. More importantly, it’s had a hell of a lot of people talking about this male epidemic, with users on social media tweeting images of the sculpture and the hashtag #Project84.

This is what design and advertising is all about.

Spotlight: Henry James Garrett | Drawings of Dogs

Brighton based illustrator Henry James Garrett aka Drawings of Dogs first created his wonderful illustrated stories after dropping out of his PhD studies due to anxiety. He started drawing and creating stories as a means of soothing his anxiety, which eventually lead to selling greeting cards. This is his story, wonderfully illustrated, of course:

I first found out about Henry’s illustrations from Pride London who have collaborated with him for this year’s Pride festival. Prior to this he currently has a series of weekly cartoons for The i Newspaper, which features other animals, called Adventures in Anthropomorphism. The comic above is a narrative told by Billie, Henry’s real life dog, which first appeared in CALMzine, a magazine for mental health charity CALM. This makes me love Henry even more because I am a huge supporter of CALM.

So he’s created illustrations for Pride and CALM. He’s living my dream.

Pride tweeted “Homophobia can duck off! Around 1,500 animal species practice same-sex coupling. Only one species practices homophobia.”

“Trans women are women. Trans men are men. Non-binary people are non-binary. Always assume that a person is an expert in themself.”

Above are some of the illustrations he has created for Pride, but he also covers other topics like racism, feminism, kindness, politics, and of course his usual funny animal jokes:

I love his style – the simple, line drawn illustrations is reminiscent of my own preferred illustration style. I have always been drawn (pun intended) towards art that conveys a strong message and make us question how we treat each other. Comics that make us giggle are great too – let’s not under-appreciate his copy skills.

I honestly will be here forever if I post all my favourites, so make sure you check out his Instagram.

Squarespace: Make It | ManvsMachine

It’s very rate that I see a campaign that is visually and conceptually integrated seamlessly across all mediums of the campaign, but ManvsMachine has (once again) created something that has a strong and stunning visual identity.
Design and motion studio ManvsMachine are one of my favourite creative teams, and they were commissioned to work with Squarespace on the “Make It” campaign. They worked closely with the Squarespace team to create three commercials for their 2017 campaign: “each film is a tactile-take on the online experience —Blurring the lines between digital and physical, in a playful showcase of three iconic creatives & their worlds”.

The short films feature fashion designer Sadie Williams, artist Daniel Arsham and chef, Danny Bowien. It’s rare that a TV ad produces such gorgeous stills that could be used across the rest of the campaign – it goes to show how great ManvsMachine’s creative process is.
This flows nicely into the campaign imagery for digital content featuring “still life” scenes, showcasing the brand’s platform within the context of its users. The brief focused on “Digital made Physical” and the visual narratives successfully convey the brand’s bespoke features.

ManvsMachine’s iconic abstract and crafted style is so visually wonderful and is the perfect fit for a Squarespace campaign. The seamless aesthetic bridges the gap between reality and 3D (as their work always does) which was brought to life by using a wide range of software and hardware including Cinema 4D, Houdini, Maya, ZBrush, Redshift, Agisoft Photoscan, After Effects, Nuke… I recommend looking at their design process – these are a few snapshots:

It is very, VERY rare I see a banner and think “wow, I really like that”, especially after having to design hundreds of drab banners myself, but even the design for the banner ads are amazing! I’ve never thought a banner is amazing!

 

Having complete creative control, ManvsMachine were in charge of concept, design and direction, which was rolled across digital, social, TV spots and OOH. I can’t emphasise how refreshing it is to see such a visually beautiful campaign. This is how its done!!!

Spotlight: Stephan Dybus

Stephan Dybus is a German artist based in Berlin whose watercolour paintings depict relationships, life, his career and experiences (mainly negative ones). Stephan’s work, at first glance, is not representative of the aesthetic trends and styles I tend to be interested in, but his context and narrative is so powerful and hilarious that it just works so well.

I want to transfer the essence of my inadequacy as an urban hipster/melancholic artistic into humorous illustrations. I want to quote from the world that I come from. I enjoy drawing my little funny miniature characters – they can do anything, they look stupid, they don’t care about it, unlike me, they are free.

‘Aquarelle’ is the technique Stephan has adopted in his art, in which he paints with thin, transparent watercolours, after sketching out his ideas with pencil. The style Stephan has created looks almost juvenile, but it certainly visually translates his thoughts – it’s almost like the drawing equivalent to quickly jotting down thoughts in a diary or journal.

The stories are so deadpan, exploring failure and relatable experiences life throws at us, and translating this through sketchy, painted characters. Stephan states that he gains inspiration for pieces at any time, particularly during conversations, which adds to the instantaneous, unusual context of his characters’ stories.

Stephan has also explored recreating his art in 3D and through ‘low poly art’/paper craft:

Wang & Söderström |Sneakersnstuff x adidas Originals

Creative studio Wang & Söderström are Copenhagen based digital designers who explore the combination of physical elements, technology and material. Commissioned by Sneakerstuff x adidas, the duo created a campaign for the release of the ‘EQT Materials Pack’ focusing on the diversity of materials in the shoes by zooming in to the shoe on a “macro level”:

The campaign included the animation (above) and store implementations in Sneakersnstuff’s Paris and London stores. For the digital aspects, they used 3D software such as 3ds Max, Vray and Modo, and extracted aspects of the physical shoe materials to inspire the concept:

The brief was quite open and we are happy that our aesthetic wasn’t compromised — we shared the same vision as the client from the beginning. The inspiration to the brief came from one our personal projects called Treasures a series that shows contrasted material collections in a still life staging. We wanted to present a visual language that mixes our own, the shoe’s and Sneakersnstuff’s universe.

This aesthetic and colour palette is very similar to campaigns I’ve posted about before, such as the Nike and ManVsMachine campaign. I love this style – it’s a really popular design trend as more designers are exploring 3D design.

Spotlight: Marco Palena

Marco Palena has instantly become one of my top 5 favourite illustrators with his stunningly detailed and unique illustrations. The winners of this year’s Association of Illustrators’ World Illustration Awards have been announced, and Marco has won ‘The Overall New Talent Award’ for his work for the ‘Bookshops in Blossom’ book (below), which details Italian literature and culture:

His work has featured on the cover of plenty of magazine covers including ‘My Family and Other Animals’ for Illustrated Magazine (2015):

Marco’s uniquely crafted illustrations are so incredible that it took me a while to realise that they aren’t digital illustrations, but in fact hand drawn!

He often illustrates in monochrome, but his colour illustrations are just as incredible, and have been featured in children’s books:

It’s hard to actually find information about Marco and interviews with him despite his successes, but I think his work speaks for itself. Stunning!