in memory of Ian Noble

jacek, ian and myself

deeply saddened by the sudden passing of ian noble. ian has long been a design hero of mine and i was lucky enough to have been mentored by him during the course of my MA at kington university, where he was head of the communication design department.
he was a big man, in so many aspects - big in knowledge, experience, generosity, kindness, inspiration and so many other admirable attributes.
thanks for everything ian, i learnt so much from you. my best memory has got to be of you reminding me to go down 'f*ck up lane' more often. yes, i would always freak out, being the perfectionist that i am... it took me a while to understand that you meant - ' in order to produce our best work, we must be prepared - through ideas testing -  to produce a lot of rubbish along the way.' you have certainly made me lose my phobia of producing 'bad work'.
my time at kingston was indeed the best academic experience i've ever had and i suppose my final result reflects just that. thanks again ian. you shall remain a great source of inspiration and will be greatly missed. right now, my thoughts are with your loving family. rest in peace, my friend.

good start monday

hello and happy monday! today i'm mostly moodboarding, brainstorming and researching for a new exciting brief. i really like this stage as the ideas just gather around all expecting to be played with.  also great to revisit this little experiment with squares i did back when i was doing my MA. hopefully a good and sustainable idea will be ready for further development by the end of the week.
wishing you all an inspiring week too :)

coping with winter

i'm not fond of winter dark and cold mornings but am enjoying some quiet time until the end of the week before starting on the next brief. have been playing with paper cuts, made a little garland to cheer up the work space and have been drinking a hell of a lot of coffee to keep the head and heart warm. sometimes i wish i could hibernate and only wake up in march. instead, today, i think i'm going to draw some happy flowers and daydream of spring...
do you have any tips for coping with the winter months? shall we compile a wee list?

artburst illustrations

here's some of the illustrations i created for artburst's brand new website. such a brilliant charity and i really enjoyed working with them. you can visit their site and find out more about what they do :)
it's still snowy here and the radio has just informed of more to come :-/ i'm just going to carry on working to forget how really cold it is out there...

winter fun

best thing about winter snowy days? definitely finding new friends to play with :) it's also the time of the year when my procrastination levels hit the roof. the studio is covered in snow but it's nice and warm in here though and i suppose i'd better go and get some proper work done! catch up soon. stay happy and warm too, wherever you are!

light at last + work in progress

after countless grey days, mr sunshine has finally decided to turn up! today the light in the studio is just perfect. i'm finishing off an illustration, which will be a chapter opener for an ace book. first picture is a wee crop of it.
happy friday!

back in the studio

first week properly back in the studio and i'm liking the new year already. not only because of the number 13 but also because this year, hopefully, i'll have more time to dedicate to this blog, unlike last year, which i was doing two full time jobs with the MA and commercial projects. it was hard but all worth it.

2013 also starts with the best present ever from my friend Lesley (first photo) hope you can read the cover... in case you can't, it says: 'Thereza and her Magic Foxes'. i already have a little project in mind for it :)

i hope you've also had a great start to the new year and see you soon!