my pet bear, ain't no thing

The we heart collective has made a calender for 2015 which you can download for free here.

We each created an artwork for an allocated month – I got July. The mental process pretty quickly went from July – winter – snow – mountains – ooooh lets draw a bear. lol, you can bet that if I get to choose the subject matter for a drawing, there is going to be an animal of some kind included (and most likely winter as well if I can).

To try something new, I made this particular drawing using only one colour (which makes for a nice effect), but the problem was deciding WHICH colour. I must have changed it 20 times during the final hour. It ended up being purple.

understanding cats

 

a quick glimpse at my folio would quickly tell you that I LOVE drawing animals, including many cats. Having grown up with dogs, I've always been a bit fascinated by cats – the mysterious 'other' pet. I will admit that I know nothing about cats, until recently. A friend I have been spending a heap of time with lately has one and it turns out they aren't really anything like what I thought – ie. nothing like dogs. ha, obvious statement now I know!

Here is something I drew about this particular cat, its most common behaviour and the struggle of drawing an epically fluffy creature.

the jungle organised neatly

Earlier this year I was asked by fellow collective member (and amazing photographer/videographer) Camille Santiago to be a part of her exhibition Jungle Heart – the cherry on top of her admirable year of fundraising for the WWF and conservation in Borneo. The Jungle Heart event was held at Southside Tea Room in Brisbane last night and raised a significant chunk of money for charity.

Artists were briefed to make pieces that were relevant to the jungle / Borneo / orangutans /conservation.

Lately I have been a bit obsessed with the tumblr, things organised neatly, so I decided to make something along these lines and draw a few of the really cool animals from the Borneo jungle organised neatly.

I am really happy with my piece and was even happier when an old friend showed up to the exhibition to buy it after seeing it on Instagram (because she is obsessed with monkeys and loved the monkey!). Thanks Kay ❤

we heart bleach

For the we heart collectives lasted exhibition, we were invited by Bleach Festival to contribute to the 2014 festival that celebrates all things Gold Coast and its beach life / culture. The theme for the exhibition was "we heart words" with local creative writers submitting short stories about the Gold Coast, of which we all picked one and created a piece inspired by that, also drawing off our own love of the city that most of us grew up in, all went to uni in and some still live in.

Although at the time I created this piece I was sitting in an airbnb apartment in downtown Stockholm with top temps of 5ºC, after just being in lapland for 10 days for the most winter-of-winter adventures: dog sledding, I still embraced all things I love about living on the Gold Coast and its relaxed beach culture. The final print was A1 and coming home to it sitting in my room (after having missed the exhibition due to being in Oslo) I am in love with it still.

flying money

In January I created the branding for The Third Pocket, a superannuation startup that aims to make sense of super for those under 35 – a group disconnected from their super and desperately needing to be engaged.

I wanted to kept the focus of the brand on being engaging, but not in a traditional finance way that is more in line with slick business. Instead it's what I like to think of as new-corporate – professional, with a human element (a people-work-here-not-machines kind of mindset).

I kept hints light with a illustrated focus and flat fun colours and elements that could never be taken too seriously, like flying money. This is one of my most favourite brand designs I have done in a long time.

wandering numbat

If you are a regular visitor to either this blog or my website, you may have noticed a distinct lack of activity for quite a few months. Well, the reason for this is that I was wandering around the Nordic regions of Europe for that time, and although working whilst travelling, many things like keeping my folio up to date got pushed aside in favour of exploring. On the upside I did keep a tumblr whilst away - mainly so that my mum knew I was still alive - but also to remember the cool things I saw and did over the months. You can retrospectively follow my journey at wandering-numbat.tumblr.com

I saw and did some extra cool things during my trip, but for those who couldn't be bothered scrolling through 1,434 photos, the highlights were definitely a 10 day drive around the ring road of Iceland, and an 8 day dog sledding trip in Swedish Lapland.

Who is the numbat, I am the numbat. lol. I named the tumblr this because I have a ridiculous collection of striped shirts and besides this trip, am rarely seen by friends (or anyone besides those I live with) due to my self imposed work schedule. With these characteristics loosely applied to an animal, preferably Australian, the result was a numbat - a wandering one.

Ohau

A great friend of mine from uni, Andrea, got married at the end of december and as always there was the challenge of what to get her as a gift. I really wanted to make her something, as handmade gifts are so much more appreciated (and remembered) than yet another vase or appliance. She had mentioned that she was going to NZ south island for her honeymoon - a place already nestled in my heart after going a few times in 2013 - so I decided to draw her and her future husband in my favourite place: near Lake Ohau, NZ and showing the Ohau Mountain Range (a distinctive range I woke up staring at for 4 weeks of 2013).

She loved the gift and much to my delight she ended up going to Lake Ohau on her honeymoon - more of a coincidence than it seems with Ohau being well off the tourist trail in the remote area of the Mackenzie basin in central South Island.

dogify

A large part of this year has been spent working on Dogify – a new Melbourne based webstore for dog products and dog grooming. I have had so much fun creating everything from branding and website design to animated gifs (something I haven't made since this old old project I did in high school).

Above you can see the logo progression from early versions to the final one. I still totally love the first two, but in true graphic design style, the one you really love never gets picked. You can see the full write up of the project and a heap of images of the work over on my portfolio.

the mother of all updates

Over the past few weekends I have pushed myself to update my folio after realising that it had been months since my previous one. With almost every major job I did this year missing from my folio, I figured it was time to sort it out.

When putting it all in a little montage, it looks heavy on the illustration side, but there are some really fun projects in there including more christmas cards for the RPSCA (and gift wrap!)There are still quite a few projects to add, but head on over to my folio and check it all out

the gift of chocolate

This year, Pana Chocolate decided to add special occasion gift boxes to their range. The series started with Happy Easter and I love you mum (available to buy on their website), with more occasions to be added to the range later on. The gift box was based off a large version of the original 45g bar, with a brown box and bright coloured sleeve. It also included a gift card that tucked into the sleeve on the front.

The box was foiled with silver and embossed. As with all Pana Chocolate packaging, the box was printed with soy based pantone inks on 100% recycled board and used recyclable foil.