Soupa illustrator Clare Loveday has been getting creative making handmade products and started up her own online shop selling tote bags, hair bands and cards. Check out her new collection, which is being added to on a regular basis here. My favorite has got to be the silk screen printed orange branch tote bag, which reminds me of a pair of trousers I owned (and wore) in the 90's! www.clareloveday.com www.folksy.com/shops/ClareLoveday www.etsy.com/shop/ClareLoveday
Zine's have recently become a popular output for designers and illustrators - not just for those of the political persuasion. In 2011, there are so many digital outlets such as blogs, Twitter, Facebook for example, where you can have your own voice so you might wonder why people still like to cut and stick their thoughts and images into a little book. However, with a rise in popularity Zine's have been given a designer's touch and are as appealing to the style-savvy as those who like to read the opinion's of others. You might even learn something! This book celebrates and showcases the more 'visually refined' of zines where artists and designers have started to experiment and update this medium which has long enjoyed a cult status. Some may also say that it is the impact of the recession that is promoting the 'make do and mend' attitude not only in crafts – but also in self-marketing and the arts.
The spot gloss cover and open spine give a shiny impression but it is the pastel pages which really caught my eye and really give the feel of zine. A jam-packed book full of inspirational projects, and some great examples of various print process make this a book I'd definitely recommend.
Behind the Zines: Self-Publishing Culture Editors: R. Klanten, A. Mollard, M. Hübner Publisher: Gestalten
I've been a fan of Ammo for a year or so now after meeting editor & founder Dave at The Publisher's Club Meet-up and have loved the little mag ever since. The postcard (or handbag) size mag is perfect for showing off the beautiful illustration and design work and bite-size features are easy to digest, wherever you are.
The cover of this latest issue has been gracefully designed by Gabriella Barouch whose work is wonderfully girly and mystical. Inside, you'll find the work of Soupa illustrators Carlos Garde-Martin, Harriet Gray and Luke Waller all of whom have submitted exclusive pieces for the magazine. Check out their work on pages 16, 31 and 53. There are some great interviews from Timba Smitts, Rilla Alexandra and also an interesting insight into the work of Claire Hartley. Claire was invited to take part in Yarn Festival back in February to produce a live illustration pitted against Soupa's own Jamie Littler.
As always, the magazine is designed in a way which only further enhances the work featured in it.
Check out and buy Ammo Magazine here
Images © Ammo Magazine sourced from Flickr
Illustrator and fellow Soupa creative Jason Lear is working all night tonight on a 12 hour sketching session, he will be posting every hour with updated work so check it out here: http://jasonlearillustration.blogspot.com/ Jason's Soupa profile
Here is the first sketch of the night.
Thank you to Jamie Littler for making this beautiful new banner for May!
Come one, come all and gather round the virtual campfire for thrilling tales, stupendous stories, riveting rhymes and adventurous activities - all illustrated in eye-popping 2D by some of the finest illustrators and animators around!
Today was the launch of 'Paper Cub'; an online magazine for children of all ages. The magazine boasts fresh and regularly updated illustrated stories and poems of all shapes and sizes, all by various talented creatives from around the world. The magazine can be found over here:
http://www.paperfoxpress.com/papercub/
Soupa illustrator Jamie Littler also happens to be one of the contributors, and was brought on-board by fellow YARNfest competitor Robin Boyden. He has created an illustration for Robin's poem '(Too Much) Space' for the launch, alongside some other genuinely beautiful artwork and poetry.
Yo illustrators!
Been spending too much time with your tools and not enough with your peers? Head down to this illustration meet up in London to mingle and network with other people like you!
Next event is on the 11th May 2011
Check out the website for more info about the events here: http://www.yoillo.com
Last month illustrator and Soupa member Madi opened up her own online store on Etsy. Here you can check out some of her prints, mirrors and cards and find the perfect present!
http://www.etsy.com/shop/MadiIllustration
This month we welcome two new exciting illustrators to Soupa and we're pretty chuffed about it! Spiros Halaris is a graphic design graduate from Middlesex University – although illustration has since won his heart! He is currently working on various projects while continuing his studies in fashion illustration at the London College of Fashion.
He incorporates a range of techniques including collages, hand drawn as well as digital elements. His imagery embraces emotions, human elements and fashion.
Next we have Joshua Marshall who was born in St Albans. He graduated from Kingston Upon Thames in 2008 and began freelance Illustration. He is currently based in London and pursues his interest with the imagery of ‘the abnormal day to day’ that surfaces in a diverse range of commissions for t-shirts, posters, magazine and book illustrations.
A big thank you to Carlos for designing the first banner for Soupa's new look. Here's what he had to say about it:
The idea for the banner originated from some recent research I was doing on the English language. I was thinking about how confusing it must be for foreigners because so many of our words sound the same. For example words like gorilla and guerilla, or sweet and suite both sound the same but have totally different connotations. These same sounding words I later found out are referred to as 'Homophones'. The concept of fusing these two words together was really intriguing, and some really amusing images resulted from it.
If you would like to submit a banner design for May get going and send it over to jo@soupa.co.uk when your done. The dimensions are: 940px x 143px - and remember to leave a space for the Soupa logo as it sits over the top.
Well, Jason Lear has been a busy man recently with his fabulous illustrations being featured on clothing for Your Eyes Lie and he has launched his own online shop selling a collection of his beautiful digital prints. He has also been featured in DE Magazine and published in Zeixs - New Textile Design. Good going Jason – keep up the stellar work!
Soupa member Chris Airplays has just launched a new clothing label called The Diggers. The name comes from hunting for records, digging in the crates, and the main theme of the label is the excitement of finding something new. With this in mind Chris set the first brief under the title 'New Discoveries' and commissioned three illustrators, Mr Gauky, Keaton Henson & Nate Trapnell to design the first collection. Check out The Diggers site here.
Although, there’s a lot to cover, I’ll keep it brief and tell you about some of things we did (with the aid of a few pics).
In preparation for the festival we made our own special edition Soupa Zine (above) containing lots of exciting new illustrations, photographs and bite-size stories. You can read the zine in full here: http://issuu.com/jospencer/docs/soupazine-mar-2011-23
We made little packs for each zine maker who came to the workshop and we also took along our fantastic retro typewriter which I picked up for about £2 in a recycling centre.
I did a bit of typing to encourage people to give it a go – blank white pages can be a bit intimidating!
While many of the zines contained important messages about women’s issues, we also wanted people to relax, have fun and be creative. Fellow Soupa member, illustrator Elissa Elwick brought along her friendly characters, the Bob Wob’s (watching you from above, and below) and was on hand with Anna Spencer to help people create their own illustrations.
Throughout the day, there was live music and this seemed to attract a lot of people to the workshop – all of whom worked really hard creating something unique to them. As you can see, the workspace was a mess with glue, cuttings and pencils everywhere, but as far as I’m concerned, all the better to take pictures of.
I took five minutes out to catch up on the other events going on at the festival and headed downstairs where I met Mary Kilvert, an illustrator who makes products which include these pretty cushions. Loving the one of these print-perfect sheep!
I was glad we had taken some old magazines for cutting up as these were providing some unexpected inspiration for zines (thanks to my sister for passing them on to me). The illustration below is a great example of this.
Over the weekend, the Soupa team are helping to create a Master WOW Zine that will be a lasting reminder of the amazing work created.
If you came along to WOW this weekend, we hope you had a really good time!
Posted by Clare Kelly
We will be uploading our pictures from the weekend to our Flickr stream very soon.
Inkygoodness are calling for submissions for – Colour Me Totem – their first online creative project!
Colour Me Totem
Here’s your chance to be part of the inkygoodness Character Totem project..
Discover your inner character – doodle, ink, paint or digitally design your own Character Totem. Give him a name & send us the results!
All you need to do is:
All you need to do is download the Colour Me Totem pdf below and get drawing. Give your characters a name, along with your web address & contact details and keep a close look at their gallery for your Totem to appear.
Send your submissions to: inkygoodness@easy.com – no later than Friday 25th March. All entries will be uploaded to their evolving Character Totem online gallery. The best entries will be displayed in the Neurotitan Gallery as part of the official Character Totem exhibition at Pictoplasma this year – so what are you waiting for? Get involved!
This Friday there is an exhibition featuring the artists, designers and photographers who make up the pool of talent that goes in to making Spindle Magazine. A fashion and culture magazine curated by Heather Falconer.
A quarterly magazine that's now in its third incarnation. Why not stop by Madame Geisha from 6pm to see work by Sarah Ferrari, Peter James Field, Kevin Mason, Maria Sagun, Soupa's very own Carlos Garde-Martin, and a host of others.
Private View - Friday the 4th of March, 6-9pm Madame Geisha - 75-79 East Street, Brighton
Click here for more info http://designmuseum.org/design-overtime
Those of you who follow @okjo_soupa on Twitter won't have failed to notice that there's been a lot of YARNfest talk of late.
If you were lucky enough to come along, or unlucky and not able to come, here's a little round-up of events for your pleasure...
The Soupa crew (Jo, Anna, Elissa, Jessica, Jamie, Clare) were up very early indeed and made their way to The Book Club to get started on the Zine Workshop.
Elissa, Jessica and Anna were on hand to help out those who attended the workshop by showing them how to create characters. We were really chuffed with the turn-out with many people booking in advance and then staying for the duration of the workshop.
Oschon Wespi-Tschopp of Cure Studio came along with a screen and some really vibrant inks to enable all those who came along to screenprint their own cover. This was a great introduction to screenprinting and produced some great results. Jo was also able to help demonstrate the art of hand stitching to ensure that no one's zine fell apart!
We saw some really fantastic work being produced and Efdeay were in attendance to provide a zine template which could be worked into as much or as little as people liked.
At 5pm, the workshop drew to a close and the floor and tables were testament to the amount of creativity that had taken place with bits of magazines, glue and pens strewn about the place! This did take some time to clear up but because some of those on the workshop were reluctant to leave, we did have some help!!
Soupa then disbanded for the evening to get ready for the next day of YARNfest (and have some much needed sleep).
http://www.flickr.com/photos/okjo/sets/72157625975085229/
Team Soupa enjoyed a chilled out morning before rocking up to The Book Club for day two of the proceedings. Once again, the basement were the event was taking place, was completely ram-jammed and lots of people had turned up for the quiz – a fully interactive event that called for improvisation, wit and a sprinkling of talent. Then came the SCAT PACK with their improvised 'film' which has been a hit at Edinburgh Fringe due to its quick thinking talent. Read more about that here.
This allowed everyone to relax a bit before thoughts turned to the Illustrationarium which would see Soupa members Jessica Allan, Luke Waller, Harriet Gray and Carlos Garde-Martin illustrate live on a overhead projector (not seen since school days) while authors and storytellers such as Helen Smith, Rachel Rose Reid and Katy Darby read and performed. A tough task if ever there was one! Soupa felt very proud of all its talent who put so much into it and created some really unique pieces in front of this live audience.
http://www.flickr.com/photos/okjo/sets/72157625975208423/
I don't know why you don't like Mondays really. But perhaps if your name was Jamie Littler and you were about to do a live illustration of a book cover in front of the author Hanif Kureishi, you'd be a little worried about Monday's too!
However, this Monday at The Queen of Hoxton turned into a pretty good one with Jamie doing a beautiful illustration that nearly made Team Soupa weep with joy! There were three other illustrators from other collectives from AMMO Magazine Claire Hartley, from Paperfox press Robin Boyden, from Hidden Dingbat Phil Howell and Lauren Baker taking part too and while Jamie didn't win in the final round, he did win his own round, and though we are biased, he was our winner for sure.
This was the culmination of YARNfest for Soupa but everyone left feeling energised and ready for the next one. If you missed it, be sure to keep your eyes peeled for more news about the next YARNfest event – we wouldn't want you to miss out!
http://www.flickr.com/photos/okjo/sets/72157625984252863/
Gemma Mitchell, Osch Wespi-Tschopp, James Hurst, Anna Spencer, Elissa Elwick, Clare Kelly, Jamie Littler, Carlos Garde-Martin, Jessica Allan, Harriet Gray and Luke Waller.
