Andreas Neophytou for Microsoft Lumia

New years resolutions. Always good to make them, invariably tricky to stick to 'em. This year, Microsoft has set out to lend a hand with a global campaign for its Lumia range of products which centres around an online app which turns users’ resolutions into unique digital artworks that can be shared via social media.

OA's Andreas Neophytou was one of five illustrators commissioned to create a suite of illustrated assets for the app. Users simply pen a pledge, choose which artist's theme they'd like to work with and then the app randomly arranges said artist's illustrated assets, scattering them on a digital canvas to ensure each generated image is unique. 

The various illustrated elements Andreas created for the campaign

The other four artists to contribute to the campaign are Hey Studio, Magnus Voll Mathiassen, David Foldvari, and Stuart Patience. Make your own resolution here: http://www.microsoft.com/en-gb/mobile/make-things-happen/ 

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Lucy Vigrass & Chrissie Macdonald's live wrap

Create 40 metres of hand-rendered artwork in a few hours? Live? Not a problem for OA's Lucy Vigrass (above right) who teamed up with regular collaborator Chrissie Macdonald (above left) for a day at Glaceau vitaminwater's #ShineBright wrapping gallery on Bateman Street in London's Soho. The duo spent a day creating sheet upon sheet of lovingly hand-printed wrapping paper which punters could have their just-bought presents wrapped in. Nice!

Lucy and Chrissie were among several artists selected by Outline Artists (working closely with communications agency Exposure) for the five day event which also included collective Day Job, and illustrators Lynnie Zulu and Jack Hudson.

Here's how Lucy and Chrissie's wrapping paper turned out:

Read more about the project here.

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Andreas Neophytou's secret life of terarriums

Andreas Neophytou contributed to the latest edition (issue 4) of the ever-wonderful craft-focused Hole & Corner magazine. His black and white illustration (above) was created to accompany a piece by florist Ken Marten, entitled The Secret Life of Plants in which Ken waxes lyrical on the topic of terrariums. 

Find Hole & Corner online at www.holeandcornerstore.com

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Outline Artists at Exposure Gallery

Virginie Morgand | Marine Girls

Rob Bailey | Cyclists

Andreas Neophytou | Lip Service

Hvass&Hannibal | The Day Stood Still

Lucy Vigrass | Shelf Life

Kristjana S Williams | Falin Viltur Blar (Blue World map)

As of next Wednesday (12 November), we're taking over the walls of Exposure Gallery in central London to showcase new work by all our artists. The exhibition runs from 12-28 November and will include brand new, limited edition prints and recent commercial work by every one of our artists –  new signings Lucy Vigrass and Virginie Morgand, and also Kristjana S Williams, Rob Bailey, Hvass&Hannibal, Edward Carvalho-Monaghan, Andreas Neophytou and Jessica Das.

The show runs from 12-28 November at Exposure Gallery, 22-23 Little Portland Street, London W1W 8BU.

exposure.net/gallery

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Kristjana S Williams for The Connaught hotel

Briefed to "capture the spirit, richness and magic" of Mayfair's iconic Connaught Hotel, brand consultancy The Partners turned to Outline Artists' Kristjana S Williams to tell the story of 200 years of traditions, details and idiosyncrasies through a unique piece of art that would also form the hotel's rebranded identity. 

Inspired by and depicting the hotel, the artwork (shown above) uses traditional Victorian etchings and reimagines them in a way that is both contemporary and elegant. The work captures not only the sense of place which the hotel occupies at the heart of Mayfair Village, but also the genuine warmth and gentle humour which are quintessentially British and profoundly ‘Connaught’.

The artwork (detail, shown above) tells the visual narrative of the hotel’s story, with each of the hand-painted and hand-cut elements of the collage capturing its most iconic features and tales, both past and present. Particularly notable is a Saluki hunting hound standing at the centre of the piece, the core feature of the hotel’s crest for over a century, as well as a number of butterflies which pay homage to a Damien Hirst artwork hanging in the hotel’s Michelin star restaurant, Hélène Darroze at the Connaught. References are also made to the hotel’s namesake, Prince Arthur, Duke of Connaught and Strathearn (Queen Victoria’s seventh child), whose portrait hangs on every floor of the hotel, as well as quietly celebrated details, such as the hotel’s ornate silverware and the horse chestnut trees that stand outside its entrance.

A year in the making, Kristjana's original 2m x 1.5m artwork has just been installed at the hotel for visitors and staff to enjoy, and choice crops from the artwork will also appear on 160 pieces of beautifully produced, high quality branded items, each element specially chosen to befit a particular application. For example, the key chain of the Duke of Connaught was chosen to feature on the room keycards, while a bird with an ornate cutlery headdress was used to feature on the front of the in-room dining menu.

Sitting alongside the hotel's iconic crest and purple colour palette, the use of elements lifted from Kristjana's artwork bring a new dimension and personality to the hotel experience, masterfully blending the tradition of craftsmanship in the creative process with a contemporary application, full of character and quintessentially British charm.

The artwork itself will join a collection of over 3,000 worksk displayed in the hotel. Guests will be able to study the piece in detail aided by an audio recording, telling the story of how the collage has brought the Connaught story to life. 

The work has already picked up an in-book award and a yellow pencil nomination in this year's D&AD awards, and has scooped a Grand Prize at New York Festivals.

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Year of the Bus Sculpture Trails

Above: by Edward Carvalho-Monaghan. Find its location using this PDF sculpture trail map.

We recently blogged about the Oyster card wallet designs we commissioned from 10 different illustrators for Transport For London and designjunction. Some of the designs we commissioned – namely, those by Ed Carvalho-Monaghan, Krisjtana S Williams, Crispin Finn, and Rod Hunt – were selected to be developed into wrap-around artwork for bus sculptures that are now on display around London as part of TfL’s Year of the Bus Sculpture Trail in conjunction with Wild in Art. 

Above: by Kristjana S Williams. Find it using this PDF sculpture trail map.

The project, which launched last Friday in Trafalgar Square, is, of course, part of TfL’s celebrations to mark the 2014 Year of the Bus in partnership with the London Transport Museum and the capital’s bus operators. It will see up to 60 sculptures of the New Routemaster bus painted and adorned by London-themed artwork both by well-known and also aspiring artists to help highlight the role that London’s buses play in the life and economy of the city and the UK as a whole. 

By Rod Hunt

By Crispin Finn

Following the display of the bus sculptures around London, each one will be auctioned in January next year to raise funds for three charities: Kids Company, Transaid, and London Tranpsort Museum. Discover where to view the sculptures using this nifty iPhone app or find out more about the project by visiting http://tfl.gov.uk/campaign/sculpture-trails.

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New signing: Lucy Vigrass

We're super excited to announce our latest signing: Lucy Vigrass. A founding member of the internationally renowned Peepshow Collective, London-based Lucy works both independently and collaboratively across illustration, animation and installation work.

Her hugely versatile, bold graphic style has a charm and immediacy that lends itself to a wide range of communication projects from editorial briefs through to global advertising campaigns. Her clients include BBC, DDB Adam&Eve, The FT, The Guardian, The Independent, Newsweek, The New York Times, Somerset House, The Sunday Times, TBWA, V&A, and Wired.

Check out Lucy's portfolio here.

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Outline Artists collaboration with TfL & designjunction

For the second year running, Transport For London (TfL) asked us to work with them and designjunction to curate a series of ten limited edition Oyster Card holders featuring original artwork by some of the UK’s most exciting image makers.

by Edward Carvalho-Monaghan

This year we were charged with commissioning brand new designs to mark the Year of the Bus – a celebration by TfL, London Transport Museum and London bus operators of the role that London buses and all the staff who support them play in keeping the capital moving. The YotB celebrations also tie in with the 60th anniversary of the original, iconic Routemaster; 75 years since the launch of its predecessor, the RT-type bus; and 100 years since dozens upon dozens of London buses were sent to the Western Front in Europe to play a vital role during the First World War. 

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by Kristjana S Williams

Artists we commissioned to design Oyster Card wallets for the project include our own Edward Carvalho-Monaghan and Kristjana S Williams as well as eight artists we don't represent but greatly admire: Noma Bar, studio MinaLima, Jean Jullien, Malika Favre, Kate Moross, Rod Hunt, Studio Emmi and Crispin Finn.

by Noma Bar

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by Rod Hunt

All the wallets will feature a London bus map on the inside and will be available from 1st September through the TfL online shop at tfl.gov.uk/shop and throughout designjunction from the 17th - 21st September at Outline Editions’ stand G14. Single Oyster card holders will be priced at £6.99, with a full set of all 10 designs available at £60. 

by Malika Favre

by Kate Moross

by Studio EMMI

by Crispin Finn

by MinaLima

by Jean Jullien

Several of the artists, including Noma Bar, Malika Favre, Kristjana S Williams, Crispin Finn and Kate Moross, have created limited edition prints inspired by the bus theme which will also be  available to buy at the Outline Editions stand at designjunction and also online here.

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Andreas Neophytou illustrates H&C logo

Andreas Neophytou has created a lino-cut style woodland version of craft-focused magazine Hole & Corner's logo. As the designer of the title's masthead, Andreas was commissioned again by the magazine's creative director and publisher in chief, Sam Walton, to create the illustrated logo specially for H&C's activity at Festival No.6 from 5-7 September. The magazine will be ensconced in the festival's Woodlands area, presenting talks and workshops by a number of doers and makers including wood turner, Robin Wood; author Richard Benson; potter Tim Hurn;  textile expert Katherine May; and Jeremy Atkinson, the last clogmaker in England. More info here.

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It's Ed Carvalho-Monaghan time!

The discerning folk at Mr Jones Watches have just announced the release of an exclusive watch design by Edward Carvalho-Monaghan. Entitled Psychedelic Sunsets, and available in a strictly limited edition of just 20 pieces, the watch’s face depicts a colourful and surreal landscape with the time itself shown - not by a show of two hands - but in a mini-vortex beneath the setting sun. Of course, we're hugely biased, but we think it’s the coolest watch ever. 

More info on the Mr Jones website.

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Catwoman was a graphic designer

Creative Review magazine commissioned Rob Bailey to illustrate regular columnist Daniel Benneworth-Gray's piece in its September 2014 issue. The column bemoans the lack of graphic designer characters in movies but names one film that puts a designer front and centre: Catwoman. And so Rob's illustration show's Catwoman sat at a desk, hand-on-mouse, doing, you know, design stuff. 

More about CR's September issue here.

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New signing: Virginie Morgand

We're super thrilled to announce our latest signing: Paris-based illustrator Virginie Morgand.

Inspired by hands-on printing techniques and the things she collects, such as children’s books and collectible toys, Virginie uses hand drawn shapes and bright colours to create vibrant images full of life and energy. 

Virginie’s background is in animation but, having learnt how to screen print at L’atelier Dupont, she’s been developing her own visual language as an illustrator, working to brief for a growing number of clients. Recent projects include posters for Martigues music and dance festival, a children's book for book publisher MeMo, and magazine covers for Ballroom Review and Erratum. View her portfolio here.

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Rob Bailey's Alpaca hug poster for TfL

Rob Bailey is one of six artists to have contributed to Transport For London’s new “without leaving London” campaign by advertising agency M&C Saatchi. Each artist was charged with the task of illustrating an unusual or unexpected destination in London and Rob’s poster shows a boy giving an alpaca a big hug and features the strap line, “Visit an alpaca without leaving London”, and names Newham City Farm, E6, as London's premier alpaca-visiting location along with a timeout.com/tfl web link to find out more about the six destinations featured in the campaign and dozens more.

The other contributing artists to the campaign are Stanley Chow, Daniel Frost, Jack Hudson, Jack Hughes and Miguel Montaner and their posters cover London's museum's, outdoor spaces, galleries and food markets. The campaign is currently running on outdoor poster sites, digital displays, press ads, radio and the aforementioned Time Out webpage at timeout.com/tfl. 

Look out for the digital display versions of the ads running on screens on the Underground. They are all very subtly animated and Rob's is particularly sweet: The boy can be seen to give the pictured alpaca a little squeeze. Really nicely done!

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Andreas Neophytou DPS for The London Magazine

After visiting our room at Pick Me Up in April, The London Magazine's art director got in touch to commission Andreas Neophytou to create a full double-page-spread for its June-July issue, published last week. The colourful lipstick-tastic illustration will also be the subject of a three-page Project Diary feature in a forthcoming issue of Computer Arts, in which Andreas will discuss his approach to the commission and show various work in progress imagery – from initial compositional sketches on paper through to printed colour proofs. 

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Ed Carvalho-Monaghan's Gather.ly billboard

Having won the SAGE Bag Yourself A Billboard competition, the good folk at Gather.ly were excited at the prospect of having a globally renowned ad agency create an enormous billboard ad for them as their prize. However, things didn't go to plan. "We were excited to get the pros to look at us from an outside perspective and have a view on telling our story," Gather.ly's Tash Crompton wrote in a story posted on the Gather.ly website. "They [the ad agency] proposed some amazing concepts only to later find they couldn't deliver them. They ran out of time to deliver and we nearly lost the opportunity."

So what the heck did Gather.ly do in the face of such adversity? Well, they called up Ed Carvalho-Monaghan (who had recently worked with them and created an artwork for their project, The Art of Interpretation), and asked if he could create a billboard for them in just 48 hours. "Yes I can do that," said Ed. This whopping great big billboard, now in full effect in the middle of Shoreditch is the result of Ed's response to the task.

Read more about the billboard here.

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Andreas Neophytou for DKMS through Spring Studios

Through Spring Studios, Andreas Neophytou created the neon-inspired invite and identity for the DKMS Delete Blood Cancer charity gala that was held in New York earlier this month. The invite was printed as a lenticular that flicked between "Dream Big" and "Do Good". 

"It all started when Mark Loy, owner of Spring Studios, kindly offered the services of the agency to the DKMS charity in good will," explains Andreas of the project. "Initially we were asked to design an invite to the gala event," he continues, "and I saw an opportunity to take an illustrative approach that could potentially also become part of the identity of the event itself."

Andreas' illustrated neon lettering was made in to real neon lights specially for the DKMS Delete Blood Cancer charity Gala in New York.

Inspired by mid-century American culture, Andreas immersed his imagination in a golden era of optimism, bright lights, neons and streamline contours.  

"Not only was this new modernist era one of great beauty but its ambitious minds brought great advances in science," says Andreas of the thinking behind his approach to the project. "Scientific breakthroughs such as the use of radioisotopes in medicine and industry, and the discovery of the structure of DNA were echoed throughout the design of the era and inspired an entire generation to shape the future and do good. The phrase Dream Big, Do Good seemed to capture this sentiment perfectly."

See more of Andreas' work here.

deletebloodcancer.org

Lenticular invite flicks between "dream big" and "do good" – nice!

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Outline Artists at Pick Me Up 2014

Here at Outline Artists we're huge fans of Pick Me Up, the annual graphic art fair hosted by Somerset House each spring. So, as you can imagine, we're very excited indeed to be involved in various ways this year! Here's what we're up to...

First and foremost, we're hosting our very own Outline Artists room at PMU 2014 (April 24 - May  5) in which we'll present a jungle-themed show with limited edition prints, original artwork and wall murals created especially for the event by our six artists – Kristjana S Williams, Hvass&Hannibal, Andreas Neophytou, Rob Bailey, Ed Carvalho-Monaghan and Jessica Das. Expect to find images depicting magical forest landscapes, extravagant flora and fauna collages, exotic birds and primates, and even a hunter wrestling with a snake! 

Alongside the jungle-themed pieces, we'll be showcasing the six digitally printed artworks (one by each of our artists) that are the fruit of a three-way collaboration between our artists, specialist paper suppliers GF Smith, and Brighton-based print company Generation Press. We don't want to give too much away, but check out the teaser photo of one of the prints, above.

We're also super-delighted that two of our artists, Ed Carvalho-Monaghan and Jessica Das, will both be exhibiting as part of this year's Pick Me Up Selects showcase of up and coming image-making talent. Ed has created three large scale prints specially for the occasion (shown, above) while Jess is exhibiting a Cat Island themed selection of artworks:

As well as all the wonderful artwork on walls, we thought it would be fun to team up Heal's (who we recently worked with on its recently released patterned fabric range)and the brilliant Sally Walton of Carry-A-Bag to offer a tote-bag making workshop using the various new Heal's fabrics. On Wednesday 30 April from 11am to 4pm, you'll be able to pick the fabric of your choice – designed by either Hvass&Hannibal, Malika Favre, Petra Börner, Cressida Bell, Emily Patrick, Paul Vogel, Ottilie Stevenson, and Zandra Rhodes - and make the tote bag of your dreams. The workshop is free to participate in for all PMU visitors but there are limited places, so get there early!

We'd love to see you so do please come along and say hello - all the prints and original artworks will be on sale, we'll also have our artist portfolios on hand to browse through too.

Pick Me Up runs from 24 April - 5 May : at Somerset House, Embankment Galleries, South Wing, Strand, London WC2R.

Open daily 10am - 6pm
Late night opening on Thursdays and Fridays until 10pm

Day tickets £10, concessions £8
Normal Festival Pass price £17.50

NB All prints and original artworks will be available to buy at Pick Me Up from £40 - £300 and will also be available to browse on our website and buy online from Outline Editions.

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Heal's new patterned fabrics and accessory line

Here at Outline Artists, we're extremely proud to have played our part in London furniture store Heal's first fabric collection since the 1970s. We worked with Heal's as consultants, working with them to select and commission a number of designers who created exclusive fabric patterns for the brand. 

Heal's garnered a reputation for great pattern fabrics back in the 1950s when it championed designs by emerging designers of the day including Lucienne Day and Barbara Brown. Now the brand is looking to reclaim its rich heritage in fabric design with a new collection featuring designs by OA's Hvass&Hannibal and also Malika Favre and Petra Börner - (all three of whom Outline Artists commissioned on behalf of Heal's) as well as by Cressida Bell, Emily Patrick, Paul Vogel, Ottilie Stevenson, and revisited archive patterns by Zandra Rhodes and the late Diana Bloomfield.

Hvass&Hannibal's Herbarium pattern takes the forest as its main theme and the pattern depicts flowers, clusters of leaves and branches in a style reminiscent of pressed flower samples (hence the name). 

Malika Favre's Peacock Flower pattern is a bold, geometric interpretation of a floral theme. Malika took the form of a peacock as the basis for the colourful abstract pattern, inspired, she tells us, by the peacocks wandering in the grounds of the hotel she stayed at on a recent trip to the French Riviera.

Created in her hallmark style of cutting artwork into layers of coloured paper, Lady Jane by Petra Börner is designed to resemble a scattered bouquet of rough cuts from the garden. The idea was derived from horticultural images in vintage books. 

As well as making the fabrics available to buy from March 1 2014 at £45 per metre, Heal's is also introducing a coordinating home accessory line, Heal's 1810, to complement the new fabrics.

Named after the year in which the company was established, Heal's 1810 includes kitchen textiles, cushions and stationery, from aprons, double oven gloves, tea towels, trays, cushions and notebooks - all of which feature selected patterns from the new fabric range. 

Find out more about the project in this short Heal's film:

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Ed Carvalho-Monaghan: new editorial work

Ed Carvalho Monaghan has been keeping busy with various editorial commissions, the most recent of which saw him create a set of three images for the latest issue of German design magazine, form.

His colourful images accompany a complex feature by Hans Ulrich Reck that considers the role of theory in design education, and help illustrate that while individual designers tend to focus on one particular area of expertise, they must all consider, to some degree, how their work integrates with and compliments that of other fields of design.

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