New Work: Bloomberg Businessweek - cover story

I was really thrilled to be asked by Bloomberg Businessweek to produce the cover art for a story that they were running about Las Vegas real estate fraud. This was a really fun image to work on, and I think the type treatment on the final cover is brave and playful and just what art direction should be. The issue is out now in the UK, so look out for it in the next few days. Thanks to the talented Richard Turley for his art direction.

New work: The Economist

 

This is the first time I've worked for The Economist, and it was a nice opportunity to come up with a series of images that dealt with a tricky theme. The story was about the confusion in contemporary american politics about the founding fathers' stance on religion, and how it should affect political discourse. It was tough to come up with ideas that addressed the controversy, without taking a side one way or the other, but in the end I'm fairly happy with the results. My only regret is that the third image, of the church and the White House, doesn't sit particularly well with the other two.

New Work: Financial Times

This was a great chance to play around with pattern and colour, and will be published this friday (tomorrow) in the FT. It's to accompany a nice piece by Andrew Stourton about his love affair with books, and his mixed feelings on the advent of e-books. Thanks to Kevin Wilson for the art direction.

New Work: Presbyterian Record

Got a nice brief in this week from Presbyterian Record. It's always nice to get the chance to draw a coyote, and even nicer to draw four, howling at a 'super moon'. Thanks as always to Caroline Bishop

Jack's Paper Moon

I thought it was about time I posted a link to the blog that my wife has been lovingly working on for the past few weeks. Called 'Jack's Paper Moon', it's a showcase for the stunning photographs that she takes - mostly of our equally stunning little boy Jack. She works hard to make her photographs unique, with a tactile, hand-made quality; I for one find them beautiful and inspiring. Well done my love!

Find the blog here: jackspapermoon.blogspot.com

New Work: Yale Alumni Magazine

This is my favourite of a series of illustrations that I produced for an issue of Yale Alumni Magazine that confronted the very difficult issue of sexual assaults on campus, and how the university was facilitating justice for the victims. As you can imagine, coming up with illustrations for a topic as serious as this was no easy task, so myself and the art director Mark Zurolo decided to focus on the idea of communication breakdown as a way into the piece.

New Work: Middlebury Magazine

This is one of a series of illustrations that I worked on for Middlebury Magazine - a new client for me I'm pleased to say. The story was about the very strange practice of banishment in the Maldives, and how it can break up families. Thanks to Pamela Fogg for the art direction.

New Work: Presbyterian Record

This is an illustration I completed a few weeks back for one of my regular clients: Presbyterian Record in Canada. I really like working on these as the stories from the particular column that I illustrate almost always have some really interesting human angle to them, which can make a change from the financial/political stories that I often work on.

Thanks, as always, to the excellent Caroline Bishop.

New Work: Personal Work

 A new piece of personal work - notable I suppose for a new approach to creating the background, which I wanted to be a bit more offbeat and less predictable than a simple pattern or block colour. Also, the browline glasses are a nod to Mad Men and an aesthetic that passed us by here in NI but that I like very much.

New Work: Financial Times

 Another job in from Kevin Wilson at the FT, and a really nice opportunity to do something a bit tongue in cheek in anticipation of Kate and Wills' big day. The story was all about social mobility in the UK, using Kate Middleton's rise from coal miner's great-great-granddaughter to (perhaps) the future Queen as a light-hearted example. This was in tuesday's paper.

New Work: Personal Work

This was an experimental piece I worked on a couple of months back, that started from a sketch of a model's face that I then enjoyed embelishing with some Givenchy jewellery and a Karen Millen dress. Over the past couple of years I've developed an interest in drawing clothes and fashion, and I really wanted to push it with this piece into something that had real attitude and verve.

New Work: InvestHedge

This was a nice job that came in from a client that I'd never worked with before - InvestHedge Magazine -  for a cover story about how adaptability is the most important survival skill for investment managers. The client specifically asked for a Darwinian link.

New Work: New York Times

This is one of a series of eight illustrations that I did for the back page of a recent edition of The New York Times. The piece was all about the historic significance of Westminster Abbey as a site for Royal Weddings, presumably part of the preamble to the upcoming wedding of Wills and Kate. Thanks to Alexandra Zsigmond for the art direction. Oh, and in case you're not sure it's a portrait of Queen Elizabeth (the Queen Mother) and George VI.

New Work: Strategy + Business

Quite pleased with how this one turned out, for a piece on Identity Economics. Thanks to Jessie Clear for the art direction and Garden State for it's only memorable moment.

New Work: Presbyterian Record

One of my most regular clients is a Canadian publication called Presbyterian Record. Art directed by the lovely Caroline Bishop, my work for the magazine is always fun and creative. I've posted here a couple of recent examples that I thought were particularly successful. Usually, the articles I'm working on have a spiritual connection and also a wildlife connection, so whenever possible I like to draw the wildlife in question. For these ones it was a Canadian Goose and an Arabian Stallion respectively.

New Work: Financial Times

I got a call on Friday morning from Kevin Wilson at the FT, looking for a portrait of Ed Balls to run in Saturday's paper. Aside from a description of Balls as a 'pugilistic Keynesian', the brief was fairly open and I came up with this image of him as a bullish wrestler, in complete contrast to the affable figure of Alan Johnson - the bloke whose Shadow Chancellor job Balls is set to inherit.

Oh, and a reliable source told me that the illustration was discussed briefly on BBC Breakfast's newspaper review on Saturday morning.

Jack William Falls

I'm thrilled to announce the safe arrival of our beautiful baby boy, Jack. He arrived on Winter Solstice 21st December - a bit early but fit, healthy and strong. Both he and his amazing mother are an inspiration to me.