Say hello to Prefab 77

Prefab 77 are creators of fast, hard-egged, stripped down art work, mainly screen prints and the collective believe their work has never seemed so relevant as now, with a country united by frustration and unease. With a heritage steeped in a volatile history or unions, struggles and movements, Prefab 77 is recognisable for being political, sometimes anti-establishment- yet always beautiful.

Prefab 77, by their own admission, aren’t interested in being named individually, but this much they can share. There are 3 of them in the collective, all from Newcastle Upon Tyne, one who spent 10 years working in LA and New York, and they have worked as a collective for the last 7 years.

The trio work closely together on more than just Prefab77, dividing their time between running a design studio, and their own creative shop come gallery, constantly dreaming up the next Prefab77 screen print idea or waiting to get inspired. Even if its just scribbling or generating ideas the guys are always working on Prefab 77, generally producing around 4 brand new prints a year, alongside one off pieces on steel, wood, canvas, whatever they can get their hands on.

They site such inspiration as coming from far and wide, with a fondness for all things relating to England and its staunch heritage. Combine this with a dose of 70’s music memorabilia in the shape of vintage NME magazines and you have their anarchic, bold style, which has become their calling card.

If you'd like to see more examples of Prefab work then click here to view their portfolio of highly impressive work.

Bristol in the mist

Woke up to a beautiful Autumn morning this morning and felt compelled to take some photos outside the studio. I particularly liked how the early morning sun light caught the telephone box and illuminated it against the misty backdrop of the docks.

Red Bull Revolutions in Sound

Last night saw the launch of the Red Bulls Revolutions in Sound event on the London Eye. Thirty DJ's including Skream & Benga, Ms Dynamite, Hessle Audio, Andy Weatherall, L-Vis 1990 and Ben Westbeech put on private parties in each of the 30 capsules. I was lucky enough to get invited to join Andy Weatherall and 20 other lucky punters on Capsule #7 for two full rotations of the wheel, along with free drinks and views of London at night. With a quick sliding of the doors we headed up into the sky to the ambient sounds of deep ambient house, which gradually picked up tempo resulting in some snare clapping disco. With free drinks and our own bar man on board, I had to pinch myself on a number of occasions at the completely surreal situation I was in.

I count myself truly lucky to have experienced such an amazing musical event and can only offer up a few wobbly iPhone shots as a means of illustrating how incredible it was. Congratulations Red Bull, you have out done yourselves once again.

Steve Jobs (1955-2011)

Following the tragic news of the loss of the visionary pioneer and ex-Apple CEO Steve Jobs on 5th October 2011 I decided to put together a tribute piece to help raise money for the cancer charity Pancreatic Cancer UK.

Steve Jobs was an innovator and true visionary who single handily pulled Apple out of the ashes and introduced the world to ground breaking products such as the iMac, iPhone, iPod and iPad.

I only have to look around my desk to see the huge impact that Steve and Apple have had on my life. I run my entire work setup on Apple products and ignoring the critics and cynicism for one minute, what a different world we would now inhabit if it wasn't for the greatness of one man.

It's not often that I feel the need to create a tribute piece, in fact this is the first I've done of this nature but hearing the news this morning I felt compelled to create something in honour of Steve Jobs' memory and that would help raise money for such a good cause.

This limited edition digital print named after a Steve Jobs quote "Your time is limited, so don't waste it living someone else's life" is now available via my shop. All proceeds from the sale of the prints will go directly to the charity.

Images 35

As I have been away I have not yet had a chance to blog about this.

I'm very excited to announce that I have made it into the new issue of the Images series from the Asssociation of Illustrators - Images 35. There are some incredible talents within the 365 pages of this years book including the likes of Peskimo, Simon Spilsbury, Stanley Chow and David Sparshott.

If you can get your hands on a copy then I would highly recommend it. Great work as awlways from the lovely folk at the AOI.

Nightmare High sneak peak

Flesh eating teachers, brain scanning machines, evil sky rockets and the most mighty packed lunchbox in the history of the universe all feature in Nightmare High, a new game from Channel Four which Somethin' Else and our brilliant collaborators at Player Three and Coney been lovingly crafting throughout 2011.

The game is designed to help 10-13 year olds as they move up to big school, and with life transitions in general. Unfortunately for the players the game starts seconds before reality explodes and they end up in the worst type of big school imaginable. Their mission is to fix reality by playing through fourteen episodes of brilliant chaos, with the help of some fanciful friends and terrifying teachers (thanks to @neillieb and @neilrichards, the script and story-writers).

The character design and illustration style was conceived by myself at Fiasco Design, and further developed by Player Three. The game launches in September 2011, just in time for the new school year.

See No Evil 2011

This week has seen the otherwise bleak Nelson Street in Bristol transformed into a walk through gallery and with 2 days left of painting still to go, it is looking incredible.

Crews and painters from all over the world and the UK have converged on what has become a concrete playground. Talents and legends by the names of Tats Crew, Nick Walker, Inkie, El Mac and Mr Jago have all been involved and helped to transform a bleak, grey street in Bristol into Europe's most ambitious urban art event.

I will be posting up more photos as the days go on so do keep those peepers locked and if you're in the area over the coming days or weeks, be sure to pop down. You won't be disappointed.

For more info on all things evil visit the See No Evil website here.

Aryz goes big for See No Evil event

This week see's the launch of Europe's most ambitious street art event. See No Evil has been curated and put together by Bristol's own Inkie and will bare witness to some of the worlds most renowned urban artists. International artists such as Tats Cru, El Mac and UK based artists Nick Walker and Zeus will take to the derelict Nelson St and transform and otherwise lifeless street into a walk through art gallery.

This event promises to be big and Spanish artist Aryz has already set the bar with this massive one-man piece painted over this weekend. If this is a sign of things to come, then you don't want to miss out on this weekend's events.

For more info on everything going on this weekend, check out the See No Evil website here.

Orange Wednesdays

The lovely folk at Poke London got in touch with me and asked if I'd like to help them with a competition they were running on behalf of Orange Wednesday. In anticipation of the launch of the new Captain America film, Orange were offering a free trip to New York for the best superhero alternative as suggested by fans of their Facebook page.

Peoples suggestions were archived and the best 2 from each day were sent on to me to illustrate.

The competition ran for a week and resulted in me producing 16 unique superhero characters which I have now put into one neat A3 poster.

If you'd like to get your hands on one then do let me know, otherwise, I hope you enjoy the fruits of my labour. Big thanks to Martin and Scott at Poke London for putting the work my way.