Melvyn Evans was commissioned to create this brilliant series of artworks to promote a brand new residential complex ‘Love Condominiums’ in Toronto, Canada. Melvyn’s brief was to create ‘ A fun, loving, playful, spontaneous imaginative atmosphere with intriguing details’.
James Brown created this brilliant cover for the ‘The Unreliable Life of Harry The Valet’ in collaboration with Meiklejohn artist Piers Sanford. The combination of James’ retro typography and Piers’ etching created a great Victorian Billboard feel for this true story of the most infamous Victorian Jewel thief.
After graduating from her sell out show at Central St Martins in 1995, Nila Aye firmly established her position in the London illustration scene. Nila’s chic, yet cute illustration style is easily identifiable by her allusions to the design of the 1950′s and has been widely commissioned in both adult and children’s markets for numerous advertising, publishing and design projects. Nila’s client list includes Target Stores, McDonalds, British Airways, BBDO energy, Tesco, Thomas Cook, Sony, Walkers, All State Insurance, Marks and Spencers, Hellmans, Sainsbury’s, Hodder Books, Random House, New Holland, Simon and Schuster, British Vogue, Good Housekeeping, You Magazine, Tatler, Time Out, and Junior Magazine.
Below is Nila’s new illustration, simply what ‘Nila Loves…’
To find out more about Nila’s creative process, we asked the following questions…
Where did you study? 
Central Saint Martins, London. When I first left college in 1995 I was contacted by New Division and asked to come in with my portfolio. I was a bit nervous back then to go straight into big commercial projects with not much practical experience so it was great to have an agent to hold my hand and I quickly learnt what was expected of me.
What inspires you? 
I was definitely born in the wrong era. I am obsessed with mid-century modern advertising, drawing and packaging. The colours, the type, the print processes. I recently bought myself a letterpress machine just so I could go back to basics. That was a lot of fun and so different to sitting on a computer where everything is so neat and tidy. Unfortunately after I bought it, I haven’t had much time to play around on it but maybe one day…
What’s your working process? 
I like to work closely with clients and understand what it is they really want. It’s so important to me that the client is happy and of course that I still keep my artistic integrity too. Usually the client has a fixed idea of what it is they want from me so I then just translate that into my style, other times I have a bit more creative freedom but I often find that my first idea is usually the strongest and that’s the one most people will run with. 
The first stage is usually the hardest for me as it involves drawing it out and making the illustration work as a whole compositionally speaking. I work in vectors and Adobe Illustrator, playing around with spaces and objects and colours. Once the initial draft stage has been passed, I can start the really fun part of adding all the little details. I can even leave it there, if the client wants the illustration to be in vectors or I can work on it further in Photoshop to get more texture into my work.
How would you describe your work? 
I would describe my work as retro modern with a cute twist. Stylish and sweet at the same time.
What’s your dream project? 
I would love to be the modern day Mary Blair of my time. When I was a child my dream was to work as a cartoonist for Walt Disney. I had a giant illustrated book of all the main Disney stories and I used to just pour over this book for years. Then after I left college and saw Toy Story for the first time I was completely blown away with the animation and the attention to detail. It was so unique and made me so excited. My ideal job then was to work for Pixar. Funny that Pixar is now owned by Disney so maybe one day both my dreams could come true at once.
Gary Kempston produced this series of illustrations for Capacity Builders UK. Gary was asked to create a concept to represent each of the organisations key themes. Gary created an army of quirky characters to help portray the serious messages with a light-hearted edge.
Anna Hymas was commissioned to create a cover and inside illustrations for ‘The Lazy Girl’s Guide To Blissful Pregnancy’. Here is a selection of Anna’s chapter openers and spot illustrations.
