The Cherry Blossom Front

As one of the world's most esoteric societies there is much about Japan that I find genuinely fascinating. The Cherry Blossom Front - or Sakura Zensen - where people up and down the country eagerly anticipate the flowering of the cherry tree between March and May is one area where the Japanese excel themselves in their cultural idiosyncrasy. Through the use of maps resembling those used in weather forecasts various media agencies keep the population updated on the progress of the blossoms (and the coming of spring) as the spectacle moves up the country from subtropical southern Kyushu to the northern extremities of Hokkaido a full two months later.

To celebrate this year's forecast I have designed my own - purely artistic - map of the 'front', taking cues from the pared-down traditions of Japanese art and design and my abiding love of schematic mapping.

Happy Hanami to all those enjoying 2016's display!

The Hell of the North

Here's a poster to celebrate the greatest of cycling's cobbled classics, Paris-Roubaix. If Saul Bass had been a fan of the sport (I don't know that he wasn't) he might just have designed something like this; a raw and dirty poster for a raw and dirty race. The 114th edition of l'enfer du Nord is this Sunday, April 10th.

Standard:

Reverse:

Christmas Stationery

I was playing around with some line-drawn festive icons and it evolved into these patterns for seasonal stationery. The best of Christmas indoors and Christmas outdoors together!

Wrapping paper:

Greetings cards:

Gift wrapped:

Many thanks to my sister Hannah for taking the photos and for the hipsterish arrangements. (Props are the stylist's own.)

Merry Christmas, one and all!

Scotland in Triangles

Just a simple concept map. The essential angles of Scotland's geography/geology (especially the Highland and Great Glen fault lines) really lend themselves to this triangular representation of the country. With apologies to Shetland:

Capercaillie

Some simple geometric illustrations of the Caledonian Forest's most charismatic bird in full display ('lekking').

Standard; Badge:

Alternates:

Thinner:

Badges / Birches

The Silver Birch might just be my favourite tree. I love the thin elegant shape of its trunk and the horizontal zebra-stripe pattern of the bark. And because I want the whole world to know just how much I love the Birch I set about creating these simple designs for a set of round pin badges.

Autumn sunset; Winter sunset:

Autumn (alternate); Winter night:

PS Big shout out to the Beech and the Scots Pine. It was a close-run thing...

Clydebuilt

A wee identity project for a possible apparel brand. The city of Glasgow is inextricably linked to its river, the Clyde, and to shipbuilding - in spite of the long steady decline of that industry. At one stage in the early 1900s two in every five vessels globally were launched on the Clyde and the local expertise in shipbuilding led to the term 'clydebuilt' becoming a shorthand for quality and robustness.

All rust-red chains and that: