Turin book fair

 

I'm just back from a few days in the beautiful city of Turin where I visited the annual book fair and saw my new book in print for the very first time! The fair itself was very large and extremely busy, different to Bologna in that it's a public event (rather than industry geared), and almost all the exhibitors were Italian. There was loads going on, including a huge number of workshops, talks, discussions, cooking demonstrations, free ice-cream and more! I was there to do some workshops based on the new book and also do talk at a high school. Here are some pics of the fair and the city - more on the workshops soon...

Drawing in the Sea

My new book for Edizioni Corraini, 'Drawing in the Sea', is out this week, and will be launched at the International book fair in Turin. ‘Drawing in the Sea’ takes us on an entertaining journey to the depths of the ocean, it’s part activity and part quirky facts about all things sea-related – from sea creatures to tides, shells, boats, tattooed sailors and so on… As usual it is my own quirky take on the subject, allowing the reader to see the sea as never before. Here, the constellations are made of starfish, huge blue whales live alongside miscroscopic plankton and pigs can breathe underwater! The book is available from Corraini and will be coming to my online shop soon.

The Silver spoon in German

The Silver Spoon for children is now available in German, bringing the total number of available languages to 8 (Spanish, French, Danish, Dutch, Russian, English and Japanese!). That's an awful lot of re-writing... It's actually been out a while now and is published by Edel in collaboration with Phaidon. Here's the cover and a few of the spreads.

Eleanor & Park

I was pleased to hear that a book I did the cover for, 'Eleanor and Park' by Rainbow Rowell recently made it on to the New York Times bestseller list! It's still selling well and is currently at number 12 on the Young Adult list. I've now got my copy and looking forward to giving it a read, it's had some great reviews! 

Grafici Mobili exhibition

I was recently asked by Corraini studio and 121 bookshop to take part in an exhibition as part of design week in Milan. Grafici Mobili is a poster exhibition in which Graphic designers and artists re-interpret designer objects or pieces of furniture graphically. My chosen object was the 'ball clock', designed by George Nelson in 1948. I chose to re-invent it as a solar system, with the sun in the middle and the planets surrounding it. I had to include several dwarf planets as well to get the number up to 12! Here is the inspirational clock and finished poster.

The exhibition opened yesterday and runs until May 5th.

Quirky Underscores

Here is a recent album cover for EMI, part of their KPM range of promotional CDs that are sent out to production companies for use in their ads or programmes. This one, Quirky Underscores contains light, charming, quirky classical music.  The brief was to re-work a really lovely vintage Russian circus poster, which I was given as inspiration. 

Annual Report for the Kellogg foundation

Two of my illustrations were recently published as part of the Kellogg foundation's annual report. The 'treehouse' image (originally from 'Sixty Impossible things before lunch')  was adapted and used for the cover, and the 'community tree' of diverse heads appeared inside. The W.K. Kellogg Foundation supports vulnerable children and families, and was established in 1930 by W.K Kellogg, also famous for Cornflakes amongst other breakfast cereals!