We were delighted to welcome Ben Cox and Brian Grimwood of The Central Illustration Agency to inspire students and staff last Friday at ECA.

(Our signed and illustrated copy of Brian’s book)

Ben began by introducing us to the agency and how it came to be, the vision that Brian had when he brought together a group of Illustrators in 1983. It was a really helpful introduction to what an agency should be and its relationship with both its clients and its designers as Ben walked us through some of their projects.

He described the vast array of projects they help bring about from shop windows such as Andrew Foster’s below, to book jackets and the transformation of spaces for a product launch. It was exciting to hear about the ways they bring their artists together – from collaboration to produce newspapers, to an Illustration Street party they held (definitely working out how to turn that one into a project…!)

Brian followed, who shared a vast range of examples from his professional experience, charting the developments and changes in his focus, and showing his enthusiasm for particular projects. This was intermingled with stories about working for Paul McCartney and later the Beatles, school days with David Bowie and the quirks of working as an Illustrator in Singapore.

(Brian inspired students to observe everything as he showed some of the portraits he is constantly drawing)

Much more information about the CIA and Brian’s career can be found interspersed with beautiful images in two recent publications:

The Central Illustration Agency – Licence to Inspire, Pirum Press 2010

Brian Grimwood – the man who changed the look of British Illustration, Black Dog Publishing 2012

All images above are taken from these publications.

Mar 25, 2013

Illustration for ‘An intimate history of Humanity’ by Theodore Zeldin

We were delighted that Illustrator Sara Oglivie came to visit last Friday. Sara is an old friend of the department and gave an entertaining an extremely useful talk on her practice as an illustrator, printmaker and book artist with plenty of hints for designers newly starting out.

She also brought along a host of examples of her work, showing the breadth of projects she has worked. A mob of students dug quickly into these samples and showered Sara in questions. My personal favourite was a certain Folio Society cover for the ‘Wizard of Oz’ – the kind of great illustration that puts butterflies in your tummy!

Cover design for ‘The Courage of Consort’ by Michel Faber

Billboard design for ‘Bolton University’

Mar 20, 2013