Hong Kong
Kung Hei Fat Choi! Hoping this tiger year will be full of health and prosperity for you all!
Here’s the illustration I made for the Keswick Foundation this year…
And also one featuring my illustrations for Max and Mei…
Wish I could spend the week playing mah jong like I used to…
I’ve just received these beautiful new ceramic coasters featuring illustrations of a selection of areas in Hong Kong, as part of my expanding Hong Kong Willow Collection.
I’m especially happy with the Wanchai/Causeway Bay/Happy Valley coaster, as I added some new icons like the historic wanchai post office and famous restaurant Amigo in Happy Valley.
I designed a special ceramic jewellery box for kapok, my favourite store in HK, for their 15th anniversary. They invited 15 designers they’ve worked with over the years to create a product.
I sketched the HK harbour and surrounding areas, to show all the kapok store locations. I originally chose bright acidy colours, but then switched to more muted ones, to match kapok’s 15th anniversary branding.
I then drew little icons of local HK buildings and characters, to go around the sides of the box. I especially enjoyed creating a little portrait of kapok’s founder Arnault.
Here’s the final simple and modern design, I love it!
It’s a super adorable box and can be purchased here on the kapok website.
Korean beauty products have become all the rage, and my friend Karen in HK has her own store selling them, called Korean Beauty Secret. She started with a tiny, tiny store, and then gradually, as her products became more popular, she upgraded into larger and larger spaces until finally this year she opened two new specially-designed stores inside shopping malls.
The original logo I created for KBS had a lady with a flower on her head, and then I added another lady with a spotty ribbon, who took over as the main logo image. I used the flower lady to create an illustration for KBS postcards and mailers, which has now been used on the store hoarding, and instore, on picture walls.
Here’s a detail of the lady in gold foil stamping on pink, that was used on a large paper shopping bag, and some pink satin ribbons.
This is one of the newly opened stores - you can see my illustration on the wall behind the cashier, and the revamped logo above the door.
Hope the brand continues its success from here!
I decided to photograph the new pieces in my Hong Kong Willow collection as I received some samples and wanted to get some images for promotion.
The teapot is in blue, with lovely gold detailing that shines softly in the light. I love it!
The plates show HK side and Kowloon side and celebrate HK’s famous harbour.
There are plates in two sizes, cups with saucers, a teapot, and coasters. Also a mug, although I don’t have that sample yet.
I had the privilege of presenting my Cheung Sha Wan HK MTR station public art project at the IMPACT11 Printmaking conference this week. I made a 15 minute video talking about how it was produced and how it looks. It was really interesting to revisit the project after such a long time.
A selection of my work was also shown in the open portfolio section of the conference website. If the conference had gone ahead in HK, I would have been able to show the actual artwork, and let people enjoy the tactility of the prints. As it is, at least you can see images, and read a little about them.
I showed a variety of my more ‘book arts’ style work, where there are folded, cut out, layered or other unusual elements to the pieces. Like this fan I made with some of my mokuhanga prints.
Here is a screenshot of the discussion panel I was in, with Yung Sau-mui from the HK Open Printshop as the moderator. I was nervous about doing the Q&A but I think it went ok!
While watching the presentations, I also sketched the speakers, so I could remember who they were. Here’s a compilation of the sketches…
For a totally virtual conference, I think it went pretty well!
I was doing some web research about Cheung Sha Wan MTR station in HK last week, as I put together a presentation about my project there, and I found an amazing video made by CULTURE magazine, totally by chance.
It was made last year, and it was so nice to see the thoughtful filming and insightful comments. Thanks CULTURE magazine!
You can click here to see the whole video!
A very happy Chinese New Year to you all! 
May this year be lucky, prosperous, and fabulous for everyone.
Here's another dog that I drew for the Keswick Foundation in HK. Enjoy!
While I was in Hong Kong last month, I helped out my friend Alex, who runs Dogalicious, a healthy dog food company, at his stand at the pink dot festival. 
I offered pet portraits of people's dogs, in exchange for a donation to lap, the animal charity.
I'd never tried this before, but most of the owners seemed to be quite happy with the results!
Dogs don't stay still, so I had to capture their personalities whilst they wriggled...
I did the portraits in watercolour and brushpen, each one in under 10 minutes!
There is even a video of the event that you can watch here. Woof!
I did a little calligraphy job this week, for Van Cleef & Arpels in Hong Kong, for a press launch of their new collection. I hand-wrote place-cards for the invited journalists in a pretty, delicate style.
I was also on location during the event, to write any cards for unexpected guests, and while I waited, I sketched the pretty PR ladies.
I've just arrived in HK and am loving being back in the warm weather. I spent a day wandering in Causeway Bay and Wanchai, soaking in all the sights and sounds, especially in the wonderfully noisy markets...
Here's how it looked on the day!
I've just got home from my trip to HK, and looking through all the wonderful things I did while I was there. It's especially great thinking about the monoprint workshop I did with the illustration students at the Hong Kong Design Institute.
It was truly wonderful to see them making a mess and getting really into it. I think they were all happy with the work they produced.
Here are a few pieces of the students' work that I thought worked especially well...
I also gave a presentation about my work and being an illustrator. I may have scared them, but hope I put resolve into the ones who are serious!
This weekend I visited the BEYORG organic market pop-up store in Pacific Place mall, Hong Kong, to see the bags I designed for them.
It's such a lovely idea, it was super fun to see! I love the way they animated my illustration in their instagram feed too:
[embed]https://www.instagram.com/p/BLix95mlS5n/?taken-by=beyorg[/embed]
The little market stands are just how I imagined them...
and I think I captured the atmosphere of the market quite well...
Hope you can pop down and see the market for yourself and buy a bag for charity!
I was recently asked to design some products for the charity Animals Asia. These products are sold here and the profits go towards their work saving animals.
I painted illustrations of wonderful moonbears, as I really love them and can't stand the way they are farmed and treated so cruelly. I tried to show them being curious and adorable, and most of all, hopeful.
I started the project by researching and sketching moonbears, and playing with ideas on how to bring some colour and fun into the images.
I then tried out different styles and media, and picked watercolour to give the illustrations a loose, free feeling.
There's a teatowel, a tote bag and a tshirt, with different illustrations, and all available from the Animals Asia online shop.
Buy them for all your friends! Please help save the bears!
kapok, the hipster boutique lifestyle store in Hong Kong had their ten year anniversary this weekend, and they've been building up to it with a variety of events. I designed and illustrated a map for their #kapok10 anniversary launch, and they've used elements from it throughout their stores, website and social media.
I've never created a map from scratch before, by which I mean that it's an imaginary place, not a real one. I was asked to create a country that embodied everything kapok stood for: creativity, fun, fashion and a truly international flavour. I could start anywhere! And of course a new country needs a crest: kapokland's features the pink dolphin of HK and their new motto: 'future classics'
Here's the full map, showing an archipelago of different exotic fantasy islands, covering all seasons at once, with both tropical and arctic lands.
The reverse side of the map also featured a close-up of the main town in kapokland: Kapokville. The town had shops and museums, but also global embassies, a castle and even pedalos!
This is how it was used on the kapok website...
They even had a stand at a local design market with fun illustrated props for customers to interact with...
...and also used some of the animals as a banner on facebook...
I especially liked how they used details from the map on the store windows...
and inside...
Congratulations kapok! Here's to the next 10 years of fabulous!
I did an interview with playtimes magazine when I was in HK, mainly to promote the Max and Mei books I illustrated. It's funny to read what I said, in another person's words:
They collected together some of my images for the interview, and I love seeing how other people put them together, it always surprises me.
You can read the whole interview at the Playtimes link above, and see the Max and Mei books here.
Here's a cute little thing I drew for the Croucher Foundation in HK this year. Yes, that's the star ferry speeding along there, obviously in a hurry to get home for Christmas...
I recently designed an autumn window display theme for kapok in Hong Kong. I created watercolour illustrations in shades of reds and browns for their 'into the wild' theme, featuring foliage, berries, and cute woodland animals.
I created various layouts of the illustrations for the six different store locations.
Kapok has two stand alone stores in Wanchai, one large one in PMQ in Central,
and several concession stores within department stores,
so they all needed slightly different treatments. I love the cube stands and little details inside the stores too...
Here's to a happy Autumn!
I spent a bit of time in HK walking around the older parts of town, that haven't been developed, and took some photos of the traditional shops I love...
This is the key-cutting man who works on my street,
and this is the local corner shop where I used to live.
I love the way the shops look, even when they're closed for business,
especially their original exterior metal shutters... 
I really hope that all the places like these never disappear.
I'm in HK at the moment, for various projects, and loving the mid-autumn festival. It's a long holiday weekend, and even with the occasional rain (and thunder) it's a time for families to enjoy the evening, wonder at the moon, and carry bright lanterns...
Happy festival everyone!
