Ape on the Moon: Contemporary Visual Culture » Fabric Design

Andy Rementer’s Colourful Comic T-shirts

Philip Dennis — Tue, 19 Jul 2011 10:08:11 +0000

Here are some bright and fun T-shirt designs by Philadelphia-based Andy Rementer. His work is full of often pleasingly dark, intelligent humour, and witty commentary on common situations. If that’s your kind of thing, you should also check out his comic, ‘Techno Tuesday‘, which has been running online and in print since 2006.

You may have seen Andy’s work if you’ve come across a copy of ‘Handjob’, ‘Street Sketchbook’, or ‘Area 2′, in all of which his work has been featured. As well as illustrating, he works in animation, and has a mixed bag of big clients across Europe and America, including MTV and Urban Outfitters.

Just be warned, if you do check out Techno Tuesday, after the first handful of pages, it’s difficult to stop!

Exquisitely Deathly T-Shirt Prints by Jules Julien

Philip Dennis — Tue, 21 Jun 2011 18:43:34 +0000

Using what seems to be a mixture of collage and drawing, Jules Julien created these gorgeous prints for T-shirts. I love how the patterns lead into one another. Being monochrome, the contrast of the busier, filled areas against the blocks of black that create simple shapes, makes for a dramatic effect.

The name of the series, ‘Cadavres Exquis’, may allude to the idea behind the design, tying in with the ghostly, almost sinister characters amongst their decadent wear. Again, the use of contrast, the cadavers and the exquisite, the decorative and the graphic, is utilised to luscious effect.

Fashionable Patterns by Inka Jävinen

Philip Dennis — Tue, 08 Feb 2011 17:05:13 +0000

Inka Jävinen designed these sumptuous prints for silk scarves by Minna Parikka. Mixing hands, legs, and other body parts with delicate peaches and pinks, she’s created a design both elegant and suggestive. I love the way in which she has aligned the found images in such a way that they almost make a crisscross pattern.

Inka studied both fashion and graphic design at the University of Art and Design, Helsinki. Nowadays, she works for design agency Werklig, while also working as a freelance illustrator, represented by Pekka Finland.

Miki Amano’s Lush Textures

Katherine Holt — Mon, 13 Dec 2010 10:31:10 +0000

Textile designer and illustrator Miki Amano infuses her work with rich pattern, texture and colour. From the simple to the busy, the editorial to the children’s, all of her illustrations are exuberant and fun.

When creating images, Miki begins with hand-drawing which she takes to another level with silk-screen and collage before finishing with digital tweaking. Her love of pattern and colour adds another dimension to her work, and I love the detail and richness of her pieces.

Ink Illustration and Fashion from Ruth Ishbel Munro

Philip Dennis — Wed, 24 Nov 2010 16:34:10 +0000

I love the mixture of Ruth Ishbel Munro‘s brush and ink work with the feeling of something slightly ominous creeping in. Her images, with their surreal colours and strange characters, are as endearing as they are unusual. This combination seems to be something she takes pleasure in, listing psychology, stress, good films, vintage trinkets, animals and nature among her inspirations.

She’s worked with fashion label Lark Rising, who you may remember from a previous Ape on the Moon post on the Brighton Glug event. Her designs for this luxury knitwear stand slightly apart from her usual work, showing a much simpler beauty in the flora and fauna, and her versatility across different disciplines.

Pomme Chan’s Luxuriant Decoration

Philip Dennis — Wed, 17 Nov 2010 20:42:32 +0000

When creating fabric designs for high-end fashion labels, having an imagination as immense as Pomme Chan‘s must be a useful asset.

When it comes to hard, digital imagery and delicate strokes, you usually find artists leaning towards one or the other. Chan’s careful balance of the two gives her work an intriguing depth and complexity. Throw in some psychedelic watercolour work and you have some inspired contemporary fabric design.

You can find her designs on scarves for Ray Marine, T-Shirts for Gas Japan, and on glass panels in the lingerie department in Selfridges.

Monochrome Designs of Johanna Basford

Alex Mathers — Sun, 06 Dec 2009 23:44:17 +0000

I’m happy to talk to Scottish designer and illustrator Johanna Basford for this feature who’s pattern work is outstanding. She has a host of awards and has had her black and white pattern designs used by clients like the BBC, the V&A, The Body Shop and Hendricks Gin.

Her detailed and controlled work exhibits a very finely tuned drawing skill with a strong natural element to them.

Johanna has answered a few questions about her style and process for us.

How did you first get into illustrating in the style that you are now known for?

I began working with intricate, hand drawn pen images at art school in my final year. I was studying textiles and whilst everyone else seemed to be creating digitally manipulated images, or bold graphical silhouettes with lots of flat colour.

I decided I wanted to do something different. My style of work was born out of an attempt to make my work different to my contemporaries at the time.

How do you go about planning and developing your typical inked piece?

Every piece is different, but if I know the outline shape of the design, circle, heart, square etc, I draw that out first. I then start filling in the shape, working in pencil first before going over the lines with fine liner pen.

I sometimes draught out where large elements are going to to be placed such as birds or big blossoms, but generally its a fairly organic creative process and I just start from a point and the design grows to fit the shape.

I work with layout paper, pencils and a lot of fineliner pens. After I’ve created the pen and ink drawing, I scan it into Photoshop and do any tweaking / sharpening / flipping I need to do before finishing the piece.

What are you working on at the moment?

A Christmas Card design for a large high street store, illustrations and brand identity for a new luxury spa opening in London and 3 large hand painted canvases for a cocktail bar.

That sounds excellent Johanna, thank you.

MoonApe is on Twitter.

Illustrations of Grant Coghill

Alex Mathers — Thu, 26 Nov 2009 18:18:05 +0000

I’m really liking the spray painted effects, interesting line work and strong colours used in the illustrations of Scottish illustrator and designer Grant Coghill.

He gets it just right when it comes to minimal colour choice and the gradients created through texture.

MoonApe

Boys Who Draw Like Simon Wild

Alex Mathers — Thu, 29 Oct 2009 11:36:51 +0000

I don’t know about you guys, but when I see Simon Wild’s engaging, fun and busy illustrations, I get an automatic boost of serotonin to the brain. He uses shapes, colour and superimpositions in very striking ways, creating rich, pleasing designs.

I’ve given him a quick interview on his background, tools and techniques and gained valuable information on his tendencies for drawing on bathroom surfaces.

How did you end up in illustration?

I was dropped accidentally from an airship on it’s way to the land of proper jobs.

To be honest I’ve always been interested in illustration and drawing since I can remember, and I spent many years working in animation commercially and independently.

It kind of evolved from that. I decided a couple of years ago that it was about time I got stuck in. So I did an MA in Children’s book illustration at Cambridge School of Art, got signed up with Macmillan Children’s books, and my first book will be published next year. I absolutely love what I do.

What are the tools and materials you use?

Simple tools really, black markers of various weights, inks, coloured paper, a print room, lightbox, sketchbooks (very important), lots of bulldog clips to hang work in progress in the studio, and the usual geeky desktop gadgets.

How would you go about putting one of these illustrations together?

Being a prolific doodler sort of takes care of 50% of the work, so I mostly develop ideas from my sketchbook.

I make a flat drawing first with pen and sometimes inks, then I break the drawing up into layers and scan all the bits, layering them over each other and colouring them with palettes I use regularly.

Recently though collage has been creeping into my work, so I have been experimenting with how to connect that with drawing.

What’s the silliest thing you’ve ever illustrated?

I drew faces all over the bath once with waterproof crayons, oh and a dog on a log, with a frog in the fog.

What’s in the pipeline?

I am a member of the collective Boys Who Draw and we have some very exciting plans for 2010 including a new online presence, and some shows in the works. I am re-designing my own site also and hope to have that finished before Christmas.

I am currently working on a set of posters that you colour in yourself. I am also working on some ‘moving illustration’ to be featured in ‘Quiet Voices’, a Late at the Tate evening in January at Tate Britain.

In the future I would like to collaborate more with like minded illustrators/ designers on interesting projects/exhibitions/publications.

Thanks Simon! All the best.

MoonApe on Twitter

Andrew Groves Makes Things, Including Illustrations

Alex Mathers — Sun, 25 Oct 2009 15:26:25 +0000

There is a lot of nice, crisp work coming from UK illustrator Andrew Groves, who has created art for companies that include Orange, Panasonic and Foundation Skateboards.

I especially like his consistent choice of soft colours and shapes that reappear throughout his work. I’ve asked him a few questions to find out more about his background, tools and promotion tips.

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How did you get into the illustration work you do?

I’ve always drawn and made things, so getting into illustration was a very natural thing. It’s been an interest of mine for as long as I can remember but now I’m lucky enough to be able to spend all day every day creating illustrations.

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How long do you think it took to find your style?

I would say I’m still finding my style. I think there will always be common ideas and themes in my work but I’d like to think it will continue to evolve.

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Recently I’ve found my work becoming more and more simple and I’m happy with direction it seems to be heading, but we’ll see what happens…

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What are your key illustration tools?

My MacBook and 2 Pilot pens that I got in Japan nearly 3 years ago and they still haven’t run out. They must be magical.

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Do you have a favourite self promotion tip?

It’s important to maintain a presence online so I would recommend getting involved with anything and everything so that people don’t forget about your work.

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Also, although there are a lot of places now to display your artwork online, I think having a proper portfolio site that displays your work effectively is still really important.

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What are you working on at the moment?

I’ve just finished off a couple of editorial pieces for Orange and Snowboarder Magazine, next I’m working on some T-shirt designs and forcing myself to paint more.

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Sounds exciting, Andrew, thank you!

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MoonApe is on Twitter!