Bikes, Basketball and Mass catering

My first blog post for the year takes an unprecedented sporty slant.

With the Olympics passed and the Glasgow Commonwealth games coming up, there has been a surge in visual celebrations of sport. I was inspired by the simplicity of form celebrated in Terada Mokei’s little paper sculptures, and Richard Swarbick’s incredibly string animations of Euro 2012 Goals.

The Crags Community Sports Centre, working with Edinburgh Graphic Design aficionado and supporter Ian Farmer,  have set an open brief for designs for the walls of their (huge!) sports hall. The Crags is a great organisation that offers a platform for urban sports in Edinburgh, and is the home of the  Blaze basketball club.

Although the extent of my team sport experience stretches only to a  P6 dabble in netball, I appreciate the importance of sports engagement, especially in terms of encouraging young women and girls to get involved. like the crags remit of providing Authentic, youth driven, sports experience in an inclusive and supportive community. In fact, that's part of the reason I wanted to get started on this brief. Coming from the perspective of a 'non-sporty' type, I hope I can create something that will be engaging for all kinds of people who use Crag's facilities.

The work I have been doing on this brief is in its conception stages, lots of doodles and planning, scribbles and jottings. I like this stage though, its great for bandying about ideas before settling down and working things out.

Rapha’s city bike guides have a Milan edition coming out, and they have decided to look for an illustrator by opening a competition up. It’s been all over twitter, and I couldnt ignore it, so I had a wee shot myself. There is such a lot of really great bike illustration out there at the moment, so I was inspired and daunted, but I took a stab and I had fun, and thats what counts right?

Next up, I move away from the world of sport and into one I am much more familiar with- food! Inspired by the incredible work of Tayburn Ltd on The Yard’s annual report, I will be tackling the Woodcraft Folk’s new camping cookbook. I am really excited to get started because this will be a vibrant, exciting and child led project with lots of things to consider… I have been sourcing waterproof paper, to give you an idea of the conditions this publication will be up against!