Anna Violet Published!

Congratulations to graduate Anna Violet as a book that she has illustrated is due to be published very very soon. "How Anansi Got His Stories" will be published next month by Oxford University Press, Anansi is a familiar character from many African and Caribbean tales. The book is aimed at children and their parents to introduce them to different cultures, traditions and morals.

Natalie Wood at Eye Candy

Great news that Natalie Wood who graduated in 2010 has been offered representation by Eye Candy. There is also lots of recently commissioned work on her website.

Chris Howker at MUSIC

It was the turn of Chris Howker to create a installation for a design agency in Manchester, 'Music'. Chris painted directly onto glass - which is not an easy task.... especially at a large scale and reversed! Chris explains "I had to paint on the inside of the room rather than the outside so that it wasn't scratched easily".

Rose wins GOLD at A.O.I

Rose Lloyd a graduate of the Illustration course from 2009 has won Gold at the Association of Images (AOI) Images 35 Awards. Rose attended the Images 35 Awards evening at the Bankside Gallery. She was awarded the Gold award in the Advertising category for her image "Spring Family Concert" which was commissioned for the Bridgewater Hall in Manchester, this job was actually born out of a meeting with an agency from the 'Are we there yet' bus trip that some students were part of to promote their degree show.

'Images' is the UK's leading illustration competition, annual, awards show, and touring exhibition dedicated to showcasing the very best contemporary illustration published in the UK. The work selected to appear in 'Images' is judged by a highly regarded panel of industry experts, spanning multiple categories, and is an annual competition.

This is such wonderful news.

Manchester and Salford Illustrated

In October 2011 (27th October – 10th November to be precise) the very first Manchester and Salford Illustrated exhibition (#MASI) will be held at 52 Princess Street, Manchester. It will be a showcase of the very best commercial artists and illustrators in the area and has been created to raise funds and awareness for a Manchester based charity. Some of our graduates are involved and students are also invited to submit work.

'Music' Project

I recently completed an installation for a design agency in Manchester called Music. They were looking for students to create a design to cover a glass room in their studio. The brief was to interpret a song of your choice in the design - my chosen track was 'Lucy in the Sky with Diamonds' by The Beatles. I used Illustrator to produce my design and then vinyl to stick it to the glass. Each shape is a separate piece of vinyl so it was like putting together a huge jigsaw! Anyway, Jo asked me to post some pics of the finished thing, so here they are...

Philippa Lightburn (2nd Year Illustration)

Winner of Folio Society / House of Illustration

Our friend (and hero!) of the course Matthew Richardson has won the Folio Society / House of Illustration Competition. The prize was a commission to work on "The Outsider" by Albert Camus. Here are a couple of the images from the book. Well done Matthew.