With twenty five years' worth of design it's almost impossible to illustrate everything I've done over the years, but I hope this page will show a small selection of past and current work that shows my versatility and creativity!
Vive Le Rock! Magazine.
I've been the sole designer of Vive Le Rock! magazine since issue 1 came out in October 2010. Covering alternative music from the rock'n'roll period to the present day, this is a great mag to work on as it's aimed at a slightly older demographic, the 35-55s. So, nothing too splashy or frantic inside, clean layouts, decent type sizing and spacing... often due to the age of some of the subjects the photo quality can be quite iffy, so it's a challenge to enhance the layouts enough to still make the overall impression fresh and interesting.
Wild Planet Photo Magazine
Wild Planet Photo Magazine is an exciting new development in the field of photography and photographic magazines. Not only does it uniquely deal with photographing wildlife, but it's also solely available online - which throws up some interesting design challenges in itself, as well as demanding absolute perfection in images and type - readers can zoom in on your work to 1000%! The magazine was launched in October 2013 and I co-designed it and Landscape Photography Magazine until 2015..
Books and Brochures
Over the years I've done a myriad of books and brochures ranging from technical manuals in Polish (that tested my proof-reading skills!) to music books, art gallery brochures, newsletters for book dealers and the RNIB, tool catalogues, brochures for Barristers' Chambers and a dance company... Most recently I have been designing books for Extradition Publishing, doing books on Marc Bolan, Iggy Pop, Gram Parsons, Love and Classic Rock Posters.
Books and Brochures
Over the years I've done a myriad of books and brochures ranging from technical manuals in Polish (that tested my proof-reading skills!) to music books, art gallery brochures, newsletters for book dealers and the RNIB, tool catalogues, brochures for Barristers' Chambers and a dance company... Most recently I have been designing books for Extradition Publishing, doing books on Marc Bolan, Iggy Pop, Gram Parsons, Love and Classic Rock Posters.
Lambert & Stamp
Here are three of the fifty or so fabric designs I've produced so far for Lambert & Stamp, my Feature Chair company. Book covers, illustrations, bespoke patterns, different colours of leather... I've done a lot of variations. A lot of the work is commission (i.e. customers briefing a specific design they want me to create) but there are quite a few designs for sale online at the Lambert & Stamp website. There's a quick overview on the Lambert & Stamp category link at the top too.
Flyers and Promotional Material
Over the years I've started three other companies - Lambert & Stamp is featured above, but the materials from the left are from Global Boarders, a surf school and surf vacations company I started in 2007 and ran for seven years before selling it in 2014, and Junk UK, a clothing company that I started in 1996 and sold in 2003.
Big Cheese Magazine
I was sole designer of Big Cheese Magazine from issue 19 to issue 155 - over eleven years. As a contrast to Vive Le Rock! this is aimed very much at the 13-25s; it's loud, it's brash, it's shouty and it's out there! I was essentially trying to put the atmosphere of a live, sweaty rock show onto paper. Very different from previous titles I had been doing, such as Furniture and Cabinetmaking, and The Dolls' House... and great fun to do.
Covermount CDs
Big Cheese and Vive Le Rock often have covermount CDs as well. For these the brief is usually simply a title - Concrete Jungle, or Bring The Noise, or Cruel Britannia and so on. So it is a completely free rein most of the time, and these are a pleasure to do as they mean I can flex my illustrative muscles and imagination to the full. I even had fun with plasticine, tippex, sellotape... and can on occasion bring everything from Old Master paintings to B-Movie posters into play.
Again, very satisfying on the creative side.
Club Flyers
Once again, I'm often just told the name of the Club night and a few dates and told to come up with something interesting. These have been for reggae nights, drum and bass nights, house music clubs, rock clubs... once again, creatively very satisfying, even if they meant I was usually too tired to attend the actual event!
CDs
These were all CDs done for Revco Records. A wide variety of briefs, commissioning and working with model makers, illustrators and so on... the Ultravibe cover was done by sticking two cutout paper furls onto a glass background and then photographing the glass against a sprayed wall thrown out of focus. Ah, the things you come up with when given free rein!
Illustrations / Art
I'm a keen painter and illustrator, and over the years have done pieces on many different themes and styles: the best place to view these is on my instagram page, @tide_art_official, but I've made a collage of some of them below. There are more under the 'Illustration' link above.
I'm a keen painter and illustrator, and over the years have done pieces on many different themes and styles: the best place to view these is on my instagram page, @tide_art_official, but I've made a collage of some of them below. There are more under the 'Illustration' link above.