Blog — Illustrations
Guest Blog – Yoko Ishikawa, owner of Japanese boutique store Norr Kyoto
Guest Blog – Yoko Ishikawa, owner of Japanese boutique store Norr Kyoto In May 2023 we travelled to Japan for a 3 week adventure of a lifetime! We started in Tokyo, then travelled on the Shinkansen (aka. Bullet Train) to Kyoto, Osaka & Hiroshima. On our stop in Kyoto we met up with Yoko, a lovely lady that got in touch back in 2020 after we had just finished our trade show at Top Drawer to see if we would supply her with our stationery to her store called Norr Kyoto. It was such a pleasure to finally meet in...
Exploring the Art of Envelope Decoration
In a world where emails, text messages, and digital communication dominate, there's something truly special about receiving something handwritten through your letterbox. So how can you take your letter, note or card to the next level? Yep you guessed it, envelope art! Turning a plain envelope into a work of art not only elevates the experience of sending and receiving mail but also provides a canvas for your creativity to flourish. Envelope art is a delightful fusion of creativity, personal expression, and functional design. It's a way to add a personal touch to your correspondence, whether you're sending a letter,...
Gift wrapping
Remember the scene in Love Actually when Rowan Atkinson spends what seems like a lifetime wrapping a gift for Alan Rickman’s character? Well I love all that! I have always had an obsession about packaging and I’m not even going to say how many pins on Pinterest I have purely for packaging design. I buy the beautifully scented products at eye-watering prices from Jo Malone mainly for the fact they almost re-inact this Love Actually scene when getting my ‘gift for a friend…(but it’s really for me)’ item in front of me. I think I’m also one of...
The illustration technique
It was something I hadn’t intended to do at all and in fact if you look at all 4 themes with the Botanical one (which was the first theme I drew) you’ll see I just did standard solid line ink drawings. But then as I started making my way through the Stargazer theme and drawing clouds I didn’t really like the effect of solid lines, they weren’t delicate enough. So I did one using pointillism in essence (except I only used black ink, not the traditional mixture of colours to create an image which is true pointillism) and I liked...