Arlene Adams

These great Lego characters are taken from a visit to Legoland towards the end of last year.

Here are this year’s Christmas Card designs along with a couple of characters residing in our house this year.

Some photos from a recent trip to Morocco.

A poster I designed for for my son’s school fayre.

Singer songwriter Emeli Sande comes from just outside my home city of Aberdeen in Scotland. Going to see her in April when she is on tour.

Hope you all have a great Christmas!

Been meaning to post this for a while. On a recent visit to the beautiful city of Vienna we stayed at a great quirky hotel with a circus theme – 25Hours Hotel. If you are ever in the city check it out even if it is just for a drink on the rooftop terrace with views overlooking the city.

Happy Halloween!

My worktop saver design is now available on the Joseph Joseph website.

Some of my work can be seen in this month’s British Airways Business Life inflight magazine. For more images see the ‘business’ section of my website.

Before going on holiday I attended the private view of the AOI Images 35 exhibition at Bankside Gallery in London. The exhibition included some of my work which was selected for the annual competition dedicated to showcase the best in British contemporary illustration. I also collected the jury-selected annual which also includes some of my work.

Loving this new typeface by Rick Banks at Face37. It is available from hypefortype.com

Tomorrow I am off on holiday. I’ve played around with some textures on this sun which hopefully represents the sunny warm weather we will be having!

A little something inspired by a recent trip to London.

Retro Carlton Ware figure, Miroslav Sasek illustration

JosephJoseph is a company specialising in contemporary kitchenware. I have an image being used on a worktop saver which is being launched in the Autumn. I cannot show you that image until then. This was one of the other ideas I submitted.

This is a quick cover illustration and icons I did for a pitch recently.

On the day of the Royal Wedding here are a few more happy couples!

Love the simplicity of this vintage book published in 1966 by Kathleen Brooks and illustrated by Fredun Shapur.

Thanks for the recommendation Larry!

Great anti-aliased ‘Hey’ table created with lego and an ikea table. More info: http://toki-woki.net/blog/p2242-hey-lego-table. Music by Aphex Twin.

Love the illustrations in The Parsley Annual I picked up recently.

My work was featured in Print and Pattern blog this week.

Another Scottish favorite of mine is the haunting voice of Elizabeth Fraser. This track is a version of Roy Harper’s ‘Another Day’ from ‘It’ll end in Tears’ album by This Mortal Coil. She was the vocalist in the Cocteau Twins. I started listening to their work when I was a student in the 80′s and they are still a favorite of mine today. I also loved the artwork of Vaughan Oliver who did a lot of the covers for their label 4AD Records. I had a huge poster of ‘Pearly Dew Drop Drops’ cover on my wall. Wish I kept it now!!

As New Year celebrations are traditionally a big thing in Scotland thought I’d post some Scottish related items I have at home along with two of my illustrations. Pages from a very old copy of ‘This Is Edinburgh’ by the wonderful M.Sasek, 1960s Carlton Ware money box and vintage rosewood McIntosh sideboard made in Scotland.

Last year’s card along with this year’s.

This is the Christmas card I produced this year to send out to clients and friends. It is printed using vegetable inks on 100% recycled card and comes in a recycled brown/grey kraft envelope.

I bought these lovely Christmas presents recently from The Moseley Arts Market here in Birmingham. They are made from vintage fabric by The Whistling Cowgirl. I am very tempted to keep them myself and not give them away!

Here are some cards I did for Paperchase a few years ago. For more Christmas images look at the work section of my site.

As well as doing my paid commercial work I like to do some work for the local community as well when I can. This is a poster I did recently for a local play group.

Great news! – I have three pieces of work selected for the Association of Illustrators ‘Images’ again. As well as a competition, there is a jury-selected annual, awards show in London and a touring exhibition dedicated to showcasing the best in British contemporary illustration. I have not entered the competition for many years so it is great to have my work recognized again.

Some previous annual covers.

We have just got back from a relaxing week at the Gran Melia resort in Tenerife. The hotel is very stylish and chic with lots of limestone, glass and water features.

Today is the 4th birthday of my little boy Orson. How time flies! I used one of my animal images for party invitations and Orson’s clever Aunt made a lovely cake based on the lion character.

To coincide with the launch of my new website, welcome to my first ever blog! As well as viewing work, you can see things that I like and inspire me. Illustration has taken a back seat over the last few years as I’ve spent time with my little boy. I am now back with some new work and a new found enthusiasm.