Im an Irish designer and illustrator. I was listed in Time Magazine's DESIGN 100 for the work I've been doing for fair trade company People Tree. My first book 'A Bit Lost' is in 11 languages and has won 9 awards in 7 countries including the Dutch Picture Book of the Year. 'Oh No George!' comes out in March 2012
I just did a skype presentation to the students of the Srishti School of Art Design and Technology in Bangalore India. They are doing a really interesting project developing inventive ways to produce quality cost effective picture books for families who would usually be unable to afford them. I have been twice to Srishti to lecture and do workshops and I think they are really one of the most interesting colleges i have ever visited. very forward thinking in many ways. Its the first time we did this skype talk but it worked really well. Thanks very much to Matt Lee who got me involved
I was just sent these great worksheets by my lovely spanish publishers. (i love the colouring-in-cowboy in the top left!) Please feel free to print out and use. The animals are all on A4 but the forest scene can be printed at any size. AWESOME!
FINALLY...! this book has been two years in the making...! This post is just to show where the idea came from, and how the book took shape. its also quite useful for me to put together this post because its always such a long process that i kind of forget where the ideas came from to begin with.
My first idea for this book was a cause and effect sequence called Oh No!... it was an idea for a sort of elaborate circular accident... i may come back to that idea in future in fact...
I was toying with that but was reluctant to settle on it. Another idea was 'Bad duck' about a duck who was bad at being a duck.. swimming and quacking etc... its was a bit like a version of the Ugly Duckling and was sparked by seeing a worried looking duck in London who seemed to be swimming about 2 inches below the water level of his friends
A third idea featured 'clown man and clown dog' which i think also could be quite good in the future...
i didnt realise it at the time but all these ideas revolved around the idea of characters somehow messing up (which i thought would make entertaining drawings) I realised its a lot funnier if there is intention from the character to not mess up, so in the end i scrapped clown man and sort of fused all three ideas to make the dog the comic lead character.
One part of the picture book i try to make use of are the page-turns.. they can be great fun when reading aloud if there is bit of a build up so i decided to build up to a page-turn where the dog messes up somehow... that was how the basic idea came about ... i jotted it down on 3 pieces of A4 which it turned out hardly changed at all from this first sketch.
I usually draw from my head without using much reference but i found myself googling 'guilty dogs' to see if i could find some good material. It turns out there's a lot about this on the internet. the video below is really worth watching if you havent seen it.
most of this work was done while i was in kathmandu. I went over to get more involved in my fair trade work and ended up staying between there and India for more than 8 months in 2010. I was lucky to work on some super projects there which was the main reason i was very late for my book deadlines. In fact this book was 9 months late and was supposed to have been out last august (!)
I did most of the sketches for george from this room..
and i sent the bologna draft from this internet cafe (the monks were on facebook)
this is me trying to finish it off the last images in the airport on my way home, i had to meet my editors deirdre and lucy the following week and i hadn't done half as much as i had said i had... (!)
This is the part of the book im most proud of.. the first page builds up in three images to a large close up of george with the text 'what will george do?' When the page turns the following double page spread tells us exactly what george has done.. OH NO!!!
as you can see george does some pretty terrible things, but all is forgiven in the end
the end-papers are a kind of before and after
i quite liked having a little quote on the title page for A Bit Lost. i decided to go with this one from the stoic philosopher epictetus for George.
the final proofs and tweaks were all done in a very intensive few weeks with the help from deirdre and dan when i got back to the UK (my room was being lived in so i did all this from my next door neighbour's place!)
Oh No George is out on the 1st March 2012 or available for pre-order in these countries, im told there are more to follow soon
Oh No, GEORGE! IRE/UK here Oh No, GEORGE! USA/CANADA here Stoute Hond Netherlands here Oh Non, GEORGE! France here Oh Nein, PAUL! Germanyhere Voi Sinua SULO! Finland here
Im in shock at all the events in Holland! The dutch version of A Bit Lost, 'Mama Kwijt' won the Dutch Picture Book of the Year 2012 and as part of the Voorleesdagen (read aloud week) there are many amazing events across the country. It was awarded by CPNB, a read-for-fun/literacy non-profit equivalent to Booktrust or CBI. Each year they choose a book for its read-aloud qualities and on the 18th Jan they celebrated by hosting 'reading breakfasts' (complete with pancakes!) in libraries and schools across the country. Its the 9th year of this award you can read more about it here Im so proud of the book's success in holland as im a huge fan of dutch design and dutch picture books
Many celebrities were pictured taking part for the press including Princess Laurentien from the Dutch royal family and prime minister Mark Rutte (!) In the last photo there is even a real owl at the school!!!!
There was even a reading at Schipol Airport Library
There are puppet performances too. The second to last performance was by Ton Meijer in the oba library (the little girl in the picture is pretending she is a sleepy owl about to fall) and the last was by Pagetti jeungdtheatre
It was interesting to see how the story was adapted to performances and to see how each adapts it differently. One of the performances is of Oma Kwijt (I lost my granny!)
I did some press events too, on thursday 19th I opened the amsterdam stock market!!!!!! i had drawn '99%' on my t-shirt in black marker and unzipped my hoodie right before i gonged (!) :)
At the moment Mama Kwijt is the best selling BOOK in the Netherlands #1 in the book chart (!!!) and also no.12 as there are 2 versions. The bookshops also got involved and there are amazing shop window displays as well as little hand-puppets and bags. 60,000 finger puppets were made by CPNB to be given away free with the books, we really tried to have the finger puppets made fair trade (thank you CPNB) but the cost and timescale sadly could not work out. Then 7 bookshops emailed me and clubbed together to make an order of the fair trade owls too..! Thank you to all the bookshops who supported this!! You can see some of them on sale below...
This last few days in holland has been INCREDIBLE! im in total shock. To have my book at the centre of such wonderful events promoting literacy and reading for fun in public access libraries is all i could have ever wished for, i cant tell you how honoured i am. I was amazed by the thought, care and humour that went into these events and the quality of the other beautiful children's books and events that I saw. The time and resources that go towards childrens events seem incredible to me, the Dutch certainly seem to be really focused on all the the good things. I have met amazing people in the last few days. Thanks to so much to everyone involved in this amazing project, in all the libraries, Gottmer and CPNB. Hartelijk bedankt!!
I have a little wall of my sketches/prints and rugs from Mama Kwijt in De Drvkkery bookstore in Middelburg take a look here it runs until the end of January.
Myself, Niamh Sharkey and Childrens Books Ireland had a discussion at Offset in Dublin last year under the heading Getting your childrens book published: from idea to publication
For more videos have a look at offset's video page theres lots of great speakers. Hopefully see you at Offset next March. They have another great lineup and i think ill be doing something smallish in the second room.
i meant to sort this out a lot earlier but i have been very busy, if you order in the next 2 days you can make christmas if you are sending to the UK (!)
the amazing product shots above were all taken by nikos tsogkas
Im a big fan of the late scottish poet and comedian Ivor Cutler. I had read an interview with David Shrigley ages ago and he mentioned him as his biggest influence and since managed to get hold of some of his amazing recordings... he has a wonderful surreal and skewed view of the world. This BBC4 documentary is really really worth watching if you dont know his work..
I was absolutely in AWE when my editors Deirdre and Lucy mentioned they worked together with him at Walker. I didnt even know he had done books... they were big fans of his and david lloyd who i work with now was his publisher and editor. WOW! Apparently Ivor had a thing for printing his own stickers and then sticking them all over the office, this is david's old typewriter...
I also discovered at Walker recently that not only has my old editor Lucy studied as a clown (amongst many other fascinating things) but that my new editor David worked for 12 years as a clown and successfully taught a goose how to dance (!)
What a magical place Walker books is....!
this is david, maria and deirdre (taking the photo) and me editing our new book 'dont worry, i have a plan' recently..
I will be sure to keep you up to date with any new stories i hear from the office. In the meantime you can follow them on twitter. they meet very interesting people and eat a lot of cake
I will be doing 3 different events. see my events page here. It includes a DRAWING DUEL with Joëlle Jolivet .... Im not exactly sure what is involved but im sharpening all my best pencils in preparation (owl is sharpening his beak just in case it gets nasty)
PS if you look on the website you might see a stray owl has accidentally fallen in there. we are very sorry about that. myself and owl are working on our professionalism over the next month to make sure this wont happen again.
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SOUTH KEN WORKSHOPS
We also did some school workshops and invented our own little stories
In the original early version of the story owl bumps into animals on the way down when he falls from the nest. So, in the workshops we invented some things that could happen to owl on his fall. Here he bumps into birds/down chimneys and into the mouth of a crocodile! Fold a page in half and do a before and after fall!
While i was making my book in Korea I was extremely fortunate to meet the picture book artist Cho Sunkyung. I was introduced to him through our publisher Borim press and ended up staying on his sofa for an incredible 5 and a half months. Fairly cheeky even by my standards!
Sunkyung is one of the most interesting people ive met and as it was his work that made me appreciate the craft of book-making i thought i should do a post about him. He is an incredible illustrator and artist. His very interesting career path includes working for the ny times amongst many others as well as designing film sets and several best-selling picturebooks. Underground garden has been translated into 6+ languages. Ive posted some of his work here....
He also single handedly runs the SOME Institute, which is an independent post-graduate course specifically for picture-book making, the likes of which there is really no equivalent in the UK. He has brought the most inspiring people working in picture books worldwide to Korea to teach at SOME including Beatrice Alemagna, Martin Salisbury, Chloe Poizat and Katsumi Komagata... he even brought Marshall Arisman (the legendary co-founder of the School of Visual Arts in NY) over to Korea to do a workshop. Below are some images from his workshops and some shots of the end of year show... the standard of the students work is incredible.
Sunkyung collects picture books from all over the world and his studio is sort of operating as a library to the students. SO many incredible books... better than any bookshop ive ever been in...
Some of the stories i have heard about him are just completely nuts. He was so inspired by the film the sandman (the film that inspired tim burtons nightmare before christmas) he flew to London looking for the studio that made it. This was the early 90s and pre-internet and he had no address for the studio, only the name 'Batty Berry Mackinnon Productions'. He asked at the heathrow information stand where was 'aardman animation' because he knew they could tell him the address. He went by train to Bristol only to be told that he wasnt allowed into the studio uninvited so he waited around until lunchtime when a few animators came out and told him they were based in manchester. By the next day he arrived at their doorstep, he explained his story and they (understandably) allowed him to work with them for the next 2 months. !!!?!!!! and I thought I was passionate about animation...?
I stayed with Sunkyung in his studio and I worked on my book while he worked on his own book 'Blue Bird' and we spent most evenings in the local restaurant drinking soju. These are some photos of the studio. He worked downstairs and me on the mezzanine. The last photo is a shot at dawn of the scene of me finishing A Bit Lost (....i wasnt to know i would then drag it on for another 2 months ....aagh! )
During the time i stayed with Sunkyung he was working on 'Blue Bird'. Its an incredibly beautiful and personal art book based around the death of Sunkyung's mother. 'Blue Bird' (Palang Sae) in Korean means hope. It is a wordless book about the story of a a blue bird who is selflessly looked after by its guardian who is a sow (the pig has a special symbolism in Korea) The mother teaches the bird to fly knowing that she herself cannot fly and that one day the bird will fly away without her. The bird flies away as its mother is left behind in a flock of birds.
As Sunkyung worked on Blue Bird, I worked on A Bit Lost and in fact we had almost exactly the same publishing date. I came to the end of my stay in Korea I began looking for a quote for my book about 'loss' and we realised the same quote would suit both A Bit Lost and Blue Bird. It dawned on us that we had both spent the last year working beside each other on a story about the loss of a guardian.
We have been close friends since and in fact sunkyung came over to visit me in Nepal and even gave a lecture at Kathmandu University when i was doing a workshop there.
Sunkyung has also set up his own publishing company SOME books (i dont know how he has the time!!!) I HIGHLY recommend visiting SOME picture book website
You can see SOME institute and if you click the top left link you can also see the books they are publishing, their books have been bought by the V&A/ Roma Museum and many other institutions
As you can imagine A Bit Lost owes Sunkyung a huge debt. Im very grateful for all his advice and input. Gansamida!
They read the book and then made their own owl from fired glass. Apparently other glass studios are also doing the same project including one in Texas(!) ...amazing!! So inspiring to see these amazing art projects. Thank you so much to everyone at Blue Manatee.
You have a new book out, called ‘Oh No GEORGE!’. What’s it about, and how did the idea start off?
Its about a dog who tries his best to be good, but falls a little short. I began by drawing all sorts of characters somehow messing up in different ways. It started really with an idea I had of a clown and his dog, clown dog, getting into trouble but it was funnier if there was just one comic character. I liked the idea of building up the tension over two pages. George has seen a cake, George said he would be good but he really likes cake, what will George do? and when you turn the page... OH NO, GEORGE!!! George has eaten the cake.
I love the concept of a ‘guilty dog’ - I have a dog at home that always looks very guilty, and consequently gets blamed for things he probably didn’t do. You also have a book about an owl that feels lost. This leads me to wonder - if you were a disaffected animal, what would you be?
I was asked that same question by my publisher when i finished my owl story. They asked me which animal I thought i was from the story A Bit Lost. I said I thought i was the lost owl but my art director smiled at my editor and they told me that no, i was definitely the (eager/harebrained) squirrel. I wasnt so sure myself but it seemed to be a strongly held opinion.
There’s something very old-school about the comedy of calamity in ‘Oh No GEORGE!’, yet the design and approach to the subject feels very modern. What sources did you look at for inspiration?
I actually used to live with a professional clown and she introduced me to physical comedy which i found really inspiring, there is something lovely about that silent visual humour. Their timing and expression is very important and i try to imitate that if i can. I also studied graphic design so i have a soft spot for nice flat colours and graphics so i suppose its a mix of those two. I love Leo Lionni's artwork and Dr. Suess and I try to look at the classic picture books for inspiration if i am trying to figure out a scene, especially for the layout and pacing.
How have your book-production skills developed over the course of your two creations? Any important lessons you’ve learnt?
I still find myself underestimating the time it will take. It looks quite a straightforward thing to do but there is so many dead-ends and so much backtracking you would not believe, especially at the start. I have lots of ideas but only a few can really tie themselves up as stories. I think its important to rely on character too for very young children, and keep it as simple as possible.
You’ve been working for the fair trade clothing company People Tree. Are ethical considerations something you consider to be important to good design?
Yes i think ethical considerations are crucial to good design. I think in trying to design something as well as possible its helpful to go right back and try to think about it from every angle to try and figure out how can it be better. If you think about that question long enough it all comes back to ethical considerations. I got a bit disillusioned in my own design when i was doing advertising and branding for large companies so i wanted to do something that was more rewarding. I think design has a great potential for positive change and i would love to be involved in that part of it. Its the exciting part!
Are you going to be back for Offset? If so, who are you looking forward to seeing talk?
Yeah!.. I really like the work of KesselsKramer so i will be definitely watching that one, but seymour chwast/sagmeister as well as irish johnny kelly and kevin waldron.. theres too many to name.
What other projects are in the pipelines?
Im very excited about my third book, its called DONT WORRY, I HAVE A PLAN... Im very proud of the story in that one but who knows when i will finish it. Maybe by the end of the year. I am also working on an interactive animated app called 'Hat Monkey', and I have a few non-fiction ideas...
the full magazine is online on issuu here theres some great interviews and bits on bobs from dublin's exploding design scene.
I have been nominated as one of Booktrust's 10 'Best New Illustrators'!!!!
There is some really really amazing illustrators on the list and i'm extremely proud to be in there. Take a look at the site at all the amazing work ...Salvatore Rubino / Sara Ogilvie / Kevin Waldron/ Levi Pinfold... some really amazing books. Really gutted i wasnt at the award ceremony. Im here in Nepal ... currently looking for electricity.
Also take a look at the excellent Guardian audio slideshow of Children's Laureate Antony Browne who was one of the judges of the award. (my images are fuzzy though!!! argh!!)
Have a look out for Thierry Magnier's stand in the Paris Book Fair: 18-21 March. I adapted the last spread of 'Un Peu Perdu' as a 6 metre banner! wow!
Sadly I cant make it over as Ill still be in Nepal. Im very proud to be published with Thierry Magnier. I thought their stand and range of books was one of the most eye catching and inspiring in the whole of the Bologna Fair, so i am really extremely proud to be included in their stand this year in Paris.
Also I'd like to thank them very much for buying my fair trade owl toys from Mahaguthi. They were the first publisher to do this. Im really happy they were so excited about this project, i hope we can do more with this!
Check out Thierry Magnier's website. They publish some of my favourite illustrators and books.... some really stunning work in there. univers > petite enfance is especially good
Wow!!! I LOVE this. So lovely to get this in the mail this morning.
The shapes and expressions are great. Poor little owl is having a bad day yet again..! Especially in that last fall. OUCH!!! Poor owl ...will he ever learn?!
This is all from first graders in Zamorano Arts. Check out their blog. Really beautiful artwork and great project ideas in there. Thanks Don!
Im doing a panel discussion in Dublin at the amazing OFFSET design festival. Myself, Niamh Sharkey and Childrens Books Ireland are doing a panel talk at 12pm on Sunday 3rd Oct about childrens books.
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