25 Aug 2013

One unicorn, one secret mission and a few pieces of bacon

For the past few months, I have been on a Secret Mission. Surprisingly (...not), this mission is not related to three letter organisations or having Edward Snowden as my colleague; pencil is still my only weapon, although as a night owl I wouldn't say no to having a pair of night vision goggles, either. The Secret Mission has kept me busy drawing pots, pans, vegetables, cakes and different breakfast settings, and although I'm not to reveal too much about it yet, I thought to share a few pieces of bacon and cake with you to celebrate this Sunday morning:

Although Sunday mornings are always a good reason for a bit of celebration, this Sunday is extra special as it is the birthday of a friend of mine, who I had the pleasure to meet just a mere week ago. She is a sweetheart who sings like a bird and has three unicorns tattooed on her chest. One evening, we had a conversation about her tattoo, which lead to her telling how much she loved unicorns. I found it such a quirky thing to say; it really sounded as if we were talking about cats, dogs or other animals that actually exist. So, last night I grabbed my pencil and drew a unicorn for her. It's been a while since the last time I drew a horse, but thanks to having spent my early teens drawing nothing but horses, my hand hadn't completely forgotten how to do it.


Have a magical Sunday filled with magical animals and nice things to eat!
NOTE: No pun intended; unicorns are endangered species and horse mettwurst is kind of gross anyway.

More Secret Mission reports later!

4 Aug 2013

Meow!

As you know, cats are cool. Stroking a cat or looking at one online is a sure cure when dwelling in heartaches, feeling ill or stressed out. Cats - natural antidote to pretty much anything!

Back in 2010 when I was interning at SUPERSWEET, the greatest indie magazine online, I was introduced to an office cat called Princess Michael. (There had been some confusion about her gender, hence the gender neutral name). Making fun of her, chasing after her and playing with her was a daily part of the life in the office - she was SUPERSWEET's sweetheart.

Although it's been only 3,5 years since my internship finished, it feels like ages since our small editorial team was sitting in the office, taking breaks to holahoop or and fighting about whose turn it was to go and queue in the post office during lunch hour (lucky for the others, my status as the intern who never said no to anything put an end to those fights). When my internship came close to its end, my boss and SUPERSWEET's creative director, Choltida, decided to move and take the company's HQ with her to Thailand. Sadly, this meant that SUPERSWEET had to part ways with Princess Michael as well; she couldn't handle all the traveling and stayed in London instead.

However, despite the new location and all other changes the company has gone through since the good ol' times in London, a few things have remained the same: SUPERSWEET's web shop is still up and running, and the corporate love for cats and silly things hasn't gone anywhere either! A while back, I got the honour to be reunited with SUPERSWEET when Choltida asked if I would like to illustrate an animated shopwindow for the web shop. The new shopwindow was to celebrate the launch of a brand new collection "Haberdashery" from the in-house brand called SUPERSWEET x moumi. The collection is supervised by Choltida and designed by indiepreneurs Moumi and her design team Kikilala and Myogi, all of whom happen to be cats. Yes, you read that right.

The illustration I drew for the collection stars the head designer Moumi juggling her designs. This is an illustration in progress, stolen from Moumi's Instragram and served with fitting sound effects.



And here's the finished shopwindow:


Although I'm not hundred years old, I think I am entitled to say that my memories from the SUPERSWEET times are pure gold! I was so happy to make this illustration and be part of a SUPERSWEET project again. Poor Princess Michael, though. She really missed out on a great career opportunity, when she decided to resign and stay in London. Who knows, she might have been promoted from an office cat to a designer by now!