Corporate illustration

I was delighted to be asked to work with national wildlife conservation charity Freshwater Habitats Trust on a series of illustrations for their new website, which was in development.

The aim was to represent several species – both common and rare - found in specific types of freshwater habitats of the UK, including pond plants, insects, tadpoles and more.

These illustrations would be used to add character and individuality to the site, accompanying photography and graphics throughout the site header panels and in-body content.

My experience in digital came in very handy during this project, as we wanted hand-drawn line illustrations which needed to be flexible enough to use at any size, with transparent backgrounds, and with consistent style and ‘legibility’ on the site.

I was able to illustrate each species by hand, from the imagery and information provided by the client, and worked together with Sarah Hoyle, Communications and Media Manager, and Dr Naomi Ewald, Technical Director to ensure accuracy in the illustrations.

It was important that the illustrations had character and a hand-drawn look, without being inaccurate or whimsical, so it was vital that I could adjust the illustrations where necessary for scientific accuracy.

Vectorising the line work and supplying each element separately meant that each illustration could be coloured and placed as required, and used at any size without reduction in quality.

The Freshwater Habitats Trust website has now gone live with a bright, professional look and easy to use content and structure. The illustrations, used both in page headers and to contrast with and accompany photographic imagery throughout, add a distinctive, individual style to the site that cannot be gained with generic stock imagery.

With thanks to Sarah, Naomi and the team for their constructive feedback and enthusiasm for the project, I found it so interesting to learn about their areas of specialism and producing the illustrations was a very enjoyable challenge! It was a great project to be a part of and the new website is a valuable asset to the Trust.

Luxurious, traditional…
and fun!

I was asked by Jo Evans from Devon-based independent food producer, Figgy’s Puddings, to illustrate and design packaging for their award-winning handmade Christmas puddings. Already successful as an online retail business, Figgy’s Christmas puddings are now also available in farm shops, delis and garden centres across the UK during the Christmas season.

Having designed and illustrated the Figgy’s Puddings logo with my partner in design Darren @stripecreativeltd several years ago, we were thrilled to have the opportunity to work with the brand as they make the leap into the independent retail sector.

It was a dream project to work on, with a relatively open brief of fun, unusual - yet traditional, high quality Christmas packaging. We discussed ideas around a Christmas dinner table with lots of activity, all the traditional trimmings and just a little bit of chaos!

We wanted the box to be eye-catching on the shelf, so bright but not garish colours were required. We used gold foil to highlight details in the Christmas wreath on the box lid and the product name.

We really wanted the interior to provide a bit of a surprise, so we made a repeat pattern of my sprout, cracker, bell and pudding illustrations, which looks warm and fun.

The leaflet, which needed to sit on the top of the pudding bowl inside the box, needed to coordinate but be noticeable as it contained the heating instructions. We used the Christmas wreath illustration but also added some humorous touches inside with a robin and little pile of sprouts* making an appearance!

*we promise there are no sprouts in the actual Christmas pudding!