Autumn Sweater

ISSUE 012 - Space Bingo, Off They Run & IKEA

Nov 04, 2024

Hello, hi! Another few months between sending one of these out. I guess this is the speed I go. Trying to go faster than is possible is a bit of a problem lately (read: baby’s first burnout). So I’m trying to go a little more of the speed my body is telling me to take 🐌. With that in mind, I’ve taken some time off this summer, but, as always, the wheels keep spinning and here’s a post about some projects that have gotten a recent release into the world.

SPACE BINGO

One of the biggest responses I’ve had from a project I’ve worked on is Scary Bingo. If you don’t know, it’s bingo but with monsters. Seriously, I’ve been sent so many emails about it since it came out. For example, a kid who sleeps with one of the characters under their pillow. Another kid who had a blanket made with one of the characters that they’ve taken with them through the whole of school. A family who lost some pieces and drew their own replacements. Just put Spiky Joe on my gravestone when I’m gone.

So, many years later, and I’ve worked on a new bingo coming out — Space Bingo!

Will people sleep with these characters under their pillows? We live in hope. BUT, I did have a… blast… making the designs for these. I tried to capture some of the naive energy I had about making Scary Bingo all those years ago by using really analogue techniques like squeezing paint with a squeegee or using spray paint and stencils. The characters are giving me those same Scary Bingo vibes and I really did have fun coming up with them.

Also, I should point out — I can’t take credit for the names of these this time. That’s with thanks to the great LKP team, but I think they rival the originals!

OFF THEY RUN

Did I write about this already? Maybe not. Maybe I did. But this came out over the Summer! This is a fun book I illustrated called OFF THEY RUN and it’s written by the brilliant Katie Cotton.

It’s about a tiger chasing a monkey through the Indian jungle. When we get to the end of the book we can turn it upside down and follow the monkey’s story back through the tree canopy.

I thought that this was such a great text from Katie and I love making books that play with the format of what a book is. After a lot of deliberation, we chose to make the top third of the book black, which separates the two stories in a nice way.

I’m especially pleased with the characters in this one — tigers are really hard! But I love what we ended up with. I made a lot of rubber stamps for all the jungle flora and used some ink and crayon jungle-y drawings for texture in the background. The book is printed on quite unusual shiny paper which makes the colours really super bright. It kind of reminds me of the Meg and Mog books which I loved.

Hey, you might like it too? Here is somewhere you can buy it if you do.

DEMON WORMS

The last thing I wanted to bend your ears about is that IKEA have captured the Demon Worms design I created a long time ago and have it for sale as a poster/print.

It’s in stores (worldwide, I think) now for the very reasonable price of £2. Wow, cheaper than a plate of plant balls. I joke, I joke. Honestly, it’s a great privilege. It really was such a surreal experience walking in there and finding these for the first time. IKEA is one of those places that holds a lot of memories (buying my first furniture and trying to get it home on the bus) so… I don’t know… it felt extra crazy to see my work in there. Also, it’s quite big… coming in at a very generous 50 X 40cm.

You can also buy them online, where someone has left some oddly specific reviews.

ONWARDS

Anyhow, that’s a few things. I moved into a new studio space as well this month, so I’m kind of clearing the decks/desk and tentatively starting to look at writing a new book. Anyone got any ideas?