Longleat House Lettering

I was asked to work on some lettering to promote Longleat House, an impressive example of Elizabethan architecture, set in the beautiful Wiltshire countryside. Home to the 7th Marquess of Bath, the house is surrounded by 900 acres of ‘Capability Brown’ landscaped gardens and parkland.

This lettering was designed to work with the hospitality side of the business, so as well as the site, it will be seen on wedding and corporate events brochures, stationery and promotional material. It needed to reflect the elegant, historic surroundings with a contemporary flourish, so I focused on a soft italic hand, aiming to keep a fine balance between the flow of the line and the legibility of the form.

You can see more of this type of work on the corporate folder on my online portfolio.

Midsummer Night's Dream

Recently I've been working on a personal project inspired by Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream.

The beautiful language is an ideal subject for the word-heavy imagery, which is influenced by my love of expressive typography. My aim is to get the feel of the spoken word across by combining letter and image.

I'm about to set up a blog dedicated to my personal work - read more about it in my next post.

Green's Cake Mix Lettering

Anyone who knows me will know I'm partial to a nice bit of cake - so when this job for Green's Cake Mix lettering turned up in my inbox I was delighted to accept. The client was based in Australia but in this digital age distance makes little difference to a job, as long as you keep track of time zones.

This lettering had to be simple and bold for stand out on the shelf and I've added a touch of mixing bowl swirl and flow to the letterforms - of course it was only professional to sample a few of the cakes as inspiration ...

You can see more of my packaging work in my word>packaging folder on my website.

Ruth Rowland Interview

This month I was interviewed by my agent, Illustration Ltd. We discuss how I became interested in hand lettering, starting out in the record industry, the creative chaos of my East London studio and secret obsessions! The interview also includes a free download of the specially designed poster you can see below.

If you like to read the entire interview, they've posted it on their site here.

Hardys Nottage Hill

I was asked to work on the new logo for Hardys Nottage Hill as part of Accolade Wines' new packaging and promotion for the range.

The client wanted to re-tell the story of Thomas Nottage Hardy, their founder's nephew who worked for the family business for 66 years, having started as a boy of 15. The wine is named in honour of him and the lettering is designed to have the familiarity of a signature, to reflect this rich heritage and identity, while retaining a strong fluid line to make it stand out on the shelf.

You can see more of my packaging work in the folder on my portfolio site.

Snow Queen Trail

In the weeks leading up to Christmas, the Rose Theatre, Kingston has been presenting a range of special performances to celebrate their adaptation of Hans Christian Andersen's The Snow Queen.

I was asked to create an illustrated map that would show the route of the four story houses, where the events are taking place. Using storytelling and songs, a group of travelling players are performing short adaptations of some of Andersen's fairy tales, creating a magical trail though Kingston's streets.

Click here to see more of my illustrated maps on my portfolio site.

Merry Christmas everyone!

Twiggy - Romantically Yours

Having worked on the latest release from Cliff Richard this summer, it was great to be asked to work for another British icon - Twiggy. Released by EMI, Twiggy's brand new album Romantically Yours marks a return to her music career with a collection of her hand-picked favourites.

I was asked to work on the artist's name for the CD cover and started by taking her signature as my original reference. Using a dip ink pen that was sympathetic to the line quality and flow of the signature, I fine tuned the letter forms and opened up the letter spacing to maximise legibility while trying to keep the spontaneity and character of the original.

To see more of my music work - click through to my word>music folder on my portfolio site.