After working so hard on getting the new children book portfolios ready for the Bologna Children’s book fair, we were all very excited when the finished product turned up at the office today! With a smooth matt finish and smart ring binding they look absolutely fantastic and we can’t wait to start showing them off! Below you can see pictures of Ed, Kate and Lauren opening them when they arrived.
New samples just in! Two new books in the Who’s Hiding in my Toy Box range include Zoo Animals and Robots, both illustrated by Sarah Alcock. These chunky board books are perfect for young children as they are full of bright and colourful collage which will keep the little ones entertained. If you’d like to get yourself a copy of one of these books click here to visit the retailer. Visit Sarah’s portfolio on the Advocate art website to see more of her children’s book illustrations.
Next week Ed, Kate, Hannah and Caroline are off to the Bologna Children’s Book Fair in Italy. With a busy week of appointments ahead we have been redoing the book portfolios for them to take; filling them full of fresh and exciting new work from our illustrators‘. We have seven new folios, each with 100 pages. Each page is double sided so there are a total of 200 printed pages per folio. We are printing two sets of folios to take to the shows (like Bologna), this equals a total of 2800 printed pages! As well as this we are printing five sets for our biggest clients . . . phew! The book portfolios will also be available to download as PDF’s from the homepage of the Advocate website. Our artists‘ work is divided up into four categories; Picture book (three folios), Young fiction (two folios), Older and real styles and Boutique; with each one showcasing the best book illustration for each category (see below).
Bologna Children’s Book Fair has been running for 49 years and children’s book publishers and illustration agencies from all around the world meet there every year to showcase new artists, novelties, trends, proposals and cross-cultural creations. This is a fantastic platform to meet with industry professionals and to get our fantastic book illustrators’ seen. The fair runs from the 19th – 22nd March and Advocate art are located at Stand A/159 in Hall 25; we would love to see you if you are attending.
Below you can see Lauren designing the folios – once printed they will be bound with a hard cover, ready to be eagerly thumbed through by publishers and the like at Bologna!
At Advocate art, we were all thrilled to hear that Elli Moody’s Mothers Day card design is currently being featured on the Funky Pigeon TV advert! Elli is one of our fantastic greeting card illustrators, below you can see her featured design and a YouTube link to the Funky Pigeon advert. We are very excited about this, so keep an eye out and see if you can spot her design! If you want to see more of Elli’s work click here to visit her online portfolio on the Advocate art website.
We has been busily creating these fantastic new mood boards to showcase the new everyday trends for 2012. From Tropical Paradise to Edwardian Etching and Modern Craft to Design Classics there is something here to inspire all you creatives out there! We would love to see some great new greeting card designs and ideas for art licensing in response to these so keep sending us new work. Enjoy the mood boards and keep being creative!
Tropical paradise
Get the look - Bright and fun, with bold and clashing prints – even hints of neon! Tropical motifs – think parrots, palm trees and pineapples.
Featured artists - Hannah Wood // Eva Czapla // Grace Pullen // Jane Heyes
Nautical but nice
Get the look - Icons include anchors, sailor tattoos and nautical stripes (think washed out navy-blues, reds and off-white). Another twist on this trend is British seaside nostalgia – think sticks of rock, carousels, deck chairs and ice-cream.
Featured artists - Laura Coleman // Rossana Novella // Sophia Touliatou // Eva Czapla
Get the look – A blend of traditional hand-applied techniques – embroidery, knitting, cross-stitch etc – with modern, digital looks and subject matter. Colour palette is 1950s-inspired – ice-cream tones with natural grounds.
Featured artists – Suzanne Khushi // Valerie Greeley // Kim Anderson // Lara Skinner
Edwardian etching
Get the look - A blend of heritage illustration with a modern colour palette. Think muted teal, purples and lemon yellow. Inspiration includes botanical etchings, architectural engravings and Chinoiserie prints.
Featured artists - Jane Heyes // Diana Birkett // Valerie Greeley // Carol Robinson
Design classics
Get the look - Inspiration comes from mid-20th century icons – typewriters, retro televisions, classic movie posters etc. This sophisticated and suave style would work well for male-oriented designs.
Featured artists – Paul Collis // Suzanne Khushi // Nicola Evans // Genie Espinosa
At Advocate art we have been very busy creating these great new Christmas mood boards incorporating all the elements we think will be on trend for Christmas 2013. Below each one we have written a description of the colours, tones and imagery we are looking for – this is a perfect brief for all you greeting card designers out there are and we can’t wait to see all your fantastic illustrations in response to them! We have two more mood boards to come so we will keep you posted! We have also posted these on Pinterest, click here to visit our page and spread the word!
Chocolate Christmas
Warm tones of burnt gold, bronze and deep red inspire this look. Metallic finishes are mixed with natural wood textures to give this trend a homely appeal.
Snowflake
Light, dreamy and soft – this look is defined by the unusual mixture of mint green and muted teal. This is paired with iridescent finishes, and delicate snowflake, star and woodland motifs.
Midnight Velvet
Sumptuous, rich and elegant – this look draws inspiration from the glamour of the 1920′s. The colour palette is limited to deep purples, indigos and black, with metallic highlights.
At Advocate art we are very excited to have made it onto Pinterest, the new social media website that rolls blogging and Flickr all into one! This great new website allows you to ‘pin’ anything to your online pinboard, whether from another website or uploaded straight from your computer. Unlike blogging where you have to scroll through to find what you are looking for, Pinterest has everything on one page so you can pick and choose exactly what you want to look at. We have pinboards for artist biographies, children’s book illustrators, trends and mood boards, book samples, awards and many more! We can’t wait to get everyone involved and following us on Pinterest, click here to visit our page!
Sunshine Smile Publications is a website dedicated to children’s books, including news on up and coming projects, artist interviews, new books and advice and tips on becoming an illustrator; it is a brilliant resource for children’s book illustration. One of Advocate art’s very own children’s illustrator’s Angela Muss has recently become a contributor at Sunshine Smile Publications, this is fantastic news so well done Angela! As well as this Advocate art now have a feature page on the website and a monthly guest post on the Top Tips page where we can share all of our useful tips! You can access our first months post ‘How to create successful licensing characters’ by clicking here. We are extremely excited to be collaborating with Sunshine Smile Publications and we are looking forward to working with them much more in the future; click here to visit their website and read more! You can also check out more of Angela’s work on the Advocate website by clicking here.
Advocate artist Tom Percival has been illustrating Halloween artwork for Asda for a number of years now. His artwork has won numerous awards and has been voted the best Halloween offering in The Times. In collaboration with Gratterpalm design agency and Advocate art, Tom has successfully fronted Asda’s Halloween campaign for 4 years. Below are photos from the 2011 campaign; his illustrations have been used on everything from hanging decorations to floor mats and product packaging. The colourful aisles look absolutely fantastic – well done Tom! Tom generally illustrates for older children – so his style suits this project perfectly. If you’d like to see more of Tom’s work on the Advocate art website click here to visit his online portfolio.
At Advocate art, we are very excited to announce Ed Myer as our illustrator of the month. He creates his bright colourful illustrations by hand drawing the scenes and characters and then colouring them digitally, his style is very popular in children’s books and he has been published in many countries.
His extensive experience in illustrating allows him to draw anything and everything, from pets to pirates and farm animals to space ships; his combination of colour, composition and lively characters brings his artwork to life. Below you can see some examples of his work, click here to visit his online portfolio on the Advocate art website.
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