Royal Copenhagen Cat

Walking around Nørrebro in Copenhagen there are many Asian shops, all of which boast a brigade of little waving cat figurines – also known as Maneki-neko. They seem so omnipresent that I suspect they are part of a Secret Danish Surveillance System – one that makes sure you only cross the street on green and pay your taxes promptly.

These felines are the exact opposite of everything “Danish Design” is reported to be, and if I had to name a Danish counterpart to a Maneki-neko it would be Kay Bojesen’s teak monkey (nearly every Danish home has one).

I like unlikely pairings – or perhaps my subconscious does – because one day as I walked past yet another window full of friendly cats, I pictured them painted with the Royal Copenhagen pattern, the quintessential floral design used on the most famous of Danish porcelain. And my brain doesn’t stop once it has had such an idea, so I had to make it real.

You didn't think a plastic cat and a porcelain plate could mate, but I've proven otherwise.

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Yoga Space Illustration

One of the great things about illustration work is that it usually involves researching new subject matter, thus resulting in…KNOWLEDGE. Score. My general picture of yoga is “a stretch here, a stretch there, and a little inner peace”. After working on an illustration for Upswell for the Yoga Space, I now know that we have chakras. Five of them!

Upswell was to design a website for the Yoga Space and wanted illustration throughout the site, focused on one large illustration that could be broken into parts, each part using symbolism derived from the spiritual practice of yoga. The budget was fixed, so to make sure we were on the right track pencil sketches were explored first to get an idea of what elements should be used. This also shows that in the beginning things are ugly…or in design speak, “rough”. Usually they get better!

Four initial rough pencil sketches.

It is always a debate on how soon to show work to a client. If it is too unfinished, imagined possibilities might not be fully communicated. If it is too finished and not on target, you risk time intensive re-work. On this project it was possible to do very rough but quick iterations and get approval along the way, which saved time and allowed everybody in the project to have input where it counted.

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Graffiti Type

AIGA Portland is currently showing an exhibition of letters inspired by graffiti as part of Design Week Portland. The 26 letters of the alphabet, each interpreted by a different artist, are on display at Ziba HQ in Portland, Oregon, and my letter K is among them. The show is in conjunction with the premiere of GRAFT by director Jared Levy.

Intricate hand drawn letter K with tribal, feather and mitochondrial patterns.
The letter K.

I’ve recently been drawing things with a tribal and mitochondrial patterns in them. The style felt appropriate to the theme – interpreted as a sort of original graffiti, a mish mash of elemental inspiration. I also signed off my letter with my personal tag in hieroglyphics: a fossilized leaf from Oregon, a rock with a hole in it found on a Danish beach, a heart shaped rock my mom found and gave me, and a figurine of the Black Stallion.

Hand drawn hieroglyphs, three rocks and a horse. The left most rock is a petrified leaf from John Day / Fossil area in Oregon. The horse is a figurine from the Black Stallion movie.
Little personal hieroglyphics - three rocks and a horse.

Drawing patterns in things has become a sort of relaxing meditation time for me – once the basic form and complexity is decided, it’s pure patience and several CDs of Kurt Vile / Carla Bruni / Wilco to reach the end result.

Close up of patterns.

A Flickr set of the entire alphabet can be seen here of the below participating artists.

A – Aaron Rayburn, Portland
B – Jason Bacon, Portland
C – Scrappers, Hawaii
D – Mary Kate McDevit, Portland
E – CERN ONE, NYC
F – Cory Say, Garland, TX
G – Carolyn Sewell, Washington DC
H – Will Miller, Chicago
I – Rachel Caldwell, Philadelphia
J – Taka Sudo, BC, Canada
K – Mette Hornung Rankin, Copenhagen / Portland
L – Christopher Derek Bruno, Seattle
M – Lotta Nieminen, NYC
N – Roxanne Danner, Los Angeles
O – Keegan Onefoot-Wenkman, Portland
P – Bethany Ng, Portland / W+K12
Q – Tom O’Toole, Portland
R – Thomas Bradley, Portland
S – Dana Woulfe, Boston
T – Alanna MacGowan & Cassie Klingler, Seattle / New York
U – Anne Ulku, Minneapolis
V – Dave Foster, The Netherlands
W – Adam Garcia, Portland
X – Zach Johnsen, Portland
Y – Blaine Fontana, Portland
Z – Stephen Holding, Brooklyn

Collaborative alphabet.