Colour and our ability to remember information
From my desk in my office on the second floor I have the most amazing view of a huge maple tree. It must be 30 metres high, and it is covered in intense yellow leaves. The maroon leaves of the beech tree beside it create a beautiful contrast. A few snowball bushes at ground level […]
Vattenrådens Dag 2025
(English at the top, Swedish further down) One of the things I love about graphic recording is diving into a topic or a part of society that is new to me. This time it was water. OK, everyone knows what water is, but the specific issues that are being prioritised in Sweden right now, and […]
Hand-drawn visual assets: decorations for my website
I don’t know why it took me so long to figure out that, as an illustrator, I could make my own hand-drawn visual assets to use on my website and in other marketing products. I was looking at Katie Chappall’s website and thinking how fun and engaging it was, when something clicked: I offer hand-drawn […]
Live visual notes, graphic recording, sketch-noting, live illustration…
About a year and a half ago I first heard the phrase “live illustration”. I was listening to a podcast by The Good Ship Illustration and one of the hosts mentioned that it was her specialty. She went on to describe it as drawing visual notes live at events to capture key messages and moments. […]
Eye-catching hand-drawn icons
I was delighted when my client chose hand-drawn icons instead of smooth vector images. I’ve done those for her before, but I find them very boring compared to the sketchy work I am doing now. Not only boring, but harder! I would always try so hard to infuse a little bit of personality into them […]
The power of a great annual report: supporting your branding and telling your stories
An annual report is an amazing document. Well, it CAN be an amazing document. It’s an opportunity to re-visit your organisation’s achievements and celebrate everyone who made those achievements possible. A good annual report pinpoints and documents crucial learnings and paints an inspiring picture of the future. A good annual report tells a story that […]
The sea, the city and us: illustration
People tend to think my work is done with watercolours, but this is actually painted with coloured inks. The divers were painted on a separate piece of paper and placed on to the background. This technique lets me play around with the placement of different objects. It also inspired me to throw together this little […]
Analogue illustration: joy and beauty
Is there still a place for analogue illustration and art? Yes. Digital art is pretty new on the scene. We have been making pictures for over 40,000 years, and have had access to decent digital drawing tools for… twenty years at the most. I would hate to think that people believe that we can’t make […]
Graphic design: Jennifer’s portfolio became a gorgeous book
Jennifer Forsberg makes fantastic public sculptures that liven up parks, school yards, hospitals and other public spaces around Sweden. Her works are, in most cases, abstract, and feature wonderful bulbous, organic shapes that make me think of mountains, sand dunes, stalagmites and mystical creatures. This is the the third project that Jennifer and I have […]
An illustrator’s sketchbook: works in progress
An illustrator’s sketchbook is where the creative magic starts. For me they are an essential playground where messy, badly-drawn, half-baked ideas some out into the world. Some go on to become a finished illustration (or layout for a design), some stay there on the page. My ideas take form better on paper than on a […]