Daily Specials
Daily Specials brought the finest names in illustration to the heart of Pick Me Up 2012 on a daily basis including legendary graphic artist George Hardie, who was responsible for many 60s and 70s cult album covers such as Led Zepplin's debut and Pink Floyd's Dark Side of The Moon. Other guests included Mr Bingo, James Jarvis, Bruce Ingman and Marion Deuchars.
Worried that people were not receiving enough interesting post, Mr Bingo came up with an idea. For the price of a tenner, Mr Bingo will send you a vintage postcard with a little drawing and an offensive message on it (that’s why it’s called ‘hate mail’). “So you get an original signed drawing, the postman gets a laugh and the world gets a little bit happier.” For one day only Mr Bingo presented Hate Mail Live at Pick Me Up 2012.
Anthony Burrill hosted a one day workshop of hands on creative play. Specially printed postcards, stickers and rubber stamps were available for visitors to create their very own A.B. collaborative postcard.
Internationally acclaimed, award winning illustrator Marion Deuchars led a family-friendly drawing workshop with simply brilliant instructions from table to table to build up your very own art work layer-by-layer. Marion's clients range from Penguin Books, Formula One, The Guardian, New York Magazine to Jamie Oliver.
Award winning children’s illustrator Bruce Ingman hosted a day-long family workshop where visitors created their own animal characters to reflect their personalities and an original story to go with it. The designs became the inspiration for a cake for Rock the Baker's shop. Bruce has illustrated and written several children’s books, his most recent is Ronny Rock starring in a Thousand Tiny Explosions written by Merryn Threadgould published by Walker Books.
Collage artist and illustrator Ian Wright and legendary record sleeve illustrator and designer George Hardie (designer of sleeves for Led Zeppelin and Pink Floyd) formed a committee to organise the Drawing Olympics London 2012. As is usual with Olympic events there were no prizes but every competitor was given a copy of George Hardie’s Metaphorical Measurements for a British Olympics. There were gold, silver and bronze medals designed by Ian Wright and awarded by celebrities.
Si Scott is an artist and designer renowned for his unique style, blending hand-crafted and hand-drawn artwork. So far in his career he has completed projects for Matthew Williamson, Vogue, Nike, Tiffany & Co. and Sony to name a few. For Pick Me Up 2012, Si worked on a drawing project that took shape throughout the day.
Jonny Hannah’s work has graced the pages of Vogue, The New York Times and many a book jacket, as well as advertising and design work for clients such as the English National Opera and vintners Justerini & Brooks. Amongst private collectors Jonny has also established a loyal following for his linocuts, screenprints, and paintings. Under the moniker of the Cakes & Ale Press, a highly successful cottage industry, he has published his limited edition affordable prints and artists books. For Pick Me Up 2012, Jonny ran a workshop using typographic letter stamps and lino printing to help visitors create leaves from an alphabet book.
Jody Barton’s work is direct and inventive with humorous and visceral styling. Often working in bold and simple marks made with his huge collection of marker pens, Jody cuts to the quick to deliver impact and intelligence in equal measure. An expert in words and their relation to images, his work uniquely combines both these methods of communication to create a new language. Jody came all the way from Denmark to produce a day-long workshop especially for Pick Me Up 2012; making family crests on request in his own inimitable style.
Fashion illustrator Jason Brooks has worked on some of the most instantly recognisable fashion editorial images of recent times. Brooks' glamorous and aspirational artwork has also provided the visual identity for record labels, most notably club label Hedkandi. He is noted in particular as being one of the first artists to embrace and popularise computer technology in the field of fashion illustration. Jason worked on a drawing project with Pick Me Up 2012 visitors in the Daily Specials space, producing small drawings for sale throughout the day.
Illustrator and character designer James Jarvis is responsible for the iconic toy figure 'Martin' and unwittingly helping to start the 'designer' toy phenomenon in the 1990s. Through his company, Amos, he has released nearly 100 character toys, including the iconic King Ken and the mysterious and existential YOD. For Pick Me Up 2012, James worked on a series of drawings in the space, based on his iconic characters.
The scurrilous, global cult comic Modern Toss is the work of Jon Link and Mick Bunnage. As writers, cartoonists and animators they’ve taken Modern Toss in many different directions - from challenging late night television to cutting edge advertising, and from international design magazines to greeting card racks. For Pick Me Up 2012, visitors came to the Modern Toss portrait booth to be immortalised in HB pencil by Jon or Mick, then chose what sort of body they wanted underneath their heads and watch in amazement as it was silkscreened on by Dan Hipkin from Ink_d gallery.
