Sinnister Brew is a Pico-brewery producing premium quality, barrel-aged imperial stouts in Dalkeith, Midlothian. I’ve recently worked with the company to produce design and illutration for their bottled and canned beers. The following examples show final designs and illustration work produced using Procreate on an iPad.

During the Covid pandemic lockdowns, I took the opportunity to learn some new skills and produced a series of illustrations using an iPad and Procreate software.

Two examples of illustrations composed digitally. The first was hand drawn with a sharpie pen and fineliners then coloured in Photoshop. The self portrait was created in Illustrator.

Two illustrations created in Illustrator. The first using a photograph as reference and was produced as a postcard and A3 print. The second, a t shirt design, was hand drawn off-screen in pencil. This was then scanned to use as a template for the vector illustration.

Two original linocut prints. The first was subsequently scanned, made into a silkscreen and printed onto t shirts. The second design was for a home brewed beer label. Wee Stooshie was the name chosen for the character that embodied a particularly punchy double IPA. It’s also a Scottish phrase for a ‘little bit of bother’.

The brief was to produce a single colour, heart shaped design that incorporated words and images associated with the hotel’s coffee shop.

An interest in creating artwork not entirely reliant on digital design led to the founding of a hobby business – ‘Chuck’s Original Tees’. Inspiration came from hobbies and interests and the resulting designs were hand screen printed onto t shirts. Most of the images were composed off screen and then made digital to produce acetates. These were then exposed onto hand built silk screens and finally used to print onto t shirts. All great fun, though printing designs with four colours were quite a challenge on the kitchen table!

Two examples of hand drawn type in different styles. The first is for a t shirt graphic and the lettering drawn to reflect the brass pin badge featured in the centre of the design. Both were digitally edited to add texture and make final edits.

A particularly ambitious three colour t shirt design for a friend that owns a bar/bottle shop. As a tattoo aficionado, the design reflects the owners personal stlye, with references that allude to the bar’s northern location (the flat cap) and the crossed bottle openers completing the twist on the traditional skull and crossbones design.

The owners of Broadbutties sandwich bar originally wanted a piece of wall art that was colourful, engaging and reflected their location. A book of walks around the village became the reference for a tube map style graphic that was reproduced one metre square. The design was later transformed into an A6 postcard and an A3 print.

Jack Badger are award winning creators of bespoke carpentry and masonry. The layout for their brochure was kept clean and copy minimal to let the pictures tell the story and show the quality of the work.

This multi-fold concertina folds down to allow the reader to see how different examples of the switches would look when held up against their wall.

Digital illustration of a favourite band.

The silk screen for this bandana was huge! This bike patch inspired design came from a day out cycling and is made up of cogs, spokes, chains and sprockets. The majority of the composing was completed in Illustrator.

Broadbottom village was home for more than 10 years. On the edge of the Derbyshire Peak District, it has a thriving creative scene and every year there is a Christmas Craft event where local makers set up stalls and people come from far and wide to have a fine old time. These t shirt designs were based around the theme of adventre and feature actual locations around the village, though the extreme nature of some of the adventure to be had may have been slightly exaggerated!

Design concepts for a friend’s heating and plumbing business. A little like the chicken and the egg, the van came first so that became the basis for the colour palette.

What started off as an online chat between two friends turned into a group with a world-wide membership, some of whom get together occasionally for a ‘swally’ which usually involves beer, fun, chat, laughter… and beer! The Stout Nerd design has appeared on beer a label but mostly as t shirt designs, the latest of which was used to raise money to support two charities.

Designs centred around another interest – fishing. The ‘Screamin’ Reels Hardcore Fishing Club’ is a take on the motorcycle club patch. The second is a biomechanical graphic representation of a Heptageniidae nymph, otherwise know as a mayfly.