Hasta La Ideas

Last week we received a package in the post – from young illustrator Johanna Basford who was keen to grab our attention. Said package contained a copy of Creative Review – one that we’d never seen before…

Rather than send a CV or simply a link to her website, Basford created bespoke, hand drawn artwork and worked it up into a special CR cover – complete with spine text reading “commission me – www.johannabasford.com” which she then had printed so she could cut and paste it, rather cheekily, onto a copy of our August issue.

On opening the issue we found that Basford had cut into the pages of the issue to make a slot for a portfolio CD to sit. We’re not entirely sure this was necessary (we can’t condone cutting up lovely issues of CR!) as CDs aren’t all that thick – but it shows that she’s made quite an effort with the package…

Dutifully checking out Basford’s site, we found that she’d posted a rather charming blog about the project which includes shots of her drawings, the printed out cover, her in the act of hand embellishing the printed cover – and even a copy of the email she sent to Manchester studio Music, apologising for defacing a copy of the August issue which it had designed the cover for.

Whether she’s defaced a copy of CR or not – you’ve got to give credit where credit’s due: 10 out of 10 for getting our attention!

To read her blog post, entitled How To Get Commissioned By Creative Review? – and to see more of her work, visit johannabasford.com/blog-article/157