Hasta La Ideas

Well, not exactly. From what I understand, it’s part of an anti-nuclear campaign that was put out by Forum Nucleaire. The whole site is in french, but have a look for yourself. For a bigger viewer check here and give the full screen whirl. Really great video with nicely animated illustrations.

Detail of sketchbook page. © Tom Gauld

For a brief glimpse into the working methods of one of the UK’s best illustrators, head on over to Tom Gauld’s new Flickr page, where he has uploaded several of his sketchbook pages. For example, you can see how a cartoon he did for the Guardian entitled, The Street Tom Waits Grew Up On, evolved from a list of ideas and drawings to final artwork…

© Tom Gauld

The page shown above, led to this finished cartoon:

Original drawing of cartoon for the Guardian Saturday Review letters page. Ballpen and whiteout on paper. © Tom Gauld

For larger versions of the pages shown here, plus a few more examples from his sketchbooks, visit Gauld’s Flickr set, here.

© Tom Gauld

© Tom Gauld

© Tom Gauld

More excellent work over at cabanonpress.com, the website for the publishing venture he runs with illustrator Simone Lia.

A new book documents Kessels Kramer’s 15-year campaign for the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel

“In the long history of hospitality, the Hans Brinker Budget Hotel stands alone as the worse there ever was,” says a press release promoting the book. Its 280 pages include every piece of communications ever made for the hotel by Kessels Kramer, which has famously made great capital out of the fact that the place is so awful.

Campaigns have included little flags stuck in dog shit (with illustrations by Anthony Burrill, an early collaborator)

Burrill also produced posters for the campaign

And this tongue-in-cheek list of complimentary items at the hotel

Even “sleeping pills”

Other ads focussed on the awful effect a stay at the hotel may have on guests

And its somewhat cavalier attitude to hygiene

It was also quick to send-up other ads’ dubious environmental claims

A range of posters allows guests to recreate the wonderful view available from select rooms

The Worst Hotel in the World is published by Booth-Clibborn, £25

Amazing painting and illustration work from Montreal/Berlin based Eve Duhamel.

I highly recommend taking a peek at her Campsites and Matters marker illustrations. Phenomenal colour. The way you can see the layered solid colours reminds me of the colouring books I coloured in as a kid.

The Suitcase Series Volume 1:
Camilla Engman

Artist Camilla Engman may live in Gothenburg, Sweden, but her appeal is international. A professional illustrator and exhibiting artist, her images are whimsical, poignant, humourous and insightful. With her keen eye for finding the extraordinary in the everyday, Camilla documents her inspirations and artwork on her popular blog. Nearly 2000 fans visit her site on a daily basis (with three quarters being from North America) to get a glimpse into Camilla’s creative life.

UPPERCASE is proud to have been the first gallery outside of Sweden to feature her work, in our 2005 exhibition “Best in Show”. We are excited to be collaborating on a book of Camilla’s art and life, the first volume in our “Suitcase Series”, to be released in the fall of 2009. I am looking forward to travelling to Sweden next month and meeting Camilla (and her cute dog, Morran) at long last.

The Suitcase Series presents in glorious detail the lives of select artists and designers. The books are image-based, full of artwork, sketchbook pages, beautiful photographs and artifacts from where the artists live and work. Interviews with the artist are included in both their native language and English. The books’ size will be small and intimate, like a diary/sketchbook and each book in the series would have a special treasure added: perhaps a small limited-edition art print, a vellum envelope filled with foreign paper scraps for collage, fabric swatches, etc. The book becomes a precious souvenir of a creative journey shared between the reader and the artist.

For our book and magazine subscribers, you will be receiving the Jen11 and Camilla books as part of your subscription. If you’d like to preorder Camilla’s book by itself, click here. All pre-orders will include a unique keepsake of the project.

{ PHOTO: Elisabeth Dunker }