BT Sport Premier League Promotion

Signs photographed hanging on pubs to advertise the 2015 coverage of the Premier League football in all of the literature sent to every sports viewing venue in the UK. It was one of their most successful advertising campaigns to date. Each design had to be approved by the celebrities pictured, BT Sport and Ogilvy, so the design process was lengthy.

Gareth Bale was presented with his sign at the end of the campaign, and he has it hanging in his home. Jose Mourinho (The Coach) was particularly pleased with his portrait, as he said it made him look 10 years younger.

ITV Creative

Several of ITV’s regular TV programmes feature pubs, so they renamed the offices in their headquarters with those pub names. Their designer brought me a basic design layout for each sign which I fleshed out and hand painted to a distressed finish to simulate age and weathering.

Summer in February

This film was shot in Cornwall in 2012. We were commissioned to paint the name on Jory’s Hotel wall in a rubber solution paint that could be removed after filming. We also produced the distressed effect signs for some of the racing scenes.

Ceramic Decoration

On a few occasions over the last couple of decades it has been my honour to collaborate with my life-long friend Douglas Fitch on his earthenware pottery. He is a world renowned potter, and adding sgraffito decoration to these commemorative jugs was an exciting different application for my designs.
 
Sgraffito involves scratching a design through a thin layer of white slip with a sharp point to expose the dark red clay underneath before the pot is fired. There is no room for making mistakes, and working on a curved surface is interesting.

Wood Engraving

Wood engraving is the art of incising a design onto small blocks of boxwood end grain for the purpose of printing. It is an ancient art and tricky to master. The small scale of the blocks requires intense concentration, and the design must be carved in reverse, so that the print comes out the right way round.

Pullman Crest

The Pullman brand is synonymous with luxury rail travel, and all of their locomotives and coaches are branded with their Crest. The original artwork that the crest is reproduced from has been lost, so they commissioned me to decipher the very blurry reference they had and paint a new version of it for all future applications. It’s an honour to be associated with such an iconic brand, and a feather in the cap for traditional sign painting. I get a kick out of knowing that my artwork will adorn Pullman trains for years to come.

Vehicle Livery

Vintage vehicles always look their best with some old fashioned pinlining in paint or gold leaf. Shown here are the Lizard Stallions Horsedrawn Omnibus, St. Austell Brewery’s promotional vintage van and a delightful pony trap for a private client.

Crab and Lobster

Designed and painted on the wall as part of the transformation of the Golden Lion Port Isaac into the Crab and Lobster for the filming of the TV show Doc Martin.

Signature Signs - Doc Martin