We headed along to the opening of screen-print collective Heretic‘s new exhibition ‘Spectral Nation’ at London’s Coningsby Gallery last night, and WOW – we were blown away both by the superb technical standard of their work, and just how original and exciting it is. Bursting with their now recognisable neon colour palette, there’s an amazing array of prints on show – some sporting their collage-inspired style (a mix of crazy patterns, loops, rays and even the odd swimmer or flamingo for good measure), alongside others with a bolder, more abstract feel to them with stunning colour gradients.

Over a beer we got chatting to the folks from People of Print, with whom we all happily agreed that it was most certainly our favourite screen print exhibition ever! We highly recommend that you go along and take a look for yourselves – ’Spectral Nation’ runs from 20-31st May at the Coningsby Gallery, London – for more information visit HERE.

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

** Heretic are also one of the contributing collectives to our current edition of Wrap magazine, which is available to order from our online shop **

We are thrilled to announce the launch of Wrap’s first range of limited edition prints – a selection of some of our favourite contemporary illustrations created for Wrap magazine by our talented contributors, printed beautifully on 310gsm uncoated archival paper.

Each print is part of an edition of 25, and comes hand-numbered, along with a certificate detailing the name of the artwork and artist, which is signed by Wrap. All five prints are now available to order from our online shop HERE.

Above & top: ‘Spectral Nation’ by Heretic for Wrap #7

Above & top: ‘Horse Trekking in the Andes’ by Charlotte Trounce for Wrap #5

Above & top: ‘Building Blocks’ by Hvass&Hannibal for Wrap #7

Above & top: ‘Darkness’ by Lotta Nieminen for Wrap #6

Above & top: ‘Open Country’ by Jessica Fortner for Wrap #4

We will be holding a small exhibition of the prints at The Missing Bean in Oxford, from Thursday 23rd May – 19th July 2013, but if you can’t come along to see them in person, then all the prints are available to view and purchase from our shop.

>> Shop our new print collection online HERE

………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………………..

Wrap magazine is a celebration of illustration, design and creative culture, putting the spotlight on some of today’s most talented and inspiring artists. Order your copy of our current issue HERE 

Last Saturday Wrap was invited to hold a zine workshop at the V&A museum in London as part of The Sorrell Foundation’s Art & Design Saturday Club – a fantastic 18 week programme held in many institutions and universities across the UK, that allows young people, aged 14-16, to study art and design for free on a Saturday morning.

The group of students we worked with have been looking at ‘street food’ as their overall theme for the programme, so we decided to work with them to make a zine all about their favourite street food dishes, and my did it make us all hungry! We asked each student to make one A3 image using various sheets of coloured card that we’d pre-printed with shapes and patterns for them to cut out and use, and then using a photocopier we reduced down the size of each image and printed them up into A5 zines. They all did an excellent job, and came up with such varied dishes and imaginative ways of re-creating them with paper – we were mightily impressed, and had a brilliant time working with them for the morning!

Aptly names ‘Valberts’ (Victoria & Alberts cafe!), here’s some pic’s of their final zine…

To find out more about The Sorrell Foundation’s National Art & Design Saturday Club visit here

We were incredibly lucky to bump into some of the best illustrators practicing today at Berlin’s Pictoplasma festival earlier this month, and out of this first-rate bunch, emerged one Ted Parker. Living and working in Utrect, in the Netherlands, the world in which Ted paints (that includes kick-flipping dogs, bowler hat wearing sea lions, and booze drinking dolphins) has a distinctly comic feel, and is completed with trademark up-turned lips and cartoon beady eyes.

But looking beyond the humour in his work, Ted’s crafted for himself an impressive and accomplished painterly style, one that sheds a new brighter light on the face of illustration, and one that keeps us poised, waiting to see what he produces next.

Above: Dog Does Kickflip, top: A Certain Je Ne Sais Quoi

Carrying My Love

A Quiet Cup of Coffee

Dance (t-shirt design available from It’s Nice That)

To enjoy more of Ted Parker’s work or to buy yourself a print from his first collection visit ted-parker.com

We are mighty big fans of Nous Vous, and not just because they created this fantastic pattern (above) to adorn the cover of our latest edition of Wrap! Imbuing all they produce with a certain joie de vivre, Jay Cover, William Edmonds and Nicolas Burrows have developed a hearty and impressive array of output, from the surreal, dashing and witty, to more patient, detailed and patterned pieces. Spread across various mediums, from print, to installation and ceramics, their always arresting graphic aesthetic has attracted clients such as Bloomberg, Tate and the ICA. Great friends as well as collaborators, there also seems something nicely understated about the way these three men go about their business – long may they continue!

Here we share some of our favourite pieces from Nous Vous’ portfolio, and an extract from our interview with the trio in Wrap 7 – which is focused around illustration and design collectives.

Firstly, can you tell us about the pattern you developed for Wrap? 

A pattern in itself is a nice representation of a union of separate elements, so we felt it needed no additional concepts to over-complicate it. We wanted to have fun with it, each creating components independently that we could then arrange and play about with. We decided on the scale we were using, so our shapes and forms fitted into a grid system which could be repeated.

How did you three meet and form Nous Vous? 

We met whilst studying in Leeds; all of us were involved in projects and exhibitions outside of university, working with bands, venues, galleries and DIY events. Our mutual interest and common perspective became evident and we naturally gravitated towards one another.

How do you work together?

We chat about initial ideas and develop a direction and loose set of parameters, before working independently, adding visual ideas to a folder. Then we come back and discuss these, see what’s working, embellish, refine or simplify them. We generally like to arrive at a nice simple notion we can explore further. Then it’s a case of finding a visual way to communicate this.

And what sorts of projects do you most like to work on?

Projects where you’re given encouragement to explore ideas freely, whether drawing a picture, designing a brochure or creating an exhibition. Projects with unexpected outcomes are always great, especially when collaborating with other people who contribute skills and a different way of thinking.

How would you describe the style of Nous Vous?

We focus on getting images right, so they communicate what we want them to. One of our main objectives is to make people feel comfortable, and gather a sense of joy from our work. I guess we have quite a playful approach, we like to be confident and bold, while always thinking about the audience and working towards finding common ground between us and the spectator.

And finally, what do you most like about working together?

Sharing achievement with friends is nice. Being able to share disappointment is better. Mostly it’s about getting excited and enjoying working together.

TO READ OUR FULL INTERVIEW WITH NOUS VOUS, as well a whole host of other great features and content you can order our latest edition of Wrap magazine from >> our online shop.

AND we of course urge you to go check out Nous Vous’ site to enjoy more of their super work! >> nousvous.eu

The opening night of Pick Me Up last week did not disappoint – a buzzing crowd of illustrators and creatives turned up to celebrate and admire the artworks on display at Somerset House’s embankment galleries, and Wrap was there among them, enjoying the lovely cold beer, and spying out some of our favourite things to share with you here!

We’ve found it pretty hard to whittle down our ‘best bits’, so in this post we’re just going to have a look at ‘Pick Me Up Selects’ – a collection of work by artists who were selected by Somerset House’s curators, and deemed to be the best and most exciting new talent out there! Among them was illustrator Hattie Stewart (below), whose ‘defaced’ magazine covers were just superb, and street painter Malarky (whose work many of you will recognise) showing off some of his famous characters.

Top: The graphic identity for this years’ event was designed by Studio Emmi and Chrissie Macdonald …and included these brilliant giant pencils with shavings!

Hattie Stewart‘s awesome version of a LOVE magazine cover

Jean Jullien‘s work made us chuckle – and his simple, bold display worked perfectly with his style

Ping Zhu‘s brush strokes are beautiful, and give her illustrations such lovely movement

We often spy Malarky‘s street paintings cheering up dull shutters and grey walls around London, and so it was a delight to see some characters framed and available to buy!

Ahhh we just love this fella, from the cat-keen Tom Edwards – showing off his mighty painting skills oh yes

And lastly, Damien Florebert Cuyper‘s colourful crayon portraits were just soooo good – but we were gutted to miss him in action, as he’s been at PMU on selected days this week doing live ‘One Minute Portraits’ for visitors, lucky them!

Pick Me Up runs until Sunday 28th April, so there’s still time to pop on down and check it out for yourself. For more info & prices visit the Somerset House site

This week sees the return of Pick Me Up – Somerset House’s annual graphic arts festival (now in it’s fourth year), and here at the Wrap HQ we’re getting pretty darn excited about it. With a vibrant line-up of artists exhibiting over the 11 day event, both as a part of ‘Pick Me Up Selects’, and in the various spaces being taken over by collectives and galleries, there’s going to be a lot to feed our illustration hungry eyes!

With this in mind, we thought we’d try and pick out some of the artists and events we’re most intrigued by, to help us focus our enthusiasm(!), and give you an idea of what to look forward to. Of course we hope you’ll join us there, bustling amongst the crowds, but if you can’t make it along then stay tuned for updates and stories throughout the festival here, and through our social media channels.

Above: ’Midnight Ride’ ©DanielFrost2013; Top: ‘Here Be Dragons’ ©RobFlowers2013

PICK ME UP SELECTS – Providing a platform for bright new talent, ‘Pick Me Up Selects’ is back with a dedicated space on the ground floor of the embankment galleries, showing work specially commissioned (and on-sale) for the event by 17 artists including the cartoons of fast-food loving Rob Flowers, pared-down charming works by Daniel Frost (his hand-painted wooded toys look super), sleek and graphic images from Malika Favre and awesome ‘doodle-bombs’ by Hattie Stewart.

AND… some of the ‘Selects’ artists will be on-hand (sorry) to decorate and adorn your nails with their unique styles at the Pick Me Up pop-up nail bar – a genius idea!

‘The Boss’ ©DanielFrost2013

‘June’ ©MalikaFavre2013

‘Megazine’ ©HattieStewart2013

OPEN STUDIO – Our favourite screen printers, and current stars of Wrap 7, Print Club London will host this year’s ‘Open Studio’, giving visitors the chance to learn print techniques from their team, and create a personalised image to take away with them. Also, with the help of some of their creative buddies like jewellery designer Fred Butler and artist Margot Bowerman, they’ll be decorating the walls of their space each day through ‘live’ wallpaper sessions.

©KevinMeredith2013

©KevinMeredith2013

COLLECTIVES & GALLERIES – Taking up residence on the mezzanine level of the embankment galleries will be a super array of collectives and galleries! They’ll each be developing a bespoke space from which to show-off their impressive and affordable graphic artworks, and many will be running live workshops and events so you can get involved and meet the illustrators. We’re particularly looking forward to Puck Collective‘s temporary tattoo parlour ‘Puckleduster’(!), and seeing stands by Beach London, Wrap stockist SOMA, Zombie Collective and illustration agency Handsome Frank.

‘Mermaid’ ©LiamBarrett2013

‘Oolong’ ©Peskimo2013 (represented by SOMA)

And lastly, having just enjoyed his live drawing skills in Berlin for Pictoplasma (above), we’re really pleased to hear that illustrator and doodler extraordinaire Jon Burgerman will be running ‘Game, Sketch, Match!’ – a sensational collaborative drawing contest against the clock! We can’t wait.

…………………………………………………………………………………………..

• Pick Me Up: Graphic Arts Festival 2013
• 18-28 April / open daily 10am-6pm / late night Thursdays 6pm-10pm
• Entry £8 / Concessions £6 / Festival pass £15