I start 2020 with a relaunched and refreshed website, fresh branding and, to some extent, a relaunched and refreshed me.

Over the last 4-5 years I've taken a break from Illustration and have taken on fewer creative projects after a rather nasty long-term health hiccup and a desire to mix up my life (don't worry, all ok now!). This "life mix up" in hindsight was quite obviously related to my health at the time. I thought I'd run out of creativity, but this returned with good health, surprise surprise. The mix up included teaming up with a terrible business partner ( and cutting that loose), launching my own artist agency, a stint working as a Creative Director at an agency and launching my own online store Maker's Mrkt . While I have no regrets about this momentary time out and professional experimentation, I sure learned a lot, one of my main learnings during this time was that I really love being a creative and I love the opportunities and flexibility of the freelance life. 

And so, I finished 2019 coming full circle, back to the home office, but this time with new appreciation, a much more rounded perspective and more enthusiasm than ever to make beautiful work and push myself as a creative thinker and maker. 2019 finished in a lovely fashion, diving right back into botanicals in a big way, working with an agency I've admired forever Gloss Creative. Commissioned with the (quick) task to decorate the walls of the 1 Oliver Street marquee, I created a series of florals that, in my opinion, are my best colouring in yet!

1 Oliver Street 

2019 also finished with a lovely project with Cordis Hotels Auckland, a fast and furious pre-xmas bump in pop-up shop for Maker's Mrkt and an impromptu play day assisting Simone Haag as she photographed one of her incredibly decorated residences... I tried to play it cool, but I'm sure she could smell my nerdy enthusiasm a mile away. 

So here I am, I'm supposed to be on holiday right now, but I'm writing about being back with a new site before it's even launched. This site is like the old me, I've bought a few things back, like this blog (still bringing over some blog posts from back as far as 2011!), but this time a little more polished and concise, I'm going to share more of my work, thoughts and collaborations. In 2020 I plan to release a few products under my own name, collaborate as much as possible, branch out, play with spaces more, put my new camera to work and make quality content both for clients and the pure joy of making it. 

Looking forward to sharing more here! I copied over a few of my old blog posts which were kinda funny to read, so head back fro a trawl and comment if you're interested. Thanks for sticking around if you're on of the OG blog readers, and if you're new, then welcome!