I have recently finished a collaborative project with the queen of twitter pics, Johanna Basford. The image was created as an exclusive for attendees of the NEoN Digital art festival which takes place in Dundee from 13-15 November 2009.

It is always a lot of fun collaborating with someone new and when it's someone as good as Johanna then it is exciting to see what they come up with. The illustration took about 3 days from start to finish. 1 day to draw out another for Jo to work in her illustration and a third to colour and tweak. 

Three and a bit months between posts, I am in danger of getting frequent here. Anyway, after listening to all the doom mongers at the start of this year telling me that this was the end of the (commercial) world I have gone on to have one of my busiest years ever!

One of the reasons for this has been my involvement with the NEoN Digital Arts Festival here in sunny Dundee. The festival takes place in November from the 12 - 15th with a host of events happening both free and paid for. The main event will be a collection of speakers from the world of digital art, including the legendary Bud Luckey formerly of Disney Pixar and the daddy of Grand Theft Auto, Dave Jones.

Tickets are on sale now with reduced price tickets available until 30th September (that's roughly 1 day after I posted this... sorry!)

Yes, I am still alive! And, more to the point, I think I have found a use for that twitter account I set up eons ago.

This weekend 19th - 21st June I will be taking part in the Glasgow SI Camp event trying to develop an idea I wrote on a post it note a while back. I will try and twitter about it and upload some images.

Twitter is /sooperdd

I am pleased to announce my involvement with Dundee's first digital arts festival, NEoN.

I will be overseeing the visual identity of the festival and my first action was to set in motion a social network that will document the whole process, something which I don't think I have seen before and will hopefully provide an interesting insight into how events like this work. It will also provide a hang out for people that want to be involved in the festival and allow people to collaborate and put on their own fringe events. 

It was 25 years ago that the first Apple Macintosh was let out of the bag, it seems like yesterday.

It was with a tear in my eye that I read today about the demise of one of the most influential design studios, The Designers Republic. TDR passed away suddenly but peacefully after contracting numerous ailments that combined to prove fatal. Read more here.

Digital Arts Magazine carries a small bit about me this month (February 2009). I have to admit, it's always very rewarding to see work in print so a big thanks to them for allowing me to fill up 1/3 of page 17 with my stuff.

I should probably point out an editorial error though, it does say I am an animator. I am not an animator. I do quite enjoy experimenting with animation but not really commercially, I have worked with animation companies and on animation projects but it has always been as a graphic designer or illustrator or a graphic illustrator if you prefer...

I have recently finished work on the design of a character for the RSNO (Royal Scottish National Orchestra). Based on their music director Stephane Deneve, the illustration was produced to hand over to their internal design team. Expect to see it on websites and promotional material everywhere (well everywhere in Scotland anyway), the image I have used here is from the 5' 3" cardboard cutout that graces the lobby of their concerts.

I have just added the Shoutbox illustration which was created earlier this year for Square-Go (previously Fidget) magazines website. Square-Go covers all things videogames related and was set up by the games editor of The Skinny Magazine. Although Square-go has long way to go visually with their website it is very informative and worth a read.

Phew, after a weekend of chewed finger nails the new website is live.

This version of sooperdd.com is an evolution over the last one, it was built by Dundee based internet software developers Waracle and uses their kick ass custom CMS system, which means I can update it easier and quicker. The site is also compatible with all the new techie things like iPhones (without the Flash though) and is built around 2 RSS feeds, so you can subscribe to the site for new work and news.