My Olympic Bid

Here's my stab at some Olympic Mascots as promised. Any suggestions as to what their names are?

Ladyhawke - Paris is Burning.

A visual hommage to one of my favourite tracks of the last couple of years.

His Name is Prince and he is Purple

Sign of the Times

Horoscopes are complete bunkum but a great excuse to do some illustration. I've done a few in my time.One of the first things I did for my portfolio was a couple of horoscope signs. It seemed a good way to generate some artwork.

 

Well Beatnicks do have goatees - so why not? I don't know why Beatnicks are funny & cool. But they just are. Bongos are even more  funny & cool !

 

This one's got a 'Bulleye' meet Picasso vibe. Not sure now but it seemed a good idea at the time.

 

This was my first paying horoscope for Bliss magazine. I think they came up with the idea of a pretty girl eating crab but I put the whole Japanese twist on it. I was going through a 'Japanese' phase at the time. 

 I came up with the idea of a giant monster crab attacking Tokyo which I pitched as an alternative idea.They went with the former. I still prefer mine. 

    

                                                                                                                                                                           I designed idents for all 12 signs for Just 17 magazine. I was commissioned to do a larger illustration for each month but in the end only did two. Here's the one I did for Libra.             

R.O.C.K!!!!!!!!

  

  

Olympic mascots - The best!

I think we can all agree the mascots for the London 2012 Olympic Games - Wenlock and Mandeville are crap. Monstrosities put together by committee. Why would you get a kid to do it? Any way to redress the balance I've decided to do my own version. It can't be any worse.

I'll post it up when I'm finished. 

In the mean time here's a list of my favourites.

 

Top of the pops ! Misha from the 1980 Moscow Oylmpics has got to be the best one. He's so cute!!! Designed by Russian illustrator Victor Chizhikov he was the first mascot to be heavily merchandised. He even had his own TV cartoon.

Number two! The great Spanish designer Javier Mariscal designed Cobi for the 1992 Summer Olympic Games in Barcelona. I love Mariscal's work.  

Number 3 ! A  couple of games after Misha comes South Korea's Hodori in 1988. Yeh he looks a bit like the Tiger off the cereal ads but look at his great hat!!

No 4. Last but not least The Fuwa - good-luck dolls for the Beijing 2008 Games. The Asians and Communists seem to be very good at this. Consisting of a fish, giant panda, fire, Tibetan antelope and swallow they represent the five elements of Chinese philosophy water, metal, fire, wood, and earth. Also they look like cool Manga cartoons.

 

Secret Giraffe!!!