View from the Zoo

Ritzenhoff did a great job with my coffee cup design for their My Darling 2008 collection. This sunny lion is king of the Java Jungle in the morning with his brew. Notice how the cup and the packaging are related to form a complete character that looks really good in the store display. The challenge is not only to make the cup interesting on all sides but also to create a character that a coffee lover can relate to.

A bit of background
The design started out as a business card for a very small corner café (now closed unfortunately). The owner, Remo, is a Leo. I developed a number of lions in different café settings and this one was Remo’s favorite. It also became the poster for my first exhibition of animal art at the café called «Les rois animaux» (The Animal Kings). Later on I submitted a revised and adapted version to Ritzenhoff but I didn’t hear from them for quite awhile, and then, surprise, one morning they announced their intention to produce the cup for this season.

I love zebras. When I started looking at them closely I realized it was a wonder of nature how those stripes flow around the body without getting mixed up and how it is difficult to tell if the animal is black with white stripes or vice versa. I finally got to draw one - this is for the Tigerprint jigsaw puzzle competition which finishes at the end of July. You can see my other entries and those of other illustrators as well. So is the smile a stripe or really a smile?

Rob Dunlavey is an illustrator after my own heart. I love his work, especially his animal designs, since his approach is similar to mine. He took some time out of his busy schedule to answer a few questions.  I have split this interview into several posts so that I can show off his art. You can see lots of his work on his website and on his blog. Or even better, buy a mug.

Q: Those ABC mugs you sell were the first things I noticed. What made you decide to create illustrations for mugs?

A: I’d fiddled with ABC books or other ABC subjects over the years. Just as side projects. They never got too far off the ground. Finally, I sketched out the mug ideas. Why mugs? I’m not really sure. Maybe it’s because I could easily self-publish/prototype the concept and I wouldn’t feel bad taking things to a finished state. I’m still a bit intimidated by book making and that whole process. With this project I could focus on just making pleasing designs for a very specific one-off format: an image that wrapped around a 12 oz ceramic cylinder. Continue reading »

My friend Hugues took these pictures of my Coke glass in the gift shop in the Coca-Cola museum in Atlanta last week. There are only 2000 of this limited edition collector glass by Ritzenhoff. In all, four designs by four artists from Europe and North America are available. I was inspired by art toys and mascots when I did this design. The creature that looks like a fridge is actually a frog! I enjoyed placing the Coke logo in original ways as well. I also hand painted several boxes for a corporate gift which you can see in my portfolio. It’s aways fun when people say they saw your design in another country. Thanks, Hugues!