Covid-19 My Local shopping basket illustration

June 5, 2020 Matt Bannister

Soon after the start of the lockdown, I was approached by The Crystal Palace Town Team to create an eye-catching illustration for a community website in south London. In response to the COVID-19 crisis they had created a website where local businesses could publicise their goods and services, assisting their commercial survival and for the local community to find goods and services easily during the crisis. They needed an image that would draw the attention of people to posts on social media (and the pages themselves) instead of just a bland text link.

The Crystal Palace Town Team is a voluntary group of local traders, community groups, residents and local authority councillors set up to promote and improve the social, economic and environmental well-being of the neighbourhood area of Crystal Palace and Upper Norwood.

My finished design is based around an image of a wire shopping basket, but also incorporates local landmarks: the park sphinx statues, the large sculpture of Sir Joseph Paxton and the TV transmitter tower, thinly disguised as the handle. Also, within the struts of the basket is the image of the Crystal Palace itself that lends its name to the area (but was destroyed by fire in 1936). The rainbow motif is something that many people have used during the pandemic to symbolise hope, community and support.

Festivals and Politics

June 28, 2017 Matt Bannister

In the last couple of months I have been commissioned to design TWO covers for the Croydon Citizen newspaper. Here are the results.

cover illustrations from The Croydon Citizen

Though both inked with real ink and coloured with real, er Photoshop, their subject matters are quite different. May's cover was an amalgam of the annoying problem of fly-tipping in the Croydon borough with the, then, forthcoming general election. Politics is rubbish, indeed.

June's was to celebrate three community festivals taking place that month. Each 'strip' featured a London bus driving down the High Street near the end of Surrey Street. The first: Tech City (hence the modern street scene with sci-fi orange pipes and hovering digital signage). The second: The Summer of Love event in Wandle Park, channeling the spirit of 1967. The third: the Croydon Heritage festival celebrating all of Croydon's past but I was asked to go for the 1950s in order that the Routemaster bus made sense. I've also added some crocus decorations inspired by the new art installation by artists Aether and Hemera, commissioned for the Heritage Festival.

Each 'strip' contains people and buildings, but the eagle-eyed will notice that the clothes of the pedestrians alter slightly depending on what era they are in.

Also, I've endeavoured to mimic the architecture of Surrey Street in the background by changing the buildings. I wasn't until I did this illustration that I discovered that an old cinema - called The Palladium Cinema - used to stand at the end of Surrey Street, where The Market Tavern is now. Read more about it on Cinema Treasures and see a lovely photo of it in the 1950s on Flickr.

Illustration of the Palladium Cinema, Croydon

Who can you trust in a post-truth world?

March 13, 2017 Matt Bannister

Illustrations for The Long+Short inspired by London crowds

I was recently commissioned to create three illustrations for the digital magazine The Long+Short. It wasn't a straightforward commission as the concept of trust was integral to the article and it didn't immediately conjure up easy imagery. I persevered, though, and am pleased with the diverse trio of concepts I came up with. The above image is essentially about suspicion and is directly inspired by the oodles of people you see walking around central London. These characters mainly came from people I've seen in Trafalgar Square and Borough High Street.

Illustration of a jumbo jet with balloons

The next image was about a loss of trust. 'Cautious Jumbo' was the unofficial title I gave it and you can hopefully see that someone on the plane felt the need to add some helium balloons to help it stay in the air.

Illustration of a girl in a breathing mask with flowers

The final image was a mixture of suspicion and lack of trust, I think. The woman is no longer confident that the sweet-smelling flowers are what they purport to be, hence the breathing mask.

The Long+Short is an online publication owned by the innovation charity Nesta, an organisation I did a body of other work for that you can see here.

Nesta's 10 Predictions For 2016

February 18, 2016 Matt Bannister

A new commission for innovation charity Nesta got my mind racing, recently. Every year, they publish a list of ten trends, social movements and technological breakthroughs that they believe will impact people's lives over the coming twelve months. I had to create an illustration for each, along with a wide banner image incorporating elements of all the predictions. The subject matter, though fascinating, was quite complicated and coming up with options for every one really made my brain itch! Here are all the illustrations, with a couple of screenshots of the webpages when the campaign was released. You can read the full predictions in detail here.

On the night of the launch, in addition to inviting lots of informed/informative/informal people, the Nesta team had printed up my banner design for the wall of their communal space. In addition, there was a rather slick booklet produced featuring all of the predictions (with my pics, naturally).

Helen Goulden, Executive Director of Nesta

Croydon Citizen Covers

January 6, 2016 Matt Bannister

In the last few months, I have been commissioned by a local newspaper to create two illustrations for them. The Croydon Citizen produces web content as well as a free hard copy each month. The first commission was for an article called "Is Croydon Fair?". They came up with the rough concept of the old weighing scales, and suggested local landmarks and services to fill the plate with. The image was used on the front, and inside with the feature.

My new cover illustration for the latest issue of the Croydon Citizen. #illustration #Croydon #SurreyStreetMarket #southlondon #newspaper
A photo posted by Matt Bannister (@bannister_images) on Nov 11, 2015 at 4:12am PST

Here's the 'clean version' without text, followed by some of the initial drawings of elements to go in the dish:

A few months later, I was asked to do a cover image for their Christmas issue, this time highlighting the concerns some Croydonians have had about the temporary closure of the Fairfield Halls.

They, again, had an idea that they wanted bringing to life: the Fairfield Halls in a half and half state of open and closed.

Here's the final version, without text, followed by a drawing of an early version featuring two contrasting trees (that we decided not to use in the end, as it might have hindered the lay out).