New Website!

Head over to the brand new bennewman.co.uk. It's dead fancy like!

Only 2 Dicephaly Brothers left!

Only 50 were made and now just 2 are left of this double headed treasure! Get it while you can by clicking HERE.

Snap Mini Print for Sale Online

My screen print for the SNAP mini print show is now for sale on the SNAP studios website for a steal at £25. The full size of the print is 21cm x 21cm and if you click HERE you purchase this geometric treasure.

Bento Bestiary Update Part Two

What a difference a year and a half makes! Similar to the last post, the image on the left is from the original Bento Bestiary in early 2009 and the image on the right is from the new edition due October 2010. I feel very lucky to be given the opportunity to revisit an old project and tweak it. It has been a real eye opener to see how much my ability to draw has developed since the original.

The original was silk screen printed in 3 colours. The new edition will be litho printed in 4 spot colours.

Bento Bestiary Update

(Left) Original Inugami used in the Limited Edition 'Bento Bestiary, which came out in early 2009, and was silk screen printed in a run of just 100.

(Right) New Inugami that will feature in the all new, mass produced, hardback edition due out October 2010 and will be printed in 4 spot colours.

All That Dreams Matters

Excerpt from my 7 page contribution to the 'Graphic Cosmogony' that will be published by Nobrow later in the year. Thanks to Bjorn Lie for his incredible technical advice and tips on this project and Tom Frost for his help checking back through my work and being an awesome studio buddy. Cheers, chaps.

Stay Loose Business Card Design

A long time ago, Matt Brown from Stay Loose contacted me about using my 'Charley and the Birds' image for his website. Matt enjoyed the birds so much he recently asked me to design him a business card similar to an image I designed for 'Kindred' a while back. It was great to be able to revisit a picture I designed very quickly and improve on it. Cheers then.

Geometric Love

I managed to squeeze in some print designs over the weekend so that I can spend a couple of evenings screen-printing in the SNAP studio basement. I'll post photos of the prints once they are finished.

Shape-o-lio-lio

Mini-print Design for SNAP

Just finished this design for the SNAP studios mini-print show that starts on the 6th July. The private view will start at 6pm on the 8th July and includes a stellar line up of illustrators which you can see by clicking HERE. The artists taking part are donating a print each to help raise money for SNAP and all the prints will be on sale for a very affordable price. Toodles!

Plone Conference 2010 Logo

Netsight Internet Solutions contacted me a few weeks back about designing a logo for the Plone conference they are hosting in Bristol. Netsight are a Bristol based company and as the hosts they wanted the logo to incorporate not just Bristol landmarks but also the city's quirks and cultural identity.

I tried out numerous compositions ranging from very busy and cluttered to minimal and spacious. One of the things I really enjoyed about this job was that the client wanted the icons and graphics to be a little rough around the edges so it was great to loosen up and relax a bit. You can see how the logo was used for their website by clicking HERE.

Interview at Sooner Than Now!

Howdy Folks! Simon at Sooner Than Now asked me a few questions the other day. You can read my verbal wibblings HERE. Enjoy!

Journey to the Centre of the Page

I created this map for fellow Pocko illustrator and all round good dude, Adam Hayes and his fantastic maps project. You can read more about this map HERE and find out more about Adam's exciting project by clicking HERE. DO IT!

The Evolution of Neko-mata

(Running from left to right is Neko-mata featured in Nobrow 1 (2009), The Bento Bestiary Limited Edition (2009) and The Bento Bestiary (2010)). My blog has been pretty quiet of late due to an intense workload. One of the projects that is taking up a large serving of my time is the brand spanking new hardback version of the Bento Bestiary that will be available from all good bookshops in October. I'm redesigning the whole thing almost from scratch and thought it would be interesting to show the evolution of one of my favourite Yokai. Neko-mata is an old possessed cat that torments it's owner. Any more details would ruin the fun. I'll post some more teasers in the coming months. Thanks for reading.

Free 'Me No Want To Work Today' Wallpaper for your iPhone

Get the 'Me No Want To Work Today' monster on your iPhone for FREE! Simply head over to the Roxbury Industries' website by clicking HERE and download it along with fantastic wallpapers from Peskimo and Oreli.

Astro Cat Tote Bag available from Magma

The Astro Cat black tote bag is available now from Magma books in London for £9.99. Astro Cat appears on both sides of this hip, all cotton, shopping accessory. Alternatively, you can purchase it HERE from their online shop.

Ben Newman Merchandise at the Tate

If you are heading to the Tate Modern in London then keep your beady peepers peeled for these tasty pieces of merchandise that I designed exclusively for the Tate shop on the second floor.This signed limited edition print of 100 measures 40cm x 50cms and is a steal at only £20, click HERE to purchase it while stocks last.

Next up is a malfunctioning robot on a T-Shirt printed on a climate neutral cotton so it was made purely from renewable green energy. Purchase of this fine garment can be made HERE.
Note to self, iron T-shirts before photographing them for promotional purposes. Ooops!
Lastly, the 'Scribble Cat' T-Shirt, again printed on the same climate neutral cotton. Both Tees are £20 and you can purchase this one HERE.
Also, please note that the cat on the tee appears to be white. He isn't. The sun was just really bright and seems to have bleached him out a bit so he doesn't look very blue in the photograph.

That's all, folks!

Sneak Preview From Next Book Project

Ssssssssshhhhhhhhhh!

Kerry & Kevin Collaboration - Open Call

Just before Christmas, I was sent a rather fetching letter with an egg cup on the front and an invitation with the words "Say Yes" screen printed across a page from an old children's annual with a cowboy on. The letter was from a project called Kerry&Kevin. I'm not sure if there was a subliminal message in this invitiation but for some reason I decide to "Say Yes".

To help explain 'Kerry&Kevin' better, Kerry says "this project started in December 2009 with the intention of combining different processes and opinions in response to the issue of social inclusion. For example: how do people experience inclusion on a social, everyday level; what are the social consequences of inclusion; how can we make people aware of others; offer support systems and understand individual needs and behaviour. I have invited 41 practitioners from a range of disciplines to contribute due to their expertise, methodology and subject knowledge, I have asked them for some of their time, conversation and participation. This project will evolve from Kerry and Kevin's discussions and interactions, and the outcomes will vary from a chat, a workshop, a written statement to sharing an existing piece of work."

This project is open to collaboration so please check out the site as there are many wonderful people involved, including Bill Drummond and the Untimely writers to name just a few. Below is my contribution to the project illustrating my feelings towards inclusion stemming from my practice as an illustrator. These are just the first two panels of an eight panel sequence so to see the full story click HERE.

Batman No 72 on Covered Blog

Robert Goodin from Covered blog asked me if I would like to take part in the first "Covered Art Show' taking place at Secret Headquarters in Los Angeles. Covered is one of my favourite blogs and I check in there everyday at 4pm (GMT) to see the latest post so obviously I didn't hesitate to say YES. The show started a few days ago and features a stack of awesome cartoonists and illustrators redrawing any existing comic book of their choice. Prints and originals are available to buy via their flickr site, which you can find by clicking here.

I drew my interpretation of Batman No 72. I really struggled with this image mainly due to my workload from November through to January. Finishing the comic, the Porporpeius mask, the 'dicephaly brothers' toy and box, and a merchandise range for the Tate, plus the mania that is Christmas, all happened at the same time and I have to admit I felt utterly burnt out when I got round to doing this. Anyway, if this picture doesn't remind you of being extremely tired then you can buy it for the bargain price of $50 here. It is a giclee print in an edition of 20 so get 'em while their hot!