Cassie, Catboy and the King

Welcome to the latest Unicorn Studios newsletter. We're still closed for meeting at the Studio but the numbers are looking good and optimism is back so we will be reviewing this in the next week or so with a view to reopening soon. Everyone cross those fingers🤞.

We have another members Zoom meet-up on Friday at 11am. Dan will send the invite link nearer the time. If you're not yet in the WhatsApp group for arranging these and want to be let us know.

Our second "Meet the Members" is now live and features Cheddar Creative's big cheese (Creative Director!) Cassie Bendall. Below is a quick snippet from the full post.

Meet Cassie

While working at home what is your guilty pleasure?

This is random, but I really enjoy watching crime documentaries on Netflix while designing. I have it on in the background and it completely keeps me focused. That and the fact that I can wear activewear every day, even when I have no intention of being active.

Have you had any embarrassing Zoom moments?

I have had many times where I just think of something funny during a Zoom and then am unable to stop laughing. I blame my creative, quirky brain, luckily Rich is always on hand to stand in until I compose myself.

What is your hidden talent?

I am freakishly strong and really good at drinking gin! Really good!

Read the full post about Cassie here

A cat, a nephew and spaceships

Known for his Catboy artworks, studio member Carl Harris, gives us the lowdown on his inspiration and his recent change of focus.

Much of my work over the past 15 years has focused on a visual storyline around Catboy: The boy with the Cat Shadow. My cat and my nephew, as well as my own childhood provided inspiration for this work. I was a cheeky young boy, who dreamed of being an astronaut and building his own robot. I liked to go for adventures on long summer days, climb trees, skim stones and cycle fast down country lanes. I want to portray this sense of youth, adventure and discovery in my work.

Recently, during the Covid-19 restrictions, I’ve been responding to slightly different influences. In lockdown, I think we’ve all wanted to escape reality, to go somewhere better, to forget and be in a happier place; or just let our imaginations run wild. Binge-watching seems to have become everyone’s release and comfort blanket. I’ve always been drawn to Sci-Fi movies, and one in particular: Close Encounters of the Third Kind. It’s my comfort-blanket-when-not-feeling-very-well-chicken-soup-movie.

These are the initial sketches for a possible project reflecting those themes; spaceships, alien abduction, Sci-Fi… who knows? I’m just enjoying drawing what I want and not worrying too much about it - that’s often when the best stuff happens!

Create. Unite. Inspire

Illustrator Mark King tells us about his commission for Unicorn Studios…

When I was designing the digital version of my original Unicorn Studios shield illustration, I saw it as an opportunity to really experiment as I was using a new software. I wanted to create a balance between having clean vector outlines with a stipple texture to give the impression that the design was handcrafted.

Colour was quite easy to decide on, as I had a vague idea of it predominantly being a blue based colour palette. Plus I figured blue would tie in well with the theme of royalty since blue is often associated with being a royal colour. However, the first shades of blue that I picked were too bright and a bit jarring to look at, so I changed the shades to match Unicorn Studios logo colour palette.

The words for the motto was something I especially wanted to be extra particular about as I wanted to have something that captured the essence of what Unicorn Studio’s is. Whilst being short, dramatic and memorable. For each member who worked in the studio would ‘Create’ either as a creative in profession or create their new business and opportunities. Members would also ‘Unite’ with other members to work on collaborative projects and support each other with areas that they lack experience/expertise in. Then finally we would aim to ‘Inspire’ Unicorn members with new ideas/possibilities for their work.

The full shield illustration will be revealed at the studio soon!

Have a great month and hopefully we can see each other face to face in the Studio soon.

Rob, Dan & Steve