Branding/Site Specific, Linnaean, ‘Animal, Vegetable, Mineral’
generation of architects and designers! There can be challenges associated with developing children’s books on famous artists. My activity book, ‘My Art Teacher Mr Picasso’ was not actually published due to permission issues from Picasso’s estate! Q: You have had many commissions involving play and interactivity for children, such as the above interactive books, games and puzzles for the Barbican, and ‘Michael Rosen’s book of Play’ and corresponding ‘Play Well’ exhibition. How do you develop ideas for activities and how do you evaluate what will be engaging for a child? How much art direction and personal freedom did you have for these projects? Sometimes projects like these have a team responsible for coming up with the activity ideas, but on other occasions, I’ve had to create the ideas myself. I tend to think back to my childhood and the kind of art activities I enjoyed then, whilst also considering the ways I create my work now. A big part of my work is about mark making, so I enjoy designing activities
around this. Although it’s harder to engage children in these kinds of hands on activities, given that there are many very clever exciting digital options available, I still think they can be very effective and offer a different kind of tactile experience. Q: You have been involved in various art-based workshops. What do you enjoy about the different creative experience this offers, in terms of working directly with other people (in contrast to freelance illustration, which can be solitary)? I think the way children draw and make art is fascinating and the naivety of the marks they make has always been something that has inspired my own work. So leading creative workshops, particularly with children, is always fun and I feel like I can learn as much from them as they do from me. Q: You have had various different kinds of exhibitions, some connected to book commissions as well as exhibitions of personal work. What role do exhibitions provide for you? 141