Breed Christmas update 2022
Where did the year go?
With that, it’s time to give you a quick rundown of what Breed’s artists have been up to during 2022. Not a complete list, just some of our favourite projects…
January
James Joyce set 2022 rolling by releasing new glitter-dusted prints of his collapsing smiley clown faces via Guy Hepner Gallery and TAX Collection in New York, while Steven Wilson created a frame for the cover of the latest Twin Magazine, which was then animated by Pedro Cardoso.
February
This month saw the release of Wes Anderson’s latest film The French Dispatch, and, if you looked closely, you could spot Annie Atkins’ work in there, including a map of Kansas, a poster for absinthe and beer and cognac labels.
Paula Castro, meanwhile, featured in a Q&A with Flaunt magazine, having provided illustrations for the magazine for a while.
March
Last year, Danny Sangra designed graphic assets to be used on digital media for Ardagh Young Creatives, an annual programme by the Design Museum for 14-16-year-olds from under-represented backgrounds. And he did the same this year. Not far away in Kensington, Quentin Jones had created an installation film called Boys Don’t Cry for the Fashioning Masculinities: The Art of Menswear exhibition at the V&A. Marking International Women’s Day on 8 March, Catherine Garcia took some portrait shots of Michal Silver, Creative Director at Christopher Farr Cloth.
This month also saw the start of the war in Ukraine, with artists doing what they could in solidarity with the Ukrainian people. Matt Blease produced a print – This Way – Peace Edition, with profits going to Choose Love Ukraine Crisis Fundraiser. And James Joyce created an edition of NFTs of a missile-launcher loaded with a sunflower for United for Ukraine. As someone born in Ukraine, this cause was particularly dear to Yelena Yemchuk, who was very proud to see her work ‘Slava Ukraini’ on the cover of Vogue Poland.
April
Matt Blease was busy as spring broke, creating a series of ads for the new Groote Museum in Amsterdam, and a series of illustrations for The New Yorker on the rise of the robot barista. Danny Sangra was also busy, competing a series of collages, illustrations and animations to promote the latest versions of Mulberry’s Sadie bag. Anna Bu Kliewer was also working for a premium brand, creating new visual treatments for The Trade Routes collection from top London perfumiers Penhaligon’s. Yelena Yemchuk’s work was in Elle US, illustrating an article about chronic illnesses that still leave the medical profession stumped.
This month, Steven Wilson also auctioned NFTs he’d created on themes of peace, aid and solidarity, with all the proceeds going to United for Ukraine.
May
As summer beckoned, Craig & Karl unveiled the mini-golf course they designed, in all its vibrant colours, at Canary Wharf. Also focusing on playful design was Steven Wilson, who helped LEGO celebrate its 90th anniversary by creating an infographic timeline, which took you through the full history of those 90 years.
Paula Castro followed up Anna Bu Kliewer’s work last month for traditional London perfumiers Penhaligon’s, with her own illustrations for the same brand’s range of scented candles. Anna herself, meanwhile, was seen in the pages of Elle US, her images setting jewellery by Cartier, Dior, Bulgari and others in Bauhaus-inspired settings.
Danny Sangra’s exhibition ‘Psychic Hotline’, closed at Browns East in Shoreditch after a couple of months on show, and shots taken by Cat Garcia were used to promote a collaboration between David Shrigley OBE and Sunspel. James Joyce, though unable to make it person, did have a couple of new prints available at May’s Art Car Boot Fair, and Annie Atkins’work was examined in an interview with Italian cultural magazine Orlando, put out by publishing house Tessiore.
June
Natasha Law’s latest show, My Flash on You, opened at Eleven gallery in Twickenham this month.
Over at FT’s lifestyle magazine How To Spend It, Anna Bu Kliewer illustrated an article by contributing editor Fiona Golfar on the pros and cons of being blonde, which also appeared in animated form live on FT.com.
July
James Joyce was finally firmly ensconced in his new home and studio in Frome in Somerset, and among his first jobs produced there was a cover (and illustrations) for an FT Magazine article on providing feedback. Anna Bu Kliewer was also busy, continuing her run in Elle US, this time illustrating Chanel’s 1932 collection Bijoux de Diamants. Andy Gilmorewas continuing a run, too, racking up another cover for New Scientist, this time picturing the entire universe, as seen by the new space telescope.
We heard that Yelena Yemchuk’s book ‘Odesa’ sold out at about this time, just a couple of months after being published, with a second printing being lined up for later in the year.
Annie Atkins became part of summer festival season by running workshops on the craft of creating film props at The Good Life Society’s Summer Camp.
August
Anna Bu Kliewer put a lot of work into the August issue of Vogue Italia, which focused on the city of Bologna. She looked through over 20,000 images held by the Bologna Photography Archive to pick those she wanted to use for her images accompanying an article on the city. She was also interviewed by the author of the article for the online issue of the magazine.
Danny Sangra, in the meantime, had found a new canvas for his artwork – skateboards. And he designed a few for Skate Mental
A new film animation from Danny Sangra appeared this month, created for Rimmel to celebrate its partnership with Cruelty Free International.
Yelena Yemchuk’s work Odesa formed a key part of the PhEST See Beyond The Sea photography festival at Monopoli in the Metropolitan City of Bari in Italy that took place this month. Yelena herself also turned up at the 11th annual SPRING/BREAK Art Show in New York.
Debuting new personal works this month were Steven Wilson whose new portrait of Bob Dylan joined earlier pieces featuring Bowie, Hendrix and Nick Cave. And Neal Murren revealed new works of extraordinary detail and beauty that suggested a focus on mortality if you looked closely enough among the flowers, crickets and dandelion clocks.
October
Danny Sangra has been making animations related to Beatle birthdays and launches for the last year or so, and was particularly thrilled to be asked to make an animated video for ‘Taxman’, the lead track from what many regard their greatest album ‘Revolver’, to mark the launch of a special edition of the latter.
Danny wasn’t the only artist to be producing a lot of work this month. Anna Bu Kliewer continued her run of exquisite images based around jewellery for Elle US, this time combining the emeralds, diamonds, coral, onyx and platinum of Cartier’s new jewellery collection with Art Deco style. She also created animations to promote a new surrealism exhibition at the Design Museum – Objects of Desire: Surrealism and Design 1924-Today.
Annie Atkins and Paula Castro were both involved in a new book of cocktail recipes – The Maison Premiere Almanac.Annie was responsible for the typography gracing the cover, while Paula did the illustrations inside. Annie Atkins also turned up as the guest on Creative Characters, a podcast about the people behind branding and design made by Monotype.
Catherine Garcia took the photographs for a profile of fashion designer Racil Chalhoub that appeared in UltraLuxe. Matt Blease was behind some ads for banking group Citizens and Andy Gilmore crafted another cover for New Scientist, this time having to visualise the power of magnetism, for an article titled ‘Magnetic Universe – The forgotten force that sculpts our cosmos’.
November
Catherine Garcia was busy this month, first making a black-and-white video for Sunspel, showing what goes into the making of their jumpers, from the sheep to people wearing the wool. Then she sat down to be interviewed by property company London House, after taking portrait photos of their team for their website. Matt Blease was also being interviewed this month, as a guest of the On Design podcast, hosted by Justyna Green, one of the top ten design podcasts in the UK.
Across the Atlantic in Argentina, Paula Castro was commissioned to provide illustrations for the jackets of books by independent publisher Adriana Hidalgo editora. And closer to home in Hertfordshire, James Joyce had a new exhibition opening at hotel Birch.
December
At the time of writing, December has been Danny Sangra’s month so far. He’s released a new short film, ‘I Need To See You’, and created animations for Cornwall-based coffee company Yallah Coffee Roasters.
He also works with Waking Up which is a hugely popular meditation and mindfulness app set up by neuroscientist and author Sam Harris. As well as offering daily guided meditations, it allows you to listen to philosophers, spiritual teachers and scientists, one of whom is the late Alan Watts. Watts was a speaker and writer on spiritual ideas, especially Zen, Buddhism and Taoism, whose recorded talks have continued to inspire people since his death in 1973. Among those people is Danny Sangra, so he was delighted to be asked by Waking Up to create some animations for their Alan Watts Collection. The first features audio from ‘Ways of Liberation’, with more to follow. So, sit back listen to Alan’s very Home Counties tones, and watch Danny’s visual interpretations.
Incidentally, almost exactly a year ago, Andy Gilmore produced some illustrations for the Alan Watts talks on Waking Up, so this seems to be becoming something of a tradition.
Finally, throughout the year Catherine Garcia has been working on In Our Time No. 2, her online follow-up to her book Our Time No. 1. Among the subjects shot so far are the Hot City Horns, artist and maker Mark Reddy, artist and photographer Shahrzad, designer and ceramicist Reiko Kaneko, master craftsman John Edmunds, artist Bobbye Fermieand interior designer Fran Hickman. You can see them all on the Our Time site, which went live in July.
In other general agency news that took place…
Like everyone else, we were also all too aware of events going on in the world and put together an art auction of work by our artists in aid of Ukrainian refugees, with all proceeds going to humanitarian aid NGO Choose Love. With two of our artists – Yelena Yemchuk and Anna Bu Kliewer – born in Ukraine, this was a cause very close to our hearts.
We also kept up our series of conversations with creative people BREED presents throughout the year. And, after a pause for breath, we’ll list some of the names we’ve chatted to in 2022: journalist Alexandra Shulman CBE, founder and editor of YOLO Journal Yolanda Edwards, founder of Cabbages & Roses Christina Strutt, owners of Lola’s food delivery service Tim Spedding and Louise Rødkjær, painter and designer Flora Roberts, professional skateboarder and designer Erik Ellington, founder of magCulture Jeremy Leslie, author, designer, and host of the Design Matters podcast Debbie Millman, founders of Photo London Michael Benson and Fariba Farshad, Senior Designer at Dazed Bior Elliott, chef and restaurateur Jackson Boxer, Style Director of The World of Interiors Gianluca Longo, and Jonny Gent, artist and founder of Cabin Studio.
So, that’s 2022 thoroughly accounted for. We hope you have managed to wring some joy from the year, in spite of all the difficulties the year has presented for many of us. Here’s to ever better things in 2023 and wishing you all a very Merry Christmas.
Olivia and all at Breed
Thanks to Danny Sangra for the animation