Christmas 2018

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Our annual round robin

Though it says annual round robin above, this year we actually sent out a round-up of what we’d been up to in August (click here to have a read), which means this round robin is only covering what’s been going on since then. So more of a semi-circular robin, really.

Still, time to break out a piece of Christmas cake, or stollen if you’re a bit continental, and sit down to catch up with our recent doings. A few highlights of what our artists, illustrators, photographers and film-makers have been getting up to in the last few months of 2018.

Anna Bu Kliewer has continued her collaboration on ‘Modern Love’ in Elle Netherlands with writer Haroon Ali, as well as illustrating columns for LA culture mag Flaunt and providing some food-based imagery for the Financial Times magazine. Early next year she has a series coming out with 10 Magazine for their spring/summer issue.

On the art side of things, James Joyce has kept up his pace for the year, seeing through a number of projects. He provided illustrations, in red, white and blue, for an Elle USA piece encouraging Americans to vote in the mid-terms, and was one of ten artists to create a custom Rega turntable for Secret 7” to be auctioned in aid of Mind, the mental health charity. He was also interviewed by House Notes, the magazine for members of Soho House, and was one of the artists taking part in both this year’s Juxtapoz Clubhouse in Miami. Finally, he released a limited edition screen print of the painting that was included in this year’s Summer Show at the Royal Academy for the first ever Art Car Boot Fair Christmas Wrap Party. January will see him creating new work for Whistles.

On the photography side, Cat Garcia photographed female footballers for the Sunday Times Style magazine to celebrate them finally achieving a professional wage. And she took a portrait of Darius Namdar, director of Mark’s Club in Mayfair, for MR PORTER, on the occasion of an auction on behalf of the Elton John Aids Foundation.

Danny Sangra has been hard at work as ever, recently shooting a short film ‘When at Sea’ on board Cunard’s Queen Mary 2 with Vogue shopping editor Naomi Smart. Before that he made ‘Everything looks better in eyewear’, a film for Vogue promoting the new Selfridges Eyewear Hall, and illustrated the windows of montrose18’s new fashion store cum gallery at Kings Cross in his inimitable style.

Following their collaboration with Uniqlo and Disney on the Love & Mickey Mouse Collection, which saw them making personal appearances in New York, London and Singapore, Kate Moross designed a cover for Time Out’s 50th anniversary issue. They also created a One World poster for Teaching Tolerance magazine, which promotes social justice and works against bias and prejudice in US schools. It’s also been a busy time over at Studio Moross as you can see here.

Matt Blease told us about his secret fascination with limited edition British coins, and the Instagram account, @yes_itsakeeper, he set up that is dedicated to the subject. Meanwhile, he still found time to create themed illustration for each of the sections of the Guardian Weekly magazine and work on new designs for Code Nation, an organisation that works with under-resourced US schools to help their pupils access tech careers. And he’s just had an illustration of nautical tattoos published in Omegas Lifetime magazine.

You can see Quentin Jones’ work all over Selfridges, their stores, their advertising, their website. She created their Christmas look and feel ‘Selfridges Rocks Christmas’. She also photographed Florence of Florence and the Machine for an Elle cover story in November and was interviewed by Chinese fashion mag SKP.

Steven Wilson unveiled a limited edition accessories collection he designed for fashion retailer Henri Bendel in late August. He also designed a gig poster for Death Cab for Cutie, a poster for film composer Hans Zimmer, and a series of stickers encouraging participation in the US midterm elections.

Andy Gilmore has been working on personal pieces, including the recent colourfully curving stripes of ‘Verdant’, while Neal Murren has completed another letter in his occasional pencil-drawn series, this time presenting ‘The Story of M’. Phillippa Mills, too, has been producing personal work in recent months, with one set offering images of lipstick, ear-rings and shoes, while another set was inspired by plants seen in Phillippa’s local hedgerows. Paula Castro had an exhibition of her work, Ya Que Estoy, open in her birth city of Buenos Aires, and Craig & Karl created their own colourful vision of the London skyline in a poster available from Tate Modern. 

In further news, we’ve been involved in further collaborations, as it’s an area we love. We’ve continued working with the Design Museum. First, by getting Breed artists involved with their #designermakeruser exhibit, which saw people picking one design object that was meaningful to them in some way. Then, we took over the Design Museum’s Instagram account in early December as part of their #designsanddesigners series, celebrating the work of talented creatives.

We’ve also started a new series asking our artists for their favourite podcasts in #Breedspodcastsofthemonth. We started with Danny Sangra in November continuing with Matt Blease this month. You’ll see more #Breedspodcastsofthemonth  in the new year.

All that remains is to wish everyone reading this a very happy Christmas, and a 2019 packed with new visual experiences. We’ll see you there.

Olivia and all at Breed

*image by Anna Bu Kliewer for ES magazine’s Christmas card.