Breed Christmas update 2024
Another year draws to a close
Another year draws to a close and so here it is… we’re looking back over the year, picking some of the highlights of what Breed artists got up to in 2024:
January
We didn’t expect 2024 to begin in Vegas, but that’s the way it happened, as Andy Gilmore was commissioned to create the animation Dawn, Noon, and Night, for the exterior of Las Vegas’s vast globe-shaped entertainment venue Sphere to celebrate New Year’s Eve. Heading south from Vegas, Elisa Alcalde started her year by designing the sleeve (and vinyl colour) for Chilean band Fantasna’s album ‘Estar Contigo’.
Back across the Atlantic, Danny Sangra had a new short film ‘Polly Goes Metal’, which took in technology and the Duke of Wellington, while Matt Blease was illustrating some of the most popular conversations on its social media app Threads at the request of Meta. And he’s continued to do so throughout the year as we mention below.
February
The big news in February was that illustrator and animator Maisy Summer added her immense talent to Breed. More from Maisy later. Cat Garcia was travelling, and brought back some spectacular photos taken during visits to Ecuador and the Galapagos islands.
Danny Sangra returned with another short film, ‘Damaged Goods’, which followed the trials of one Anne Margolis, who was also making a film called ‘Damaged Goods’. Also returning this month was Elisa Alcalde, who created the images for a cover piece in FT Magazine. And Andy Gilmore debuted two new eye-blowing pieces called ‘Cube’ and ‘Tesseract’.
March
March was a busy month, not least for Maisy Summer, who got off to a fine start as she was interviewed by Olivia Hingley for It’s Nice That, and also illustrated a calendar of wild plant recipes for bloom magazine.
Annie Atkins had already given a talk for Adobe MAX in LA in 2023, and was invited back as the main speaker, this time in London for their Adobe MAX The Creativity Conference.
Anna Bu Kliewer was commissioned by The Washington Post Book World supplement, illustrating a Judith Warner article about mobile phone use in children. James Joyce was also illustrating magazine articles, in his case for an FT Magazine piece by Markham Heid on combating falling into routine.
In 2023, Matt Blease had spent some time in New York, and had taken the opportunity to fill a sketchbook with images of his impressions. He pulled together his favourites into a zine that was available this month in a limited edition of 50.
April
April saw Danny Sangra back again, with another short film, though this time an animation called ‘Donny’s Orange’, which almost certainly has nothing to do with a forthcoming world leader.
Maisy Summer’s worked with the FT, this time for FT Globetrotter, illustrating an article by Chris Allnutt about London pub quizzes.
Quentin Jones created an artwork for the Design for a Dime exhibition, with the money for its sale going towards Housing Works, which helps with healthcare and housing for New Yorkers living with HIV and other illnesses.
A particularly striking piece of work by Anna Bu Kliewer was in April’s Elle US, showing off a reimagining of Jean Schlumberger‘s 1965 jewellery item Rainbow Bird on a Rock by Tiffany & Co.
As well as continuing to produce illustrations for Meta’s Threads, Matt Blease designed a t-shirt for the Japan Jam 2024 music festival. And Steve Wilson got the prestigious job of creating the visual identity for Someplace, a new LA-based creative agency set up by former Wieden+Kennedy creative directors.
May
Annie Atkins was the guest on the third episode of the DesignThinkers Podcast, talking about how she eventually discovered her specialised niche in graphic design and particularly enjoys the research her job requires.
Cat Garcia made a film ‘Maker: Florian Gadsby’ about North London ceramicist Florian Gadsby. It was commissioned by Make Hauser & Wirth Somerset and also featured music by Carlos Garcia.
Matt Blease designed a range of candle holders, coasters, and trays to celebrate the opening of the new Maison Diptyque store in London by Diptyque, Parisian purveyors of fragrances and scented candles. He also designed the labels for a new jacket by Paynter – the Batch No. 18, the Five Year Chore Jacket.
June
Paula Castro made what was not her only appearance this month in the pages of Flaunt magazine, when she was interviewed by Audrey Weisburd, with Paula talking about how travelling and living around the world has influenced her work. She also appeared in the same magazine alongside Elisa Alcalde, illustrating an article about luxury trips to Rome, Bali, Peru and Sydney.
Quentin Jones was interviewed for Cutler and Gross’s In Conversation strand, talking about how her father convinced her to opt for Cutler and Gross glasses, as well as her creative process. Her work also appeared in Harrods magazine, illustrating an article by Lindsay MacPherson about Harrods’ High Jewellery Exhibition.
Annie Atkins was delighted to collaborate with Paperless Post which allows you to create and send beautifully designed online invitations for weddings, birthdays, parties, and business events. So, you can now have Annie Atkins for Paperless Post design your personal invitations.
Anna Bu Kliewer crafted a set of four images on themes of prosperity, justice and equality, peace, and freedom for the German Green Party’s magazine Das Magazin der Grünen.
July
Parkleys is not only an important example of post-war housing estates, built by groundbreaking housing company Span in Richmond in 1954, it’s also home to Matt Blease and his family. To celebrate its 70th anniversary, Matt created a limited edition run of tea towels bearing his illustration of the estate.
Across the river in Kensington, Maisy Summer made her mark at the V&A by creating a set of guidelines on customer service standards for V&A teams as a poster, printed concertina and on V&A social media, with designer Craig Oldham.
Cat Garcia was commissioned by perfumiers Penhaligon’s on an episode of YouTube series If These Walls Could Talk, where broadcaster and designer Alexandra Tolstoy showed us around her London home. Cat shot the film, as well as taking still photographs, while Carlos Garcia provided a soundtrack. Cat’s work also appeared in Wondawe, a magazine put together by luxury shoe and fashion designer Beatrix Ong MBE. The magazine looks at the way people interact with nature, Cat photographing designer Thomas Heatherwick for an interview.
August
This month saw Natasha Law showing her new mode of painting, embarking on what she saw as painted collages, where the body of the subject of the painting was shown as negative space, only revealing itself as you looked more carefully. She also created a piece for a group show THISPERSONDOESNOTEXIST with Rob and Nick Carter, which she called ‘Soft Machine’.
Danny Sangra was back in action behind the camera, making a short film featuring 2004 Wimbledon winner Maria Sharapova for Vogue and Nike during Vogue’s Last Look for VogueWorld Paris. He also hooked up with rapper Homeboy Sandman in New York to make videos that featured Homeboy explaining his references in subtitles during the rap itself.
Cat Garcia made a series of short films, in this case for The Forgotten Her Story, a project set up by Manuela Wirth of Hauser & Wirth to tell the stories of women creators. Among the first subjects was cookery writer Anna Del Conte, who was shot by Cat in conversation with her granddaughter Coco, a sous chef, reminiscing about coming from Milan to bring authentic Italian cuisine to Britain. Cat also shot a second story, this time about Rachel Scott Bowling, who, after studying painting at the Royal College of Art, worked with textiles to create items, most famously her dresses, from patchwork.
Switching to another medium entirely, Anna Bu Kliewer helped design the cover for a novel by Oisin Fagan, Eden’s Shore, due to be published in April 2025, with Anna’s work forming part of a jacket created by Sofia Hericson.
James Joyce was in FT Magazine, illustrating senior business writer Andrew Hill’s experience of entering a speed-writing competition.
September
Danny Sangra could be seen in Shepherd’s Bush early this month, painting murals on the wall of Chet’s, the Thai-Americana restaurant at The Hoxton Shepherd’s Bush. By invitation of the owners, we emphasise. He was also in New York at some point, to make the video for Homeboy Sandman’s track Win Win.
Anna Bu Kliewer was interviewed by Stephane Durand for Mixte magazine, where she talked about her work and her cat Raffi, among beautiful images drawn from her portfolio.
James Joyce hit the road in a supercar this month, at least figuratively, illustrating a feature on the McLaren F1 in Road Rat, ‘the world’s most beautiful car magazine’ as created by Sam Walton of Hole & Corner.
Maisy Summer was as busy as ever, designing and illustrating a publication for the University of Birmingham called ‘Planning for Intergenerational Futures’, which looks at urban building programmes in England, with particular focus on the people living in them. Then she contributed to the latest issue of the Flow Book for Paper Lovers, created each year by Dutch magazine Flow, and filled with paper content like stickers, fold-outs, stationery, labels. This issue was on the theme of mental health, and Maisy designed the cover, some post cards, and journal pages. Plus, she also documented a holiday she took on the island of Paxos, producing a series of sketches of what she saw there.
Cat Garcia took the photographs for an article in The Sunday Times Style magazine on fashion auctioneer Kerry Taylor, who has sold items including the dress Princess Diana wore to dance with John Travolta at the White House.
Natasha Law has worked with luxury fashion designer Beatrix Ong MBE before, designing a limited edition shoe box for her in 2009, and this month illustrated an article by Nick Compton on a new Japanese trend in camping for Beatrix’s magazine Wondawe.
Matt Blease was back in The New Yorker magazine with a series of spot illustrations including a day in the life of a sandcastle, acting as a sort of sundial, or ‘Sandial’ as Matt had it.
October
Letters from the North Pole, Annie Atkins’ book for children was published this month. Co-created with Fia Tobing, it features five children’s letters to Santa, and the response they get, revealing the magical world of Santa and his elves at the North Pole. And in the run-up to Christmas we hear sales are booming, with the book already in its third printing. You can read more about it here.
Matt Blease was busy, creating the imagery for Open Water, the only certified Climate Neutral water brand in the United States.
Quentin Jones followed up her collaboration with jewellery brand Ryenn’s Eyes in 2023, with a second one, this time creating pieces including a necklace, ring and earrings, along with the packaging for them. You can see the collection, here..
Steve Wilson was designing posters for Berkeley, California music venue the Greek Theatre, including for Haitian rapper and DJ Kaytranada and singer/songwriter Still Woozy.
Maisy Summer was back at it, creating a comic called Plants for Unity with members of the Kew Gardens Youth Forum, which she’d been working with since the start of the year.
Back in 2022, Danny Sangra created some animated work for meditation and mindfulness app Waking Up, and this month returned to them to design some limited edition t-shirts, titled ‘Cosmic Drama’.
November
We’ll continue with Danny Sangra into November, when he made a short film ‘Sleepless in the Kitchen’ which promoted The Michelin Hotel Guide in his own inimitable way, and was also the first ad campaign for Michelin Guides in the UK.
Cat Garcia was shooting the new range of soft wool Shetland and Aran jumpers and cardigans for Sunspel, including moving image pieces with music by Carlos Garcia.
Quentin Jones appeared in Brooklyn homeware and tableware store PORTA’s ‘The Selection Of’ series, where she got to pick out her favourite items from their store.
Maisy Summer collaborated with British lifestyle brand TOAST, creating an illustration of their new store in Manhattan, and was also to be found at the V&A, where she was talking with fellow illustrator Benjamin Phillips as part of Pen to Screen: Digital Illustration Now.
James Joyce was one of ten artists who came together in November as the Print Peace Project to raise funds for the Campaign for Nuclear Disarmament, each of them creating original prints based on the iconic peace symbol as part of the launch.
Elisa Alcalde saw her work appearing in, and on the cover of, Palmer magazine, a luxurious 200-page volume dedicated to the glamorous lifestyles of Palm Beach.
December
Phillippa Mills was commissioned by luxury publisher Assouline to create an illustration for one of their forthcoming books. The book is a celebration of the Samuel L. Jackson starring Netflix film ‘The Piano Lesson’, and among its contents is a poem about gravitropism, the influence of gravity on plants.
Like Danny in October, Andy Gilmore was asked to design some t-shirts for the Waking Up app, having first worked with them way back in 2021. And, as a long-time fan of the app, Andy was delighted to do so.
Over in Melbourne, Craig & Karl had a new inflatable installation called ‘Cosmos’ in place, featuring some happy-looking characters moving up and down the shot tower at Melbourne Central. It’s in place until mid-January, so pop along if you’re in the area.
And that’s the end of our month-by-month breakdown, which just leaves a quick rundown of what Breed itself has been up to in 2024…
We were very happy to welcome a new artist to Breed this year – Maisy Summer. An award-winning illustrator and animator with a very distinct style, it’s fair to say she’s already left her mark on the year. Not least when she came in as runner-up in the V&A Illustration Awards 2024 for her animated work Elsie Plant Hatting Hero, which she made for Stockport’s Hatworks Hat Museum.
After the shift last year from the printed Q&As of the original Breed presents… interview series to talking in person with creative people we admire via Breed presents… The Podcast, we spoke in series one with graphic designer David McKendrick, Pentagram NY’s Michael Bierut, Kuchar Swara of Telegraph Media Group, writer Clover Stroud, architect John Pawson, and our own artists Annie Atkins, Danny Sangra, and Steve Wilson. We’ve just released the final episode of season two, which included Matthew Freud, artist Quentin Jones, writer Hugo Rifkind, photographer and film-maker Cat Garcia and songwriter/musician Carlos Garcia, Creative Director Rafael Oliveira, Creative Director Tony Chambers, and Creative Director and CEO of Pellicano Hotels Group Marie-Louise Sciò.
That completes the round-up of another year at Breed and leaves us only to wish everyone out there all the greetings of the season. And we look forward to seeing you in the New Year.
Olivia and all at Breed
Image by Steven Wilson