I’ve also been able to work more locally with a couple of authors, an upcoming Kickstarter, a charity and a sports medicine design agency to name but a few… I also have a few personal projects simmering below the surface – like my own book about British charity shops – and a couple of board games in development. As you can tell, I like to keep myself busy within work hours and way outside of them!

Absolutely! Looping back to your work as a freelancer designer and design agency – now you’re more established, what are some key lessons you’ve learned about making that side of what you do thrive?
I’ve made a concerted effort to do more hourly work in the last couple of years, which allows me to plan my workflow much better. Instead of having a couple of projects that take up more time than I’m expecting, I’m able to account for each hour of each project. This makes it easier to have more than one client at a time. I’ve been much more open to new opportunities this year too. It might seem a small or unrelated piece of work, but you never know what might come of it. I was invited to help tutor a lady in Adobe InDesign and a few months after I was hired by them for a large-scale website illustration job. It never hurts to do the small things because sometimes big things come with them down the line.

As a younger designer, who has found success working independently is there any advice you would give to design students looking to develop their careers and build a portfolio?
I’m going to go against the conventional wisdom of others in the industry, but when you are starting out, don’t be afraid to try everything. Lots will tell you to develop a style and let it pay the bills… And if you have a style, go for it – but try everything else you can. If you only do vector illustration, that will be all you will do. Try a website design, try t-shirts, try board games, try books… See how far your skills will take you and learn along the way. Pigeonholing yourself early can work wonders, but it can also stop you flourishing creatively. Especially with the rise of AI that can mimic styles easily, it’s important to make sure you have more weapons in the arsenal. I’m very fortunate that I can design t-shirts and websites and social media marketing, so I don’t need to pay anyone else to help with Apparel of Laughs.

“I had good fun looking through old catalogues for the famous models and illustrating each car as they would have been back in the day.”

Another bit of advice that goes along with this is not being afraid of giving something a go. If you have spare time, the worst that can happen is you make something awful, but in that process you have still made something. Don’t let the fear of failure put you off. Sometimes the little ideas you have early into your career might be the thing that defines your career in 10 years time.

Good advice. And speaking of trying everything, I notice that you design a lot of Christmas cards – including some for very prestigious companies and organisations.
Designing Christmas cards is something I really fell into. I’d never considered it until I was volunteering at Exeter Cathedral and they asked me if I could design a Christmas card for them. That card sold very well in the shop and made some good money for the upkeep of the building. This started a run of five years where I designed a Christmas card for Exeter Cathedral. I realised this could be an interesting avenue to go down so started contacting other cathedrals around the country. This led to me also designing a card for Newcastle Cathedral, as well as the iconic St. Paul’s Cathedral in London. To work with such an iconic landmark like St. Paul’s was a great joy. That illustration was put to use again as the cover of the annual London Air Ambulance Carol Service programme in 2024. I also have done similar designs for local businesses to send out to their clients.

What makes a good Christmas card design?
My designs are fairly modern in comparison to most Christmas cards I see. But they still celebrate the season. I think a good Christmas card takes regular elements and highlights them in a new and exciting way. Most people get a lot of cards over the festive period – most fade into the background and add to the decorations. I think a good card will stand out amongst the generic ones. If people are going to spend money on a card, and again to send it, they want it to be special. I believe that more personal cards will be part of the future. At the cathedrals, someone would rather buy a card in the shop with a local landmark on to send – it gives more meaning to the recipient than a more generic one that could be bought anywhere.

Thinking about the wider heritage market, what tips would you give to heritage operators in regard to product development and design?
I’ve been able to see first-hand how heritage operators are able to use their shops to raise money from visitors. Often most purchases are souvenir items which represent the place the visitor has been. These shops are also increasingly seen as high-end gift shops with larger high-ticket items. It’s hard for these two styles of shop to co-exist… Selling small cheap souvenirs alongside pricier items can put people off both. That’s why strong branding is needed across all products.

If your items complement each other, you can sell any item you like rather than disparate items fighting for attention. Most historic buildings or locations will have wonderful motifs that can be used across all branding, like windows, carvings, silhouettes and colour palettes. Make it look like things have been thought about, rather than the same design slapped on anything that can be printed.

You mentioned that 2024 was a good year for your online t-shirt business Apparel of Laughs. I noticed you work with British Motor Heritage now. How did that partnership come about?
Our aim is to provide the best place to celebrate British culture, British characters, and British comedy. This has led to over 600 t-shirt and hoodie designs featuring all sorts – from Devon scones, football stadiums, and of course Wallace and Gromit. Working alongside Aardman pushed our site from a hobby to a viable business with customers all over the world. We’ve had some great success working with licences like Wallace and Gromit and Rebellion Comics, so in 2024 we decided to add another license to our roster.

We attended Brand Licensing Europe in 2023 and looked out for future collaborators. Fitting in perfectly with our ethos, we started working with British Motor Heritage and created a wide range of t-shirt designs celebrating the classic cars from brands like MG, Triumph, Austin and Morris. They complement our other shirts wonderfully and allow those who loved these old classics to relive the glory days – or reintroduce them to new audiences!

I had good fun looking through old catalogues for the famous models and illustrating each car as they would have been back in the day. I wanted them to be dynamic but also reflect the style of the era they came from. I made sure I made all designs available on the t-shirts that matched their original paint colours best too. It was a great pleasure to work with such recognisable brands and I hope I did the beautiful cars justice with my drawings.

Speaking of Aardman, what did you think of the new Wallace & Gromit film Vengeance Most Fowl?
I remember very fondly hearing about the upcoming Matter of Loaf and Death while still in primary school and being super excited. I didn’t think it would be another 16 years before I got to see another Wallace and Gromit adventure, but it was certainly worth the wait. I loved it from start to finish. It made my Christmas Day for sure. I loved the fresh approach, but still the many references and nods towards the old films. It was a joy to see Feathers McGraw back in action again too! Not that Wallace and Gromit had ever slipped from British culture, but the new film has certainly put them back at the forefront again. I’m so glad so many people watched it too!

We’re speaking right at the start of the year – so it’s prediction time! What design trends are you seeing come through that might be popular this year?
I can see one thing happening for sure and maybe something else as a consequence of the first… I’ve mentioned in interviews before about the rise of AI art. Even in the time since chatting, the technology has improved even more to the point where AI art is hard to distinguish from real art. I believe we will see much more of this artwork appearing on our high streets. I personally have seen Christmas decorations using AI art, and I can imagine it will only build from there…

Whether bigger clothing shops will attempt using it, or whether there would be a backlash, I’m not sure. Some might use it ironically? I think as a result of this more superficial trend, others will look in the opposite direction wanting more homemade items. The public will prefer items made with love and not machine. Items that have been thought about and planned rather than regurgitated by code on a computer. Whether the public accepts AI art or rallies against it remains to be seen… I believe 2025 will be the year we find out. Will we see a return to an arts and crafts style era with people shunning new technology to create new and exciting things? Or will that technology be embraced despite the consequences?

“Will the public accept AI art or rally against it? 2025 will be the year we find out.”

Reflecting on last year, was there a particular product launch that you thought was special design-wise?
I read online recently that music had been a real cultural force in 2024, much more than previous years, and I’m inclined to agree. With such segmented culture it can be hard to really tap into the public pop culture these days, but one album was everywhere during the year and that was Brat by Charlie XCX. I will admit, I haven’t heard much of the album, but I have seen hundreds if not thousands of iterations and memes of the album.

Looking at the stats on Spotify, not a single song from the album was in the top 50 streamed songs of the year in the UK, and yet if you were to ask people to name an album from this year, most could name Brat and probably describe the cover. The sheer arrogance and simplicity of the cover took it outside the music world entirely and into the cultural pantheon. When my auntie – who’s in her fifties – was telling me she was having a brat summer I really saw how the album had permeated the public consciousness!

The cleverness of the design of the album allowed it to be parodied and mimicked by people online and that gave it a much longer shelf life. It’s mad how the most basic design of the year will probably be its most definitive. As lots have people have said, I could have done that… But you didn’t, and I didn’t, but Charli did and that’s why it was a hit. I mean, very few albums are represented via the London New Year’s fireworks!

Jude, thanks for this. I have one last question… You hold a Guinness World Record – tell us more…
Ha! Yeah this was good fun. Back in 2021, still in the grips of covid and with plenty of time on my hands, I decided to fulfil my dream of getting a World Record. Running a t-shirt site, the one I went for was the Largest Display of Origami T-Shirts. It took me three months to fold 4,036 origami shirts and another couple of weeks to organise and display them in the MakeTank on Exeter High street. They were on display for another month with lots of publicity thrown in for good measure. Articles about the record appeared in local papers, as well as papers in New York, Malaysia, Ireland and Iran. I also had a couple of interviews on BBC Radio Devon.

The best accolade I got was being featured in the following year’s Ripley’s Believe It Or Not Book! I also received the official certificate which is still in pride of place in my office space. Sadly, the record has been broken since by a trio of people in India who have 20 origami records between them, so I didn’t really stand a chance! The whole escapade was great publicity, and fulfilled a childhood ambition too.

Terrific! Thanks again Jude.

The post “I hope I did the beautiful cars justice!”: Apparel of Laugh’s Jude Coram on his work with British Motor Heritage appeared first on Brands Untapped.

Each design features a vintage illustration taken from the archive of different magazines, including titles like June, Tammy and Misty.

“As an avid collector of classic comics, I have seen the value and love heaped onto these girls’ titles,” said Jude Coram, Founder and Designer at Apparel of Laughs.

“Each comic had its own unique selling point and was able to find an audience amongst the school girls of the 60s, 70s and 80s. The comics featured mystery stories, sci-fi fantasy and fantastical tales – as well as school strips and relationships. They weren’t afraid to tackle harder topics and gave their readers a safe space to grow. A whole generation of women were brought up with these comics, and we are very happy to take these ladies back to happier days with a healthy dose of nostalgia.”

Check out the collection here.

The post Apparel of Laughs and Rebellion bring vintage girl’s comics to t-shirts appeared first on Brands Untapped.

Ravensburger is soon launching Disney Lorcana, a TCG set in a fantastical world that sees players band together Disney characters to battle mysterious threats.

Elsewhere, in an aisle not too far, far away, Fantasy Flight Games is bringing another corner of the Disney galaxy into TCGs with Star Wars: Unlimited. The game is described as ‘easy to learn and strategically deep’ and will feature heroes, villains, ships, and settings from across the all Star Wars franchise.

The similar language used to describe the launches highlights their importance as new long-term gaming brands for both Ravensburger and Fantasy Flight Games.

“Disney Lorcana is the result of the powerful alchemy of Disney magic, Ravensburger game excellence, and several years of dedicated work and investment,” said Filip Francke, Ravensburger North America CEO and Global Head of Games. He adds: “This potent combination has poised Disney Lorcana to be a game-changer in the billion-dollar-plus trading card game market.”

The sentiment is echoed by Chris Gerber, Head of Studio at Fantasy Flight Games. He says: “Star Wars: Unlimited is the culmination of FFG’s rich history mixed with the celebrated Star Wars brand. As a studio, we are putting unprecedented resources across every department into this game.”

“Game-changer”. “Unprecedented resources”. Both press releases also stress the years of development that have gone into both games, and the fact that both will boast brand new exclusive artwork. Ravensburger plans to launch four Disney Lorcana sets a year, while FFG will put out three Star Wars: Unlimited sets a year.

Lorcana launches later this year, while Star Wars: Unlimited debuts in 2024. It’ll be exciting to see how they get on and the impact they have on the TCG space. It also begs the question as to which other brands may be ripe for the TCG treatment… We asked James Wallis, Jude Coram and Ben Townsend for their thoughts.

James Wallis, Games Consultant, Author and Designer
Most of the obvious media franchises have already been done in TCG form in the three decades following the launch of Magic the Gathering, including World of Warcraft, My Little Pony, Austin Powers, The Simpsons, SpongeBob and two separate Doctor Who games.

One big toy brand that’s never had a TCG is Barbie. Combined with gameplay based on cooperation, working together to overcome problems and threats instead of player-versus-player combats, it’s on brand and could open up a new market for TCG-style games. Call me, Mattel!

Jude Coram, Graphic Designer, Illustrator and Web Designer, Jude Coram Designs
As a youngster I loved nothing more than going to the shops to buy a pack of trading cards with my pocket money… And then going into school the next day trying to offload my rubbish cards on my unsuspecting school mates! For me, the enjoyment is in collecting; the feeling of owning a full set of cards is unrivalled as a child.

It makes a lot of sense that Disney are getting involved in the trading card space again. They have access to the majority of pop culture characters that kids and adults alike love, which offers them a wealth of content that makes an expansive trading card game possible. I’ve seen plenty of Top Trump decks of famous films, TV shows, and books and wondered how they were able to fill 30 cards – often these include obscure characters just to make up the roster. We need to be looking at brands that have a full back catalogue of content to draw from.

One that springs to mind that would make a superb collectable trading card game would be the Beano and Dandy comics. Between them they have over 400 different characters and strips that appeared in their comics over the years, with amazing variety and style between them.

Another roster of brands I could see doing well with trading cards would be HIT Entertainment’s portfolio, now under Mattel’s ownership. One thing fans love is when their favourite characters crossover. I can imagine kids of today would love to see the likes of Fireman Sam, Bob the Builder and Thomas the Tank in a card game together!

Finally, I know video games make great collectables and I can’t think of a game with more universal appeal than Minecraft. Imagine each card being a different item in the game with in-game rarity denoting the card’s rarity in physical card packs. This would sweep the nation’s playgrounds!

Ben Townsend, Licensing Approvals Co-ordinator, Aardman
At the heart of everything we do at Aardman, there is one key theme: humour. From the everyday lives of Wallace & Gromit, to the mischievous antics of Shaun the Sheep… It’s this humour which I think would cause our brands to thrive in the Trading Card Game space.

The subtle gags or quirky ‘Britishness’ would allow the player to discover a new or missed joke every time they jump into a game, whilst also allowing them to engage with characters they have grown up with or recently discovered. Who doesn’t want to beat Feathers McGraw in a card game?

But alongside our humour, it’s important to that everyone can enjoy our content. From shows like Shaun the Sheep or Morph where there’s no speaking – making it accessible across the globe – the TCG space needs to follow this inclusivity. People who may be new to the genre should be able to jump on a game and feel engaged and comfortable; something that Aardman have been helping people do for nearly 50 years now.

In the last year alone, our brands have been making the jump into the virtual gaming scene. With a brand-new Wallace & Gromit VR adventure for Meta in development, Shaun the Sheep getting involved in AR trails across the globe and much more going on behind the scenes, now seems the perfect time for our characters to join the ever growing TCG space.

This brings us on to the final reason why the Aardman brands might thrive in this area; our audience is bigger than ever. With Chicken Run: Dawn of the Nugget hatching later this year, a new Wallace & Gromit film in development and the exciting future all our brands have planned, now would make the perfect time to use our brands to build a whole new audience in an exciting and expanding industry.

And outside of Aardman, I think that there might be potential for Rugrats because of the pop culture following it’s gained over the years and the recent revival show.

The post Talking Brands: Disney is embracing trading card games with Lorcana and Star Wars: Unlimited… What other brands might thrive in this area? appeared first on Brands Untapped.

By the time I was 13, my one Christmas request was for the Adobe Creative Suite. I was able to tinker around with the software and learn through trial and error for years, before finally putting my newly honed skills into practice. In my final years at secondary school, I found a US website that ran contests for t-shirt designs. After plenty of failed attempts, I finally won a competition and got paid handsomely for my victory. It was then I realised that I could make a career out of digital illustration and graphic design.

Talk us through the sorts of projects you take on.
I’ve done plenty of interesting and varied work in the seven plus years of my freelance career. I’ve turned my hand to almost anything that can be created on a computer. Regular work like logos and websites are my bread and butter, with t-shirt design being my real passion.

I’ve worked with many happy clients all across the world, from the US to Australia – and most places in between. That’s the beauty of the internet and my job, you really work with almost anyone in the world, with very few roadblocks or limitations.

I’ve built up quite a varied portfolio with plenty of different work in many different industries. Some of my proudest work outside of my t-shirts has been cathedral Christmas cards. I’ve designed a modern Christmas card design for Exeter Cathedral for the past five years, which also led to me designing a card design for St. Pauls Cathedral in 2019 and Newcastle Cathedral this year.

I know you also run an e-commerce site selling t-shirts called Apparel of Laughs. Can you tell us about this?
I mentioned I started my love of designing t-shirts through a US website that was running competitions. Although I had won a contest and a few editor’s picks, I started to really notice how most of the designs I was competing with had a better knowledge of American culture. I’ve never been too hot on American TV, films or celebrities… Give me Only Fools and Horses any day! As such, I was at a disadvantage in creating designs that would appeal to the US public. This was when I thought about creating a site dedicated to the best that British culture has to offer.

I started creating some very UK centric designs and just uploaded them to my new site, called Apparel of Laughs. As I had made the site myself, I was able to take some time to build the shop up as I wasn’t paying someone to do it for me. Since the day I officially launched in October 2019, I’ve added over 600 of my own unique designs to the site for purchase. These designs celebrate the TV, films, literature, sport, and even food of the UK in a range of different artistic styles.

Apparel of Laughs sells a range of Aardman t-shirts that you have designed – and I know you are an Aardman fan! What can you tell us about the design process behind this range?
Well, I tried to go down a few less conventional routes. Wallace & Gromit have been a cultural institution since the Eighties, so most simple designs had already been used for years on merchandise. I wanted to go a bit deeper into the films, bringing out some recognisable – and some more obscure – details from the classic films.

I spent a lot of time watching the films, pausing at different moments to get the details I needed for the designs. I was also given access to a brilliant library of assets created and curated by Aardman that I could use on any of my shirts. I’ll be honest, I spent a long time just marvelling at all the art and creativity on show just in this library!

Thinking about the Aardman range, how do you alight on new ideas and ‘think like a fan’ when you are designing?
I suppose, because I am a massive fan, I try to think what would I like to wear to represent my love for Wallace & Gromit. Often with shirts, people buy them for themselves because they love the design and they “get it.” Whether anyone else would understand the shirt often comes second in people’s thinking. I’ve tried to weigh this up with my range of 15 designs.

A few of them are obviously Wallace & Gromit – they have pictures of them from their classic films. Other designs in the collection are more niche and reflect the depth of storytelling in the movies. A discerning fan of Wallace and Gromit should understand all the shirts and would be delighted when another fan understands the more niche designs too.

Are there other apparel brands and designers you look to for inspiration?
I am always inspired by other people. If money was no object, my home would be full of original art and my wardrobe crammed with comedy t-shirts. My two favourite designers are Wenceslao Almazan and Adam Koford. These are who I aspire to when I create my work.

Wenceslao has created a superb style for his illustrations which works brilliantly on t-shirts. He manages to turn pop culture references into super cute designs perfect for all ages. Adam’s work is also fantastic. I love his simple cartoon style that he uses to create funny and memorable designs. His work is just great to look at and so appealing.

If I’m going closer to home, I love the work of Moose Allain. His work looks so simple, but I know that level of simplicity and skill takes years to master. In just a few strokes of the pen he can convey a brilliant joke, and yet his more complex drawings draw the eye and you can be looking at it for ages without seeing everything. Truly a master of the art with a great sense of humour.

Do you have a process for creating new ideas? How do you start?
I get inspiration from everywhere. I like to think I’m pretty embedded in British culture so when I’m watching TV or films or just walking around town, an idea might come to me. Sometimes I just get a stupid pun in my head and turn that into a design. There is a site that I’ve used in the past that just brings up random words and icons which my scatty brain can sometimes conjure into a t-shirt idea. I have a huge list of ideas on my phone that I’ve never used and most are so random and stupid that they will never see the light of day. Others aren’t fully formed in my head until months later when I might fully get into having a go at actually designing it.

Once I’ve got a good idea of the design, I tend to roughly draw it out into one of my notebooks. It really doesn’t have to look good, it’s just a nice place to start in regards to concept and composition. If I can get something half decent on paper, I then bring the idea to the computer. I mainly use Adobe Illustrator for most of my designs, with Photoshop being more to get the designs ready for printing. Working with vector art in Illustrator allows me to scale and move the art around without losing the quality and making it blurry. There is nothing worse than a blurry t-shirt!

When I am happy with my final result, I can then add it to Apparel of Laughs and see if my customers like the design as much as I do! The beauty of having my own site is that I can try all sorts of designs and chuck them at the wall so to speak to see what sticks. I’ve been really surprised by what designs became popular and which ones are left on the scrapheap.

Thinking about 2023, how do you see the apparel market developing? Are there trends on the horizon you are aware of and adapting to?
The one big thing everyone has been talking about recently in the art world is AI. If you’ve been anywhere online in the last six months, you would have seen the massive improvements in the world of artificially created ‘artwork’.

I always felt that art would be one of the last things AI could accomplish. Sadly, this isn’t the case. A lot of designers, me included, are worried at where this will leave our industry. If anyone can create a half decent piece of art with just a few sentences of text, who will pay an artist maybe 10 times more for their work?

I don’t think it will be too long before these art generators will be plugged into these sites to produce more visual designs. Things like ‘The Flintstones in the style of The Simpsons’ or ‘Darth Vader riding a T-Rex’ are easy prompts that would translate to t-shirts. If an A.I makes 1,000 shirts and only 10 are any good, those 10 could still sell well and take away sales from an actual artist. I think it also opens up some very grey areas with licensors as to how far they will let this slide. I can see a lot of copyright infringement and plenty more court cases over the next few years as this technology improves.

For designers like myself, this new wave of art should make us focus on bringing about better products with added meaning and story, rather than trying to appeal to the lowest common denominator.

Fascinating insight. Thanks Jude. I have one last question… Do you have three favourite t-shirt designs that you have seen and admired? What are they?
Frank Says Ooh Betty… I love this shirt. It’s so stupid but does what I love. It plays off two different things and combines them into something funny. To take the recognisable slogan shirt of Frankie Goes to Hollywood and turn it on its head with a memorable sitcom catchphrase is a great idea. I wish I’d come up with it before they did.

Hanson Nirvana… This shirt makes me laugh every time I see it. It plays on the idea that some people who wear band t-shirts probably don’t really know the band or any of their music. To have the safest and cleanest boy band of the Nineties – Hanson – swapping places with the kings of grunge – Nirvana – is a great way to spot the real fans from the fake ones.

My third choice is an actual artist’s design: Hitchhiking Chicken. When I first saw this hitchhiking chicken shirt by Blair Campbell I knew I had to get it. Every time I see it, it cracks me up. I really think having something in your wardrobe that brings a smile to your face is worth having. That’s what I’ve tried to achieve on my own site… Even if you don’t buy the shirt, you’ve at least got a laugh from it anyway!

Great picks! Thanks again for this Jude.

The post Apparel of Laughs’ Jude Coram on his Wallace & Gromit t-shirt designs – and concerns around AI art appeared first on Brands Untapped.