August Overview
The hectic year continues apace, with no signs of letting up, but we love what we do here at Happydesigner, so it’s all good! Perhaps the sun may not have been shining as much as we would have liked throughout August, but the studio has remained as bright and as colourful as ever, with a constant flow of wonderful illustrations being produced by Sarah for a wide variety of projects we’re currently working on. This month has also seen a subtle change in the layout of the studio, with Barry moving the admin desk to an office area that he designed and built himself, leaving Sarah with a little more room in which to fit her new-found favourite seat – a massive inflatable bright blue ball…! New-style seating has also been added in the form of funky sit/stand stools, with other vital equipment upgraded, making the day-to-day operation of the studio a little nicer and a tad more efficient! One thing that hasn’t changed much is the music production area, with just the addition of a nice new computer stand and a bright blue desk mat, which matches one of the new funky sit/stand stools – and Sarah’s ultra-comfy sitting ball!
Collaborations News
The Elephant’s Trunk: We have been working alongside Derek & Teresa Bellamy, the people behind the idea for The Elephant’s Trunk, for the last three years to bring this wonderful personalised children’s book publishing company to life. Sarah has worked tirelessly to design and create each and every one of the visuals and individual elements that go to make up every single book, as well as produce all of the beautiful illustrations to complement Teresa’s stories. We have fabulous news to share, as this month, The Elephant’s Trunk was featured in The Sunday Times Magazine, with Sarah’s wonderful illustrations taking pride of place! You can see the article here:
Signing Friends: The first thirteen books in the series released just a few weeks ago have sold exceptionally well, and we have been receiving fantastic feedback from many delighted people, which is awesome for us after being heavily involved with developing the series for so long. However, we haven’t sat back on our laurels, and the next book in the series has already been completed. It is now undergoing the usual stringent checks to ensure it’s as good as we can make it before publication and release, which we hope will be in early September. Look out for more news next month, or visit the website for more information: Signing Friends Series.
Completed Commissions
Some of the projects that we have completed in August 2023 :
Daddy Dino-ROAR! Author : Fay Howard
The Dalby’s (Series of five books). Author : James White
A French Cat Named Monkey. Author : Claire Elston
All Emotions Are Okay (36 individual illustrations). Author : Dr. Sarah Temple
Amazing, Again. Author : Marshall’s Group / Unhooked Communications
Pepper The Runaway Dog. Author : Angela Nuttall
Book of the Month
This was to be a new feature where we planned to highlight one of the many brilliant books we created each month. However, having looked at this again, there are so many wonderful books that we simply couldn’t ever hope to decide which one to feature, so from next month, this will become Books of the Month – a subtle change that will mean we can feature many more fantastic titles!
However, just for starters, I thought I would let you all know about this… We were asked by Antoinette Jordan to create and illustrate her lovely book around her story about potential ecological damage to St. Vincent and The Grenadines in the Caribbean. The book, titled ‘My Beautiful Island’, contains lots of beautiful illustrations by Sarah, and we are excited to let you all know that it was included in the British Black Book Tour held in Luton on 19th August. Not only that, but Antoinette was interviewed by the BBC, and the book was featured in a televised news report that you can see here: INSTAGRAM REEL
Other News
Erik was pleased to see that in the mini studio upgrade, his executive teepee has been moved back to its previous position, which is much nearer to the radiator, so his winter comfort is guaranteed! However, in these warm, balmy summer days (?!), he much prefers to spend much of his time on his back in front of the window, contemplating his business strategies for developing Happydesigner. From this sunny position, he also continued to direct his feline quest for world domination by releasing a steady stream of funny, loveable, scrunchy, and adorable social media posts (well, that’s how he insisted on having them described!), which you can find if you search any of the major social media platforms for ‘Oh Erik!’ – and it would be fab if you could like and follow the pages too!😊
Finally, the Studio Pigs had something of a makeover, too, with a re-vamp of their penthouse suite and a significant upgrade to their soft furnishings. They reported in the minutes from their WGM (Weekly General Meeting) that they are thrilled with the changes made, and they are certain that the extra comfort will no doubt help them with their managerial and decision-making processes. However, they also mentioned in the minutes that they are a little concerned that Erik might be stealing some of their limelight, so have asked to be featured more in next month’s blog – something to look out for at the end of September!
Right – that’s just about it for our late summer 2023 update, and we’ll be back again next month with more news to share with you as we enter into the autumn, especially about some very special book publications…
Written by The Happydesigner Studiopigs (with Barry’s help)
