She is concentrating her talents these days by raising funds for children to express themselves through art, and has also recently completed a set of drawings for a charity called the Crane Foundation which hopes to raise awareness of these endangered birds.

Hannah says: "The stories in the book are dark and layered with symbolism, red is a significant colour theme throughout each story representing the ruby necklace, blood and the colour of Puss’s fur – I used black and white as a base for the red to stand out. Each story comments on the empowerment of female sexuality and so I wanted the females to take the lead in each image.

I was limited to depicting only three of the stories from the book so I wanted the Binding to be an amalgamation of them all with a key object from each story in white appearing buried on a background of black soil."

Binding

Puss In Boots

The Company of Wolves

The Bloody Chamber

The company pulled out all the stops and boldly devoted its flagship Coca-Cola brand to raising awareness for the cause.

That’s where it all started. And here’s where it ended up:

Coca-Cola’s first ever white can features polar bears illustrated by Darren Whittington. More than 1.4 billion examples of the striking design will be on store shelves across the U.S.A. and Canada until the end of February 2012.

We spoke to Darren about the project from the illustrator’s angle.

Did the sheer reach and visibility of this make it different from other commissions? Was it at all un-nerving?

You put the fact that your work’s going to be seen – and hopefully bought – by millions of people to the back of your mind. Every job needs to be got right and you focus on that aim. It was exciting thinking how we were involved in transforming a design icon… but un-nerving? No.

How closely did you work with the designers?

I was involved from when it became a live project. I’ve worked with Turner Duckworth, San Francisco-based designers in charge of the job, before so they knew my work. I won’t say style, because this illustrative look was specially created.

They did a great job getting different stages approved. I’ve worked in agencies on big clients, and I have to thank the team at Turner Duckworth for managing the feedback so I could concentrate on getting the illustrations right. My part of the process took around two weeks from brief to delivery of the files.

Was there a temptation to make the bears cutesy? After all, you…

…I know what you’re going to say! Yes, I have done some very, very cute little furry friends in the past! But they were all done for a reason – like we wanted to get people saying ‘ahhhhh!’ to a simple, stylised image. (That’s not as easy as you might think incidentally.) With these characters, we took a decision early on that we wanted them to be simple and bold, after all, they had to be printed on a can and grab the attention of shoppers. But the nature of the project – WWF‘s ambitious plans for the Arctic – meant we had to be anatomically accurate and not overload on the Disney anthropomorphic soft stuff, all big eyes and long lashes. There were lots of pencil roughs before I went near the Mac which stopped it all getting too smooth early on.

Polar bears are majestic and powerful – and above all they’re wild beasts.

I think the way the face has ended up puts that across.

So a degree of realism was important?

One characteristic of polar bears we wanted to capture was that moment when a mother senses someone watching – she looks up and smells the air and turns her head towards where she thinks a threat might lie. You can read loads into that if you want – but I feel building in that reaction does help really fulfil the brief. I particularly like the way the second cub is copying what its mum has just done.

The cub drawings seem a bit more cuddly.

Again, that’s reflecting reality, but I didn’t go over the top. Polar bear cubs like all cubs are cute, aren’t they? And the packs where they appear solus are really cute too! It’s a real shame Coke don’t sell them over here [UK]. Apart from anything else I think they’d make Mae and George very proud of their daddy!

There was a bit of a fuss about changing the iconic red cans, wasn’t there?

When a product has as many fans as Coke, change ALWAYS creates a stir. And because the whole purpose of the exercise was to draw attention to an urgent and serious piece of conservation work – and raise funds for it – making waves is completely appropriate. The coverage it got across the Atlantic was worth millions. We knew it would make the news because of the very professional PR activity behind it, but the public’s reaction ensured more media and online communities picked up the story.

There was a bit of confusion apparently because Diet Coke has silver cans. On our white cans containing regular Coke, Coca-Cola’s world-famous logo was there in Coca-Cola red. Diet Coke cans also feature the word ‘Diet’, but hey… I’d better leave it there I think!

But Coca-Cola reacted, didn’t they?

Yes, there are versions of the can out now which show the bears against a heavy Coke-red sky with the logo reverting to white. It’s very striking actually. And in years to come the whole thing will be a case study for design students to learn about packaging. I look forward to being part of the history of such a famous, global brand!

We found the white cans being sold on eBay UK!

Yes. I have to admit that I’ve ordered some!

There was a pack costing something like a fiver but the postage was around the £40 mark…

I’ve gone for the empty version. The contents are classic but it’s the packaging I wanted!

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Further reading…

The Telegraph: Coca Cola drops ‘polar bear’ cans because consumers prefer to see red

ABC News: Coke and Diet Coke Cans Should Be Polar Opposites, Buyers Say

The Dieline: Coca-Cola Red Cans Turn Arctic White

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You can see more of Darren’s work in his Phosphor Art illustration portfolio, or visit his brand new website at: www.darrenwhittington.com

Illustrations featured in video by Jonathan Leach

Below are some stills from the animation…

http://www.tedbakerblog.com

And the finished wallpaper…

Starting on Wednesday 23rd November at 1pm, for an incredible 48 hours, Lizzie will be drawing non-stop on Base Creative’s studio wall. The idea is to create a story illustrated on the wall, drawn purely from tweets sent in. Each tweet could be a line of a story or a full sentence. As along as they use the hash tag #drawmystory, they will be considered for the wall illustration.

We’re encouraging everyone, from all over the globe,
to get involved!

Draw My Story is based on the old game "Fold Over Stories" when each person writes a line of a story and passes it on, resulting in a random, poignant, funny, dark and whimsical, meandering story. Twitter users don’t have to follow on from the previous Tweet if they don’t want to. The more bizarre, odd or hilarious the better. The only limit? 140 characters.

Follow Draw My Story on Twitter at: www.twitter.com/drawmystory

You can follow the story unfolding day and night, round the clock on
www.draw.my/story. Once there, you can read up on the project, check out the live video feed to make sure that Lizzie isn’t having a crafty snooze, and Tweet your contribution.

Open Evening Event
There will also be an open evening on the 23rd November at 5pm where you can see Lizzie Mary Cullen in action, monitor the tweets as they come in, and see for yourself the setup of the 48 hour event. The entire event will be filmed and photographed, leaving a lastly legacy. Come along to the open evening if you want to be a part of it. Lots of wine and nibbles, too.

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Start date: Tuesday 23rd November – 1pm
End date: Friday 25 November – 1pm

To Contribute: Tweet your story including – #drawmystory

Find out more at…
- www.draw.my/story
- @drawmystory
- www.lizziemarycullen.com
- www.basecreative.eu

My illustrations generally derive from a very personal imaginary world populated with individuals who all look a little off centre. Quite a number of these individuals were inspired by puppet creations of mine so in a sense my mind gave birth quite literally to sentient life which could move and speak in a real world and, of course, as a child these puppet creations were also my friends and in a strange way mentors.

It isn’t surprising to those who know me that this crossover between the real and imaginary should lead me to work in areas of costume making, puppet building, puppeteering and story illustration.

I am by nature very interested in people and their stories so my work is character driven with their world and their stories developing naturally from their own words and lives. However, although this world is often imaginary it is not unreal. Whatever they look like, the creatures are always human under the skin, much like the time I once worked in a children’s show puppeteering a 6 foot bear. Reality like truth is often discovered just under the surface.

My style incorporates my love of pattern, worldwide culture and nature with a modern twist. Being brought up surrounded by Indian culture, fabrics, Indian artwork and ornaments have heavily influenced my work. Also folklore tales and stories of Hindu Gods and Goddesses have been a rich source of inspiration in a number of my illustrations. My pieces are predominantly hand drawn with alterations made using Photoshop. Screen-printing is another method I enjoy working in and more recently I have begun experimenting with wood carvings and etchings.

Snowboarder by Dave Hopkins

How to manoeuvre a jet like Maverick by Dave Hopkins

Karate Kid Crane Kick by Dave Hopkins

Rally Cornering by Dave Hopkins

The Ultimate Steak Manual by Dave Hopkins

Dave Hopkins is an illustrator with a very well established reputation, who specializes in all forms of line work. His styles range from modern to traditional, incorporating pen and ink, pastiches of steel and wood engravings, and various woodcut styles, all in black and white as well as colour. He is highly regarded for his great attention to detail, always answers the brief, and is proud of the fact that he has never missed a deadline or had a rejection in his long career.

It isn’t surprising to those who know me that this crossover between the real and imaginary should lead me to work in areas of costume making, puppet building, puppeteering and story illustration.

I am by nature very interested in people and their stories so my work is character driven with their world and their stories developing naturally from their own words and lives. However, although this world is often imaginary it is not unreal. Whatever they look like, the creatures are always human under the skin, much like the time I once worked in a children’s show puppeteering a 6 foot bear. Reality like truth is often discovered just under the surface.

Below is a small selection of Hannah Lewis‘ work, but check out her illustration portfolio for more…

Award-winning designer Lizzie Mary Cullen‘s work is in demand: she’s collaborated with MTV, Zizzi, Somerset House and Harvey Nichols. Named one of the ‘Hot 50 People Making a Difference in Design’ by Design Week, Lizzie graduated from the BA in Design programme at Goldsmiths.

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