Bloody Hell Zine

I'm really pleased to have published my first solo large scale print run project: Bloody Hell. Its a zine all about menstruation. This project was a lot of hard work to orchestrate on my own but in turn was really rewarding. The pieces in this zine were submitted from a variety of people who menstruate. I launched a successful crowd funding campaign (with a lot of help from friends in promoting it and getting the coverage which meant it ended up in national newspapers and featured everything from The Guardian to Cosmo). It's be a really privileged to work on this non-profit project and share some amazing stories with this zine. You can see more images here: www.soofiya.com/bloody-hell

Just a note, the remaining copies of the zine will be sold at zine fairs in and around the UK.

Straight Edge Zine!

As a nice little side project I'm putting together a zine on being sober and straight-edge. If you want to contribute please send stuff in here I'm looking for anything from illustrations to written pieces.

Smash the State!

I recently illustrated a smashy little poster and had it risographed in lovely fluoro pink and orange from Hato Press.  I'll be selling this alongside some other snazzy risographed posters including Bowie and Henna themed prints at Alt Press and London Radical Bookfair Takeover 2015. Takeover will be full of awesome zines, prints and radical DIY goodies, its happening on May 9th from 12-7pm and can really recommend paying a visit.

Also you can vote for the Smash the State poster as part of the Guardian's 'Alternative Election Poster' call out.

Witch-y goodness

This witchy seance illustration is a by-product of watching a lot American Horror Story, Series 3, Coven just before Halloween.

Bicycle

Why use one colour when you can use *all* of them...same applies for patterns. You can see more garish illustrations here

Watches and specs

I've been working on a few self-initiated illustration projects recently. Ugly colours and garish palettes were of course mandatory. (You can see more here: Watches, Specs and, Highstreet)

52½p Teashop

I've been recently working on a branding proposal for a new teashop.
You can see the full project here.

Pick Me Up London 2014

This weekend I said a final farewell to Pick Me Up London. Here's my small selection of my favourites.

1) Cat Island by Jessica Das: each piece was cat themed and full of cat-filled goodness. Cats!!
2) This Frida portrait by Lou Taylor is made from finely delicate paper cut pieces, it's a wonderful homage to the Mexican painter.
3) Neon/fluro colours have been my new favourite thing ever since I invested in fluorescent gaffa tape. Which I think is why I love Annu Kilpelainen's use of neon colours, I'm always envious of any illustrator/design who can use such a luscious colour palette well.
4) Beautiful lettering by Jordan Metclaf, I love the way the strokes on the letterforms fade with that gradient, it's almost like the words are submerged in the page.
5) Paper stock is half the design and this is personified in the Jessica Das's funky fluorescent piece.

Print Club Blisters Show

My entry for Print Club Blister's Show this year, the challenge was to illustrate a song, band or tour without using the name of the song/band/tour.

I decided to illustrate Cornershop's Brimful of Asha:

Featured on Creative Bloq

My henna project was featured on Creative Bloq this morning, check it out

Henna Project

I just published my Henna Project on my folio site: http://soofiya.com/Gajrela

Breaking Bad Poster

A staple (and cliche) of every designer's folio these days: a Breaking Bad poster commemorating the final episode.

Henna Illustration

I've recently been working on a illustration project, inspired by traditional henna patterns. A set of three prints which will be Risographed; to hand illustrate one, timewise it takes about 1 Season of Orange is The New and 2 Seasons of Parks and Rec. I'm currently colouring one in digitally which is proving to be really time consuming, so far I've gotten through 3 Seasons of Breaking Bad in the process.

Turkish Delight Gifts

A slightly delayed post but last year, as Christmas gifts, I sent a few boxes of homemade Turkish Delight from Merle's Kitchen with hand illustrated cards to some of my clients. Merle was great to work with, she recommended the best flavours and box sizes so I could design everything to fit. As for the Turkish Delight, the spiced Chai Flavour was amazing; I seriously suggest trying a box from Merle.

Risographing

Yesterday I went back to Bolt Editions, to do some more Risographing, this time I really wanted to use textures especially after seeing how well the Riso picked the last time. I created another cliche Bowie print (available to purchase from here). Next time I'm hoping to really play around with layering colours.

Sally's Tea Room

Tis the Season

It's been a while since my last Sally related post,  so to celebrate my dissertation hand-in Sally and I went shopping for a new winter coat.  Feeling somewhat festive.

Doctor Who is back

Doctor returned to our TV screens today, in celebration I wore a bow tie all day and did a little foxy illustration. Enjoy.

Soof Says

A series of posters which document a few of my most over-used and slightly odd sayings. Here's one of the set, currently mocking a few before hand illustrating them, but you get the idea. Would be a nice, albeit a little odd, mail out: more to follow.

Cool