ANOTHER SUMMER AT DULLBOYS SOCIAL CO! For this year's summer campaign, I sat down with the president of Dullboys and said I wanted to make history. Each one of their summer special is represented as a funny little guy with big arms - SWIPE to see the whole crew - and they'll be appearing all over the centre on posters, screens, flyers and, most recently, colouring in sheets. As of next week you can drop in and get a fold-out poster featuring the whole gang. My favourite guy is the palm tree riding the BMX! This was a very big project, so I hope you're ready to see a lot of it over the next season :)

Merch design for Camplify, inspired by brands like Roark, Holy Smokes and Deus, I started with the idea of their brand mark being rendered as a campfire and went from there. A Newcastle success story in the tech world, Camplify are basically the new Silverchair, and working with them for a couple weeks I learnt a lot about rooftop campers and RVs and tents.

BEAT LABORATORY is a fresh one for Mountain Culture - available in stores and online now. Inspired by Jet Set Radio, Superior Spider-Man, Wayne's World and the little LCD displays on Teenage Engineering synth operators, this New England IPA design was the result of their art director explaining that "beat laboratory" was a reference to the movie Step Brothers like I didn't already know. It's the Catalina Wine Mixer! Go and grab one of these whenever you can.

OH! THE HORRORS! For Grace Jarvis, a very funny standup comedian who asked me to draw a combination of scary things, like spiders, skeletons, bats, vampires and having to check your emails every morning to make sure I have the right logo for the Sydney Comedy Festival. I did all the type by hand, based on old Italian Giallo posters. I had a real fun time with it. Grace is very funny and I saw her at the Enmore Loft last year, and it truly was a highlight. I hope you can make it out to a show.

CINOBOT & GIRL key art for TAKE48 - Sydney Underground Film Fest 's 48 hour filmmaking contest. Inspired by Akira Toriyama, Metal Gear, 80s magazine ads and Daria, the fellas at SUFF just told me to do whatever I want and get real weird with it. Any excuse to draw a robot. My original concept was much cuter and had a kind of Short Circuit vibe, but they asked I make it more badass. Eyepatch it is!

Seasonal artwork for Glee Coffee Roaster's new spring collection. I wanted to do something a little more grounded for this collection. No monsters and no skateboarding frogs. Just vibes. Each artwork is coloured after a modified Super Game Boy colour palette, and the illustrations line up together to either make a super-wide or super-tall image. I don't know if you can tell, but I watched all of Neon Genesis Evangelion while drawing these. I kept thinking about Shinji at the train station. Available now from Glee in 1kg, 500g or 250g.

In January of 2024, I left for Chengdu, China with Illustrate Your Life to present the ACE! Australian Comics Exhibition. My work from Ghost Beach, Meet Me In The Pit, Australia Burns and others will be on display with comics from all your Australian favourites. I'll be doing press, speaking on a panel, running a workshop and eating as many noodles as I can. Illustrateyourlife's Jakub (the same Jakub from Illustrated City) and I worked on the brand for the exhibition together, and came up with a koala mascot named Casey: a representative of Australia's laid-back nature, four-seasons-in-a-day climate and affinity for little shorts. The poster shows a sequence of Casey going on a daytrip into the city, noticing comics all around him. Casey appears across signage, merchandise, promotions and and two gigantic interactive photo op displays - one a sculpture taller than both of us!

RANSACK THE MULTIVERSE is my first collabo with my new friends at Mountain Culture - they gave me the name and said I could do whatever, and I gave it my all. Inspired by Jack Kirby, End Of Evangelion and Everything Everywhere All At Once, I did a couple different colourways and they ended up going with the brightest one! Ransack The Multiverse is available NOW as a four pack or case of 16, in those big tall cans Metallica used to drink.

IRRESISTIBLE FORCES is another West Coast IPA from Mountain Culture - part of a Ben Mitchell Double Feature that dropped this week. Inspired by Deadly Class, Rachel Rising, As Above So Below, the opening titles of Call Me By Your Name and the first Behind Crimson Eyes EP (ahahahahah) the artwork went through many iterations, titles and colour palettes. I was real excited to see they ended up with yellow and purple. Swipe through for a better look at the details, and a couple bonus palettes. Irresistible Forces is currently available in mixed 4 and 8 packs with another special beer with my art, Cauldron Bubble.

MAKING EXCUSES is a new Oat Cream IPA from Mountain Culture featuring a collection of classic excuses: dog ate my homework, car trouble, missed the train, flat tire, your invite was in my junk inbox, I got caught in the rain, I was washing my hair, I overslept, my phone was flat AND I couldn't find my keys. This was a fun one. The man lifting the couch is my friend Oliver, and they keys are my keys. SWIPE for a closer look! Making Excuses is available for a limited time from Mountain Culture, and the empties will look great on your mantlepiece :)

CAULDRON BUBBLE is part two of this week's Ben Mitchell Double Pack with Mountain Culture - a dark and moody celebration of the Haitian Fet Gede festival. Inspired by Rich Tommaso, Joel Schumacher and a week spent actually researching the Vodou religion to take the brief seriously, the can depicts a scene of hard dancing, brash shouting, spicy peppers and dark rum as the vodouwizan take to the streets to celebrate the dead. Let's go. The beer is, appropriately, a Rum Barrel Aged Doppelbock made in collaboration with Brix Distillers, and is available in 4 and 8 packs by itself or in a mix with IRRESISTIBLE FORCES, the IPA I was posting about yesterday. The empties would be a priceless addition to any Gede altars you want to build come November :)

For Glee’s Cold Brewski canned cold brew, I put together a series of illustrations featuring cold imagery - a fridge, a winter walk in puffer jackets - and developed a brand for a full wrap label. The 330mL cans are available in cafes all over the Hunter region.

Upcoming t-shirt design for Newy Fried Chicken - the best chicken in the whole city! I've been a fan of their food and their owner Nick for a very long time, so this collab has been a long time coming. I drew him with boxing gloves on purpose. At the beginning of the pandemic lockdowns, Nick did this ridiculous video encouraging everyone to video themselves shadowboxing out the front of their favourite restaurants. We gotta fight for Newcastle! This guy's tough as hell. This was very fun to work on - I haven't done anything in black and white for a while - and I can't wait to wear it on a shirt!

Seasonal artwork for Glee Coffee Roasters' new spring collection. I wanted to do something a little more grounded for this collection. No monsters and no skateboarding frogs. Just vibes. Each artwork is coloured after a modified Super Game Boy colour palette, and the illustrations line up together to either make a super-wide or super-tall image. I don't know if you can tell, but I watched all of Neon Genesis Evangelion while drawing these. I kept thinking about Shinji at the train station. Available now from Glee in 1kg, 500g or 250g.

TWO BEDROOM COTTAGE is another IPA from Mountain Culture featuring art by me. Inspired by the work of Jacob Witzling and my previous desert scenes for Bootleg Rascal, this was a joy to put together. I spent a long time looking at little desert cabins, daydreaming about turning a tree into a hot tub. The beer is currently available in 4 or 8 packs from Mountain Culture, which is great news for everyone except my Uber driver last week who spoke for 10 minutes about how much he hates IPAs. Let's go!

My illustrated menu for Lynch’s Hub dropped this week. We decided the most iconic and recognisable aspect of the business was shape of the building itself, so it made sense for us to feature it on the front! But I also wanted to draw Blake, Ashleigh, Lily and Ewan from the kitchen. And they wouldn't have it any other way.

STILL TODAY for Mountain Culture, an Oat Cream IPA with two explorers in a moon-shaped paddleboat chasing the sun. This was my first time working with Mike, MC's new art director, and he was very chill with me sending him five different colour palettes and then emailing at 2AM "what if we do a moon one". Still Today is currently available from the Mountain Culture website and in a mixed four or eight pack with some other cool beers. Maybe if you get one of their new beer advent calendars this Christmas you might ahhhh see another little Ben Mitchell can in there too? Who's to say?

Front cover illustration Careers With Stem's Digital Technologies Junior Job Kit, by Refraction Media - Impossible sci fi architecture, game boy inspired colours, kids wearing big hats, robots that look like toys - it's got it all! I was asked to draw a scene of children in the future interacting with science, and I tried to leave no stone unturned. The kids, the robot, the rocket and the buildings all appear as spot illustrations throughout the booklet, teaching children in year 5 & 6 the different ways an interest in technology and science can land you a job in the real world. The guide is available as a PDF for free from their website, and you can also order printed editions for your school if you're a teacher! This was great fun, and I love working on stuff for kids in the education space. Hopefully the first of many!

For Sydney entertainment agency Good Intent’s fifth birthday party, Bootleg Rascal, Emmy Redhook and various other interested parties will be gathering in Brisbane to watch Rob Carroll attempt to set the Guinness World record for longest ever Macarena. It's going to be a ripper. This was a lot of fun to put together, and caused a bunch of people to ask why I was doing the macarena to myself at my desk, trying to work out all the steps.

Wraparound cover illustration for the Newcastle Herald celebrating the Newcastle Knights entering the NRL Semi Finals. The illustration features depictions of Kailyn Ponga, Edrick Lee, David Klemmer, Jacob and Daniel Saifitti and Mitchell Pearce. They even interviewed me about my lack of football knowledge, which can be found here.

Spring collection packaging design for Glee Coffee Roasters. They said I could do whatever I want, so long as I made it colourful and cute.

Available to purchase here.

Various singles and promotional artwork for Sydney punk rock outfit Down For Tomorrow.

Packaging design for Australian skincare company Kirra Cosmetics. Kirra make body scrubs, face masks, lip balms and hand sanitisers featuring Australian ingredients, made to look otherwise delicious. I’ve done a whole bunch of pouches, boxes, tubes and tubs for Kirra, and even packing tape for their online orders.

Kirra’s products are available at their new website, here.

The 2020 version of the Dullboy’s Summer Holidays campaign - this time they wanted it less Miami and more Palm Springs.

Staff portraits for Sydney-based entertainment agency Good Intent, including their directors and management staff alongside performers Bootleg Rascal, FANGZ, Close Counters, Saint Lane and Down For Tomorrow.

Poster design for Futuresdawn’s fan film Batgirl Returns, used to promote its premiere at the WA Made film festival in Perth.

A series of illustrations commemorating a month in 2021 where I only watched Godzilla films.

A promotional illustration for the Pino’s At Val’s vegan pizza pop-up in January 2021. The illustration features two little babies inspired by classic Barilla advertisements, who have made their way into various other Pino’s designs I’ve completed since.

A series of illustrations for Victoria-based landscaping firm Ecodynamics, featuring two recurring tradie characters demonstrating proper lifting, stretching, hydration, use of chemicals, working with traffic and heavy machinery. The illustrations were used for safety posters and internal training.

For Halloween in 2020, Chiefly East hosted a special ticketed event for their regular customers. The afternoon featured live music and an exclusive menu, and invitations came in the form of special masquerade ball-style masks that I designed based on popular menu items. Mask designs included a double-smoked kransky, a jumbo zesty pickle and an aged cheddar and truffle oil baguette.

Australiana-themed graphics for the app concept UrShoutM8

Key art for the Aaron Gocs/Ben Searle interview podcast series, I’m All Ears.

A series of illustrative interpretations of love stories specific to the city of Newcastle – first dates at Deluca’s, getting dumped at the Terrace, being able to afford to live in a townhouse in your 20s – for a Newcastle Weekender cover story by Alexandra Morris.

Masthead design for pop culture/art blog The Aither

A full rebranding of the sandwich restaurant Chiefly East after their window display was smashed by a drunk skateboarder. This included their window, menu, uniform and stickers.

Enamel pin design to promote the documentary The World’s Best Film, inspired by town planner and street artist Bjorn Lindqvist.

A yearly tradition in collaboration with Purnell Trophies in Islington. Each year I make all my coworkers at The Roost Creative vote for their favourite member of our shared studio, and each year I go out of my way to build a commemorative trophy and put on some kind of awards ceremony to celebrate the year that was. In 2018, the winner was Community Manager Bec Dujin, and 2019 it was Board President Andy Jones. The 2019 ceremony was a 90-minute, live-streamed event that involved musical performances, interstate guests and a Letterman-style monologue. It was a whole thing.

Illustrated Save The Date cards for beautiful young lovebirds Robbie and Nicole.

The full Summer campaign for Dullboy’s Social Co. The featured image is an A2 poster that folds into an A6 Summer events guide, featuring several smaller spot illustrations. The good people at Dullboy’s wanted a big showcase of everything they had to offer to attractive young adults: bowling, pizza, mini-golf, relaxation, bumper cars, a video arcade and a delightful Aperol spritz!

Completed for a collaborative section of Illustrateyourlife’s Pieces project, to be released in 2020. I was tasked with drawing a collection of my own characters surrounding one from the Pieces cast. I chose a demon, put her in a giant David Byrne blazer and surrounded her with the important people in my life. This contains colourful renditions of my housemate, work colleagues, art friends and local business owners who make me sandwiches every day.

The theoretical work behind my comic Ghost Beach published as a 230-page book, including several hand-drawn diagrams explaining various theoretical concepts about comics, design and creativity.

Various sandwiches for my favourite family-owned business.

Sydney-based music agency Good Intent asked me to put together an illustrated poster for their King Street Crawl event and first birthday party, but specifically wanted it to be more simple than my usual style. I was excited to try something different, and put together a cake and some monstero plants.

I had to keep the secret headliner a secret for like a whole month, knowing full well that I’d get to finish the illustration with the boys from Bootleg Rascal poking their heads out of the sliced section when an announcement poster was released a week before the event.

A series of illustrations for the beer brand Hahn, used in social media campaigns to spark discussions about halloween, beer, movie cinema arm rests, cricket and office Christmas parties.

Illustrations for the 2020 Booty Camp tour, featuring Bootleg Rascal and Bobby Dazzler

Promotional t-shirt design for Feedback Organic, featuring their signature vegetable produce.

Unused spot illustrations for a Hunter Valley Wines festival - they ended up going for a photographic approach.

Poster and program design for Bearfoot’s transmedia production, Playing Face. I was able to read the script while it was still in conception stages, and wanted to base my aesthetic around its dark/absurd subversion of 50’s suburban romance tropes. I ended up drawing a lot of inspiration from Charles Burns’ fake romance comics in Last Look. Putting together the program based on these illustrations was a lot of fun, and I think I produced something people will really want to take home and keep.

I was approached by Katie and Mel of Australian comic series Metcop Wonderland to provide the poster for issue 7, Monsters. It was great working with them, and getting to feature my favourite characters on the cover. The full design is a wraparound and they used some WIP images for the endpapers. Us indie creators have to look out for each other.

Illustration for Lake Macquarie City Council, which was used on a Keep Cup. They wanted a dynamic, active image that summed up life in Lake Macquarie, so I focused on the lake itself and the Wattigans. I thought it would be funny to do sailing and abseiling and the same time - a visual pun.

Dual album covers for Bootleg Rascal’s double A-side single Yin & Yang, featuring the songs Tryin’ To Run and Get Over Myself.

Working very closely with the band, I developed the two artworks, complete with a style guide for future promotional use.

Dual album covers for Bootleg Rascal’s double A-side single Yin & Yang, featuring the songs Tryin’ To Run and Get Over Myself.

Working very closely with the band, I developed the two artworks, complete with a style guide for future promotional use.

“Get Over Myself” features a series of constellations that link with lyrical themes from the song.

Cover story illustration for the Newcastle Herald Weekender, May 4th 2019. Article written by my friend Alex Morris, pictured with plant.

A series of posters for Dullboy’s Social Co in Warners Bay, celebrating the early 90’s era of arcade gaming, paying tribute to games like Virtua Fighter, Time Crisis and Daytona USA.

Completed for the back cover of Storm Clouds Collected, or in case I ever win Rooster Of The Month.

Character design for a series of animations about severe asthmatics. If it were up to me, they'd all look like Soft Daniel.

In 2015, I initiated a giant art project called No Rooster Left Behind, for an exhibition celebrating the 5 year anniversary of The Roost, the creative co-working space I work from. This involved me drawing a simple cartoon portrait of everyone who had worked at the studio for longer than 2 months over the past five years, and all 90 portraits were displayed on a feature wall adjacent to the main entrance.

Over the past few years, new people came to work at the Roost, and asked me when I would find time in my schedule to just bust out another 90 cartoons to update the wall. I agreed to do one portrait a month, designed to look a little more nuanced than my original illustrations, and the portrait would be awarded to whoever contributed the most good deeds to the studio. We set up a nominations system and it eventually became a very large part of the studio’s culture.

Between 2018 and 2019, I completed 16 portraits.

Poster and program design for Bearfoot Theatre's 2018 show, Take Me To Neverland.

An (unfortunately) unused illustration of my third-favourite cafe, Bank Corner Espresso Bar. They just weren’t ready for gatefold menus!

A hand-drawn map of Newcastle East, used in corporate scavenger hunts by walking tour company Newcastle Afoot.

Illustration, branding and interface design for a webapp developed by the University of Newcastle’s FASTLAB, used to train an AI program to locate endangered koalas through satellite imagery.

Poster design for Rare Finds' third birthday party show at the Oxford Art Factory, featuring the band Bootleg Rascal. This was a sequel to last year's birthday party poster with Hey Geronimo. Both posters had to feature the venue's iconic yellow striped pillars, and also debut the headlining band's new lineup, which meant I needed to actually research what instrument everyone was playing now. It is alarming to see how much better I got at colours in a year's time!

I have been producing a self-published comic series called Storm Clouds for several years - for more information, please check the comics section of this page, or the Storm Clouds website.

A cocktail collaboration between Rare Finds and Oporto for their shows in Melbourne and Sydney - it has a habanero in it!

Poster design for the 2017 Welcome To Sunnydale exhibition at Junky Comics in Brisbane

Variant cover for Matt Kyme's comic book series The Demon #4 - Captives of Colombo! 

A superhero-themed design for Beep! Bicycle Bells. It really makes a ding!

Bonus: unused concept, deemed not colourful enough.

Various illustrated menu items for The Press Bookhouse, on Hunter Street. They are great friends and I love working for them.

In 2016, I worked on character design, puppet/asset creation and storyboarding for an (as of yet) unproduced animation pilot. The story followed a man working in a toy factory after awakening from a coma, unfamiliar with his strange co-workers and dangerous surroundings. One day, I'd love to see these guys in motion!

EP artwork for the rock band The Meantime. I had a lot of fun making textures for this one, and the band was extremely easy to work with. 

Tribute poster for Nick Milligan's sci-fi novel Enormity, made as part of the Chasing Paper exhibition at the Renew Newcastle gallery in 2015

An interactive mural for The University of Newcastle's UON50 exhibition at Newcastle Museum - guests of the opening party were asked to tweet their visions for the future of education, for them to be live-drawn by me and Alexis Pepper. My favourite was the robot cleaner.

Illustrated portraits for every employee at a certain technology store in Charlestown Square.

Branding, illustration and character designs for Slice Virtual Golf, a bar on King St.

The Reunion was a rock and roll festival held on the Central Coast for three years, where a bunch of old bands did reunion sets alongside the new bands their members had started. I did all the artwork for the 2012 and 2014 shows, creating several characters that were blown up and used as stage backdrops, as well as promotional materials and merchandise.

In 2012, I designed several characters based on real-life members of Central Coast bands, with Danny DeVito on drums - the idea was that half of the members were coming out of retirement, and the other half were young rockstars. In 2014, the characters were a visual pun on the name "The Misfits" with the girl representing the Misfits from the cartoon Gem and The Holograms, and the boy representing the punk band The Misfits, like from the early 80's. Really, I just wanted to draw a keytar.