TADO at Hallam University

This week, I started a short block of Illustration lecturing at the local Sheffield Hallam University. I'm doing just 4 hours each week until mid Jan: there isn't time to do it as a regular thing, but now and then it's fun and adds variety to life. This time last year I taught life drawing for a few weeks and also worked with last year's 3rd years, helping them develop their Final Projects. 

This time I'm with 2nd years. My first session was on Wednesday, but there was a one-off talk by the Sheffield-based illustrators 'TADO' scheduled during my session time, so I had a very easy morning, sitting with the students, listening to TADO talk about their work (and sketching, of course).

TADO are in fact Katie and Mike (above), a couple who met at art school 10 year ago. 

Since then, they have had meteoric success and work with various massive companies all over the world. Their frenetic scenes and offbeat characterisations have been applied to everything from Orange ad campaigns, flip-flops, Gola bags, toys...

They are in fact obsessed with toys and this is their illustration of themselves at play.

To be honest, their work is not really my bag, but it is extremely well done and they work unbelievably hard. One big job had them both busy grafting all day and half the night, 7 days a week, for several months. They were barely out of the house, apart for mercy-dashes for food, and their neighbour thought they had gone away on a long holiday!

I had a lecturing slot at Hallam on Thursday morning too, when I had a proper session with real teaching. The students are beginning a new project based on the Cultural Olympiad music event Alight, so my role was to try and help them remove the creative brick wall that you get when panic sets in and to suggest ways they might unlock their ideas.  

The university is only 10 minutes on the bus (perfect or what?) and, on my way home on Wednesday, I spent most of that time sketching this man (quite a feat, as it was extremely bumpy):

He smiled at me, so I showed him the drawing and we chatted until he had to get off, just the stop before me. He emailed me when he got in: turns out he works in web design for Sheffield Council: hello Toks!