SLAB x eilidh jan

Corona has hit everyone hard (unless you’re Jeff Bezos or the CEO of a company that has diversified into making face masks). People working in creative industries are no exception. Hiring local designers is something that is important to us, so that people can continue to create and live. We don't believe they should have to retrain to become cyber IT consultants.

Eilidh is talented at design, way more fucking talented than we are.  So this collab was a pretty simple idea really.

Eilidh Dickson (@eilidhjan) is a Glasgow based illustrator and graphic designer. She observes the fleeting thoughts and dwelling moments of the day-to-day, through to abstractions of mood; interpreted in monochrome, cartoon-like forms.

We gave her a brief and she asked us to think of one word to capture the concept for her to work around. I had just come in from a morning surf and James was lying in bed “working from home”.  

FLOW.

That feeling on a wave when it all goes right. Where the wave does all the talking and you are just listening. It might not always look pretty, but fucking hell does it feel good. 

As surfers, many of us are chasing the concept of flow. Wikipedia paste job incoming…. “flow is a mental state in which a person performing some activity is fully immersed in a feeling of energized focus, full involvement, and enjoyment in the process of the activity”. 

I love watching people in the water who seem to be in this state. I remember being in the water and seeing someone surfing really well, getting lots of waves, having fun. they asked me for the time (only 5% of surfers own a watch apparently)... 

“10.30”

 “fuck, i’m really late for work”.     

We wanted Eilidh to get this feeling across somehow in the design. To try to capture the feeling of surfing when you’ve lost track of time and you're just enjoying it. All your focus is on surfing. You can think about anything, or nothing at all.

Despite coming from a digital visual communications background, Eilidh prefers working in ink and paint on paper, canvas or wood. She got sketching, and we worked with her going through different drafts before deciding on the final design. 

We think she nailed it.