Graham Pilling

Poster for the band Public Service Broadcasting featuring a neon plane cockpit display and stars above by poster artist Graham Pilling

Poster for the band Public Service Broadcasting's tour dates in American and Canada in the style of a postage stamp featuring the Electra aircraft. Designed by poster artist Graham Pilling

Couple more screenprint designs for #PublicServiceBroadcasting - for their EU and North America dates. My last poster designs of the year... but I'm sure there'll be plenty more to come.

I try and use self-critique of my older work to improve the fundamentals of new work. I feel like my understanding of how people see and react to work is steadily improving. It's hard though; there are a LOT of factors.

Well that's certainly a tricky one! Again can only speak for myself but I have found I can look back on old work and more easily see why it might have been a 'hard sell' - usually comes down to missing fundamentals of design: clear focal point & easy to read shapes, good colour theory, etc

It definitely helps me. With my 'design head' on, I'm very good at looking for problems/flaws to fix - but I need to actively practice switching that off the rest of the time, and looking for positives to appreciate. Hope it helps you too mate. :)

When you say you're 'trying not to fail', what is your definition of failure in that context? Is it to do with how you feel about your own work, or is it to do with connecting to an audience or sales? It's easy to get a bit mentally stuck with both those things!

I also skew quite negative with my thinking, so I practice gratitude. I list the things I'm happy with at the end of a day; this helps me develop a mindset where I am actively looking for positives. It doesn't always come naturally to me.

For me, I feel 'successful' when I'm achieving good work/life balance. If I'm overworking (which is sometimes the case with client-work/deadlines) then I can feel the potential for burnout and my eyes & brain get fatigued. It's harder to enjoy the work. Balance is good for me.

Screen printed gig poster showing a bright, daytime view of the Barbican Centre to commemorate the band Public Service Broadcasting's performance there. By graphic artist Graham Pilling / Army of Cats.

Screen printed gig poster showing a dark, evening view of the Barbican Centre to commemorate the band Public Service Broadcasting's performance there. By graphic artist Graham Pilling / Army of Cats.

Recent work for #PublicServiceBroadcasting - set of 2 screen prints to commemorate their performances at the London Barbican.

Posters sold out at the show, few left on my own shops.

#screenprinting #gigposters #PSB #Barbican

I'm going through old punk LPs at the moment and really enjoying some of the amazing 'fuck it' design choices for inlays and artwork. Definitely a charm to it!

Sci-fi/dystopian-looking illustration showing a foggy cityscape with a giant orb in the sky.

Tidying up folders, found a sketch that reminded me of @aptshadow.bsky.social's Final Architecture series.
(Currently reading the 3rd book).

Good work John!

Obsession 14: Posters reveal the design spirit of each era I noticed how every generation of poster artists unconsciously documented their era's visual language.

Great little mini-site celebrating the poster designs of Roland Garros and exploring how visual language has changed over the decades. www.thomasmoes.com/52obsessions...

Ha, I've began a few but never finished - I always seem to have deadlines with other work!

View of the harbour in Bergen Norway as the sun is going down.

View from the top of a mountain above Bergen Norway, with a cable car tower in the hazy distance.

Hiking in Bergen Norway.

A deliberately out of focus night photo of buildings lit up at the other side of the harbour in Bergen, Norway.

Last week I was in a sauna in a wooden shack on a fjord in Bergen. Without my specs, the lights from the other side of the fjord made the most incredible bokeh. A really strange optical experience, like a hologram floating in front of my eyes... but of course only I could actually see it that way.

Pen and ink sketch of Top Withins on Haworth Moor, notable for its association with Wuthering Heights.

The ruin of Top Withins off in the distance on Haworth Moor. Very quick little sketch in water soluble ink.

The summer business has meant painting has taken a backseat but hoping to return to these little sketches.

A poster for the band Los Campesinos! showing a forlorn looking girl sitting on an island surrounded by tiny buildings, some of which are broken down. It is night, the sky is full of stars, and there is a full moon above.

I designed and printed this for the band Los Campesinos! who were one of my highlights at Green Man Festival this year. The poster sold out but preorders are open for a reprint - details here:

armyofcats.bigcartel.com/product/preo...

#screenprinting #gigposters #loscampesinos #greenman

Somebody set up us the bomb!

All the best for today John and lovely to meet you yesterday

Screen Printing gig poster for Kneecap, featuring an unlit petrol bomb bottle made up of various newspaper quotes about the band and their stance on the genocide in Gaza.

A real honour to create artwork for Kneecap; a screen printed gig poster to commemorate their energetic performance at Green Man this year. These sold out at the festival but are still available from the band's online merch store.

Framed concern poster screen print for Richard Dawson, showing an allotment scene in reds and greens.

Close up of concern poster screen print for Richard Dawson, showing a cat sleeping on a deckchair and various plantpots, tools, goblin, and other bits found in a garden.

The silkscreen printing process begins with a neat line of ink on a clean stencil.

Mixing green ink for the concern poster screen print for Richard Dawson.

Screen printed Gigposter for Rich Dawson. 4 Colours. Peaceful allotment scene with a hidden goblin. #screenprinting #gigposters #richarddawson #silkscreen #printartist

Hello folks! It's been a very busy few months for me and I've drifted away from social media use as a result. I'll be posting more of what I've been up to soon...

We're going on an adventure...

That's a good reminder I need to read the third book...!

Liking so I can come back and check reccos! Definitely not new but I recently started Pushing Ice by Alastair Reynolds. So far so good.

I've only ever listened to it just for one day. 🙃

Cheers John!

Designer and print maker Graham Pilling (Army of Cats Creative Studio) holds up his screen print of Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa in his studio room.

I created a short edition of screen prints from my Snowdon / Yr Wyddfa pen & ink drawing.

These are available in my online shops now (linked from my main armyofcats site). Cheers!

#artist #printmaker #snowdon #wales #cymru #yrwyddfa #fells #fellrunning #mountains

Oh no! Sending positive vibes back at you John, hope you get that quickly sorted and can get on with enjoying your day

Different pots of green ink being mixed and colour matched ready for screenprinting a poster of the Yorkshire Three Peaks on the desk of artist and print maker Graham Pilling, Army of Cats Creative Studio.

I popped some pics up showing the printing process of my recent Yorkshire Three Peaks poster.

blog.armyofcats.com/yorkshire-th...

Have a gander. 🙂

#printmaking #screenprint #silkscreen #yorkshirethreepeaks #yorkshire