Artist Spotlight: Sketchbook Design

This week in our artist spotlight series we are showcasing the talented, Sketchbook Design.
“Sketchbook design was founded in 2015 by Michael Wylie with the aim to create hand-drawn typography artwork for homes and businesses. 

Michael was born and raised in Sunderland in North East England and moved to Manchester to attend university. While studying on his Foundation Art & Design course at Manchester Metropolitan University Michael first started to experiment with the use of words and typography in his artwork.

Following his Fine Art degree, and while working as an Art and Design lecturer, Michael began to create some personal typographic artwork. One of these designs was inspired by the hit TV show Breaking Bad and the artwork drew the attention of AMC who produced the show. The interest in his work drove Michael to pursue his passion and this led to the creation of Sketchbook Design.

The name Sketchbook Design is inspired by the traditional drawing methods that we use to create our artwork. All of our typography and illustration work starts life on a page in a Sketchbook instead of on a screen. The square shapes on top of our logo were actually traced from the holes in the paper at the top of the ring-bound sketchbook that we designed the original logo on!

We believe that the use of typography in our artwork gives the viewer the freedom to add their own thoughts and experiences to the piece. We want our art work to start a conversation, cause you to reminisce, engage you and hopefully put a smile on your face.

The style of our work does change and develop but the one constant is that all of our work will be hand-produced. We take pleasure in the idiosyncrasies of hand-made typography art, the little human touches that give artwork personality and uniqueness.” (Sketchbook Design, About, 2021)

You can browse Sketchbook Design prints in our online shop now and in-store from April 12^th!