Blog

Inky Goodness is an illustration agency that represents an array of UK illustrators including the very talented Dave Bain whose style ranges from bold and colourful to delicate line drawings, character-tastic Steve Rack - the brains behind Toe Fluff and Carlos Garde-Martin who creates a wonderful range of colourful and quirky figures and scenes. All their work will be available to view at the East Gallery in Shoreditch from 3rd to 12th September. Definitely worth a visit. More info is available here:

www.inkygoodness.com

Hits: 26 | Read more...

London Lives is a new art competition open to all London artists which aims to explore the concept of London and what it is, celebrating its renowned energy, diversity and originality. From its pulsating streets, bustling transport system, history and colourful markets, through to its serene parks, magnificent river and an evolving cityscape - the judges want to see what London really means to you.

The overall winner will see a large-scale reproduction of their work featured on Blackfriars Bridge and in an exhibition at Bankside Gallery as well as winning £1,500 of art material vouchers from CASS Art.

The competition is now open to entries and the closing date is 25th July. More information can be found on the Guardian website.

Good luck!

Hits: 127 | Read more...

On Saturday we attended a networking event hosted by The Publishers Club, Ammo Magazine and Blanket Magazine and, despite the very unsummery weeather, had a great time meeting a cool bunch of illustrators and designers from across the country, finding out what they are up to and talking collaboration, collaboration. Take a look at these sites for some inspiring illustration work.

www.inkygoodness.com - agency showcasing new and emerging illustration talent

www.gemmacorrell.com

www.tomhovey.co.uk

www.carlosgardemartin.co.uk

www.junesees.com

Hits: 115 | Read more...

On Wednesday 16th June we held a Chief Summer Party in London, NW1 to which we invited designers, friends, customers and our brand advocates. We had a great time drinking beer in the evening sun, whilst selling t-shirts and  networking with the Chief community. Good times all round.

Watch out for the next event which will be bigger and better and join our Facebook group to see all the photos.

Photo below (from left to right): top brand advocate James Johnson, host Tamzin Muir, Chief founder Caroline Green, graphic designer Andy Broughton, top sales agent Bekks Nightingale, happy customer Ru Jupp.)

Hits: 152 | Read more...

On Tuesday Chief Originals took part in the Rewire Event at Rich Mix in Shoreditch. About 150 people from the creative sector came together to talk about innovation and collaboration and Chief ran a session about 'Cutting through in a crowded marketplace.'

The day was fun and useful and helped raise awareness of the company and what we are doing. Thanks to everyone who helped us brainstorm and we hope to see some new members join the Chief community as a result.

Hits: 169 | Read more...

Congratulations to Sarah Drinkwater who has won a whole day of Chief Designer Alastair Eland's incredible artistic skills to create a masterpiece of her choice.

Sarah is currently deciding how she can best put Ali's talents to use but we'll keep you updated on what she decides and the undoubtedly amazing output!

Watch this space for more cracking competitions from Chief Originals.

Hits: 147 | Read more...

Do you have a creative project that requires a designer/artist/illustrator but no budget to pay for one?

We are giving away the incredible skills of one of our finest artists, Ali Eland whose Out of the Box design has been one of our best-sellers so far.

For one whole day Ali could be all yours and will create for you the masterpiece you desire: a mural in your bedroom or on the office wall, a personalised cartoon, a party or wedding invitation design or maybe you just need a creative helping hand around the agency?

To win, all you have to do is post the following message on your Twitter feed:

RT #T-shirt community @chieforiginals is giving away an artist for a day. Info at http://bit.ly/cH9gpc -  Retweet to enter the prize draw

Or, for those of you who don't operate in the twittersphere, post the following message on your Facebook status.

T-shirt community www.ChiefOriginals.com is giving away an artist for a day. For more info visit http://www.chieforiginals.com/blog  and to enter the prize draw post this message to your FB status.

We'll be picking a lucky winner via a prize draw next week. Get involved and good luck! Terms and conditions apply*

Ali is an illustrator and artist whose work ranges from cartoon style to graphic illustration to fine art and whose work has been sold in Europe and Australia. You can see one of his pieces below and can view his portfolio here.

* Terms and Conditions

- The creative day must be a week day and the creative session will run from 9am to 5pm.

- The day is subject to Ali's availability and will be agreed with the winner in advance.

- Creative materials to the value of £50 will be supplied.

- The artistic request must be achievable in a day, agreed in advance and fall within the law -  sex or nudity are not accepted. We are not pimping Ali out here. Well, not really.

- That's it (we think).

Hits: 252 | Read more...

I've been meaning to post this all week but I keep getting distracted. There is so much going on it's hard to keep up. But I have finally found a moment to post this article published in last week's NME, the one with Courtney Love on the cover, telling its 65,000 odd readership about Chief Originals, (albeit as part of an article about the alternative choir I'm in, Gaggle!) You'll have to squint to read it as it's a bit too big to post here!

I'm hoping there is going to be a mention in next week's Grazia too!

Hits: 254 | Read more...

Washington based artist Alexa Meade makes people the subject of her paintings by covering them in acrylic paint and adding them to the foreground. It's creepy, unnerving and above all original. Truly amazing stuff, inspirational for anyone who's trying to think original.

View Alexa's incredible paintings here.

Hits: 251 | Read more...

One of the great things about Chief is that it is an opportunity for artists to find out what other creative people think about their work. They really value your comments so please do take a minute to leave your feedback in the RATING section. From the comments we've had on here and on our Facebook page it looks as though the next print run may comprise both of Andreas Toepfer's great designs - Strawberry Skull and Bubblegum Monkey.

Please keep letting us know what you think so we can print what you want.

Hits: 299 | Read more...

A big DANKE! to Berlin designer Raban Ruddigkeit who is getting into the spirit of Chief and helping to spread the word by featuring us on the homepage of his uebercool website. Great stuff Raban!

Hits: 280 | Read more...

Here at Chief we are proud to produce the finest designs printed on the best quality products.

Our t-shirt designs are superbly screen printed onto the best 100% Jersey cotton that won't shrink or fade. We are so confident of our quality that we'll replace any of our t-shirts that get threadbare. We don't think you'll be needing to take us up on it but the offer is there, just in case.

Hits: 285 | Read more...

We launched the site with some designs for sale that we were sure would be winners but going forward we want you to tell us which designs are your favourites. Chief members can rate designs as well as leave comments and this invaluable customer insight means we should only be printing designs you want to buy.

If you like the design but not the t-shirt colour let us know or if you think the design would work really well on a totally different product we want you to tell us that too.

Thanks for your help :)

Hits: 259 | Read more...

A few people have been asking us where the name Chief came from so we thought we'd share the story behind the company and the name with you.

It all began on a Summer's day in 2009 as Chief Founder, Caroline Green, looked around Saint, the London agency where she was working as a digital producer. The designers at Saint were always wearing nice looking t-shirts and Caroline thought that they could probably come up with some cool designs themselves. She knew that handling the admin and production side of a business that sold the designs wouldn't interest the designers, being of creative persuasion, but that's where she could step in - managing people and production was what she was already doing in her day job. And so the idea for Chief was born. In a nutshell Chief is:

A collaborative design company that harnesses the creative talent of its community to produce original printed goods for which the designer receives royalties on sale.

Chief is nothing without its tribe - the illustrators, designers and other creative folk who submit the wonderful designs we showcase, print and sell. We direct and lead them but they are the reason we exist and that is the reason we are called Chief.

Hits: 257 | Read more...

After months of blood, sweat and tears we are pleased to say that Chief is finally here, for your viewing and shopping pleasure. We're announcing the soft launch on 4th March and will spend the rest of the month making sure everything is working exactly as it should be. We'd also like to know what you think so please do send us your feedback via the contact form.

Personally, we think our website is looking rather good and we need to thank the people who made it so. Credits go to:

Andy Broughton - site design - www.digifingers.com

Alex Lastin - site build - www.osdigital.co.uk

Ali & Jed - photography

Chief Designers - a special thanks goes to all our founding designers for supporting us from the beginning. We love your designs and are going to do our best to sell as much of your work as we can and earn you the most money we can.

** Sign up to the Chief newsletter, join the Facebook group and follow us on Twitter to make sure you are the first to hear about our new designs and special promotions.

Hits: 356 | Read more...