Tuesday, 5:09pm
23 September 2008

How to illustrate

Martin O’Neill’s collages burst out of the Guardian’s how-to-write booklets

Guardian (and Observer) readers have been getting a daily dose of Martin O’Neill’s collages in the seven-part ‘How to write’ series of booklets.

It was a big job for the illustrator, who works alone in his East Sussex studio, and his distinctive arsenal of typewritten scraps, filing cabinets, dogs, broken technology and faded movie characters has been cleverly marshalled by the art director, Gavin Brammall.

Top: Martin O’Neill’s desktop, late August 2008.

See ‘Turning clutter into gold’, our review of O’Neill’s latest book Dogs & Dice (John Frum Press, £10, www.cutitout.co.uk) in Eye no. 69 vol. 18.

Above: spread from How to write Plays & Screenplays.

Below: cover, spread and inside back cover spread (showing photo of O’Neill’s shelves from Dogs & Dice.

Eye is the world’s most beautiful and collectable graphic design journal, published quarterly for professional designers, students and anyone interested in critical, informed writing about graphic design and visual culture. It is available from all good design bookshops and online at the Eye shop, where you can buy subscriptions and single issues.