Jonny Hannah

I have been a fan of Jonny Hannah's work for quite some time now. I became aware of him through the work of Mark Hearld, who I studied during my foundation degree in York. I attended a small 'illustration &writing' exhibition of his work on the 3rd of November at the MMU. It was so refreshing to see work so 'raw' without frames or someone's explanation alongside.

With it being the opening night, it seemed as though socialising was the main focus of the event, so it was quite difficult to get a good look at the images.

I spent a long time trying to get a good look at them, I could see the amount of detail and the textures from the printing so clearly. The hand rendered type really added character.

Some of the images appeared to be printed on the outer pages from a paperback sketchbook, they reminded me of postcards. One of the final expectations for my current brief is to produce a vignette on an A6 format, this images will be perfect to use for some inspiration.

Although Jonny Hannah has is own visual language, all of his work remains very different, perhaps this is due to what or who it has been commissioned for. Some of the illustrations completely filled the page, some where floating central in the composition, and some were displayed on shapes cut from wood.

What seems important is that he is completely engulfed in his own world, and you can clearly see all of his influences!

"A passionate music lover, and sharp dresser (correspondance shoes and bow-ties are de rigeur) Jonny’s work is inspired by whatever he’s listening to… which happens to mostly be Jazz."