Besides its eye-catching cover - a soft wispy pencil sketch of Susie Bubble - I'll admit I didn't know all that much about Sketchbook Magazine. That all changed two days ago, when the team welcomed more than 300 people to their Carnaby pop-up shop. Just hours after the launch party one fan tweeted that the evening felt like falling into the pages of the magazine. How right she was...
(That's me trying not to get cupcake crumbs stuck to my lipstick at 1:12)
The Sketchbook pop-up shop was the brainchild of Rachel Menashy (a final year Fashion Promotion and illustration student) who pitched the idea to editor Wafa Alobaidat in January of this year. As Sketchbook is all about innovative talent and creative collaboration it didn't take much to persuade the contributors to get behind the project.
Rachel enlisted the help of Sister PR, who in turn secured the space (a shop at number 10 Newburgh Street) and the 500 members of the Sketchbook family did the rest. Every inch of white wall became a blank canvas, and 48 hours of solid illustration later, it was covered.
Entering the world of Sketchbook is intoxicating. Not least because of the smiling faces of all the proud contributors. Wafa told me that she has met at least 5 people every day since she started the magazine a year ago. Her vision was always to support the creative community, and Sketchbook strive to find a place for every person with a desire to get involved.
Such a huge network of creative contributors came in handy when the team were dreaming up events to fill the three week occupancy. Lectures, workshops and discussion panels enlist the knowledge of people like Laetitia Wajnapel (Mademoiselle Robot blog), Becky Smith (LuLa, Twin magazine), Rosie Wolfenden and Harriet Vine (Tatty Devine), Samir Clerc and Zoe Knight (Wolf and Badger) and Viking Wong. And best of all the whole shebang is free! I'll be making frequent visits over the next few weeks, and so should you.
Check out the Sketchbook blog for frequent updates and listings on all the goings on down at the pop-up shop, or get drip fed info by following Sketchbook magazine on Twitter.
Check out the Sketchbook blog for frequent updates and listings on all the goings on down at the pop-up shop, or get drip fed info by following Sketchbook magazine on Twitter.