Commissioned by UWE Student Communications through New Wave Agency, this infographic poster was a collaborative project with graphic designer Ker Hui Yi and an absolute joy to work on.Using information sheets put together by Student Comms, we designed an A2 poster for staff spaces on City Campus sites to help staff support students.Following Hui Yi’s gorgeous visual concept meant stepping out of my comfort zone of colour palettes and building confidence in my abilities to translate someone’s vision into my own style, which was a brilliantly enriching experience — both in sharing the creative process with a graphic designer, and getting to see my illustrations in a context I wouldn’t have fathomed before being offered this opportunity.
The Spaghetti Monster is a children’s book I’ve been working on for the last year, since submitting it originally as Food Likes To Play Too to Macmillan Prize for Illustration 2025.
Originally, I'd written it about a boy who likes to play with his food becoming possessed by his dinner and turning into a spaghetti mess. However, since an invaluable portfolio review with Hachette's team last autumn, I've taken on their advice and rewritten the story to focus more on the spaghetti monster as a character.
The Spaghetti Monster 2-page spread
The advice and guidance I took from that brief meeting with Hachette has massively shaped my approach to my practice this last year following graduation. It's given me the confidence to make something of The Spaghetti Monster and the drive to keep creating until I find an artistic style I think works for the tone of the story and look of the monster. Experimenting with different techniques and mediums has been an exciting and sometimes stressful aspect of my creating this last year, but always exciting and always fun.
Jungle Studio, led by Geoff who discovered my work at New Designers 2025, have been mentoring me in designing greeting cards. Experimenting with a variety of styles, we are currently building my range Faff, Fluff and Other Stuff, with 2 designs up on Funky Pigeon and 10 selected to soon be up on Moonpig. Working with Jungle Studio has been a great opportunity for playing with various compositions and colours to explore its potential while remaining consistent with one specific style – naïve cartoons in brush pen and digital colour.
Nested Souls is a grassroots music experience organised by Leo Sherbersky with their sold out debut night Hatchlings having taken place this most recent April, dedicated to creating a wholesome space to come together to boogie in a sober-encouraged, crafty cozy environment.
Hi! I'm Orla, a Bristol-based illustrator from Tottenham. My work tends to take an autoethnographic approach, stemming from sketchbook drawings responding to the nuances of day-to-day life that result in vibrant cartoons around themes of identity, mental health and neurodivergence.Since graduating BA Illustration from University of the West of England in 2025, I've focussed on selling artwork at local markets, designing greeting cards with Jungle Studio for platforms such as Moonpig and Funky Pigeon, and ultimately continuing to develop my practice through exciting design commissions and self-initiated projects such as writing and illustrating children's books.
My email address is [email protected]. My instagram is @orlangejuice. I check both regularly!
My predominant method of working is with my sketchbook and pen, usually from the comfort of my bed but whenever an idea springs to mind. I treat my drawings as a form of journaling - I tend find it easier to illustrate how I'm feeling rather than using just words, but often use both! I'm a very open person so have no discomfort sharing these publicly, in fact my favourite part of my practice is getting to showcase my thoughts and bonding with people through their reactions and relatability.
I share these sketches on my Instagram story regularly as I'm drawing them, but also organise them into collections as zines, which I sell at markets around Bristol. You can find me with these at the M32 flea market almost every month but if you give me enough of a nudge I'll also pop these up on my online shop (which will hopefully exist soon haha).Anyway, enjoy a random long concoction of my doodles below!
