Dave Bain
Dave Bain is an illustrator whose work is playful, characterful, and full of colour. Inspired by mid-century design and traditional print processes like screenprinting and risograph, his illustrations have a soft, textured feel and often use limited colour palettes to striking effect.
He loves creating scenes that feel positive and full of joy, but equally enjoys crafting pieces that carry a message or reward a second look with carefully layered detail. His characters are wonky and stylised in the best possible way, accentuating expression, emotion, and human interaction.
Dave’s fascination with depicting people and community runs through much of his work. From editorial pieces to large-format murals shaped in collaboration with local groups, his illustrations celebrate the beautifully diverse world we live in.
Influenced by artists like Jim Flora, Dave brings the same energy and rhythm to his images that Flora once brought to jazz album covers: vivid, playful, and alive with movement.
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By email or call 07753 247 576
Dave BainEverybody Loves The SunshineThis illustration is my response to the song 'Everybody Loves The Sunshine'. I leaned towards a warm colour palette inspired by 70s flower patterned artwork. Flowers are in abundance, many with happy or cheeky faces, surrounding and glancing at a naked couple rolling around. Bees buzz about and central sunshine shape radiates outwards to the edges of the composition. View Folio
Dave BainAn interior mural for a pottery spaceThe Community Pottery invited me to create a mural of diverse characters embodying the joyous nature of working with clay, throwing on the wheel, trimming and glazing. I made use of their brand colour palette, which in itself reflects some of the natural colours found in clay and glazes. Their logo mark is included on one of the character’s apron. View Folio
Dave BainHealthy WalkersLead illustration for a promotional information board for a national railway station advertising local healthy walks. The artwork shows a diversity of healthy walkers, young, old, baby, woman, man, wheelchair user, dog View Folio
Dave BainSchool values muralA mural providing a bright, cheerful and motivational welcome that connects to and backs up the school’s ethos and values. The mural is located on the school grounds alongside the main entrances to the building. View Folio
Dave BainOracle card deck illustrationA hippo as a spirit animal for an oracle card deck. View Folio
Dave BainSpot illustrations for a youth charity card deck promoting positive choices.I illustrated a series of spot illustrations for a deck of mental wellbeing activity cards called ‘Positive Power-ups’ for children and young people. View Folio
Dave BainA Head for Interior Design View Folio
Dave BainAnticipating big changes – spot illustrationOnce Upon A Town invited me to illustrate the Autumnal cover of their ‘Epsom & Ewell’ magazine. The brief extended to provide the client with a set of spot illustrations lifted from the cover, which could be used internally.
The brief related to the lead ‘health & well-being’ article penned by motivational author Jonathan Acott. He writes sage advice for life and my job was to bring a positive take on each of his key points.
This is one of the spot illustrations. View Folio
Dave BainDeep Dive / Create BeerPromotional beer label packaging for invented brewery Create Beer. Schools of curious and expressive fish in their underwater sea environment decorate the label for ‘Deep Dive’. I also constructed a bespoke alphabet for all the necessary typography.
View Folio
Dave BainInternal illustration for a book about global sandwich cultureA mouth-watering commission, I was asked to illustrate the cover and a suite of internal illustrations for ‘Cult Sandwiches’ - “the ultimate guide to 100 iconic things-in-bread from around the world”. Penned by the knowledgable food writer David Paw, I was briefed on a delicious range of sandwiches to illustrate in a myriad of ways. This included showcasing the ingredients, illustrating the origin location, celebrating the community and culture or focussing on the finished sandwich. I developed a consistent shared colour palette, across the illustrations, along with textures and finishes to suit the subject matter, while retaining my illustrative style and way of depicting people.
Client: Wellbeck (Headline / Hachette) View Folio
Dave BainSpace Week puzzle illustrationThe commission called for a fun, busy Where’s Wally-esque illustration as a celebration of World Space Week. The scene is full of playful, silly and charming moments from the perspective of the inside of a rocket or space shuttle during long-term spaceflight.
The astronauts are floating around in zero gravity and there is a window out to the starry sky. The illustration was accompanied by as list of 10 things to spot in the illustration and was printed as a double-page spread in the puzzle section of The Observer. View Folio
Dave BainStarbucks muralStarbucks commissioned a set of two murals for their Camden High Street store in London. They asked that I draw on Camden’s musical heritage, punk and counter-culture characters, mixed with a newer influx of tourists and diverse visitors. I developed a six colour palette, shared by both murals, featuring their distinct dark green, complimentary warm coffee-influenced colours and a punchy blue to help dance the eye across the artwork. View Folio
Dave BainThe positive joys of eating fruit.A set of illustrations imbuing the positive emotional impact of introducing fruit to your diet. Each illustration shows a character interacting with an item of fruit, while physically sat or leaning on the same oversized item of fruit: an apple, banana or orange. The artworks are composed of two key colours overlayed on a lightly toned background. The characters are happy - full of joy - with their fruit. View Folio
Dave BainA busy line of people queueing for foodThe brief was to illustrate an article all about queues for food and how these are linked to social media posts. The article is an excerpt from ‘All Consuming’ book by author Ruby Tandoh. The very long queue stretces across several spreads of the magazine and showcases different people, many interacting with their phones, as the writing details how social media can generate and perpetuate long-lines of customers willing to queue for the latest food sensation.
Client: The Observer View Folio
Dave BainCelebrating local communityThis 95sqm artwork is a full building wrap-around mural, handpainted on the revamped 19th century pub The Jolly Boatman on Lewes Road, Newhaven. The mural was commissioned as part of the Look Again Supergraphics Festival.
Titled “Our Community” I designed the artwork as a celebration of the people of Newhaven and what brings them together, through a collection of vignette illustrations which you can discover as you look around the building. View Folio
Dave BainProblem solving via therapyOne from a series of black and white spot illustrations - each one dealing with different aspects of therapy or environments where problem solving can take place. View Folio
Dave BainA celebratory illustration for a seaside, coastal exhibition focused on communityMy illustration captures the vibrant nature of Seaford's local community enjoying being by the sea. I started out by reflecting on trips to the seaside; my own memories along with references and images from Seaford. This led to developing a set of characters having fun, which I laid out in a playful composition. The gorgeous row of Seaford beach huts strongly influenced my colour palette. View Folio
Dave BainTeam VikingIllustration for monthly Cultural Calendar email newsletter - a round-up of arts and culture events with a mix of reviews and highlighting upcoming events going on in London. This edition featured a review of 'Team Viking' – a dark comedy about a man trying to give his best friend a viking send off. It's a one man show by James Rowland and performed in a shed. View Folio
Dave BainEncountersAn ongoing series featuring an explorer in space, encountering colours, shapes, wonders and creatures. scifi, retro, floral, creatures, psychedelic, trippy View Folio
Dave BainInternal illustration for a book about global sandwich cultureA mouth-watering commission, I was asked to illustrate the cover and a suite of internal illustrations for ‘Cult Sandwiches’ - “the ultimate guide to 100 iconic things-in-bread from around the world”. Penned by the knowledgable food writer David Paw, I was briefed on a delicious range of sandwiches to illustrate in a myriad of ways. This included showcasing the ingredients, illustrating the origin location, celebrating the community and culture or focussing on the finished sandwich. I developed a consistent shared colour palette, across the illustrations, along with textures and finishes to suit the subject matter, while retaining my illustrative style and way of depicting people.
Client: Wellbeck (Headline / Hachette) View Folio