Introducing...Abigail Burch and her quest to save Nemo over a coffee

We love introducing new people to you and we’re always happy to see the creative juices positively flowing through the blood of graduates each year. And so it is with graphic designer and illustrator Abigail Burch who has recently graduated from Nottingham Trebt. Abigail grabbed our attention with her self-promotional book which allows viewers into her world, welcoming everyone with personal insights such as her love for a cup of coffee – a fondness shared only with the sound of rain and old books!

This project earned her a D&AD New Blood award and to top this off, what’s better than having some pretty awesome branding for a fishmonger in your portfolio? This project uses a focused design that can be utilised across three areas of a brand – its aim is to promote less popular and unknown fish all in the name of fishy flavoured discovery, reducing the pressure on those other succulent but dwindling little Nemos. We caught up with Abigail to get to know her a little better…

Where do you work?

Currently I’m sharing my time between interning in design studios in London and doing some freelance and personal work at home.  The nice thing about interning is you get see lots of different studios and how they work.  When I’m at home I’m lucky to have a small room where I can spread everything everywhere and make a mess and then just shut the door on it all at the end of the day.     

How does your working day start?

Either in a bit of rush to get the train and grabbing food on the go, or fairly relaxed eating Coco Pops in front of morning television with my dog eyeing up my cereal.   

How do you work and how has it changed?

I usually spend time researching and thinking first, coming up with the idea and then drawing and sketching it out. If it is illustration or personal work then I will usually work with ink or watercolours, using a range of brushes and tools to draw with. It all gets scanned in and then developed and worked up on illustrator or photoshop, although I try not to mess with it too much. The biggest change is the speed of things – I spent weeks on things at uni I now do in a couple of days which makes you wonder how it ever took that long before.  

Where would we find you when you’re not at work?

I will either be out and about exploring London, at home walking my dog, watching spy shows  or drinking wine/coffee/gin.

Would you intern for yourself?

I’m still doing the intern thing so not yet, but I definitely would in the future and I would pay, be nice and give them interesting things to do.