Illustrating Another Place with Joules
(8 minute read)
Behind the door with the brass hare knocker lies a unique and inviting space.
Filled with vintage finds, characterful patterns and lively pops of daffodil yellow, this is our Joules suite – thoughtfully curated by the talented Joules’ creative team.
Recently, Joules’ in-house illustrators, Rosie McAdam and Isla Rustrick, visited Another Place to gather inspiration for a brand-new collection of artworks for the suite. With their playful prints, drawings, and paintings now installed on the walls, Rosie and Isla stepped away from their sketchpads to talk “freezing” lake swims, well-earned breakfast waffles and capturing the ever-changing Cumbrian weather…
How would you describe your art?
Our work usually has an element of the outdoors and represents our love of nature. This is depicted through colour, ensuring a fun and bold feel. Our customers are our inspiration and our work often includes a character or two. We aim to spark joy with our illustrations by making sure they’re super playful. We experiment with different styles but usually have a contemporary feel whilst always remembering our roots.
What’s it like being an in-house illustrator for Joules? What does a typical day involve?
It’s a very exciting role. Sometimes therapeutic, sometimes chaotic. We get to paint most days which is an absolute dream. Our average day can range from creating illustrations for window displays to painting pumpkins for a promo email. There’s never a request too crazy – we’ve had them all!
Our average day can range from creating illustrations for window displays to painting pumpkins for a promo email. There’s never a request too crazy – we’ve had them all!
When you get a new illustration brief, what’s the first thing you do? Where do you start?
Firstly, we work out who will be taking on the brief – who is better suited to it… Isla is great at characters, which feature a lot in our creative; while I prefer working on scenes/ landscapes.
Then we make sure we have all the information we need like the size, colours, deadlines etc. Depending on the level of detail, we might jump straight into it, or we might make a quick mock-up to use as a base and work on top of. This is usually made up of multiple photographs we’ve taken, chopped up and collaged into a completely new composition.
What did you like best about creating the new illustrations for the Joules suite at Another Place?
Taking in the phenomenal views and getting inspired by all of the beautiful natural colours – we came away with hundreds of photos which was a great starting point. We felt so lucky to be there in real life, experiencing it all first-hand.
What inspired this new set of illustrations?
Throughout the three days we were soaking up inspiration from the colours, seasons (we experienced all four seasons in the space of three days!), landscape textures and the charming look and feel of the hotel. We wanted to have a change of pace with the styles used and make it fun. The ever-changing weather inspired us to make the typographic ‘whatever the weather’ piece and the incredible colours we were taking in influenced ‘The Lakes in Colour’ print.
The Ullswater scene was based on the view we woke up to from the Joules suite and the characters we sprinkled in were inspired by the lovely instructors and fellow guests we met along the way.
What materials and techniques did you use to create these illustrations? What do you think they bring to the finished pieces?
The artworks we created include a mixture of materials and techniques, but the general look and feel is quite clean and contemporary. Some of the illustrations were painted using gouache with pencil crayon detail on top, and others were produced purely on the computer. We then tied the different artworks together through a shared colour palette, which was inspired by the hues we found in the Joules suite and out and about in the Lake District.
How did you choose what to illustrate for the Joules suite prints?
We were invited to take part in lots of activities to get the full ‘Another Place experience’. This included (a very chilly) morning open water swim in Ullswater, paddleboarding, kayaking and plenty of walking. These activities played a big part in deciding what to illustrate, as they were the main focus of the trip for us and therefore featured in a lot of the illustrations. The Ullswater scene (across three prints) was based on the view we woke up to from the Joules suite – and the characters we sprinkled in were inspired by the lovely instructors and fellow guests we met along the way.
Did you create any of the illustrations on site at Another Place / draw them from life, or did you use photographs and drawings you made at the hotel as reference material?
A couple of the illustrations were created on site, but we wanted to make the most of being there and taking as many photos as possible to use for reference. When we digitally create illustrations on our computers, we need lots of space for Wacom tablets and a big screen. We may also need to scan in any mark makings we’ve jotted in sketchbooks, so these bits are much easier to do in our studio environment at the Joules head office.
Immersing ourselves in all weathers meant that we got the true Lake District experience and our artworks aimed to tell that story.
Was it important for you to consider the overall flow of the collection as a whole, and other features in the suite/ hotel – or did you concentrate on individual pieces and bring them together at the end?
We really loved the variety of artwork scattered throughout the hotel and thought the theme of our illustrations tied in really nicely with them. We made a list of what we wanted to create and plotted mock-ups of them on images we took of the room before rolling out the illustrations. We think the final colour palette helps them flow well.
How was your time staying at Another Place? What did you get up to?
We felt incredibly lucky to be invited to spend a few days with the lovely Another Place team. The brilliant Colin Hill introduced us to open water swimming in the freezing (well, 12 degrees to be precise) lake which was followed by a well-earned breakfast waffle.
Paddleboarding with pros Amy and Beth was our absolute favourite – and the fact neither of us fell off was an added bonus. The sun was on our side that day and we had a wander up to Aira Force, took lots of photos and did some sketches by the waterfall.
It was a very soggy kayaking session on our final morning, followed by a drizzly trip to Buttermere. Unfortunately, the rain got the better of us, so we took refuge in a little café with a warm tea before heading home. But we wouldn’t have had it any other way! Immersing ourselves in all weathers meant we got the true Lake District experience and our artworks aimed to tell that story. It was an unforgettable trip, and we came back feeling overwhelmingly inspired. We hope our illustrations express our excitement.
+
After launching a competition through our social channels to find the most popular print, the winning Joules x Ullswater design is now available to buy. Prints are available from the hotel front desk with a donation from each sale going to RSPB Wild Haweswater.
Stay in the Joules suite
The Joules suite has a king-size bed, a sofa bed and large armchair. The suite can sleep two adults, two children and one baby in a cot. It has fantastic views across Ullswater and is not dog friendly. Another Place has many other lake view rooms and suites which are dog friendly.