February 2025: Recipient 53, Daryl Rainbow
The 53rd recipient of the Creatives Grant is Daryl Rainbow. Daryl is an illustrator in London. His work is inspired by cultural trends, zeitgeists, ‘the bullshitty, gentrification-ey stuff in East London’ – the kind of thing that feels semiotically important, but that i don’t think we have a very good language for talkign about. It caught my eye immediately, because there’s something fun and tough in Daryl’s work, something like love for a city like London, that cannot possibly belong to you even though you belong to it. Something about the flaneur, the passerby or the witness. Daryl sent over a portfolio and I just felt deeply moved by his Neo Neo Classical Hackney series – you can peep some of the illustrations from that series on our homepage.
BIO:
I was born in Manila, Philippines and moved to the UK with my mum when I was 3. I grew up on the outskirts of London living in areas near Heathrow and now like every other creative I live in Hackney.
I went to Camberwell College of Arts, part of UAL, and graduated with a BA in Illustration. I have been working full time as a freelance illustrator since 2017. I am based in East London and work from my studio in Hackney Downs Studios. A lot of my work is inspired by cultural trends and zeitgeists. In particular the bullshitty, gentrification-ey stuff in East London and also the ever dramatic world of football. I have created work for clients such as: Adidas, Netflix, Creative Review, The Times, Arsenal FC, Nike, Time Out, Under Armour, Radio Times, Amazon UK, Harry’s, West Ham United FC, etc.
I also work as a lecturer at Ravensbourne University on their BA Illustration course.
LINKS:
- Follow Daryl on Instagram
- Here is Daryl’s shop!
- Here’s Daryl’s website