About Logos For Shows

A few years ago I noticed that my dancing-trio silhouette for Oliver! (originally created in 1998) was very popular, but it was often being used without permission (by both professional and amateur theatre companies). I liked the fact that people wanted to use my work, but didn't like the fact that they were using it illegally without the agreement of the creator and copyright holder of the work ... me!

Writing to these companies and dealing with the legal side was time-consuming and demoralising - having to inform enthusiastic and generally nice local drama societies that they were basically stealing and denying me a livelihood from my own creations was not a pleasant pursuit (even though I was always very polite!).

I thought a more positive approach would be to find a way to help theatrical groups to use my artwork legally, and at the same time provide a service that would help to make the marketing and promotional materials for such groups as professional as possible and on the kind of budget they had available.

At first I licensed just the Oliver! logo. After a few years, and many happy clients, I decided to expand my repertoire and the service I provided, and Logos For Shows was born.

My original 1998 sketch for the Oliver! logo

About me (Garen Ewing)

I was born in Surrey in 1969 and after several years of working in low-end jobs to support my art I started getting jobs that paid me for my design and art skills, at first for a newspaper, and then for a couple of multimedia training companies.

By the late 1990s I was getting more and more freelance work, and by 2002 I went full-time as a self-employed illustrator and designer. Since then I have worked for a huge range of organisations and companies, with work including book covers, magazine illustrations, t-shirts, CDs, software, websites, posters and even a Royal Mail stamp.

I live in West Sussex with my wife (a magazine editor) and two young children. In the rare moments when I'm not drawing or writing, I enjoy karate and researching the Second Anglo-Afghan War 1878-80 (I was invited as an expert in this field for BBC Radio 4's Making History a few years ago).

Here I am playing Gary Lejune (middle) in a production of Michael Frayn's Noises Off (1995)

Me and the theatre

My interest in things theatrical began when my girlfriend (now my wife) got me involved in a local production of Oliver!, and I went on to enjoy roles in a variety of shows for several local companies, including musicals (The Boyfriend, 42nd Street, Sweeney Todd, Crazy For You), plays (Noises Off, Not In The Book, A Boy With A Cart, Season's Greetings, Loot, Rough Crossing) and several Shakespeares (The Winter's Tale, Twelfth Night, Romeo and Juliet, The Tempest, A Midsummer Night's Dream, Macbeth).

I've also done a fair bit of work for Joseph Weinberger Ltd., licensors of many plays and shows, providing covers for over twenty play scripts as well as creating official theatrical posters and logos for Return to the Foribidden Planet, All 4 One, Summer Holiday, Twang!! and Calamity Jane.

Comics

One of my main, long-term interests is comics, and in 2009 my all-ages adventure comic, The Rainbow Orchid, was pubished by Egmont. The book has been translated into Dutch, Spanish, French and German, and has been The Observer's 'graphic novel of the month' as well as one of their 'best of the year' books. In my capacity as a comic author I have given talks and workshops in schools and at most of the big UK literary festivals (Hay, Edinburgh, Cheltenham and Bath). In 2013 The Rainbow Orchid won a British Comic Award.

The Rainbow Orchid - my all-ages adventure comic series