'computer club' is an artbook i made across november 2024-july 2025 about old computers and computing history. i wanted to make a longer version with full page illustration and more art in general after making a couple of small zines in 2018-2019, and finally the right time rolled around to do that ^^ as i made the book partially as a portfolio piece, for a wider audience of people, and partially as a passion project i do feel like i held back my opinions and interests that might have been a little weirder in order to appeal to the wider audience, which i do regret a bit and has grown into a goal to make more 'weird' passion projects in the coming years. however, despite that, the art i made for the book is some of my favourite i have ever done and i am really pleased with how the project went overall, and my ability to fully complete a large project on my own while also dealing with other responsibilities in life.

computer club's printing was funded via kickstarter, and while it was not as successful as my first book crowdfunding it did well. as my work had taken a sharp turn and changed themes a lot since i last completed a large project (i will write more about this some other time) i was worried there would be no interest, but some people were still excited to see it and purchase it.

photos of some of the pages taken with my 2001 digicam

before i even started on planning out the actual book, i wanted to design a mascot to use throughout as a character design exercise. i was inspired by mascots seen in manuals, magazines, books, etc from the ~1980s when photos could not be used or the writers wanted to give a friendlier, less serious impression of the tech.

some of the mascot sketches and design process compiled for my portfolio

i drew a bunch of spot illustrations, some to use generally throughout the book, and some for specific topics, of the mascot once i finished designing it. below are two of my favourites, drawn to represent adware and botnet type malware.

no one has picked up on the niche and silly media references in the adware popup boxes yet....

i seperated the book up into three segments - home computers throughout history, unusual software/hardware/etc trends throughout the years which either really show their age or have made a comeback in the present day, and interesting malware. for each segment, i had a double page spread with writing and art about different subjects within that broader subject, and each one had an illustration and spot illustrations made for it. here are some of my favourite page illustrations from various parts of the book.

to seperate up the different sections of the book, and also just because i wanted to paint computers and experiment with different design styles and environments i probably hadn't drawn before, i made 5 full page illustrations that i also made into prints that kickstarter backers could choose to add to their book preorder (and now to have on my artist alley table). i'm really happy with all of these prints and for the most part these are pieces of work i am most proud of from the last year or two. they show a lot of what i enjoy seeing in illustration myself and how i like to portray technology in art.

i also made an extra sticker sheet as a stretch goal and thank you to the backers, and a picture of the book packages in progress.

overall, this project took about 10 months to complete, because i had to take a lot of breaks for more pressing deadlines ;; i am really proud of the result but i am also glad to have been able to wrap up the project. knowing that it spent so long being almost completed, but not quite, and working extended hours to finish it without cutting the page count down or producing art i was not happy with due to rushing it did get a bit frustrating as time went on. the leftover books and prints will be on sale at artist alley events in the uk, and the digital book is available for purchase and download HERE, alongside the original zines (free) ^^