The Zanzibar Club: Launch Night – The Critter Shed

The Critter Shed is a new screen print collective set up by Chris Anderson (www.andoillustrates.co.uk) and Alex Smith (www.milkforthecat.co.uk). We create screen printed packs of a5 prints which consist of artwork from illustrators and designers from all over the UK and Europe. The concept behind the pack is set to a one subject, creatures – mythical, real or not. We ask the designers to give us their own interpretation of a creature and go wild with it, no restrictions on aesthetic. The only restrictions we set is that it has to be black + white and a5 format. This is where our first pack was born and named ‘Creatures of the Deep’.

The idea behind The Critter Shed is to produce screen printed packs that fellow creatives can purchase and use the submissions as postcards, wall prints and anything else they wish to do with. Our objective to setting up The Critter Shed is to celebrate the talent that is out there who may not be reaching a wide audience and who hasn’t had an opportunity for their artwork to get printed and exhibited. We would have loved the opportunity to get our work printed and bought by other creatives but the opportunities just never came up. That’s why, instead of waiting for someone else to do something about it, we did it. We’re not doing it for us, we’re doing it for the artists.

The launch night is a chance for us to show off all of the amazing submissions in an exhibition environment. It will be an opportunity for everyone attending to network with fellow creatives and meet the artists.  As well as that we will be having live drawing throughout the night, so everyone can get creative on the walls as well as having some highly skilled live drawing artists. To top it off there will be music, free wine (18+), bowls of sweets and props to complete the experience. We want to achieve a unique exhibition night that’s like no other. Our aim for the launch night is to hopefully attract more attention to The Critter Shed so more and more designers will want to get involved in future projects and a platform for them to get their work seen.Twitter – @thecrittershed