Mr. Penfold

July 30, 2018

How cool! Super duper artist and designer Penfold a.k.a. Tim Greshman added Face This to a sweepstaking list of high-end brands he already designed for such as Smirnoff, Adidas and Microsoft. Thinking about if he wanted to design for the new Face This t-shirt collection, was definitely ‘a no brainer’. Meet Face This’ hot new t-shirt designer who makes the drawing of Indonesian girl Rani ‘shine’.

Street artist Tim Greshman is a busy and desired man. Big brands in the industry are waiting in line to collaborate with this designer and artist that originally hails from Cambridge and is now working and living in creative hotspot Bristol. The art 31 year old Tim makes is far from being standard, his style is distinctive and the variety of art fields mediums he works in are endless. He blends graffiti, installation, illustration, painting, colourful large-scale murals and prints, influenced by skate graphics, modern abstract art and 80’s sci-fi graphics. “At the moment, most of the work I make is mostly abstract stuff”, he tells from his professional printmaking studio in Bristol, his favourite spot where he works alongside other well-known artists.

Fun project to create a better world

When asking Tim if he wanted to design a t-shirt for Face This, he immediately said yes. Because of being able to contribute to a better world and a creative challenge. “When I was contacted I immediately thought it was such a good project. And I love and need to work on fun projects like this. If an artist only focuses on commercial work the world would be such a sad place!” Sometimes Penfold gets to combine the best of those both worlds, to help raise awareness on water shortage he worked on a partnership with Stella Artois and Water.org.

He enjoys all projects, but his artistic brain really gets ticking when working on fun projects like with Face This. Working on a tee with a drawing from little Veni from Java, Indonesia, is completely different than designing for for example Adidas. “Totally! While working for brands, you have to constantly think about what will sell and what will people like. With this it’s all about fun and playfulness! For the Face This tee I just focused my design on Veni’s drawing and put some jazzy funshapes behind it to let the cool drawing shine!”, says Tim.

Wear the shirts and help raise awareness

Tim likes the fact that children’s drawings are the centrepiece of the Face This collection. He knows exactly what drawing and art can bring you. At the age of 16, after leaving school, he started working in a collaborative printmaking studio: “I drew and draw everyday, all day! It is the base of my everyday. If I don’t make art in my studio everyday I feel weird. How I ended up being an artist? I’m not quite sure to be honest. It’s what I’ve always done. My three older brothers are all musicians and my parents are both artists, so it was meant to be I guess.”

Last question… What do you hope your T-shirt will bring Face This and of course the children? “I hope lots of people wear the shirts and use this platform to spread the word, bring awareness to the amazing project and help improve the schooling of Indonesian children!”

Who are Rani and Veni?

Veni was born on the Indonesian island of Java. Her creative ‘mother’ is Rani (then 8 years old) whom we’ve met at the Darul Funun school nearby Bogor, Java. She drew Veni during our drawing session in 2013 when we visited her school for the first time. Veni is a very happy girl, always seeing the positive things in life – and people. She is very social, likes bright colors and can be a little naive sometimes. Veni has lots of energy and is full of life.