South London at Christmas

Here are some photographs from a stroll I took around south London this week. I like the patchwork parts of the area – the little eccentric fixes and make-do repairs that become invisible in time, but viewed in isolation are either strange, resourceful or inventive. The last picture is a nativity scene made from toys that I found in a window on a street in Deptford. I've walked past it dozens of times and I'm still not sure what the building is – is it a shop, a business or someone's home?

Retro Doctor Who

Just before Christmas, I designed some wallpapers for the BBC's Doctor Who website, which have just gone live. I love retro typography and creating pastiche designs, so being able to put a classic spin on some of the recent stories was a dream job.

The idea was to produce imaginary movie posters in styles that reflected aspects of the stories. So, the online story Snowfall received a painterly Brief Encounter-style 40s look; the comic tone of The Lodger lent itself to a 70s sitcom spin-off treatment, and so on. The Hungry Earth was a deliberately lurid Hammer horror pastiche, based on a brilliant classic poster for Dracula, Prince of Darkness, and finally Victory of the Daleks had a touch of pop art, reflecting the new Dalek designs and the 60s Peter Cushing movies.

The designs can be downloaded as desktop wallpapers and as a screensaver by clicking here.