P.Diddy/Paul Davis for short

“His work often consists only of words, usually overheard conversations and snatches of dialogue, which he renders in his idiosyncratic handwriting – a sort of dreamlike typography that adds a graphic poetry to these oddball utterances.”

Paul Davis’ use of brightly coloured felt-tip pens, biros, pencils and found materials makes his work instantly childlike and gives his work a consistent ‘sketchbook’ feel.
Much like David Shrigley’s work, this makes his drawings and lettering very easy for people to relate to and identify with.

Davis’ personal work is littered with nonsensical diagrams that link words like ‘fright’, with ‘certain drugs’, ‘boredom’, ‘nah’, ‘no’, ‘pah’, and ‘tsk’. This particular piece is then entitled ‘Doesn’t bear thinking about diagram’.

It is a satirical comment on biology textbooks, psychology books, surveys et al, and gives Davis the perfect opportunity to display his quick wit and way with words.

He is always conscious of weight of line; he ensures there are a variety of marks to give the eye a chance to decode (or not decode, depending on his intention) the illustration.

His handlettering is dependent on the slight distortions and serendipities that occur when lettering in this style.

His penmanship is almost a half way house between Shrigley and Deuchars: it is more purposeful than Shrigley’s, but still less refined than Deuchars’ letters (albeit intentionally).

His lettering is always considered and controlled, whilst retaining a lively energy.

This is evident in “The Indiscrete Evolution Model”, where composition and use of materials keep the page alive. With a centred black felt tip ‘lineage tree’ diagram littered with quirky pencil lettering, which, due to composition and materials, make the letters appear to move and shake around the page. Whilst this is obviously not possible for a 2D drawing, it is kudos to Davis’ skill that he could trick a reader’s eye into believing the drawing to be moving.

Davis always prefers a good amount of negative space around his lettering, which Heller & Illic argue is a good thing. “Scrawl is most effective when located within a generous helping of negative space.”

Davis’ handlettering can be broken down into two distinct styles, controlled capitals, and refined cursive lowercase, punctuated with random capitals.