A Certain Kind of Afternoon: Character & Atmosphere Illustration Exploration
A Certain Kind of Afternoon is a character and atmosphere exploration — spot illustrations built around the kind of hospitality world that earns emotional connection through intentional detail rather than spectacle. The references were atmospheric and human: old London, ritual, tactile storytelling, the type of worldbuilding that makes a brand feel like somewhere people belong rather than somewhere they visit.
The style draws from vintage newspaper filler drawings, café packaging graphics, and relaxed 1970s commercial pen illustration. Loose observational ink with confident imperfect linework, graphic black fills, and the kind of mark that looks quickly drawn because it was — not because the work is casual, but because culturally lived-in looks effortless. Figures with long relaxed limbs, natural proportions, slightly slouched posture. Faces that feel observed rather than designed. Lots of breathing room. Minimal environment. The composition holds exactly as much as it needs to and nothing more.