Big Design in 'Little Glen' | Richard Smythe for Gleneagles Hotel

‘Little Glen’, featuring illustration by Richard Smythe. Photo: courtesy Gleneagles

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RICHARD SMYTHE’s distinctive brand of joyous, narrative illustration – delighting in its colourful, textural origins and gently-humorous, expressive characters – caught the eye of London-based hospitality-brand devloper, Ennismore, for its re-design of the children’s space at luxury five-star hotel Gleneagles.

The original brief, built around a woodland concept, ‘Little Glen’, and featuring one key, eponymous, character and his four animal friends, called for five illustrated character ‘portraits’ to hang in the space, as well as two large-scale illustrations to be translated to printed murals for two feature walls.

In the final design, the characters have evolved to become human children, but the woodland theme is still very much in evidence and the backdrop of the mountainous glen definitively locates this interior space within its exterior Highland setting.

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Photo of Gleneagles 'Little Glen' supervised children's space, designed for 2–9 year-olds, courtesy of Gleneagles. Richard Smythe's illustrations for the wall murals, showing children enjoying leisure pursuits against a background of the Gleneagles estate – made 'cosy' by the enclosing woodland concept – and surrounding, iconic scenery; portraits of the five friend characters that feature in the Little Glen design.

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View RICHARD SMYTHE’s full portfolo online, or contact Bright Illustration’s Fiona Kenny to discuss commissioning.