About

Welcome to Rubber Penguin, the hiding place for UK-based freelance designer and illustrator Dan Bailey.

I currently live just outside of London, in Essex. As well as having a strong passion for design and illustration, I also have an unnerving obsession with peanut butter and gingerbread men.

Like most children, I started drawing from an early age. Throughout my childhood I spent a lot of my free time drawing Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles. It wasn’t until I was actually banned from doing so (sadly this is true), did my attention turn to how I could create characters as amazing as these mutant reptiles were.

I continued drawing as I grew older, but as I left school my illustration suffered and by the time I had left college I had stopped completely, as I began concentrating on my career as a Graphic Designer.

It wasn’t until a year or so into my new career that I realised I could incorporate illustration into my work and could actually get paid to draw, giving me the opportunity to live out my childhood dream.

I originally started uploading my work to the image library iStockphoto and since then I have been fortunate enough to earn commissions from all over the world, for some prestigious and diverse clients.

Rubber Penguin was born in 2010 as I wanted an area away from my main design work to showcase some of my illustration and character designs within their own environment.

Over the years my illustration has taken on its own personality and although I will continue to showcase it on my own personal site, I do feel it is important that it has its own space in order for it to grow and develop.

My long term goal is to develop and extend the brand. In the future months I am hoping to open an online store, filled to the rafters with a variety of exclusive products and merchandise to purchase.

If you would like to see more examples of my illustrations or any of my design work, please visit my personal site.

If you would like to get in touch regarding a possible commission, just click here.