Suddenly this week, everywhere I look I see mavericks. Lurking in my book case. Sneaking into my Spotify playlists. Making their presence felt on my Facebook page. I can’t get away from them. And I don’t want to get away from them either. They inspire me.

Why else would I be sitting in the kitchen at 4.00 am watching a clip from a 1950s Hollywood cowboy TV show starring Roger Moore?

It all kicked off when Locust mentioned illustrator Pete Beard from Bolton and his Unsung Heroes of Illustration channel on YouTube. I’ve only dabbled my toe in it but I can see that his series of short films about the illustrators he admires is going to give me hours of pleasure. US journalist Steven Heller explains it all very well- “Illustration is often given short shrift in the study of design history. Pete Beard, an illustrator from the U.K. with a special gift for bringing the field to life, has been producing, writing and narrating a series on his YouTube channel titled “Unsung Heroes of Illustration.” In it, he takes on a corps of little-heralded European practitioners, focusing his scholarship on genres such as art deco and art nouveau, » Continue Reading.