In the final quarter of 2025, here in the City of London and North London, something amazing began to take place. Small increments built and built until it all became natural and right again, aiding the recovery narrative of our city environments in the post-Covid era and the financial revival of the legacy banking systems.

Those areas were aware enough to notice and encourage the return of a much more stable, classic, and desired woman into our daily context. Strong. Charming. Independent. This woman is the blonde.

So, within the day-to-day of what was an unpredictable maelstrom brought on by an “invasive syphon-flow colony” of crypto-criminals, who “played” twenty-four hours only the day after a good day, which has now ended this summer, 2026, I was able to finally “draw what I see” with my pen and paper, an ode to the anchoring moments that made a minute or two seem simply perfect and real again.

So this one’s for the blondes in blue. For keeping everything sweet. A lovely thanks to you.

Mr. Mustashrik Mahbub is a British-Bangladeshi graduate of the Surrey Institute of Art & Design, who cut his teeth working with London’s elite Advertising agencies assisting on creative campaign developments for brands such as Innocent Drinks, Stella Artois, Absolut, and Diet Coke, before moving into Media Production. He co-created one of 2011’ s most talked-about commercials for Muller, called “Wunderful Stuff”.

Continuing to impress with his unique attention to detail and intense directorial vision, he has directed for clients—Louis Vuitton, Chloe, NOS Energy, Michael Kors, Salvatore Ferragamo, UBS, and an award-winning campaign film for Girl Effect called “Invisible Barriers” in collaboration with Freuds.

Outside of classic media formats, a variety of live-multi-screen visual performances for musician Ed Sheeran were created for his live tours (One and What Do I Know), which have been presented at various concerts since 2013 up to 2018 thus far. A special addition to these live visuals, Castle on the Hill, debuted with high-industry praise at the BRIT Awards 2017.

Over these years, he has been featured in Campaign, Ad Week, STASH, Shots Magazine, Art Review, D&AD and Bloomberg News, while his animations have been nominated and won at various film festivals (Annecy, KLIK, Encounters, etc.).

Recently, Mustashrik has directed the latest music video for Elvis Costello’s “Suspect My Tears” (2018), whilst contributing original animation direction to Episode 2 of Season 2 of Amazon’s LORE. To launch 2019, he has created the film-content and visual merchandise campaign for Mont Blanc called #UnforgettableKiss to celebrate the love and romance of Valentine’s Day (2019).

A vibrant-staccato animation for Grammy winner Flor-de-Toloache debuted in Rolling Stone magazine along with a new contribution to Ed Sheeran’s world tour for his song Beautiful People and videos for 7JAWS and SEIN in the French market.

He also has the pleasure of being Jury President for the Adobe x LAD Bible competition at D&AD Newblood 2019 and has contributed to HarperOne’s publication of IN-Q’s poetry, “Inquire Within” with illustrations.

A short-film with branding assets for The Macallan with Beehive Creative and Bootleg Films was created shortly after, whilst most recently a unique animated music video for Katy Perry’s “What Makes a Woman” via Partizan (US) was crafted.

In 2024 an animated short for a much-loved Netflix show was created, and this winter, 2025, a written- & illustrated book called “How to Draw Animals, A to Z” will be published by Austin Macauley.

*Update 2026 - Original Sketches/Illustrations have appeared in February/March 2026 as part of Art Below’s “Art on the Underground” Exhibition Show at Hyde Park Corner / Piccadilly Line and an upcoming piece this Summer 2026 on the Victoria Line at Pimlico via The TFL Underground. Images can be seen on the homepage links/thumnails (just give it a click).

His first manga/graphic novel, Manga: Shakespeare’s Julius Caesar, and an adaptation of William Shakespeare’s play, are listed within the American Library Association as one of the top comics published since 2001.