Awesome Socks Club’s June 2026 Artist: Paul Hammond

Paul is an award-winning Canadian artist whose incredible illustrations have us doing the sock hop (with close-toed shoes on, of course). 

This June at Awesome Socks Club, we can’t keep ourselves from dancing with joy at our Awesome designer Paul Hammond! Paul is an illustrator and sometimes printmaker working and living in Dartmouth, Nova Scotia. He thinks mistakes are nice and likes to leave them in his work when he's able (and if there are any mistakes in this month's socks and undies design, we couldn't find 'em).

An Interview With Awesome Socks Club's June Artist

In a sentence, how would you describe your work? 

I like bright colours, and drawing weird little guys.

Do you have any favorite themes you enjoy working with?

I end up drawing animals and birds a lot - I'm very bird-motivated.

What mediums do you like to work in?

I mostly work digitally these days, but I do still do work for screenprinting, and letterpress. I also like to get messy with ink when I have the time, or I'm working on a project that's less time-sensitive.

If you were an environmental storytelling skeleton, how do you think you'd be found?

Probably bent down, petting the skeleton of a cat or something.

Do you have a dream project you'd like to work on someday? 

I'd love to do more murals - hand-painted, especially.

What is the strangest/goofiest fact about yourself that you're comfortable sharing?

I once fell/jumped off of a moving train in the middle of the night. It's not as fun as it sounds.

What inspired you to go with your creature design?

I was thinking about what I'd like to wear on socks, and the answer is almost always animals of some kind. I just thought a little animal dance party seemed like fun.

Can you talk a little about your design process? Where do you draw your inspiration from, and how do you workshop your design from draft to final?

Usually, I try to sketch up a few rough concepts as quickly as I can, because I find that overthinking it usually doesn't work well for me. Then, when I'm going to final art, I try as much as I can to do the line-art pretty quickly to avoid losing that loose, fun feeling. It's a tricky balance because you want to "fix" all the things that you didn't quite nail in the sketch, but you also don't want to lose the immediacy of the sketch. I like to keep some of the lines or shapes that are a little off or dumb looking because it feels like that's often where the life of the drawing is.

Do you have a favorite feature of your sock design? 

For some reason, I'm really into that little raccoon. I find his pose funny, and I'm a sucker for an animal with a little hat and a snappy outfit. Look at those boots!

Ankle or crew socks for preference? 

I'm a crew sock guy every day, baby!

Sign up for the Awesome Socks Club or the Awesome Undies Club during the month of June to get Paul's fun designs on your first pair(s)!