National Doodle Day 2016

Did you know today is National Doodle Day?

Creative types are being urged to doodle and raise much-needed cash for national charity Epilepsy Action. National Doodle Day is Friday 5 February 2016, with proceeds directly supporting the 600,000 people living with epilepsy in the UK and allowing access to specialist advice and quality healthcare.

National Doodle Day is the annual fundraiser for epilepsy that gets the nation squiggling. Epilepsy Action is inviting doodlers all over the country to ‘doodle for fun to help us raise a ton’ with the chance of a prize for anyone taking part.

Will you take a doodle selfie and donate this National Doodle Day? The nation is encouraged to get squiggling and share doodles with friends and family. Text DOODLE to 70300 after taking your selfie to donate £3 to Epilepsy Action.*

Epilepsy Action will sharing their favourite doodle selfies on Twitter, Instagram and Facebook so don’t forget to tag them in your posts!

A raft of celebrity names have already put pen to paper for National Doodle Day to raise the all-important funds. This year’s famous doodlers range from designer Bill Nighy, Sir Ben Kingsley, Raymond Briggs and Joanna Lumnley and many more. People will be able to bid for their scribbles starting on National Doodle Day, Friday 5 February.

Jessica Hynes

Over 1,200 celebrities, including Mary Berry, Steven Gerrard, Rita Ora, Eddie Redmayne and Sophie Dahl have taken part in National Doodle Day since it began twelve years ago.

Raymond Briggs

Philippa Cartwright, fundraising manager at Epilepsy Action said: “Every year we are overwhelmed with the support from celebrities and members of the public. We always look forward to seeing the variety and creativity of the doodles that are sent in to us.”

“National Doodle Day is always a terrific success, raising thousands of pounds for Epilepsy Action. The highest-grossing doodle ever raised £1,600 alone, but each one makes a huge difference to people with epilepsy and their families.”

Laura Howell

“Just a few minutes of creativity really will make all the difference to people affected by epilepsy. Absolutely anyone can take part so please round up your family and friends and get doodling!”

National Doodle Day is supported by Dodo Pad, publishers of the original family ‘doodle’ diary. Information on both the National Doodle Day celebrity auction and competition can be found at www.nationaldoodleday.org.uk. The eBay auction will run from Friday 5 February to Sunday 7 February 2016.

We’d love to see our Make It In Design community get involved!

If you are stuck for ideas, why not try these creative prompts to get you started?:

Doodle your favourite subject matter/motif or doodle with your favourite technique/method that you have learned from The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design courses so far
Doodle your least favourite subject matter/motif or doodle with your least favourite technique/method that you have learned from The Art and Business of Surface Pattern Design courses so far (this one is good for getting you out of your comfort zone!)
Combine the two to create a piece that is unique and challenging and will get you thinking out of the box

You can find out more about getting involved here.

Don’t forget to donate the £3 to raise money for epilepsy which you can do online, by text or cheque – more details here.

We’d love to see your doodles – you can use the hashtags #doodleday and #MIIDdoodles on social media so we can see your work!

This is going to be a lot of fun and do check out the Make it in Design teams doodle selfies below – just for fun and a great cause of course!