electric angel /design for life

seven years of new thinking, new investment

from the archives… this is a report for bradford district council upon completion of a seven year regeneration project to revitalise several inner city areas of bradford. it was accompanied by a website, also produced by electric angel: www.newlandspartnership.co.uk

we started electric angel design within the newlands area and were grateful for a grant to help us buy software. the newlands funding was also instrumental in the genesis of artworks creative communities which whom we have a long standing and creatively rewarding relationship, so being invited to design the report and website seemed fitting. an event within the communities to celebrate the achievements of the project was used to launch the report and we were also commissioned to design exhibition stands and a rolling visual presentation.

one aspect of the brief for this job was getting the balance between professional and interesting design without it looking like it had costs a lot of money – that’s often the case in the public sector, it’s not about looking flash but looking presenting information in a readable interesting format and with integrity. so much thought was given to the colours used and the paper we printed onto. likewise, with the exhibition stands the intention was to produce something that would be of use for the various community groups and organisations afterwards – given the economic circumstances of the area it would have been insulting to have a showy event in which there was no benefit to the community. artworks planned the evening utilising local creative talent and the end result of both event and print got the balance just right.

easter holidays

happy easter everyone. we’re back in the studio on friday 28th.

designs lent for lent

it’s always nice to hear of how our work has taken on a life of its own – sometimes it feels a bit like having children and sending them out into the world. mark – a friend from back in the day when we did things with dance music and digital projectors in churches – got in touch to say he’d been using our mount series posters in the chapel of northern general hospital, sheffield during lent. they’re accompanied by a leaflet that lists the original passages the posters were based on and offers a prompt for reflection. a compilation of some photos of the posters in the chapel above. thanks to other folks who have also got in touch to say they’d used them.

fairy tales & fantasy

the new exhibition at scarborough art gallery opens tomorrow. ‘fairy tales and fantasy’ is an exhibition of victorian children’s book illustrations – perfect easter holiday viewing for children of all ages. this child is particularly looking forward to seeing some of w. heath robinson‘s work in the flesh – his sense of whimsy and the almost-possible was a big influence in my teens. and if you’re going with children, don’t forget to visit the resource room which i gather than had a bit of a fairyland make-over for the exhibition.

we were commissioned to design the promotional material for the exhibition – above is the private view invitation front and rear, below is the exhibition poster. we chose contemporary text mixed with a handwritten element to anchor the illustration – although the initial instinct was to do something ‘fantasy’ or in line with victorian book design, the results were way too twee. feedback suggests that people rather like the intentional playfulness of the invite – you have to flip it over and then rotate to read the text. it originally had a more conventional layout but one morning we came into the studio to find some mischievous but typographically-aware elves had altered the design in the night.

graphic design – it’s a piece of cake

it’s fun seeing your designs applied to different media – we’ve had logos cast in bronze, etched in glass and projected onto cathedral walls, but never before turned into a cake. these are photos from last night’s creative coast birthday party. cake by icing maestro anthony and posse at imaginative icing who did an amazing bit of icing-typography reproducing the creative coast logo. is this the first ever use of franklin gothic book on a cake?

then we all got to have a go…

it’s party time

creative coast 2 year old celebration, tonight at bar2b scarborough 7pm. food, live music and your chance to help decorate the creative coast cake!

congratulations barnsley [and dickie]

we don’t often blog football on here [i think this is a first], but with barnsley beating chelsea in the FA cup quarter finals at the weekend, and with fond memories of scarborough’s run in with the stamford bridge boys a few years ago, it seemed appropriate to say congrats to the team and life-long barnsley supporter dickie bird and pop up one of the pieces of work we’ve done for his charity.

the dickie bird foundation work to help disadvantaged young people find self-esteem and worth through participation in sport. wishing barnsley and the foundation all the best…

digital scarborough 08

it’s all sorted, the [digital] clock is ticking [or operating silently with a steady glow]. ds08 kicks off on wednesday 12th with live music from the university of hull and yorkshire coast college as part of the creative coast 2nd birthday party at bar2b. party from 7, live music open to all from 9pm.

friday night is the centrepiece – upload – an evening of music and visuals curated with the intention of inspiring people to soak it up and try something for themselves. acts include electric angel faves the jawline of julianne moore [think earlyish pink floyd with broken laptops and juicy theremin. nice], plenty of electro-acoustic loveliness, some circuit-bending and a dj set using wii controllers. can you believe this electronic smorgasboard of goodness is free? you’ll need to book online at: upload.eventbrite.com and if you’re the sort of person who facebook’s [is that a verb?] join the group for last-minute info.

saturday sees joomla! founder brian teeman meet local web designers, developers and other creatives to build 2 websites for charity in a day. if you want to join in get in touch with darrell at science city york or call in during the day at sigma at the cask to lend support, moral or otherwise. plus there’s a ds08 afterparty also as sigma, details on the facebook group. if you just can’t make any of ds08 you can watch online at www.digitalscarborough.org

photos are of the flyers science city york commissioned from us – they’re designed to fold two ways to promote the whole of ds08 to a wide audience and folded in reverse to specifically promote upload in club/music venues. there’s also a pic of the poster in the window of mojo’s music cafe – undeniably scarborough’s most informative cafe window. ‘good things for the ears eyes and soul’ – that’s our copywriting throughout the leaflet too, we’re getting asked to write quite a lot of stuff these days.

bowling old lane cricket club gates

in 2006 english heritage commissioned two public works of art in bradford. we were asked by bradford-based artworks to work with members of the local community in the area of west bowling to produced designs for one of these – the end result would be gates for bowling old lane cricket club which lies at the heart of the community.

we led two workshops with local residents, young and old to discover more about the area. we began by drawing maps of the area from memory – these are maps that may not be geographically accurate but instead are defined by favourite places, local landmarks, events and memories. with some of the younger members of the club we went for a walk around the area armed with digital cameras – the end results were printed out onsite and quickly pasted into a rough and ready photomontage.

with some of the older residents the map drawing led to recollections of how the area had changed and some of the events and characters that had coloured growing up in this rapidly changing part of bradford. it was then our challenge to take these myriad images and turn them into something that both represented the history of the area and its role in the community today. historical fact: bowling old lane is not only one of bradford’s oldest cricket clubs but also lies adjacent to the original ground of bradford bulls [back then known as the 'steam pigs' because they played next to the railway line] – there’s a rugby ball hidden in the design. we started sketching ideas in the first session which went on to evolve into the final design.

as an ex-bradford resident what impressed me was the genuine connection that the older gentlemen of the cricket club had with the young players almost all of whom were from asian families. i remember that one of the big news stories during the design process was the declaration form several politicians that multiculturalism wasn’t working. in this square green oasis not far from bradford city centre it looked to be doing just fine.

some of the images that can be spotted in the design: birch leaves [the gates are on birch lane], west bowling skyline – an amalgam of buildings past, present and – at the time of the design – in progress, members of the community [the club is a focus for all types of community activities, not just cricket].

you can read a little more about the gates project here.

drink spiking – facts, advice and help

graham rhodes, scarborough’s resident ghost pirate and playwright, asked if we’d post a link to the roofie foundation website. and we’re very happy to do so. graham started the foundation when during research into the subject of date rape he realised that he appeared to be the only person doing so. a telephone helpline for victims was the result and the roofie foundation was born. visit their website here.