conversation with stuart cameron, new director of scarborough-based crescent arts. crescent have long been a catalyst for art and culture in scarborough providing studio space and hosting exhibitions - their next challenge will be running the gallery in woodend creative workspace. come along for a sneak preview at what they might be planning and to meet the man that will be guiding them on the journey. 6pm upstairs at the merchant, eastborough.

it’s rare that the sound of breaking crockery can be heard from the electric angel studio, but that was the image we developed as part of this work for domestic abuse services - an organisation that helps victims of domestic abuse in the north yorkshire coast and ryedale area.

this project is a good example of how we like to work whenever opportunity arises - a group creative session to help us understand who we’re working with and what they do and opportunity for the people involved [not just the person who wrote the brief] to talk to us first hand. on this occasion we used creating montages of images and some mini story writing as a route into learning what the organisation does and the vital role it plays in helping both female and male victims of domestic abuse. we blogged about the creative session here.

we then returned with several possible concepts for communicating this to both those who might need to use the services das provide and to potential funders. you can see the end results here - a multi-purpose leaflet, an adaptable information pack with multiple inserts and a poster. we believe that effective design is that which is appropriate to the situation - in this context the temptation is to be ‘clever’ with the message and the imagery, the challenge however is to engage interest and then communicate quickly and simply. das believe we’ve got that balance right. this project had quite a lot in common - both in the way we worked, the approach and the subject matter - with the work we did for lighthouse in hull.

a bit of technical stuff for those who are interested - print is on uncoated paper [ie. not flashy] as seems appropriate to the subject matter and it’s a two colour print job which helps to keep costs down as well as having a visual impact. a quick mention whilst were here for the stationery we also designed as part of a process refreshing the organisation’s logo to be applicable to fresh areas of work.

broadband capital of britain - that’s how monday’s yorkshire post describes scarborough’s ambitions as part of an article about freebay wifi [above]. it’s not just the seafront wifi that causing waves but also the 100mb connection into woodend creative workspace - scarborough’s new creative industries centre - which opened for business last week. it’s good to see word getting around and the north yorkshire coast challenging a few preconceptions.

we like this… scarborough rapper james koppert aka edger’s take on part of the ‘all the world’s a stage…’ speech in ‘as you like it’. from the theatre royal bath/the egg shakespeare unplugged festival: www.vimeo.com/864259

one of the electric angel designed window stickers advertising free broadband wifi on scarborough seafront.

we’ve been mentioning this for a while and it seems a long time since we took the above photos after a creative coast event, but FreeBayWiFi is now live and free to use on sandside and round the harbour. this is phase 1, there’s another aerial going in soon which will extend the zone.

if you’re not the type of person who gets excited about techy stuff [and to be honest, that’s us too really] what this means is that you can check your email, look at websites, even do your weekly shop online while sipping coffee on the seafront. it’s also anticipated that free wireless broadband will be useful for the fishing fleet and boats mooring in the marina. if you’re the cynical type and think that sounds like a bit of a far-fetched continental dream for the yorkshire coast, then think again - last week i was meeting to discuss a project in one of the seafront coffee shops and everyone else in there was using a laptop. there’s no hype around this one.

we were pleased to be invited to help FreeBayWiFi happen and window stickers (designed by us and featuring our logo design) are going up in seafront premises today. metal signs will be appearing over the next couple of weeks. you can check out the website we’ve produced for the project at www.freebaywifi.net

i’m being interviewed on yorkshire coast radio in the morning about the project. why not get down the harbour, get online and leave a message on the website.

dvd cover and cd-print design for run. the idea of iMatter is that it’s a give-away item - something designed to pique interest rather than be an answer in itself - hence the inside cover of words that ask ‘what matters?’ tight production deadlines on this meant we had to design the packaging from the script rather than see the finished film that’s on the dvd. having now seen the dvd i think we got the feel just right - not that we’re taking all the credit, this is the result of good communication and the run folks are good communicators.

are preparing to cycle 1000 miles in 10 days between lands end & john o’groats for charity. and blog along the way. and one of them is ged from artworks who we’ve worked with almost right from the start of electric angel.

why do we suspect that each day’s blogging will take place from a standing position? good luck ged!

d-day is 21st may. you can follow the blog and sponsor them here.

james and i were at the literature festival launch on wednesday and really appreciated the enthusiastic comments on the logo and brochure that people made. it’s really rewarding when folks who have no need to say anything make the effort to say they like our work.

events continue today through to sunday. scarborough evening news have put together a collection of ‘literary links’ for the yorkshire coast which will be of interest to book lovers and local residents alike. view them and other literature festival news here.

the new creative coast flyers are hitting doormats this week. particularly exciting is that on the 23rd we’re having a whitby launch for the network to see if there’s critical mass and enthusiasm for regular events there as well as in scarborough. the focus of the launch events will be to see if whitby area creatives would value event close to home and what kind of events they might want.

the new flyers are double-sided to show events for the two towns. we’ve scheduled events up till the summer break on consecutive dates so that scarborough folks can pop up the coast and do a bit of networking if they so fancy. also in a change to the advertised date and so we don’t clash with the literature festival launch, the next scarborough event with be on the 30th april and not this wednesday as previously advertised.