electric angel /design for life

no angels

typographic treatments of three poems by kate evans from her poetry residency in palliative care settings in north yorkshire. the resulting work has been produced as a limited run of posters which will be framed and put on the walls of hospitals and hospices, and postcards which will be there for patients and visitors to keep if they wish. the project is arranged and funded by HAFNEY.

the balance here was between visual interest and legibility and all three designs came out of an intuitive approach – reading the poem and then responding to it. the aim is to enhance how the poem communicates. i started working like this long before i discovered poetry concrete although who knows what influences i absorbed back in the day that prompted me to take this approach. that said, a relationship between poet and designer like this seems quite rare and i’m grateful for kate’s trust in me which – worse case scenario – could completely ruin the mood of the poem.

it’s interesting how people interpret the designs differently. the layout of no angels [the blue design] was inspired by renaissance paintings of angels which often have a spray of light emanating from them which doubled as soundwaves from ‘the blare of the alarm’ in the poem. kate thought it was maybe based on angel’s wings. i like that ambiguity. eternity [the red design] started with kate’s suggestion that she envisaged the poem in a spiral. sometimes had the longest gestation eventually ending up as a much simpler layout than my initial scribbles which were more like the complex peasholm magic lantern images.

although given free reign on design, i had some self-imposed rules – solid colour and one font throughout. as well as finding restraints useful, this was also a rational design decision to tie the three poems together visually.

east coasting for nippers

we were asked to design an activity sheet for younger visitors to the bawden and ravilious exhibition at scarborough art gallery. after a creative chat with ian, the learning manager for scarborough museums trust, we developed a series of activities that encouraged kids to explore the exhibition and respond with their own creativity.

the crab on the front echoed the exhibition leaflet and posters and provided the first ‘can you find…?’ activity.

the fisherman are inspired by a bawden linocut. the original tantalisingly doesn’t show the fruits of their struggles fishing off a pier but we thought that young kids would enjoy following the tangled lines to discover what each had caught.

the capital letters here are a copy of ravilious’s ‘nursery’ designs for wedgwood. we couldn’t resist spelling ‘cod’ underneath the fishermen. the capitals are also used on the exhibition information panels in the gallery and we hoped kids might spot those too and thus maybe read a little about bawden and ravilious.

the largest piece in the exhibition is a collage by edward bawden on a map of scarborough. we wanted to encourage young visitors to have a go themselves, so the centerspread is a contemporary map of the same area for them to decorate with their own whimsical beach scenes.

by the way, the title pun was a flash of inspiration by james – we tend to bounce verbal ideas back and forwards over our monitors and james hit this one first time i think.

bawden & ravilious

tonight sees the opening of ‘east coasting: art & design by edward bawden & eric ravilious with mark hearld’ at scarborough art gallery.

we have designed the promotional material, information panels and artwork labels for the exhibition. we’ve also worked with the museum’s trust’s learning manager to produce a kids activity sheet. the leaflet-cum-poster-cum-invitation shown here was an example of how sometimes tight constraints produce creative thinking. scarborough museums trust wanted to make a noise about what looks to be a spectacular exhibition. posters were essential, leaflets were desirable and an invitation that felt a bit special would be nice too. but the budget would never extend to all three.

our suggestion was a leaflet that opened out to be a poster, some could be printed poster side only for where posters without folds were desired. we’d already seen some work by hark hearld, who has created ‘a miscellany’ for the exhibition [a room full of wonderful collected items] and so he was invited to produce lettering for a paper band that wraps around the leaflet to turn it into an invitation with a personal touch. these could be printed in house at the trust for very little cost. matching envelopes complete the effect.

our design was inspired by book covers designed by bawden and ravilious and to get an authentic look, was lettered largely by hand with a dip pen. if you look through a book or website of their design work you’ll be able to play ‘spot the lettering’ on our poster. the crab illustration is by edward bawden, the gulls by mark. with this kind of work, the aim is to pay homage rather than create a pastiche and i hope we got the balance right.

the feedback for this has been amazing and the gallery is expecting a bumper turnout tonight.
do try and get down to the exhibition – curated by lara goodband – which runs until 4th may. whether your taste is for design, illustration, fine art or english whimsy, you’ll find something to delight.