electric angel /design for life

laimonis mierins 1929-2011

i heard that my drawing tutor from leeds college of art days, ‘lem’ mierins, died just before christmas.

lem was a vital influence in our graphic design training although at the time we often questioned why we spent so much time life drawing and listening to lem’s eccentric and passionate take on the history of art when surely shouldn’t we be designing book covers or something? but now i get it. not only do i credit lem with instilling in me a confidence to just pick up a pencil or pen and attempt to draw anything, but he also taught us to appreciate the flow and movement of line.

the theory of drawing the same thing multiple times, learning with each stroke to eventually be able to produce exactly what you want with all the freshness of that first attempt is something i learned from lem and continues to influence my approach to typography as well drawing.

being a great teacher was only one aspect of lem. he was a noted abstract/pop painter and produced life drawings of great energetic beauty, all about the purity of line and a moment in time frozen with charcoal, graphite or ink. he would regularly remind us as to how good his large geometric paintings would look in the receptions to design agencies – my only regret at not having a reception with black leather sofas and scattered design magazines is that i never had an excuse to buy a mierins.

the last time i chatted with him was at his retrospective exhibition at cartwright hall gallery in bradford, fresh from the state gallery of fine art in latvia [you can download the gallery catalogue as a pdf here]. although clearly moved at his former pupils coming to view the show he quickly slipped back into character and although i may have imagined him actually cuffing me round the ear (a regular technique in his life drawing class), his parting words in thick latvian accent were “…and buy a bloody catalogue!”. which, of course, i did.

advent of a temporary artwork

you wait all year for a beach hut and then two come along at once…

yes, we’re down the seafront again, but this time it’s not sea swim (although we will be sea swim beach hut bound again next summer), but down the coast in bridlington where we’ve been invited to participate in the beach hut advent calender project. each day in advent beach hut no.1 is opened to reveal something new, and today it’s our turn.

it’s all about surprise so we’re not giving anything away, other than to say you’ve probably never seen a beach hut quite like this before. and that you get to take part (you’re not scared of sudden loud noises are you?). so if you’d like to see our for-one-night-only installation-cum-interactive-artwork you’ll just have to turn up. go on – tis the season to be jolly.

the beach hut is opened at 6pm, beach hut no.1, just past the spa, bridlington south bay. all are welcome and there’ll be hot drinks for all.

bonjour charlotte

today we officially welcome charlotte to electric angel. charlotte’s been doing odd bits of work with us over summer after a couple of work placements with us and exhibiting as part of the crescent gardens art trail last year. she now joins us as a partner filling the recently vacated third of the business. you’ll be seeing her design work and love for inventive typography on this blog over the coming months…

bon voyage james

today is james’s last day as part of electric angel before he and jenny (that’s mrs rush to you) depart for a new life in the land of mounties and maple syrup.

it’s unfortunate timing that i’ll be out of the studio all today although we did manage to integrate beer and pastry-based products into yesterdays events by way of celebration and i intend to raise a glass along with many of james & jenny’s friends and family this evening.

six years working together have flown by in a whirlwind of strong coffee, good music, sausage doorsteps and considered discussions as to the various merits of bruce willis movies. we even did some designing along the way. if i have a regret it’s that we didn’t create enough opportunities to integrate james’s increasingly sublime photography into what we offered as a creative team but i’m excited at the prospect of seeing canada through his lens over the coming months.

who you work with is, i believe, as important as what you produce and with james i have been most fortunate on both counts.

james – safe journeys wherever life takes you and thank you.

sea swim

i feel privileged to work on a lot of the jobs we do, but being able to play with beach huts down on the sea front is possibly the most fun.

this is the first stage of a typographic artwork as part of ‘sea swim’ – an imove project connecting sport and art in surprising ways. these beach chalets have been lent by scarborough borough council to the project as their HQ, not just for changing into wetsuits, but for writing poetry, creating art and in time, exhibiting the fruits of the project.

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as the project finds its rhythm more text will be added. these initial letters are created in chalkboard paint so look out for group swim times, nuggets of info and lines of poetry cropping up on them over the coming months (a visualisation of how the full artwork might look using temporary text from the original sea swim proposal is shown below). as the project is about creativity and documenting the act of swimming we have this idea that everything created or collected could be an artefact with it’s own number as part of an obsessive curating regime. and so we awarded the chalets the coveted no.2 slot (no.1 being the sea itself…)

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you can pop down the chalets and find out more about the project this saturday any time between 10-5 and you’re invited to join the group for a plunge at 10.30am and 3.30pm. no athletic endeavour needed – it’s all about the experience of being in the water. to find the chalets just wander past the spa at the south bay and look for the big letters… john wedgwood clarke will be running a free creative writing workshop from 10.30am-12.30pm as part of the open day. to book a place, email him at seaswim@btinternet.com – bring a photograph of you swimming as a child!

(oh, and by the way – i didn’t paint all that by myself, don and jason are the professional signwriters, they just let me lend a hand so long as i promised not to spoil their nice brushes. more hand-painted loveliness coming soon…)

end of the line

public art project on the old scarborough-whitby railway line (now part of the national cycle network).

this project has its own blog (www.railwayart.com) where you can follow the project from initial sketches to completion which is why i’ve been a bit tardy on blogging it here. but over a year after it was installed, and now with a bench in place and a bit more greenery, it’s shortly to have an official opening. it’s a collaboration with rachel welford, includes a poem commissioned from john wedgwood clarke and involved the whole electric angel team in its genesis, not least rebecca’s skills acquired in a former life producing architectural drawings.

being the largest scale project we’d undertaken at that point, it was something of a learning curve for us – something that matthew at SBC’s parks & gardens team took in his stride. matthew really bent over backwards (while we were bent over forwards hoiking paving slabs around) to make sure the project happened with our pushing-the-boundaries-of-the-original-brief design – the original commission for was an upright signpost but we thought that with clever use of cost-effective materials there was opportunity to do so much more. kudos also to andy sharpe and the rest of the friends of the old railway line who initiated the project and were supportive and enthusiastic about our approach.

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the design aims to be both practical waymarker, signpost (to peasholm park, glen and cemetery) and a creative response to the history and current life of the line. the typefaces are those originally used by the London North Eastern Railway who ran the line prior to nationalisation, the overall shape echoes a train wheel with distinctive counterbalance straddling the route of the line. the names of the villages between scarborough and whitby form the central strip with john’s poem running around the circular perimeter.

the poem was generated after speaking with users of the line, john stopping people randomly to generate source material. we had primed the process by stencilling dates and times onto the surface that was shortly to be dug up. this approach using the vernacular communication method (there was plenty of graffiti on/in the bridge) resulted in lots of young people coming to meet the poet and contribute their thoughts. the first line of the poem which has also been adopted as the name of the artwork, “everybody’s always somewhere” was a direct quote from one of the young people.

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we responded to the words of the poem for the typographic approach, talking john’s lines for a walk and seeing where the words naturally wanted to go and play. there are also some design features that started as purely practical solutions to potential problems such as ice build-up in the larger etched lettering – the pattern that fills these (made from letterforms) helps avoid that happening. all the paving slabs are made from recycled glass paving that we had made especially with a skimmed surface to allow the glass particles to show and glint in the light.

watch these spaces…

from top left clockwise:

junction box, leeds. soon to be part of a public art project (organised by the culture company and leeds met gallery) in which a series of junction boxes in leeds city centre will be transformed by artists. myself and john wedgwood clarke have received one of the commissions, james will be taking the crucial photography for the artwork.

thornton lodge community centre, huddersfield. this major project creating artwork across an entire building is nearing completion. with john we were commissioned by kirklees district council to engage the community and generate a building-wide scheme. we think it’s rather unique. here you can see james hand-fitting one of many letter shapes in the artwork – in this case to an exterior wall viewed from inside the centre.

empty shop, scarborough. a project we have instigated on behalf of creative coast (the local creative’s network we help run) with funding from scarborough borough and north yorkshire county councils. creatives from various disciplines drawn from the creative coast membership will work with people from the local community to transform empty shop windows with positive messages about life by the coast.

beach huts, south bay scarborough. the HQ for sea swim – an imove project for the cultural olympiad which will encourage people into the water and them out again to reflect creatively on the experience. james has already been in the water on the groups first swim, we’ll also be transforming these huts with a typographic design as part of the branding for the project.

leeds psychogeographic society talk

i’m in leeds tomorrow speaking about CHART scarborough at leeds psychogeographic society. this is a ‘for the love’ talk, not an official bit of dissemination so i’m looking forward to offering a more personal perspective on the project and some of the quirkier elements that i’ve really enjoyed developing. the society looks to have had some fascinating talks over recent months but it’s the first time i’ll have been. i’m hoping i can combine journeys around the west riding with future talks.

should you find yourself in britain’s best-dressed city™ tomorrow you’re welcome to pop along – 5.15 at the university of leeds, baines wing miall lecture theatre 2.34 (click here for a map). it’s free and anyone is welcome.

[image: town centre intervention as part of CHART scarborough]

bittersweet

congratulations to our oft collaborator, poet john wedgwood clarke whose poem ‘stubble’ is one of the 10 commended in the 2010 national poetry competition, selected from 11,653 entries. john was also one of the six finalists in the manchester poetry prize in october. you can read ‘stubble’ here.

john was a collaborator with us and artist rachel welford on the public art project ‘everybody’s always somewhere‘, on ‘the shop of priceless things‘ in rotherham and we’re currently working together on a building-wide public art project with community engagement in huddersfield.

above: john reading as part of the crescent gardens art trail in scarborough, september 2010. photo by james rush.

sadly in today’s reorganisation of arts council funding due to government cuts, both beverley literature festival and the fledgling bridlington poetry festival of which john is the director lost their funding status. the festivals are run part-time by john and a committed team of volunteers who must be devastated. however, we trust in the power of words in the wolds and doubt that this will be the last you hear of great writing in this part of the world.

happy christmas

wishing you a peaceful christmas. from adrian, james and rebecca.
we’re back in the studio on tuesday 4 january, probably wearing home-knitted jumpers with a reindeer pattern.