electric angel /design for life

intervening with CHART Scarborough

CHART Scarborough is one of the big projects were currently working on. the main focus is a map of scarborough based around cognitive mapping theory aka legible cities thinking, that has the intention of encouraging people to navigate the town via cultural destinations. to raise awareness prior to the launch and to encourage some wider participation in the project there’ll be a series of ‘interventions’ around the town over the next few weeks.

some are pretty straight forward like the sign above that went up outside the library yesterday, some will be more situationist guerilla art. i’m not saying any more about those… if you’re in scarborough you’ll hopefully discover one by chance. there’ll also be a week-long competition in the local newspaper.

the library sign is the first time – if you discount the progress reports on www.chartscarborough.com – that an section of the map has been seen in public. this is still a work in progress and there’ll be some changes to this after a couple more community workshops and feedback from the interventions, but it will give you a good idea of what it’s going to look like. the map will be packaged as part of a leaflet in which we intend to break away from the traditional imagery found on publications promoting this part of the world – ‘map as art object’ is one of the phrases from the original brief…

espionage, blackmail, romance and menace!

ah, just a typical day in the studio.

actually that’s how we’ve chosen to describe the 2010 scarborough literature festival. our design work includes posters (copywriting too on those), flyers, bookmarks targeted at adults and kids and the festival brochure. it’s a good line-up again and this year’s main image is in the style of a pop-up book with each pop-up suggesting one or more of the authors and events in the festival – this theme follows through into the brochure. we’re particularly looking forward to the beano event – tickets are on sale now from scarborough tourist information centre.

sssshhhhhh….

uh oh, looks like there’s about to be some menacing on our blog. dennis is coming to town for scarborough literature festival. we’ll blog our brochure, poster [excerpt above], flyers and bookmark designs next week inbetween laying paving stones.

chart in print

this month’s renaissance news includes a centrepsread about CHART Scarborough so far – or you can catch up on the blog. it’s the first time the logo has been seen in print and gives a hint as to how it’s designed to be used as a containing shape as well as traditional logo. it’s going to be cropping up all over the place shortly – if you see us wandering around town measuring up various windows and signboards on monday you’ll gather something is cooking…

an interesting project

first public outing for the CHART Scarborough logo, on the side of woodend at last night’s creative coast mobile phone treasure hunt.

collect the set

this post on carl hopkin’s blog reminded me of our old business cards from the bradford days.

these were sent out upon moving to a new studio – each pack contained a card slotted into a larger flyer announcing the move and declaring each card part of a limited work of art. you could own the full work by collecting the full set of cards [below]. the idea would have worked best if we’d had 10 staff, each of whom’s card could be collected. as it was, this was the early days of electric angel when it was just me, but the idea caught people’s imagination and i received lots of complimentary feedback and requests for full sets. they also worked a treat at exhibitions when i could lay out my business card as a full picture – it was an easy conversation starter.

we need some new business cards, maybe it’s time to resurrect this idea.

give ‘em the old razzle dazzle

invitation inviting representatives of US-based aerospace and automotive companies to a reception at the house of commons and ‘tech-tour’ of british companies. the link between these companies is that they all use pipe-bending machines designed and manufactured by scarborough-based unison ltd.

although pipe-bending might not get you really excited, it’s worth knowing that it’s this technology that ensures your car works and that the plane that takes you on holiday is as safe as it is (unison technology is helping build the new airbus 380 as well us used in the RAFs AWACS early warning planes). you can also add to that that these folks have developed technology that is also eco-friendly by reducing waste and energy consumption.

we rarely work with other businesses so this might be seen as a bit of a departure from our usual work with the voluntary and arts organisations but we took this on because it seemed to have much in common with work promoting the area – it’s about building image, not least another jewel in scarborough’s enterprise crown.

the invitations – printed by scarborough printers mcray press – use a foil-blocked cover with the house of commons crest, a textured paper for the invitation and matching cream paper for the fold-out itinerary and letter. we hear that they’ve received glowing comments from all involved, one quote in particular that it was the best piece of marketing material they’d seen in several years.

the festival coast

the festival coast is a brand developed for the yorkshire coast festivals association to promote a wide variety of festivals and events. we designed the logo – flags forming the the shape of the yorkshire coastline – a couple of years back and have continued develop a house style which is very much a tribute to artist tom purvis who designed posters for the london and north eastern railway. he pretty much defined what’s known as ‘the golden age’ of railway posters.

despite me being a big fan of purvis et al, it was actually members of the association who suggested we reference old railway posters, i think partly because ‘the festival coast’ has that 1930’s ring about it but also to create a style that stood out as something different from racks of shiny photograph-based leaflets – a visual shorthand that there was something more substantial for visitors [and local residents] in this part of the world. james drew the illustration which is a montage of several views along the coast.

the large envelope was a cost effective way of gathering lots of printed material for a conference – an idea we originally suggested for a similar event for the north yorkshire creative industries network.

green lane

logo for green lane centre in whitby – part of our branding for coast and moors voluntary action. sign produced by basis.

are you ready for the weekend?

this weekend sees the third scarborough literature festival with a line up of thriller writers, poets and a strong bbc presence [including a cyberman!]. we were invited to design the programme and publicity material following our work on the festival last year which received some really nice comments.

because the festival is still something of a new kid on the block albeit one already developing a strong reputation, building an identifiable brand is important. to this end we recommended using a dominant image that had a recognisable relationship with last years ‘bookchair’ illustration. the illustration this year incorporates the festival title and dates as paper ’stickers’. the travel stickers continue through the programme to highlight the themes running through the festival.

pick up a programme from any north yorkshire library or look at the details online.