electric angel /design for life

a different view – read all about it!

stacks of newspaper style brochures are popping up all over yorkshire. it can only mean one thing – it’s almost time for this year’s coastival.

‘coastival – a different view’ takes place on 16th february with an emphasis on the visual. expect a mix of wonderful stuff for all ages from spectacular projection and holographic club visuals through to intimate artworks in unusual venues. that’s a lot of stuff packed into one day (60 events – 54 of them completely free) so pick up a brochure with the pull-out listings to navigate your way through. they’re available from tourist info and cultural venues across scarborough and further afield.

as befits a visual experience and coastival’s nature to always re-invent itself, we designed this years brochure in this newspaper format allowing space to talk about the events and give a glimpse of some of the experiences on offer. festival organisers -create arts development- also called on our way with words again to name this year’s coastival.

we’re also cooking up a little something ourselves for saturday evening, more about that nearer the time…
www.coastival.com

a warhol timeline

a timeline of the 20th century from an andy warhol perspective using text written by the future ferens accompanying the current exhibition at the ferens gallery in hull. the timeline folds out to reveal key dates from warhol’s birth to his death 58 years later interspersed by artworks from the exhibition. we also produced hand-drawn illustrations to accompany some of the significant cultural events that had an influence on the society warhol’s work often mirrored.

timelines can be picked up free at the exhibition which runs until january 2013.

mixed palette

brochure for the university of hull / yorkshire coast college 2012 fine art degree show which opened on friday. the pulpboard cover is die-cut to give glimpses of the work inside. the exhibition is open all this week at scarborough westwood campus alongside the costume and design for digital media degrees so do go take a look.

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splash manifesto

‘towards a swimmers manifesto’ – by john w clarke with typography inspired by the blast! 1914 vorticist manifesto. this was a lot of fun to do, especially subduing some of my natural design instincts and throwing in a few typographic ‘mistakes’ to create the letterpress-in-a-hurry feel of the original.

you can pick up your copy at the sea swim exhibition documenting the project to date which is currently showing at woodend creative workspace, scarborough as part of coastival. the official opening is on saturday at 2pm.

coastival essential guide

if there’s one problem with coastival it’s that there’s so much to go to! it is, of course, impossible to get to all 120+ events over the weekend, and the essential guide is designed to inform and help you choose and plan your festival weekend. for the indecisive there are two suggested ‘routes’ through the festival and fill-in-yourself weekend planner so you don’t forget where you intended to be and at what time.

the guide is available in person for £2 from scarborough TIC, library, woodend creative workspace and other festival venues or by mail via www.coastival.com. buy tickets at the same time and it’s half price on the website.

fisherman and paddling gentleman illustrations both by house of deadleg.

swimsuit shoot

the launch of the coastival poster/brochure on the south bay beach. there had been notice it would be a swimsuit model for this photo opportunity, and rumours abounded of who might be brave enough to pose as our poster buxom beauty (who has been christened ‘gladys’ by the coastival team). but not many people had counted on a male model… a very game andrew clay, director of woodend creative workspace. pick up a brochure to see his comic counterpart.

above: evening news photographer andrew higgins (see his daily photo journal here) sorting various musicians, artists, dj’s and more.

above: andrew clay in character with coastival director, wendy clews. joining in on the snapping is tony bartholomew who is also photoblogging as coastival365. contact tony if you’d like photos of the launch or just of andrew in a bathing suit. we won’t ask why.

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.

what a complete waste of a day

artists book for rachel howfield. we designed this towards the end of 2009 in time for rachel to take copies to new york where she was exhibiting at a.i.r gallery. rachel’s work often explores the tension of being a practising artist and a wife and mother and she led a discussion at a.i.r on the topic. intrigued? why not follow rachel’s blog. say hello and she might even send you a book.

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when is an annual report not an annual report?

not a joke from a christmas cracker but artworks creative communities annual report 2008-2009. similar to the report-cum-calendar we designed for coast and moors voluntary action, our solution for artworks responds to the challenge of keeping a report in people’s hands throughout the year.

it’s a little unusual in that most of the pages are blank. artworks trade in creative ideas so we thought it appropriate that they gave away sketchbooks in which other people could put their ideas. inserted at intervals throughout the book are pages of handwritten and stuck-in information on specific strands of work that can be discovered by chance. the covers both fold out to reveal the generic information.

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how on earth did scarborough win
the european enterprise award?

if you’ve been asking yourself this, then get yourself down to the international business forum event at the spa today or tomorrow and pick up a copy of this brochure.

another award for scarborough – the international association of public participation project of the year – prompted this new piece of literature. alas we didn’t get to go to san diego for the ceremony, instead we had to turn a brochure around, from concept to delivery in two days. ok, so that was delivery to london and taken from there to san diego, but we think that’s pretty speedy nonetheless. the brochure uses text and a visual timeline to tell the story of scarboroughs’ renaissance over the last 7 years. it’s also pretty candid about the situation that scarborough faced and how the council was basically told to work in partnership or not get any more money.

although you probably won’t hear as much about this award, to my mind it’s probably the most important as it recognises that scarborough’s recent achievements have come through people working together with shared vision.