electric angel /design for life

pyschogeography, postcards and place

to accompany the production of the CHART Scarborough map and to follow the success of the workshops with local residents which amongst other things, sought to identify the essence of scarborough, a postcard project was launched. this teamed local residents – a mix of teenagers and older adults – with a poet and photographer to talk about and photograph the places that had resonance for them.

photographer tony bartholomew took the final photos used on the postcards and john w clarke shaped the verbal and written material into prose and scratch-poems for the rear of the cards relating to that place. some poignant, some playful, the wordplay also extends to the minutiae of text often seen on postcards such as the publisher – we designed logos for some. each is addressed as if travelling to the place but using ‘mind map’ directions, not a conventional address. we designed each card in a slightly different style based on postcards we randomly found, the ‘postmark’ and ‘stamp’ linking them into a set and to the map.

the cards are scattered around public buildings and cultural venues in Scarborough, there are 12 to collect if you fancy hunting them down. the 12th will give you the CHART Scarborough map references of the places the photos were taken so you can visit for yourself.

.

more CHART

a couple more pics of the CHART Scarborough map (that’s Culture, Heritage and ART Scarborough) to show the size. it folds down to normal DL leaflet/envelope size but with the photographic side we hoped to create something that was interesting/attractive enough to be a poster too. which way up you display it is up to you – it’s designed so there is no top, bottom, left or right (although personally i’d snip off the cover before framing).

CHART Scarborough map

here’s the job that’s been consuming much of our thought and time over the last 6 months. it’s been a big project, not just in terms of time but also the thinking and research that has gone into its production.

it’s a free map intended to encourage visitors and residents explore the town from a cultural perspective. for this to work, we researched cognitive mapping theory – the idea that you can draw maps that aid people to build better mental pictures of places and thus navigate them in a more intelligent way. this works if your map can show in an instantly recognisable way, the key places and spaces that the brain uses to remember and form journeys.

as well as using workshops with residents to identify how people currently move around the town, we’ve deliberately ‘loaded’ our map with cultural landmarks to try and encourage use of those places as an aid to navigation, thus subtly changing patterns of movement in the town by those who use the map. that’s the idea anyhow – as far as we know this hasn’t been tried before. we’ve also added a few theories of our own, particularly about the use of colour in communicating sense of place.

the reverse side further encourages exploration by using a ‘map’ of photographic images (all taken in-house) that we hope will prompt exploration of a town that often suffers from predictable patterns of movement. poems by two local poets – john w clarke and kate evans – add some context and entice further.

this is stage one of the project. stage two will be an intreractive online version. for now, accompanying trails can be downloaded from the website – www.chartscarborough.com – and more are being added every week. if you would like to know more about the theory, workshops and interventions as part of this project you can also read the project’s blog there. the map itself can be picked up at venues across scarborough (or just get in touch if you’d like us to post you one).

stacks of work

stacks of the CHART Scarborough maps lining our windowsill in preparation for tomorrow’s launch. we’ll show you the whole thing after the launch (gotta give people some reason to come…*)

also we forgot to give our customary work placement shout out to emma, who right now is working on the visuals for the launch. she’s with us for the next fortnight.

*actually, a unique performance by sjt outreach and some moves from scarborough hip-hop school are pretty good reasons. wine too. and food.

an invitation to wander

our big project of the last six months has been CHART Scarborough – an initiative to encourage residents and visitors to the town to explore the locale in a more inquisitive culturally aware way.

stage 1 is a printed map based around cognitive mapping theory – in short, a map that’s designed to work in harmony with your brain, not demand that you learn map-reading skills. this is launched, along with an off-shoot postcards project and a series of downloadable trails next wednesday. it’ll be interesting to see how it’s received as the project has evolved a long way since the original idea of ‘an arts trail’. we’ve done a fair bit of reading and research on this project including a number of workshops and consultations. you can follow the history on the CHART Scarborough blog: www.chartscarborough.com

this is the invitation to the launch which includes a section of the map and encourages the invitee to follow a trail that spells out C H A R T en route to the venue.
(CHART stands for Culture, Heritage and ART, by the way).

openings and open studios

this morning we’re sending out invitations to the opening of kathryn welford’s exhibition ‘view from the back: journal of a surf trip’. they feature one of kathryn’s watercolours on the front which are a fascinating mix of traditional style and documentary subject matter – i suspect several of these invites will end up framed and on people’s walls. anyway, if you’d like to join us for a drink and to meet kathryn on the 25th june, please do come along. likewise, drop us an email to be added to our mailing list for exhibition openings and other creative stuff.

we’re also sending them out in time for people to call in and watch kathryn work as part of north yorkshire open studios which begins this weekend when she’ll be painting on the gallery walls. there are lots of opportunities to visit local artists as part of open studios. we’d like to give a shout out to our regular collaborator and first ever exhibitor in our tiny gallery, rachel. we’ll be paying her a visit because despite working together regularly i’ve never been to her studio!

a shout also to local photographer graham who exhibited with us last year and now has his own tiny gallery down at the harbour, to andrew also down in the bait sheds for whom we designed exhibition panels when he was exhibiting at scarborough art gallery (and does beautiful work), and to gaby who exhibited some wonderful new ceramic work in the east coast open.

postcard from a surf trip

it’s always nice to receive a postcard, but this one has a specific purpose – it’s part of the lead up to the exhibition ‘view from the back – journal of a surf trip’ by kathryn welford. this will be the first exhibition when our tiny gallery re-opens for north yorkshire open studios on june 11/12/13 and 19/20. kathryn will be using our studio walls as an installation to support paintings in the gallery and you can come see the work in progress as part of the open studios. we’ll have a little opening ‘do’ and return to our daily working-week gallery opening when the exhibition is complete.

but back to the postcard – kathryn is asking people to respond to photographs taken on a 6 month trip across spain, portugal, france and morocco with stories, poems or just a simple phrase or single word. these will be included in the exhibition. she’s scattering postcards to encourage this (designed by us) and this is the first that’s been returned. you can also respond via the exhibition’s blog: http://www.viewfromtheback.info

so get writing and then call in for open studios to see your text being used.

untamed energies

leaflet-poster for a forthcoming exhibition at rural arts in thirsk. the exhibition features textiles by sally greaves-lord, ceramics by remon jephcott, jewellery by marlene mckibbin and etchings by maria pavledis. it’s curated by lara goodband whom we’ve also worked with on producing panels for ‘another view’ – the current exhibition at cliffe castle in keighley.

untamed energies forms part of the north yorkshire open studios which runs over two weekends in june. we’re also hosting an exhibition for open studios: ‘view from the back: journal of a surf trip’ by kathryn welford will be an installation and paintings inspired by a vw camper journey around europe and morocco. our tiny gallery is currently closed for some minor building work and kathryn’s exhibition will mark the re-opening.

bridlington poetry festival

no, that’s not a close-up of dodgy printing but rather hand-painted colour forming the background of this leaflet for a new festival starting this year. i think the idea was suggested by john clarke, festival director and sometime collaborator on such as ‘the shop of priceless things‘. i say ‘think’, because quite often ideas for a design come out of an initial cuppa and a chat – i do know we went away with john getting out his brushes to paint and cut some potential backgrounds (he recently exhibited at scarborough art gallery).

the intention is to suggest the craft reflecting the creative process of creating a poem and a sense of the elemental with the bold geometric shapes. we also consciously kept the typography quite simple in keeping with the relatively conservative tradition of setting most poems. the leaflet opens out into a poster.

dinosaur coast

summer events leaflet for the dinosaur coast – part of our ongoing work for scarborough museums trust.