it’s rare that the sound of breaking crockery can be heard from the electric angel studio, but that was the image we developed as part of this work for domestic abuse services - an organisation that helps victims of domestic abuse in the north yorkshire coast and ryedale area.

this project is a good example of how we like to work whenever opportunity arises - a group creative session to help us understand who we’re working with and what they do and opportunity for the people involved [not just the person who wrote the brief] to talk to us first hand. on this occasion we used creating montages of images and some mini story writing as a route into learning what the organisation does and the vital role it plays in helping both female and male victims of domestic abuse. we blogged about the creative session here.

we then returned with several possible concepts for communicating this to both those who might need to use the services das provide and to potential funders. you can see the end results here - a multi-purpose leaflet, an adaptable information pack with multiple inserts and a poster. we believe that effective design is that which is appropriate to the situation - in this context the temptation is to be ‘clever’ with the message and the imagery, the challenge however is to engage interest and then communicate quickly and simply. das believe we’ve got that balance right. this project had quite a lot in common - both in the way we worked, the approach and the subject matter - with the work we did for lighthouse in hull.

a bit of technical stuff for those who are interested - print is on uncoated paper [ie. not flashy] as seems appropriate to the subject matter and it’s a two colour print job which helps to keep costs down as well as having a visual impact. a quick mention whilst were here for the stationery we also designed as part of a process refreshing the organisation’s logo to be applicable to fresh areas of work.

in 2006 english heritage commissioned two public works of art in bradford. we were asked by bradford-based artworks to work with members of the local community in the area of west bowling to produced designs for one of these - the end result would be gates for bowling old lane cricket club which lies at the heart of the community.

we led two workshops with local residents, young and old to discover more about the area. we began by drawing maps of the area from memory - these are maps that may not be geographically accurate but instead are defined by favourite places, local landmarks, events and memories. with some of the younger members of the club we went for a walk around the area armed with digital cameras - the end results were printed out onsite and quickly pasted into a rough and ready photomontage.

with some of the older residents the map drawing led to recollections of how the area had changed and some of the events and characters that had coloured growing up in this rapidly changing part of bradford. it was then our challenge to take these myriad images and turn them into something that both represented the history of the area and its role in the community today. historical fact: bowling old lane is not only one of bradford’s oldest cricket clubs but also lies adjacent to the original ground of bradford bulls [back then known as the ’steam pigs’ because they played next to the railway line] - there’s a rugby ball hidden in the design. we started sketching ideas in the first session which went on to evolve into the final design.

as an ex-bradford resident what impressed me was the genuine connection that the older gentlemen of the cricket club had with the young players almost all of whom were from asian families. i remember that one of the big news stories during the design process was the declaration form several politicians that multiculturalism wasn’t working. in this square green oasis not far from bradford city centre it looked to be doing just fine.

some of the images that can be spotted in the design: birch leaves [the gates are on birch lane], west bowling skyline - an amalgam of buildings past, present and - at the time of the design - in progress, members of the community [the club is a focus for all types of community activities, not just cricket].

you can read a little more about the gates project here.

…that’s the description for a website we produced towards the end of last year for launch at the national youthwork conference. the aim of the site is to provide a female voice and perspective in a male-dominated profession.

we were asked to design a logo, website and promo postcards for the newly-formed sophia network. the site was a collaboration with ross kendall using open source technology, hot on the heels of the renaissance friends site. there’s a lot going on in the website and ross did a sterling job to meet a rather tight deadline.

the site has two levels of engagement - casual visitors will see the public face which includes a blog, an editorial, events listing and a taste of the features on offer to members. when you sign in as a member there’s a more in-depth blog, an editorial written specifically for members, resources for download and directories of members and female speakers. this enables the site’s owners to tailor the content to two specific audiences as well as provide an incentive for females in youthwork to join up and benefit from being able to interact online in a safe space. the site is powered by a content management system so the owners have complete facilities to update content and manage the membership details.

for the logo design we did some research into ’sophia’ - the greek word for wisdom and in jewish scripture thought to represent the female part of god, something that reaches into the roman catholic tradition of referring to mary, the mother of christ as ’seat of divine wisdom’. we discovered that in the latin church sophia is usually pictured crowned and in the orthodox church with red skin. thus the crown features in the logo and the gold and red provided a starting point for the website’s colourscheme.

one of our branding projects in 2007 was for coast and moors voluntary action - a new organisation formed by merger of scarborough district council for voluntary service and whitby & district voluntary action.

accessibility was of major concern in all aspects of the design, hence the use of 12pt sans serif text with strong colours on both the stationery and leaflet. the website, looked after by coast and moors staff using a content management system, also meets accessibility standards.

the logo was the real challenge to this job. there are several organisations using some variation of ‘coast and moors’ and almost all without fail have a logo that is a straight graphic representation of hills and waves. after leading a creative session with members and partners of the new organisation we chose to develop some ideas that took an imaginative approach and that have resonance beyond just physical location. the chosen design has been christened ‘the ripple’ and this is how it’s described on a framed sign that hangs in the organisation’s building:

picture yourself standing where the north yorkshire moors meet the atlantic ocean .
the sweet smell of heather from the dramatic hills, the tang of ozone from the sea spray .
you see the climb and swoop of the moors reflected in the rolling waves—creating a constantly evolving image of colour, movement and momentum . it is this image that inspired the ‘ripple’ device that is part of our logo . it symbolises the vibrancy, potential and motion that arises when people dream and work together .

conference folders, document wallets, call ‘em what you want - but when was the last time you were given a beautiful one? or even an interesting one? for some reason they’re often a little under-designed - plain white and with a logo hanging in the middle or nestling in a corner. that’s fine if minimalism is your house style, but that’s rarely the reason. actually, i’ve no idea what the reason is.

our folder design for active faith communities challenged this strange status quo of the design world. they liked the idea of colour and impact. and why not? afc are all about enriching communities and every aspect of their promotional material needs to reflect that message. following on from a subtle refresh of the logo we’d designed for them several years ago, we took the blast of coloured light and splashed it across the folder.

although we’ve blogged the multilingual poster-leaflet we designed for active faiths we haven’t talked about the logo design. this grew out of a creative session we led with afc’s staff. whilst cutting and sticking images we came across a picture of a toddler playing with a large cardboard box. this led to a discussion about kids seeing the potential in something that adults will throw away without thought. it seemed an appropriate metaphor for an organisation that helps faith communities recognise and use their potential in the transformation of communities - often groups of people who have existed for a long time and never considered the profound impact they can have in their neighbourhood. the resulting ‘exploding box’ logo has a direct link to that first session. afc’s staff commented that they really appreciated our approach in being involved in the generation of ideas.

this is also an example of where we’ve done more than just design a logo. active faith communities already had a name but no strapline. we developed a list of possible straplines based on the discussions we’d had in the creative session. unlocking potential - enriching communities was the chosen line.

the balance in our workload between design for print, websites and other creative stuff is always unpredictable. we’re currently busy with websites so i thought we ought to blog a few before there’s too much of a backlog. this is the website for mission network run - actually the first job we did for them, so it predates the print designs we’ve blogged about. we produced the design and html for a programmer at run to develop into a content managed site.

so to my secret life… run also invited me to write three articles a month for the sprint section of the website, a magazine section within the site. i review resources, offer a guide to what’s on the internet and surf contemporary culture for a series of ‘beginners guides’. the site launched in its new format over 2 years ago, so i’ve been making some of my living as a writer for a couple of years now - something i always forget to mention whenever people ask us what we do. in fact, there’s plenty of our writing in quite a lot of the design work we do and although we’ve never advertised that we do copywriting, people often see our stuff and ask us to write. alas, unless you’re a run member you can’t access to these particular articles but i’ll try and remember to post some examples of or links to our writing at some point.

working largely in the public sector means that, particularly on local projects, you are likely to have some emotional attachment to the work. this might be as simple as knowing your designs will be gracing boards, buildings and banners in your home town and being aware of the resulting impact on public space. with other projects you may have a much more personal connection.

when based in bradford we lived in the area covered by the newlands single regeneration budget. artworks were one of the main partners in delivering regeneration projects in the area and we experienced their work in three ways - through designing promotional material and reports; through being involved in the delivery of projects such as helping a community group design a logo or produce a website; and because rebecca and i were involved in youthwork at one of the churches in the area, through knowing some of the young people whose lives were given excitement and hope by the events artworks ran.

at the end of the newlands funding we were commissioned to design the independent report and the summary document shown here that evaluated what artworks had achieved, and crucially, how much more they might have achieved had some of the circumstances been different. it was purely chance that some of the photos we were provided with for the reports were of brightly coloured costumes and painted faces against the backdrop of drab rainy days. and although artworks did and do much, much more than painting kids faces, this seemed an apt metaphor for artworks work in newlands - bringing sunshine to rainy days. so they were the pics we chose to use.

at electric angel we’re firm believers in the power of art and culture to transform communities. we look forward to working, celebrating and on occasion commiserating with artworks and other organisations with similar aims in the future.

we’re just in the process of putting together the august issue of the renaissance news. last month’s edition is now online in an adapted format for screen reading and in a large text version for printing out on the renaissance website. it includes a feature about creative coast.

the original concept was that the newsletter would be produced by a team of students at the university of hull scarborough campus who worked on the original concept of the new format. alas that project bit the dust when the school of arts and new media was formed but we’d love to have some student involvement still.

so… if you’re studying design at college or university level in the local area (or have just graduated) and fancy a couple of days in the electric angel studio helping to put a future issue together do get in touch. we’ll involve you in client meetings and the whole design and publication process. the only catch is that we don’t currently have a spare pc running xpress and photoshop although we do have a desk and a large monitor to plug into… so you’ll need to bring along your laptop or cpu when you’re in the studio. in return the newsletter will include a little feature about you, your studies and what you’re hoping to do next. the newsletter currently goes out to over 1500 local residents and businesses, so that’s not bad exposure, plus you’ll have a piece of real world work for your portfolio.

ah, kermit the frog delivering the eco-message long before it was fashionable. we figured that with our work for scarborough borough council’s roll-out of recycling and our founding principle of offering graphic design with an ethical edge, we owe it to the people we work with to come clean about whether we cut the mustard on green issues.

well, we are trying… we re-use paper (ie. we print on both sides and use scrap for sketches and note paper), we take all used paper to be recycled, we upgrade computer equipment for as long as possible before buying new kit, then we offer our old kit to friends, family and for community use rather than see it trashed - we’re not adverse to pre-used kit ourselves either. we send print cartridges for recycling, always buy re-filled cartridges and try to print as little as possible using screen-based proofs instead. we re-use envelopes (see pic above) and have often re-used furniture at electric angel hq. our studios to date have always been in buildings that have been cheaply adapted to new use (old mills etc) rather than glitzy resource-consuming new office buildings.

we use public transport for business meetings as a first choice and we almost always walk or cycle to the studio. we use an ethical bank. we check out the green credentials of the printers we work with all of whom use paper from sustainable sources. we have looked into recycled paper many times but the current view is that the recycling process to make paper suitable for litho printing is more damaging to the environment than growing and chopping down trees. but we’ll keep an eye on that. james and i dress entirely in clothes made from recycled tractor tyres plus lunch at the studio is only ever what we can gather from rockpools in the south bay - mostly bladder wrack and sea anemones.
ok, so we made the last couple up, but we are making an effort.

but we confess we’re not too sharp at turning off the plug sockets every night. this used to be because we’d leave time-consuming processes running overnight but they’re not nearly as necessary now computer hardware is more reliable and a lot faster. it’s now very rare that a pc is switched on if we’re not using it. but we promise we’ll starting switching those other bits and pieces off when we leave on a night. also our current website hosting provider doesn’t claim to use green energy (although we haven’t specifically asked them) so that’s something that’s on our mind although things are so much simpler with them that we’re at least saving a good few hours of computer energy-guzzling time developing websites…!

we’d love to hear of any eco-conscious creatives’ suggestions of how to do the green thing in a studio/creative business. so do leave any ideas or experiences here by clicking on ‘comments’.

on wednesday we led a creative session with staff and trustees at domestic abuse services. they offer a service within the north yorkshire coast and ryedale to women and men who are victims of domestic abuse - helping them get out of often very damaging situations and start a new life.

creative sessions like this are how we prefer to start many design projects - we learn so much more from being able to spend an hour or so with the people who are involved in the organisation than from any written brief.

we began by playing with random images, choosing those that represented the situations that cause someone to pick up the phone and contact DAS and those that continued the story after the victims had been given help. by no means is it a straightforward happy ending story - leaving your comfortable home and taking your children to live in temporary accommodation is a brave move, but several times the process was described as being a rebirth. any birth is a painful process.

taking hemingway as inspiration - who once said the best story he’d ever written used just six words - we wrote typical stories from the experiences of working with victims of domestic abuse. the photomontages became the binding for these stories forming a book (pictured above). the next stage is for us to take these as the starting point for ideas on how to communicate DAS’s message to both the people they can help, and the people who can help DAS to continue to provide the service it does.