electric angel /design for life

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).

hey, who’s been doodling on our walls?

tsk, you open your studio to an artist and next thing you know there’s graffiti everywhere.

actually we’re rather delighted with these montages that snake around the walls – a visual trail along the coasts of spain, portugal, france and morocco – to accompany the paintings in ‘view from the back: journal of a surf trip’. the paintings aim to evoke the 6 month surf trip which in kathryn’s words “is as much about encounters with people we met, the surfing lifestyle and the landscapes as the surfing itself”. kathryn is also exhibiting postcards she created and sent to her then one year old niece from the journey which document the minutiae (even the camper van sink!) as well as the bigger stories.

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preview is this friday then it’s open whenever we’re open – usually 9.30-5.00 monday to friday or just get in touch if you’d like us to open up specially – we’re very happy to do so.

fossil festival

the natural history museum have come to town for scarborough fossil festival which is taking place at venues across the town this weekend. the advance publicity is in the format of a leaflet folding out to form a poster with details of the events on the reverse.

posters and banners at venues promote the event across the town – they seem to be working if the people heading into the rotunda museum as i took this photo are anything to go by.

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.

slave labour

is it me, or are these work placement students getting younger…?

thataway

moving card for west yorkshire community chaplaincy project continuing our branding work for them.

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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.