electric angel /design for life

settled

we (me on typography, james on photography) created this as an offshoot to the creative coast windows project (first fruits of the project here). it uses words from retirees in scarborough. writer dina murphy had conversations with older folks on benches around the town, which given the hilly nature of scarborough get regular use – she then selected phrases from those conversations as the source material for one of the windows.

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we borrowed some of the phrases to create a few temporary text interventions around town of which this is one. it’s exploring a potential approach to future public art projects – a small part of an idea we first had about 5 years ago and which has been stewing away since then. we’ll be revisiting this on different scales as we grab a bit of spare time here and there.

as for the windows project, we’re just chasing permission for our preferred building in the town centre. the window design will also feature illustrations by rachel welford alongside some wonderfully evocative text created/curated by dina. there’s also a design by another local writer-artist-designer team that will shortly appear on the former scarborough music shop opposite boyes department store.

creative coast : creative post

a new series of creative coast events start tomorrow night (thursday10th). responding to calls for a return to the pub, we’re gone really casual and developed a new format whereby we’ll meet in public bars rather than booked rooms and people can use the night however they like.

if you’re wanting to engage with the theme (this month it’s opportunity to suggest practical ideas on what kind of support for creatives local government and organisations could offer) then there’ll be postcards on tables for you to fill in and pass around. if you just want the networking or a good old chinwag, then that’s cool too. we won’t be having speakers or announcements but feel free to bring along flyers to distribute.

meet in the lower bar of the merchant, eastborough, scarborough from 8pm onwards.

bubbles

continuing the branding work with the future ferens group in hull.

and then there were four

bob tuffin’s three acrobat sculptures which we’re currently exhibiting outside our studio/gallery have been joined by an interloper. hanging from the fourth arch of the spa footbridge, this chirpy fellow, apparently made from plastic milk containers appeared overnight. we rather like him.

RSVP

we spent today working in the studio with pupils from scalby school as part of scarborough museums trust’s ‘RSVP’ day.

pupils from 4 local schools started the day at scarborough art gallery with a quick introduction to ‘bathers in sunlight’, a painting by zdzislaw ruszkowski. they then split into groups to work with a creative of their choice to produce work in response. rather than get bogged down with computers, we took a hands-on approach and created a design in our gallery windows hand-cut from vinyl. well done to john, adam, michael, nathan, james and luke who had no idea what they’d be doing until they arrived and took in their stride a breakneck journey from fine art via design processes to cutting and applying vinyl all within a tight timescale.

we’re hoping to be having a similarly enjoyable time working st. martin’s school pupils next week, responding to bob tuffin’s wire sculptures that we’re currently exhibiting in the trees outside our studio.

the slow design movement starts here

sometimes it isn’t going to get done next day, at-the-printers-by-lunchtime, just-use-helvetica-and-it-will-look-cool, get-it-out-the-door-and-send-the-invoice.

but it is going to contain a lot of love.

take a slice of scarborough

things may have seemed a little quiet lately from creative coast – the north yorks coast creatives network we help run, but actually we’ve been busy running two projects engaging with the local populace.

one is helping NYBEP with roll out of a primary school enterprise challenge, more of which later. but here’s the first fruits of our main project – ‘we love scarborough because…’ – in which small teams of creatives have been teamed with local residents to transform the windows of empty shops in the town.

here are the results of myself and writer lizi patch working with young people from schools based on the north yorkshire coast who are studying on the schools creative and media diploma.

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as the premises we were transforming were previously a cafe, we took conversations over drinks as a starting point blending in memories of growing up in the area and snippets of overhead conversations. lizi teased these out in a creative session that involved scratch-performance and the discipline of telling a story via text messaging.

we returned the following week with some initial design and illustration ideas based on this imagery into which the young people designed their text, concrete poetry style. what you see on these pics is largely their work, just typeset in a cohesive style.

if you’re in town, you can see the windows on northway, just past the stephen joseph theatre. thanks to all the talented young people (who are credited on the windows) and to course leader spencer williams for a very enjoyable and productive experience. also to colin ellis estate agents and GBR phoenix beard property services for their enthusiasm and permission for the project. 2 more shops to follow by other creatives…

an A-Z of hockney

a-z trail around east park in hull to accompany david hockney’s ‘bigger trees near warter’ currently showing at the ferens gallery. the trail takes you on a journey around the park with creative tasks all relating to the giant hockney painting and comes as part of the ‘hockney backpacks’ containing drawing materials and other good stuff that can be borrowed at the park – an idea conceived by curator lara goodband. there is also an additional mini-trail of banners on trees around the park.

houdini operator

we were delighted to be invited to transform a junction box in leeds city centre as part of ‘junction’ – a project by situation leeds that had its official launch yesterday evening. there are 10 boxes that have been given a make-over by artists and designers between leeds railway station and the headrow along park row.

we like the mystery of junction boxes – stoic immobile structures that quietly keep our towns and cities running connecting phone lines and ensuring traffic lights work as they should. but we thought what might actually be going on inside there..?

our box was a collaboration with john wedgwood clarke. junction is run by leeds met university gallery and the culture company.

sea swim

i feel privileged to work on a lot of the jobs we do, but being able to play with beach huts down on the sea front is possibly the most fun.

this is the first stage of a typographic artwork as part of ‘sea swim’ – an imove project connecting sport and art in surprising ways. these beach chalets have been lent by scarborough borough council to the project as their HQ, not just for changing into wetsuits, but for writing poetry, creating art and in time, exhibiting the fruits of the project.

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as the project finds its rhythm more text will be added. these initial letters are created in chalkboard paint so look out for group swim times, nuggets of info and lines of poetry cropping up on them over the coming months (a visualisation of how the full artwork might look using temporary text from the original sea swim proposal is shown below). as the project is about creativity and documenting the act of swimming we have this idea that everything created or collected could be an artefact with it’s own number as part of an obsessive curating regime. and so we awarded the chalets the coveted no.2 slot (no.1 being the sea itself…)

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you can pop down the chalets and find out more about the project this saturday any time between 10-5 and you’re invited to join the group for a plunge at 10.30am and 3.30pm. no athletic endeavour needed – it’s all about the experience of being in the water. to find the chalets just wander past the spa at the south bay and look for the big letters… john wedgwood clarke will be running a free creative writing workshop from 10.30am-12.30pm as part of the open day. to book a place, email him at seaswim@btinternet.com – bring a photograph of you swimming as a child!

(oh, and by the way – i didn’t paint all that by myself, don and jason are the professional signwriters, they just let me lend a hand so long as i promised not to spoil their nice brushes. more hand-painted loveliness coming soon…)