Rough Sleepers

I return to theater poster design with another Leeds Arts Centre, again in their autumn slot, this time the play as a more Hallowe’en feel, a change from my previous LAC artwork.

‘Rough Sleepers’ is an LAC original play by Neil Rathmell. Set in an overgrown graveyard outside a disused chapel, the Captain a ‘gentleman of the road’ is welcomed by the vicar, but some of her parishioners see things differently. To them he’s just a rough sleeper and they want him out.

From this I wanted the poster to have a rough, bramble likes quality, black thatched lines and having at the time recently spent a day at Yorkshire Sculpture Park I found inspiration in the drawings and sketches of Henry Moore. Using his style of scratchy and crosshatches lines to create shading and depth , I applied my own style to it, creating this cross hatched captain.

 

And that was that; you can buy tickets here: www.carriageworkstheatre.co.uk.

Leeds Arts Centre is an amateur drama group formed in 1945. They present a wide variety of plays at the Carriageworks Theatre on Millennium Square in Leeds. They are proud members of LeedsCAN (Leeds Community Arts Network), formerly the Leeds Civic Arts Guild, a group of amateur theatre, musical, fine arts and opera companies based around the city. New members are always welcome!

Alt NaSTA ’19

The annual Alt NaSTA outing this year happens is the far and exotic paradise of Cornwall. As always novelty t-shirts had to be made, this year in black and white as an homage to the Jolly Roger to complement the pirate theme.

As always these were printed by the amazing guys at Red Oak Roller so check them out for all of your shirt printing needs.

*Hat not included with shirt

30 Before 30

This month I turn 27, and there are still a load of things I want to do, and as i’m a man who works to deadlines, I wrote a List when I was 25. So I’m posting it here to keep track .

  1. Travel across America
  2. Get a tattoo
  3. Own my own house
  4. Tough Mudder
  5. Get down to 13 stone
  6. Try stand up
  7. Run the Yorkshire 10 Mile
  8. Attend a cocktail making class
  9. Brew my own beer
  10. Climb Arthur’s seat
  11. Visit 30 countries (including American states)
  12. See the Northern Lights – Iceland / Greenland
  13. Climb the Eiffel Tower – France
  14. See the Grand Canyon – Arizona
  15. Mardi Gras – New Orleans
  16. Walk the Great wall of china
  17. Hike the Rainbow Mountains – Peru
  18. Drink in the Guinness Brewery
  19. See the Giants Causeway
  20. Fly First Class
  21. Shuck an Oyster
  22. Try Frog’s Legs
  23. Fire a Gun / Throw an Axe
  24. Attend the Swingamajig
  25. Walk Across the Abbey road crossing
  26. Act in a play
  27. Attend the Edinburgh Fringe
  28. See Rocky Horror Stage show in full costume
  29. Fly Brewdog Airlines
  30. Give Blood

Due to the chaotic nature of life, I’ve added 3 extras in case one of the 30 becomes impossible due to reasons beyond my control

  1. Run a Half Marathon
  2. Visit Niagara Falls
  3. Visit Stonehenge

The Flint Street Nativity

Before I went to America, I joined the LAC To try my hand at something new. Recently my friend Ben directed ‘The Flint Street Nativity’ but due to the way the theatre works, all the advertising and posters had to be done by June.

‘The Flint Street Nativity’ is a play in which the Kids take control of the play, and all previous designs reflected this by using children’s style artwork and typography on the poster, to give the appearance the kids did everything. I decided to go a different route, my logic being the kids think they’re brilliant actors, why wouldn’t they think they’re great artist?

So from there I looked into cartoon styles a child might try to imitate, and settled on ‘Adventure Time’ over ‘Phineas and Ferb’ and ‘Regular Show’ due to personal preference for the art style. After that I selected three characters I thought central to the play; the Star, Gabriel and Herod and cartooned them up.

After that came the poster, the flyer and some promotional merchandise, with a hand written font to make differentiate it slightly from ‘Adventure Time’

The Programme:

 

And that was that; you could have bought tickets here: www.carriageworkstheatre.co.uk.

Leeds Arts Centre is an amateur drama group formed in 1945. We present a wide variety of plays at the Carriageworks Theatre on Millennium Square in Leeds. We are proud members of LeedsCAN (Leeds Community Arts Network), formerly the Leeds Civic Arts Guild, a group of amateur theatre, musical, fine arts and opera companies based around the city. New members are always welcome!

“This production got so many things right – from the advertising, the poster, the programme, the decorations, the nativity stories it’s easy to praise it.”

Scott Pennwood – LCAN Adjudicator.

“Having seen the excellent poster displayed for a while I’ve been wondering what this was and so was very glad that I got to go and see it.”

Heather Pennwood – LCAN Adjudicator.

“Memorable moments were the Wise man (Howard Russel) talking about his lisp; Herod  (Mitchell Perry) refusing to be Joseph and his facial expressions and the large battery pack for the angels (Angie Clarke) lights.”

Linda Hinchliffe – LCAN Adjudicator

America in 90 Days

So from January 2018 to April 2018 I travelled America; Boston to San Francisco. While I will one day write an in detailed blog; as I went I wrote a sentence a day, here is that list;

Day 1: Arrived in a blizzard. Didn’t die. Victory.
Day 2: Started in Cheers, ended up in the Sam Adams brewery; where everybody know I’m drunk.
Day 3: Got chased out of Harvard by security in a golf buggie.
Day 4: Stood on the field at Fenway Park. “Don’t tell anyone in New York you were here” was ominous as fuck.
Day 5: Harpoon Brewery was epic. Not sure how I got to New York.
Day 6: Too hungover to function, walked all day in Brooklyn and got lost in a park
Day 7: 9/11 museum. Jesus that was harrowing.
Day 8: I accidentally ended up in some free comedy show called the happy time candy hour. Got so drunk I ended up doing an open Mic night slot because “fuck it.”
Day 9: Went to a New York rangers game and laughed too hard at “sponsored Zamboni rider.”
Day 10: Got fed meatloaf sandwich by the barman in a dive bar and the locals bought me drinks all night

Day 11: Got caught in midtown Philadelphia after the Eagles win. I’ve now been inducted. GO BIRDS
Day 12: Philly cheese steak… Jesus christ
Day 13: Explored the bars of philly, their beer is better than New York. Monk’s Cafe needs to be visited again
Day 14: Frat party, can’t even function, also keg stands are fucking stupid.
Day 15: Drinking games in the hostel with the Welsh, the English a South African woman and a Spaniard… Hows that joke end?
Day 16: Morning run up the rocky steps singing DEEER NEEER NEEEEEEEER DEEER NEEER NEERRR
Day 17: Walking around Washington monuments at night singing the house of cards theme tune retrospectively ruined by Kevin Spacey.
Day 18: Did captain America’s  morning run.
Day 19: Scottsman took me on a tour of the Captiol. “And here where they beat the English” was pretty much the title of every painting.
Day 20: State of the Union drinking game, my word was Tax; manly jello shots. How did we end up in a jazz bar?

Day 21: DO NOT FUCK WITH BUS DRIVER LINDA GILES.
Day 22: Got a portrait painted by a barmaid dubbed “the sexy Jackson Pollock” of Nashville.
Day 23: Quinoa whiskey is disgusting.
Day 24: Ate biscuits with an incredibly Christian woman and her daughter who recommended me a lot of christian rock music.
Day 25: Fuck Brady, Go Birds #Superbowl2018
Day 26: Lobster and Brie omletts…. Its the future ive tasted it.
Day 27: Jackson sucks, except Pig & Pint where the locals love me
Day 28: Found a speak easy in the back of a drug store. The apothecary was a classy joint.
Day 29: Met a gay porn star and his dominatrix best friend, who both offered fo fuck me too see who would do it best… I declined.
Day 30: Flashed my dick for beads. Classy as ever,
Day 31: Saw Nicolas Cage’s pyramid tomb. Cos that’s a thing
Day 32: So many things have hit me in the face… Why do parades hate me?
Day 33: Lundi Gras with the jazzbands of Frenchman street. So sophisticated till “oh she hates you.”
Day 34: Happy Mardi gras motherfuckers.

Day 35: Was so hungover I hovered round a diet coke giveaway for 3 hour playing Pokemon go.
Day 36: Americans do yell at the screen, mainly “fuck that guy” and “Wooo you go Panther.”
Day 37: Drove out of Birmingham blasting out “sweet home Alabama on the car stereo. One off the bucket list.
Day 38: Drank with the owner of the hammer and ale pub till they gave me free glassware. Best bar in Tennesee
Day 39: Graceland motherfuckers, The King has entered the building.
Day 40: Survived the drive down Elm Street. Perry 1 Kennedy 0

Day 41: Driving at sun rise playing” Woke up this morning” on a Dallas high way in sun glasses. Sapranos style.
Day 42: Toured Fort Worth’s outdoor water garden in a thunderstorm, cos that made sense at the time.
Day 43: Talked with Texans over BBQ and beer.
Day 44: Stopped off in little Rock, what a lovely day.
Day 45: Sat staring at The Twilight light show, so pretty… so stoned.
Day 46: Met an astronaut, was outta this world 😉
Day 47: Went to the rodeo and was a big boy and didn’t scream once on the giant Ferris wheel.
Day 48: The San Antonio river walk and ice cream, I’ve gone full tourist.
Day 49: Discovered the joy of Rainy Street and a black saison.
Day 50: Got my hair cut in an America barbershop. It’s exactly how it is in the films.

Day 51: East side pub crawl with comedy and drunken spelling bee.
Day 52: First baseball game and a Free ticket to AWAOLNATION with the Austin city panda. (long story)
Day 53: Got high on Texan grass and watched the coverfield paradox with the locals.
Day 54: Drove through the dessert in a car with no name.
Day 55: Climbed a motherfucking mountain y’all.
Day 56: Got in a gun fight in a ghost town.
Day 57: Bison makes and amazing burger.
Day 58: Started burning to a crisp on the white sand dunes of new Mexico, ended in a crematorium themed cocktail bar in Tuscon.
Day 59: Got stoned with new age polyamorus hippies… And there was an underwater bar in the desert.
Day 60: Went to a air space museum and heard a WW2 pilot talk about his experience flying.

Day 61: Drive through Sedona, the mountains and several clouds. Best drive ever.
Day 62: Went to the horse shoe bend at the Colorado river. Never been more terrified of any height more in my entire life.
Day 63: Day at the grand canyon, view is impossible to beat.
Day 64: Went to the hoover dam. Only got searched by the police twice.
Day 65: Ferris Bueller’d around Chicago art Gallery
Day 66: Crashed an Engagement party in a drag show bar… As you do.
Day 67: St.Paddy’s Day; green river, green beer, green clovers… Completely fucked.
Day 68: Finally got a deep-dish pizza, only took the Belgian guy 3 hours to find the restaurant.
Day 69: Hit the blackjack table, broke even, made 20 dollars then ran.
Day 70: Got stoned at Fire Valley with an Italian and a Spaniard before driving down the Vegas strip.

Day 71: Lost 70 dollars on the blackjack after at one point being 195 dollars up.
Day 72: The Belagio water show signed Vegas off with ‘Time to say goodbye’… Manly tears.
Day 73: Drank on La Jolla beach with stereotypical marines.Only got in one fight. Classy as fuck.
Day 74: Was going to go to a legal weed dispensary, but then I got high.
Day 75: Ate my weight in exotic Mexican tacos, munchies may have been involved.
Day 76: Cycled across mission bay, didn’t crash, success.
Day 77: Rode a mechanical bull, won a drink and lost my dignity.
Day 78: Finally got to the end of route 66.
Day 79: Saw a blue moon from Griffiths Observatory Telescope.
Day 80: Danced the night away in Santa Barbra’s premium Irish jazz bar.

Day 81: Drove the Pacific highway with a Dutch bowling ally DJ shotgun.
Day 82: Walked across the golden gate bridge,Attacked by a giant seagull, like a boss
Day 83: Walked the most crooked and steepest streets in San Francisco, my fucking legs…
Day 84: Earned the Tourist medal on the street car: “Don’t lean out the car, you’ll die”
Day 85: Drank in a historical gay bar with a ginger.
Day 86: Found the murder spots of the Zodiac killer… Can’t stop singing The Hurdy Gurdy Man
Day 87: 80% sure I drunkenly danced to Brittney Spears mid oddly British pub-crawl
Day 88: Alcatraz isn’t best toured so hungover you may die… The ferry was a bad choice
Day 89: Sex on the piano. That is all
Day 90: Goodbye America, Perry has left the building….

 

-till next time…

Brewdog: Curriculum Vitae

Back in 2016 I applied for an internship at Brewdog. Anyone who knows me knows I love beer, and the designer in me has always loved their branding and marketing (which I used as my CIM case study the same year.) So when I saw this position open I threw my all into it.

Brewdog Mood Board

Using the Brewdog brand as an inspiration, especially the Hop propaganda (which should have been called Hopaganda) magazine and beer labels. Using their fonts, colour scheme and overall feel, I applied my particular brand of humour and submitting my new and improved CV:

Second part of the application was a presentation, while I’ve not uploaded the entire slideshow, I’ve included what I thought at the time were the funny slides:

 

This slideshow requires JavaScript.

 

Finally there was a video task. It consisted of an interview with a friend and had to be 30 seconds long. Naturally I enlisted SX:TV alumni and fellow Brewdog lover Daniel E. Wright to help me out:

And that was that. While I obviously didn’t get the job, I got down to the final 10 and was invited up to the Brewery in Ellon for a day with the other candidates. For me, this was the moment Willy Wonka opens the doors, it was a world of pure imagination. I still love Bewdog and if anyone there happens to be reading this and has a job going let me know.

Student Elections: Campaign Material

As Facebook’s time hop feature informs me; It’s Student election season, so for a trip down memory lane I thought is preserve my ill-fated campaign material on this design blog.

As well as the digital artwork students were allowed to print various leaflets to hand out on campus. I did 4 variants based on different aspects of my manifesto:

And like all loosers of a sabbatical election, I went for
Re using the same/similar designs I ran for the Marketing Officer of NaSTA (National Student Television Association)

This election I won against a formidably ginger opponent from Nottingham and I went on to become the longest serving exec member in NaSTA History*. A full breakdown of the artwork I did while serving as the Marketing Officer can be found under:‘NaSTA: Designs and Campaigns’

 

*Longest serving in a single position for 2 and 1/3 terms.  

#WhyWeLoveGerard

In July this year, Gerard had an accident that changed his life. After diving into a shallow lake in Sweden and hitting his head, he fractured his spine. Following emergency surgery, Gerard was flown back to the UK and is currently undergoing rehabilitation for his C5 tetraplegia.

So on December 17th Matthew (Gerard’s Brother), Giedrė and Hollie decided to raise money by doing a Coastal Half Marathon in Portsmouth. Matt asked for a few T-shirts with the hashtag #WhyWeLoveGerard so I gave him a few options:

Matt didn’t really have a brief apart from the green, so he let me have free reign. I thought giving him a few simple options would be easier for him, so the 1st design is based on the cover photo that appears on his just giving page, albeit jazzed up. The second is a (probably over designed) stylised font and the third is a simple bold text with quotes taken from the #WhyWeLoveGerard video. If I had more time I would have got them to hand write their quotes and vector them individually but we had a tight deadline due to the marathon. The third design was chose and they were printed in time:

If you want to know why they’d happily run 13 miles in the middle of winter by the sea, and/or want to donate here’s the link: https://www.justgiving.com/crowdfunding/we-love-gerard-murphy

The Workshop Warehouse

 

Facebook Cover photo

The Workshop Warehouse is a whole sale distributor of workshop consumables and tools, selling mainly to mobile sales men and distributors based around the UK with some overseas business. I joined them in January 2017, just after new years day, and after the resignation of their designer in march I began to take on some design responsibilities. The following is a small example of the work I did. I’ve chosen to showcase these designs as they are aimed at a more corporate audience than I have previously shown.

Flyers & Retail Posters

E-shots, and target mail campaigns are still a large part of this business. Together with producing flyers for distributors and end users a lot of design work is based around product promotion. These flyers, also adapted as posters for the retail area of the shop, were used across all depots.

Trade Show Banners

One major problem in planning multiple shows is that the existing banners were only set up for two industries; Automotive and industrial. Due to how difficult these banners were to set up, and how damaged they had become due to wear and tear I suggested four 1.5m pull up banners in stead; easier to transport, easier to set up and cheaper. Used at the Speedy 2017 show, these Four banners were designed, with a different base image depending on the target sectors:

These banners lack any branding due to the business’ nature of providing bespoke catalogues to customers. So in the event of trade shows to any of these specific customers, we cannot promote the Workshop brand and instead required an overview of products and services we offer. To compensate for the lack of branding, I commissioned a special foam board sign which can be hand on wires or attached to a table with Velcro. Two signs, one 11500 x 2000mm and the larger 1875 x 250mm can be seen below, in addition to a generic pull up banner featuring a product silhouette motif;

TV Screen

In all depots televisions are used to display products and special offers, here is a sample of the designs featured;

Compliment Slips

Compliment slips were a key way of informing customers of new catalogues, dates and services changes due to “lack of digital knowledge” among the customer base. As such many were designed and distributed throughout the year and included with invoices;

Bespoke Catalogue Covers 

Finally a large part of the business is centred around the catalogue. The catalogue, as well as being a “workshop warehouse” is customised to certain customers so they can sell directly from the catalogue.

 

Catalogue published Feb 2018

*All deals, offers, promotions and prices shown above are no longer valid. Please know that these date back to 2017 and were for a limited time only. Please do not try and claim any of them, because they will not be redeemable.

Quick logo Design: Eighth Wonder

In August 2016, I was put in touch with someone who needed a logo doing for a charity. The Eighth Wonder programme is aimed at 14-20 girls aimed at giving them both the confidence and skills to peruse a career is football. Charlotte, the founder of the programme, needed a Logo to go forward with the website and design, considering it was for a good cause I got to work.

At the start of the design process we discussed what ideas she had, and she put together a mood board on pinterest to give me a feel of what she was looking for.

Eighth Wonder Pinterest wall

Eighth Wonder Mood Board

From this board I took away a few things;

  • Pink / Purple pallet range, pastel or muted colours, with a c bold contrast
  • Font to be either bold or brushed (scribble like)
  • Angular or bold vector shape to be at the centre.

Working from these ideas and the name of the programme “Eight Wonder” I sent to the drawing board can came back with 6 designs, albeit with some overlap in consent. I wanted a stylised 8 to be the centre of the logo, but going from the pinterest board, it did have to have the words “eighth wonder” so various fonts were brought in, including one very ‘Will & Grace’ looking typeface.

Elements from these would go on to make the final logo. The font from Logos #2 and #8 was chosen as it was a bold, clear font, where as the number 8 from #4 was preferred. In terms of colour pallet, they were only purple due to my printer not being able to cope with lighter colours so it was agreed to shift them back to the more pinkish side of the spectrum. Finally the last piece of feedback was a request that is Incorporated a football or other sporting motif into it to give it more a sporty feel. The end result came out as the logo that is still in use today:

Eighth Wonder Programme Logo

If you would like to find out more about the Eighth Wonder Programme, you can find out more about them on their website Eighthwonderprogramme.co.uk or follow them on Facebook or Twitter