Latest Jam

  • Plugging health and safety

    Plugging health and safety

    Council’s have a reputation for plugging health and safety. We’re no different at Burnley and I’m currently mid-way through a set of posters highlighting the hazards of trips and slips and what have you. One of the posters will be about electrical safety, and this is a spare drawing from my initial concepts which doesn’t fit stylistically with the rest of the suite. I found it interesting none-the-less and have worked it up as another curio for gingerjam.

    As is often the case, I’m a little torn between the energy and texture of the original drawing and the flat polished look of the final illustrator file. There are those, including the wonderful AC Telfer, who would encourage me to paint, charcoal, or pastel my way to the final solution.

    Listen.

    When I was at college we had a print maker who was immaculate in dress, very well manicured and not a hair out of place. He wore pastel coloured jumpers, white shirts and lightly patterned ties. I was in awe of this man. I can’t even walk in a print room without getting covered in ink. I’m a very messy person. If someone hadn’t invented the apple mac I would never have made a single piece of print ready artwork that wasn’t covered in thumb prints, smudges and god knows what. So here we are, another tidy looking piece of artwork. God bless digital.

  • Burnley Visitor Guide 2013

    Burnley Visitor Guide 2013

    The Burnley Visitor Guide 2013 is one of the biggest print projects we work on at creative-council*. A style magazine as well as a tourism and what’s on guide, it has input from from many people and allowed me the opportunity to do some stuff that I wouldn’t normally do – like writing and getting out from behind my desk. For this year’s guide I have written, and ghost written, a couple of articles as well as photographing a wind surfing lesson at Rossendale Valley Sailing Club.

    I wrote Richard’s wind surfing article from his point of view, to give a first person account of the activity. Of course it should have been me taking the multiple dunkings, but he’s far more handsome/fool-hardy than I. We both hunted for a geo-cache for my/his next article, which was pretty good fun – find out more at www.geocaching.com.

    Outdoor elements was a collaborative affair, with myself and Claire Smyth videoing and Gary Smales taking photos, while an ensemble of young people took up the exciting challenges on offer. I spent rather a long time up a tree with a video camera and also used my iphone to film the point-of-view down the zip line.

    As for the rest of the magazine? It’s excellent, a real credit to everyone involved – especially MJ, who put so much effort into the design and art direction. Download the Burnley Visitor Guide 2013, or find out more about Burnley’s visitor attractions at visitburnley.com.

    * Burnley Council’s graphics unit, creative council is our online identity, which sounds a bit more snappy doesn’t it?

  • Sneaky Peeky

    Sneaky Peeky

    I started work on a series of illustrated posters last summer that, for one good reason or another, have yet to see the light of day. I’ve been anxious to post them here for ages, but have been waiting for them to be finished first.

    this job isn't complete yet - ssssh!
    this job isn’t complete yet – ssssh!

    The posters will highlight security precautions we should take at the council, especially with regard to IT systems. Like not leaving laptops on trains. The finished designs are reminiscent of government information posters from the second world war, with one in particular paying homage to Abram Games‘ classic Careless Talk Costs Lives. I had the pleasure of attending a lecture by Mr Games while at college in Swansea. Like most things I did as a student, my memory is pretty hazy. Which is a shocking waste, go take a look at his work, he was a genius. I was an idiot.

    Can’t wait any more… Here’s a sneaky peeky.

    And if you’re at all interested in anything else I get up to at work, take a look at creative-council.net, our newly revamped portfolio site.

  • Shooting websites

    Shooting websites

    Sometimes we do the oddest things, and today I have been shooting websites. We’re refreshing our online presence at work and as part of that we’re photographing our work rather than just having flat screen shots or pdfs. So even if the job is, by definition, flat we’ll try and photograph it to “bring it to life”. This main shot is of the new carnegie theatre website. We’ve designed them a whole new front end and a content management system to help promote the latest acts and goings on at this historic cumbrian theatre. If you look closely, you can see the pixels…