Friday 19 April 2013

Monday 15 April 2013

Manchester Bombing 15/06/96 Police Helicopter Camera Footage...

I will be presenting an overview of this bombing, as part of a full new presentation of my MB150696 through to CHCH220211 project to my Peers at Yoobee School of Design in May (up in Auckland) and a 2nd presentation in June (here in CHCH)

More details to follow in the coming days and weeks...

Saturday 13 April 2013

TYPOGRAPHY V1 - The Mancunian Alphabet continues on...

Posted in the last 24 hours, and continuing in the coming months, with a new website to follow! TYPOGRAPHY V1 - The Mancunian Alphabet continues... a project on @Behance http://lnkd.in/fWw-Da Work still continues...


Monday 1 April 2013

Building A Creative Community - Post Earthquake | Artbox Doodle Art

http://bit.ly/10d58xI Tuesday 2nd April 2013. Second additional development of the Doodle project. I have expanded a couple of the areas to focus. Full details on the Behance project link.




Friday 8 March 2013

CHCH220213 New Creative Development Part 3...

New work for my CHCH220213 ongoing project, now focusing on the CHCH185, the number of people who tragically lost their lives during the 2nd Earthquake 




Thursday 28 February 2013

CHCH220213 New Creative Development Part 2...

http://bit.ly/u8vqOJ My latest development work on this project, now post Anniversary. I have started to explore other Typographic aspects of the 'Visual Timeline', and the events. Officially the City is now in Rebuild, after the last 2 years of Demolition which have taken place, totally altering the look of the CBD and City in general.



 

Monday 18 February 2013

CHCH220213 New Creative Development...

http://bit.ly/u8vqOJ My latest development work on this project in advance of the 2nd Anniversary of the 2nd Earthquake to hit Christchurch, the 4th image shown is the lead Image for the new development in conjunction with the Artbox Project...



Saturday 9 February 2013

From the PG Archive - Joy Division article August 2007 - Updated

Article published originally on the Joy Division.Org Fan Website, details of which were feature in the Movie 'Joy Division' of which the DVD came out in 2008. I was contacted by the production company in 2007 who were responsible for putting the film together, and was given a credit at the end of the movie.

My original article is on this link, http://www.joydiv.org/c080480.htm

The timing at the time of posting was very spooky. I had just finished writing this piece+uploading the poster and materials, I had done for their gig in 1980 at The Derby Hall in Bury, when on the news it was announced Tony Wilson had died, my article included some details of my first meeting with him on that night (we did meet up a couple of times in the following years)

I designed the poster+ for the JD gig in Bury back in the early 80's while I was at college, and the story of how a near riot started when they only played 2 songs (with Ian Curtis) and then left the stage. This was later requested by the production company, and has in the following years been viewed on the net.

The pages are http://www.joydiv.org/c080480.htm and the front page http://www.joydiv.org the spooky bit is that the listing on the front page has both the news of Tony's death above my piece!

All materials shown on this posting connected with the event were design by me, and are covered by my Copyright. 






My original article as published in August 2007.

Peter Godkin was on the Gigs organising committee. He designed the tickets and poster for the concert at The Derby Hall. Here's what he said when he contacted us in 2007:

"My name is Peter Godkin, and I was originally on the organising committee with Adrian Mealing, we started and ran Gigs, the weekly local venue for bands in Central Bury in the early 80's, I was responsible, for Publicity and Marketing at Gigs, while I was at college. My reason for getting in touch is that a friend of mine from that time who has been in touch again, sent me the url for your site and sent me the jpegs of the ticket, I designed, after I had mentioned that during a clear out of my parents loft, I found this original poster also designed of the JD gig at The Derby Hall back in 1980, and I wondered if you would like a copy for your site?

It is interesting to read the accounts from people who attended that night, most of which I recall happened that way, but in some cases, a few details are missing. I read Mark Burgess's account [see above] with interest, and I quote 

"Here's how Mark Burgess (of The Chameleons) remembered the gig in an email to Nick Blakey in 2002: "It's funny actually amongst the many other things I'm doing presently, I'm working on a book about my life and experiences with the band and I've just got through drafting a part that relates to when Dave and I went to see Joy Division in 1980 and support that night was Sector 25 and A Certain Ratio; When JD came out Curtis was absent and his place was taken by the singer from Crispy Ambulance, who pretended to be Curtis for most of the set and seemed to have most of the kids there fooled, until finally he left the stage and Curtis came on to do two songs, the gig ended and there was absolute pandemonium."

As I said it is interesting to hear these accounts, I corresponded with both Mark and Dave a lot, when at the time they were with an earlier band 'The Clichés', and in fact we often chatted, I was designing record covers and posters for them, as they attended a lot of the Gigs in the early days, before they went off to form 'The Chameleons' However there was one thing Mark left out, which was we were stood together at the time, just as JD with Ian finished the second song and left the stage, yes some idiot did throw a pint pot at the stage, and the next thing I knew a roadie was beating the shit out of some guy near the front of the stage. I thought oh shit!

I immediately went to the side stage curtain and back to the side of the stage mainly to find out what had happened, to find Tony Wilson hiding under a table there, next thing I know he was shouting at me "To get the F**K out there and sort things out!' I shouted back "You have got to be kidding!" I vividly remember looking at the stage to see a hail of bottles, glasses and broken glass from the theatre/hall lights raining down on the stage, and thought NO F*****G WAY MATIE. I did hear Peter Hook shouting from the dressing room, and then Tony disappeared. I went back out beyond the curtain into the hall, to then come upon this surreal scene of Adrian, trying to calmly break up two blokes who were trying to tear each other apart, with everyone standing around looking on stunned.

For years I have always remembered that JD played just 2 numbers with Ian Curtis, and yes there was something strange going on with the line up before this. Right up to an hour before the gig, we were not sure if it would go ahead, as news had filtered through during the day, that Ian had been in hospital again, we thought it might get cancelled, but kept our fingers crossed. In addition we were only supposed to have 400 people in the hall, yet the final count put the number at nearly 600, as a lot of people somehow got in by the emergency exit, despite our best efforts.

Also Tony Wilson will never remember this but at the end of the night as we were still clearing up and people giving statements to the Police, I stopped one of our regulars Andy from decking him, after he came out with "They certainly don't know how to enjoy themselves up here in Bury" he thought he was being very funny. As a result we were closed down for a month by the Derby Halls Trustees, and after that ended up with a number of restrictions, it never really was the same again after that night".

I hope to have this article and a number of other articles published as part of my current book project...

Monday 4 February 2013

New QR Code for direct link to my Behance Profile


Thinking about Icons of Graphic Design from the last 40 years… Part 1

During a spare hour in between design work...

I just had a think and a little look around the net this afternoon, after a discussion on Iconic Graphic Design work form the last 40 years, and have found this selection for an initial review of thoughts, which brought back to mind some very creative work and ground breaking at the time. 

See what you think as I have covered Corp ID with Blue Chip Brands, Transport Signage, Typography, Advertising and Packaging Agencies. So starting off with...

1. An overview of 6 Corp ID designs including Mobil, Chase Manhattan Bank. Before and After...


2. The London Underground Map (150 years old)


3. The New York subway Map. Good Debate on how the different versions of the map, have worked or not worked and Vignelli giving his thoughts from a miffed perspective?...


Part 2 to follow...


The second part of this analysis…

4. BP Branding...

http://www.bp.com/sectiongenericarticle.do?categoryId=9014508&contentId=7027677 or this http://www.famouslogos.us/bp-logo/ seen as Big Petrochemical trying to be 'World Peace and nice?'

5. 80's agencies…

Pentagram, especially the work of Alan Fletcher or David Hillman and their Typography. Minale Tattersfield, or Wolf Olins (possible Wally Olins) his books especially 'On Brand' analysis of how brands develop, has examples like BP, Coca Cola etc.

Also Ogilvy & Mather specially their relaunch of Guinness in the mid 80's and the 'Pure Genius Campaign… I found this link on Youtube, which has a continuous link to over 100 TV ads… Their work was seen as groundbreaking in the mid 80's and for the next 10+ years putting Guinness firmly back on the map...


6. 80's Packaging Agencies and Branding… Jones Knowles Richie, Blackburns, Turner Duckworth and Landor. Agencies here rather than Brand examples, but this could lead to that direction?...

7. And finally. One from Manchester (well had to be included) Peter Saville, this link from an article in the Guardian…
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/gallery/2011/may/29/joydivision-neworder follows his work for Factory and Tony Wilson. But a more detailed study of his 80's and early 90's work maybe the way to go?

Further thoughts to follow with visuals...

Saturday 5 January 2013

1st Posting of the New Year - Abram Games, Graphic Designer 1914 - 1996


 Excerpts taken from the Design Museum's page dedicated to the Artist...


Maximum Meaning, Minimum MeansDesign Museum Touring Exhibition.

Some of the most memorable graphic images of mid-20th century Britain were the work of the designer ABRAM GAMES (1914-1996). As an Official War Artist during World War II, he designed over a hundred posters and later created the symbols of the BBC and the Festival of Britain.

For many Britons in the 1950s the image of Britannia festooned with red, white and blue bunting was as – if not more – evocative of the Festival of Britain and its 'can do' spirit than any of the marvels of post-war British manufacturing that they had seen when visiting the festival on London's South Bank.

Britannia and her bunting – like the poster of the "blonde bombshell", an alluringly pretty ATS girl who had urged her compatriots to join up during World War II – was the work of Abram Games. In the austere visual culture of wartime and post-war Britain, his work was unmissable. Bold, vigorous and often gently humorous, Abram Games' graphic art was the work of a gifted draughtsman with a flair for devising inventive combinations of text and image.