Selected logos from the last few years.

Brand identity, custom typography and promotional print and digital assets for indie Manchester based Yoga studio run by former Haçienda DJ Matt Ryan. The brief was to create a yoga brand that didn’t look like a yoga brand and felt more like a club night. Photography by Annie Feng. Motion work by Will Albin-Clark.

Logo/brand refresh and promo poster work for Death Jazz band Vile Imbeciles. New LP on the way; more to come soon…

Vinyl record design work for the second Primitive Ignorant LP “Psychic Cinema”. Cover photography by Steve Gullick. The first 100 copies bought come with an exclusive golden ticket that gives you access to demos and b-sides.

Available to purchase here or from all your favourite record stores.

Vinyl, CD and cassette design for the debut Schnallo LP “White Fluffy”. CD edition is full colour litho with three colour Pantone screen printed on-body label. Photography by Liz Bretz.

New repress of The KVB debut LP ‘Always Then’. Exclusively released through Unlimited Dream Records this edition is pressed on frosted clear vinyl using a new colourway with purple metallic Pantones that reference the palette from the original release.

It’s only available to purchase directly from the band here:
https://thekvb.bandcamp.com/album/always-then

Design and art direction for The KVB's new LP ‘Tremors’. Fluoro Pantone Red/Orange and CMYK throughout with x2 fluoro lyric inserts. 3D renders by Kat Day. Two editions are available; an Invada Records exclusive red/orange swirl edition and a KVB tour edition with black/grey splatter vinyl.

Poster design work for The KVB’s upcoming European 2024 tour in support of their new LP ‘Tremors’.

Unused poster/promo design work for singer/songwriter MYTBE.

D+AD for the Saccades LP ‘Land of the Hearth.’ Released through Old World New World Records. Limited edition transparent blue vinyl with a special signed art card insert.

Tour poster design work for The KVB’s 2023 Asian mini-tour.

Old work! Unused 12” vinyl EP ideas for early noughties Manchester grunge band NO ’ARM. Band split up before anything went into production from what we remember…

Vinyl and digipak design for The KVB covers album ‘Artefacts’. A brand new LP of dark wave cover versions of foundational psychedelic freakouts. Released exclusively through Cleopatra Records in LA. Cover image by The KVB.

Trailer work for The Eighties Matchbox B-Line Disaster. A visual collaboration with Will Albin-Clark for the 20th anniversary vinyl re-issue of their debut album ‘Horse Of The Dog’. Released through No Death Records.

Design and art direction for the upcoming debut LP from Dahlia Sleeps. Photography by Tom Johnson. A real passion project for us this one. Available through all you favourite music platforms. Physicals available through the band’s Bandcamp page. Released through Ferryhouse Records… And no it’s not Helvetica.

Design & art direction for The KVB album ‘Unity’. Pressed on blue/grey marble vinyl with printed inner sleeve. Cover image by Kat Day. Vinyl and Digipak versions available now over at the Invada Records webstore.

Deluxe 12” books that were exclusively available with limited editions of The KVB album ‘Unity’. Single colour Pantone throughout onto uncoated stock. Sadly all sold out! Printed by Galloways.

Cover designs for the Unity Remixes EP and singles. All released through Invada Records.

Tees for The KVB. Were exclusively available on their Unity US West Coast tour. White screenprint onto navy tees.

Poster design work for Sarah Walk for her first ever US tour that took place in April and May 2022.

Design and art direction for the 2021 vinyl reissue of The KVB’s LP ‘Minus One’, originally pressed in 2013. Officially released via ‘A Recordings Ltd’ and pressed onto 180g heavyweight black vinyl.

D+AD for The KVB LP ‘The Early Tapes’. Pressed on marbled smoke vinyl and limited to 300 copies. A compilation album featuring selected tracks from 3 of their early demo tape releases; 'The Black Sun', 'Subjection/Subordination' & 'The KVB' all of which were originally released in 2010 & 2011.

This is the first time any of these tracks have been pressed on an official The KVB vinyl. The ruled system that houses the tracklist is derived from an old TDK D90 cassette J-Card insert for all our fellow nerds out there!

Photography by Jakub Koncir. Released through Unlimited Dream Records. SOLD OUT.

Cover designs for Poppy Ackroyd’s three single releases in 2022. Released through One Little Indie Records.

D+AD for Sarah Walk’s LP ‘Another Me’. Full colour litho with folded printed inserts. Available now through One Little Indie Records in vinyl and digipak formats.

EP and single cover designs for Sarah Walk. Released through One Little Indie Records.

D+AD work for Temple Of Youth’s EP ‘Nightswim’. Art by Kazland.

D+AD for The KVB’s live LP ‘Live at La Cigale’. Recorded at their recent gig in Paris this is a single pressing release on silver vinyl. SOLD OUT.

12” and digipak re-issue editions of The KVB album ‘Always Then’. Blue tint metallic with black overprints and machine varnish throughout both editions. Photography by band member Kat Day.

Released via Invada Records.

Design + art direction for Temple Of Youth’s EP ‘Darker Places’. Vinyl style gatefold, full colour litho, Pantone fluro pink and white screenprinted disc.

Branding and promo design work for the band ‘Feral Love’.

Vinyl packaging design + art direction for The KVB EP ‘Fixation/White Walls’. Full colour litho, stickered jacket with transparent red and black splatter 12" vinyl + 12"x12" lithograph art print insert.

Released through Invada Records.

Unused fly poster design work for Flo & Joan’s excellent recent Edinburgh Fringe shows. Hopefully we’ll get to work on something else with them in the very near future.

Branding, vinyl record and promo poster design work for singer/songwriter Frankie Forman.

Branding and website interface design for music management company ‘It’s Never Simple’.

Vinyl packaging design for the Dahlia Sleeps EP ‘Love, Lost’. Photography by Lea L’Attentive, design + art direction by us. Printed reverse board with single colour black inner lyrics sleeve. Milky transparent vinyl.

Released through Beatnik.

Flexible branding system, large format posters and branded merchandise for Canadian duo MILK+BONE.

Design and art direction for MILK+BONE’S limited Edition 12" EP. Spot gloss UV onto matt black cover, Pantone neon 805C inner sleeve, black vinyl.

Released via Costume Records Canada.

Vinyl and digipak design work for The KVB album ‘Only Now Forever’. Limited edition splatter vinyl, two disc deluxe gatefold, peach/copper metallic inks throughout.

Released through Invada Records.

Large format tour poster design work for The KVB’s ‘Only Now Forever’ US tour.

Design and art direction for the debut album ‘Dream Underground’ from rock band Piano Wire. Vinyl LP and digipak editions. Paint by Jude Wainwright.

Released through Hanging House Records.

Gatefold EP's, stickers and poster inserts for rock band 'Silverchild'. Fully metalised disc to get the most shiny shiny + metallic silver stickers.

Released independently.

Design and art direction for The KVB EP ‘Submersion’. Exclusively available to buy on their North American tour. Purple metallic inks throughout.

Released through Invada Records.

Vinyl and digipak editions of TUSKS’ second album. Deluxe gatefold with printed matt inner sleeve. Available now at: http://www.tusks.eu/

Released through One Little Indie Records.

Large format tour poster design work for TUSKS’ recent UK headline tour.

EP packaging, large format tour posters and various promo design for singer/songwriter Violet Skies.

Branding and print promo materials for the Accumulations group who are a collective of four artists working primarily in movement, dance and performance.

Precarious Assembly was a collection of live performances by numerous collaborating artists throughout the Whitworth Art Gallery. Promotional guides/brochures for this event were produced using varied print elements which were then all assembled by hand.

All items were printed by Evolution Print in Sheffield and our good pal EE Chrisp onto various GF Smith papers.

We were asked to produce an invite/flyer for a two-way art exhibition between Manchester and Liverpool with shows at both The Royal Standard, Liverpool and Rogue Studios, Manchester. It's incredibly easy to get from Manchester to Liverpool and vice versa via train so it seemed like a cool idea to base the flyer on this theme. Designed as a return train ticket and printed in neon Pantone 805 and black with a perforation down the centre.

Identity and print promo items for the innovative and thought-provoking exhibition ‘Artefacts & Experiences’ at Manchester Central Library. The exhibition explored the spaces where art, medicine, health, and technology meet. Collaboratively curated by The Museum of Medicine and Health and Anatomy Projects, the exhibition contained selected artefacts from the University of Manchester’s Medicine and Health collections.

Flyers were letterpressed in black onto manilla artefact tags; exhibition catalogues were printed single colour black litho onto bible stock with letterpressed black covers on GF Smith China White Colorplan.

We designed and art directed end titles for an experimental film by multimedia artist Dave Griffiths. Originally there were going to be opening titles as well, but the main title appearing on the last shot of the film was preferred by the director. This then runs straight into the end credits sequence. Babel Fiche is a crowd sourced film that collects and remixes video footage from online contributors in order to tell its own mini-narrative. The full film and end sequence was scored by 808 State’s Graham Massey. Technical fangle dangle by Beed at OWT Creative. The new version, with end titles, is going to be doing the rounds at the film festivals this year.

You can see the current full version of the film here.

We were asked by filmmakers and interactive media company “Bellyfeel” to design their identity and branding. The word “Bellyfeel” comes from George Orwell’s classic book “1984” and means “a gut feeling”. Consequently we designed a lovely cap “B” with a little bit of a gut. We also produced business cards, comps and letterheads which were all letterpressed in a mix of Silver and Pantone Process Blue on matt boards and uncoated papers.

Identity system for independent craft ale shop based in East Manchester. Print items so far include rubber stamps and die-cut beermat flyers. We also revamped the external signage. Beermats were letterpressed in black on both sides.

Upcoming design work for Browton’s includes bespoke ale glasses, labels, bags and a limited run of ale related T-Shirt designs. More stuff to come very soon...

New work for our friends Browton's Bottle Shop in East Manchester. Playing card style business cards and swing tags for a limited edition one-off Browton's Brew called 'Pike's Shadow'.

Cards and labels were letterpressed in silver and gold onto GF Smith Black Plike. Pike's Shadow was brewed by the super Beer Nouveau.

We were kindly asked by the lovely peeps at The Designers Republic™ to contribute a piece of work for a new print project they were working on. They were producing a book celebrating the fifth birthday of super Sheffield based Evolution Print. It also coincided with the 25th birthday of TDR™.

We were asked the question “What does five mean to you?” and were told to respond visually. We were also asked to write 25 words to accompany the visual piece. That was it. Naturally we produced something Star Wars™ related, more specifically referencing Episode 5 in the series and without a doubt the best of all the films... The Empire Strikes Back™. Our 25 words were: “Episode V — THE EMPIRE STRIKES BACK.

Easily the best of the series. It's also the one where Vader kills Mr. Bronson from television's Grange Hill.”

Our response was featured alongside a host of other contributors such as Erik Spiekermann, Hamish Muir, Jarvis Cocker, Neville Brody, Vaughan Oliver, Vince Frost and lots of others so we were ‘reyt chuffed' to be alongside such wonderful people.

Here's what Ian Anderson of TDR™ had to say about A Bunch Of Fives:

“This is a book by The Designers Republic™ for Evolution Print's 5th Birthday full of creative responses, collabs & conversations from friends, fellow travellers & co-conspirators.”

Limited edition of 500™.

We were asked by an independent clothing boutique, situated in the heart of Manchester's “Afflecks Palace”, for a new identity to promote the wide range of funky Japanese products that they sell. We produced a zingy, new logo for the boutique as well as business cards and flyers all with a fat and funky bubblegum feel.

Print collateral for the Commentary project that our friends OWT created in 2015. Items included invites for both the German and English exhibition legs, posters, programmes and internal vinyl signage. Invites were letterpressed onto beermat board; posters and programmes were risographed in neon pink and teal onto Park Green GF Smith Colorplan papers.

Contributors to the exhibitions in both Germany and the UK, who designed large format one-off football flags, included such studios as KesselsKramer, The Designers Republic™ and Hort.

Commentary was a National Football Museum project funded by Arts Council England and supported by MIRIAD Design Research at Manchester School of Art. Commentary explored the interplay between football and design.

'Subs Board' typeface designed by Jonathan Hitchen.
 

Our friend, artist and researcher Karen Gaskill was curating an exhibition called “Constellations” at the Cornerhouse Gallery and asked us to get involved with designing and promoting it. The exhibition and all the works in it were based around the theme of “organic groupings”. The type arrangement and organisation that we created reflected this theme. 

We created electronic mailers, flyers, large format posters and gallery guides as well as a whole host of internal and external signage. Flyers were printed in metallic blue and silver both sides onto 350gsm matt. Gallery guide was concertina folded and printed full colour litho + Pantone Metallic Bronze throughout onto 350gsm silk.

Blimey, this is a bit of a blast from the past, we found this while sorting out our work archive! Front cover typo design and lead article inner page typo construction for the original printed version of Creative Times. This was Issue 6 from way back in 2007. Creative Times now exists purely online. Printed full colour litho onto newsprint with a mixture of standard black and rich black combinations. The only thing we weren’t allow to do was change the existing masthead on the front cover. Oh well, the website masthead is a lot nicer these days!

Being the massive film buffs that we are we fancied putting together a poster series of some our favourite films and well you can't really beat an Evil Dead quote can you? A2 size celebrating cult movie quotes from various decades. Screenprinted in two and three colours. Part of a total series of 10, when we actually get some time to print them!

The first printed installment in our Cult Quotes A2 movie poster series — the rather super Shane Meadow's film ‘Dead Man's Shoes’. Screenprinted by bearded wonder SAVWO, the finished A2 posters are overprinted in three military camo colours. They’re also extremely limited to a numbered edition of x25. So limited that there are actually none left.

Actor Paddy Considine, who played the main character Richard, asked us for a couple of printed copies, so we were glad to oblige.

The folks from the Manchester Print Fair asked us to design a Brazil themed World Cup poster for their ‘Design Derby’ event at the National Footy Museum. We wanted to do something that celebrated the energy, language and passion of the Brazilian football fans themselves rather than any teams or players (which is what usually gets done). We provided a few design options and then let the footy museum choose their favourite.

The final poster was displayed large scale at the museum during the ‘Design Derby’ event.

A Form & Glory version is now available to buy in A4 — A0 sizes here.

Good old Mr Chrisp is not only a rather close chum of ours, but also a rather spiffing old school letterpress printer so we helped him out by creating a new identity for him, with various items of print. 

Thankyou cards are letterpressed in black on a variety of coloured and textured stocks. A3 posters are lithoed in black on white and pastel green uncoated papers. Both promo items utilise Mr Chrisp’s unique and distinct use of the English language.

We also sorted him out with new business cards and coffee coasters. The Chrisp empire is now expanding into foil blocking as well, so he was insistent that we gave the new machine a whirl. Foiled in bronze metallic foil on the fronts and letterpressed in gunmetal on the backs onto heavy duty uncoated board.

New website design and update for letterpress studio E.E. Chrisp. It was time that we spruced up Mr Chrisp’s online presence this year so a selection of large format, beautiful studio detail shots by photographer Gemma McKay were the perfect remedy.

Being quite ‘old school’, Mr Chrisp still wanted to keep his long-standing email address. One day we'll persuade him to update that... One day...

E.E. Chrisp website...

New promo print items for our mate Mr Chrisp, who still refuses to change his really old email address. Postcards letterpressed onto heavy duty beermat board; posters lithoed onto uncoated stock. Both printed in-house at Mr Chrispy's gaff.

Part 1 of our Giggs “Double” for Form & Glory. Originally designed for the Glory Glory 2013 project, contributors were asked to design an A1 typographic poster based on a football chant of their choice — they could use as little or as much of the chant as they wanted.

We chose one of our favourite MUFC Anti-Patrick Vieira chants that began after the 1999 FA Cup Semi-Final replay between Arsenal and Manchester United. The game was the scene of one of the greatest solo goals in FA Cup history, scored by the rather hairy chested Ryan Giggs. The typography of the chant follows the route that Giggs took to goal and all graphic details were created using typographic characters.

“Vieira woah-oh! Vieira woah-oh! He gave Giggsy the ball. And Arsenal Won Fuck All!” Lovely.

Final posters are fine art Giclee prints on 230gsm matt bond paper stock. Available now as A0, A1 or A2 prints here.

Part two of our Ryan Giggs “Double” for Form & Glory. We went through an arduous process of printing, tearing and resticking numerous prints then reshooting them for the final design. Frankly, we could have just sliced the design up in Adobe Illustrator using the knife tool, but that would've been far too easy and well, let's be honest, it would've felt like cheating. Final posters are A2 portrait, fine art Giclee prints on 230gsm matt bond paper stock. Available now here.

1/2 A4 invite, folding programme and internal wall vinyl for multimedia exhibition curated by arts collective “Interval”. The exhibition itself showcased multimedia work that had been created using two screens side by side, so our idea was to represent the idea of duality, or two things running side by side, in the design of the items. Both the invite and the programme were based around a centreline and offset slightly. Even the colour choice followed suit — when you mix the two colours from the programme they result in the colour used on the invite.

Invites were letterpressed in a mix of neon Pantone 812 and Silver on heavy duty box board. Programmes were printed in Gunmetal and neon Pantone 812.

Gemma McKay is a Manchester based photographer who specialises primarily in landscapes and exteriors. We were asked to design and originate an identity, business cards and promo image cards. Business cards are letterpressed in a deep green metallic on luxury silk board. Promo cards come in two sets of six and act as mini portfolios with a selection of Gemma’s photography on the reverse.

Our third project with performance artist Dani Abulhawa. As with previous projects with Dani we limited things to a black palette. A4 inserts were produced documenting her performance interactions with two different people in two different locations and provided a record of activities for each of the encounters.

Copies of both inserts were then housed in black envelopes and letterpressed in silver. The inserts themselves were digitally printed on an HP Indigo press; the rich black was achieved by double-hitting the black areas onto thick uncoated stock.

Litho plate flyers for a multimedia exhibition curated by arts collective “Interval” in Manchester. The exhibition dealt with the theme of temporary light and all the works in the exhibition were self-lit. Rather than go down the usual route of printing something we thought it would be more appropriate to expose some litho plates and cut them up. We exposed the design image and then plates were guillotined down to 1/3 A4 flyer size.

Not only was it something that felt completely different from the norm, it went hand in hand with the concept of the exhibition. The exposed image came out silver on the plate, but then started to fade back to nothing after around 3 months time which reinforced the idea of temporary light. Expensive, but it got the message across.

Business cards and postcards for Manchester based arts collective “Interval”. Our mission with anything to do with Interval is to use old school production and reference points and to do something different with them, putting them in a new context. We started this with Interval's initial business card and postcard sets then followed that theme through to all subsequent exhibitions that Interval curated and hosted. 

Business cards were foiled in gold on the front, and foiled varnish (no ink) on the reverse. Foiled on recycled uncoated stock. Postcards were foiled on greyboard with metallic cyan foil on the front, and black, gloss foil on the back.

Judy is a successful musician/singer/songwriter and an exceptional illustrator. She's also a bit mad. Probably one of the reasons she enjoys working with us. We designed a clothing brand and a variety of print items using her original illustrations throughout. 

Promotional postcards were letterpressed in black on three different GF Smith Colorplan colours - Candy Pink, Sorbet Yellow and Powder Green. There are also a number of limited edition Neon Pink on Candy Pink ones too (for Judy to give to people that she likes). Posters litho’d in neon pink on bible stock. Business cards were letterpressed in black on thick, uncoated board.

Logo, large format tour posters and merch for our friends The KVB. The KVB are an electronic audio/visual duo from the UK, now based in Germany, consisting of Kat Day and Nicholas Wood and signed to Invada Records.

We've also just completed the design work on their new limited edition EP, due out on Invada May 19th...

Large format poster design work for The KVB's 2017 Swiss and UK tours. Photography by George Katsanakis.

The Lab is an independent record/art/design label. We were asked to design an identity and lots of lovely print items. Promo postcards make a cheeky reference to a song by The Village People in order to recruit members via The Lab website. We also designed and produced the first compilation CD release, business cards and a batch of A3 summer gig posters.

CD wallets were letterpressed in silver with neon red discs, business cards were letterpressed in Lab Green on Astrolite Monadock Smooth and gig posters were litho’d in neon red. Postcards had a gloss varnish applied to the front side. Sexy.

Self-promotion for our good selves. Our studio is made up of people from very different walks of life so our identity is based around the idea of different elements coming together to form a collective whole. Logo, business cards, promo poster, website and blog were all produced. Business cards were letterpressed in black on luxury matt board and beer mat board. The promotional poster was litho printed in neon red and silver. Mmmm... shiny.

We also created some special tea tokens which were sent out to various people and companies in order to start a dialogue with potential future clients. Recipients also got a free pot of tea out of us! They were letterpressed in black onto recycled, uncoated off-white stock in order to achieve that authentic old English feel.

Super new business cards for our good selves! Silver and black letterpress onto Dark Grey GF Smith Colorplan. Printed by our good friend Mr Chrisp at E.E. Chrisp Letterpress...

Our LOVE/HATE piece of work that originally appeared in OWT Zine #8 was given a revamp for the Manchester Print Fair and appeared as a limited two piece set of postcards. Letterpressed in black and red on greyboard, thick boxboard and extra thick uncoated board.

Unused tour poster designs for the rather ace DIY punk band 'The Lovely Eggs'. Never happened, but "FUCK IT", we still love the band!

Screen stills and animation tests (at the bottom) from live backing visuals for Manchester based electro band MAY68. We played with a vibrant colour system and a mixture of shape and type to create lively backing visuals for MAY68’s live shows. Repeat abstract patterns were created using the band's paper aeroplane motif as well as numbering experiments and slogans to express the energy of their music and live performances.

VIP invitations to the MCR School of Art ‘Visit Day Workshops’ for successful student applicants wanting to join the BA(Hons) Graphic Design degree. Riso'd in two colour combinations throughout — Neon Pink/Teal, Gold/Red and Neon Orange/Green onto Bright White GF Smith Colorplan. Invites were lovingly stickered and posted out in bright Fuchsia envelopes.

Invite fronts proudly display overprints of various members of the design staff (ourselves included), realised by a range of current students on the graphic design degree.

We have a real affection for movies so in our spare time (there isn’t much of that) we enjoy redesigning posters for films that we love. We already have an archive of “remixed” posters that we've designed over the last few years and we're gradually revisiting them. 

Part of a new series, our first batch contains ‘Moon’, ‘Deliverance’, ‘United 93’, ‘Night Of The Living Dead’, ‘The Thing’ and four part sets for both ‘Taxi Driver’ and ‘They Live’. (Each ‘Taxi Driver’ poster depicts one of the four handgun models that ‘Travis’ purchases from the illegal gun salesman ‘Easy Andy’.)

More films to follow soon...

We were asked to be a part of a new book from The Designers Republic™ designed and produced to celebrate Evolution Print's tenth birthday. The brief was simple — send your Top Ten of 'something' back to TDR™. We did our top ten favourite Sean Bean movie deaths.

Other contributors include Erik Spiekermann, Jessica Walsh, Erik Kessels, Neville Brody and a load of other ace people.

Limited copies are available (probably) here.
(Main piccies courtesy of TDR™.)

Flexible identity and print collateral for a new, independent Jazz school in the northwest — The Northern School of Jazz. We designed a new identity system, stationery set and flyers all with a cheeky little wink to the 60’s Blue Note era that we love so much. Business cards were letterpressed in gunmetal and burgundy on 700gsm Pristine White Colorplan. Comps and letterheads were litho’d in gunmetal/burgundy and promo flyers were litho’d in full colour both sides onto uncoated pulp board. There is a new website in the works as well... Niiiiiice.

Two page piece of work for the double issue of OWT Zine #8 — Love/Hate. We put an ironic spin on the appearance and usage of hearts for each page to represent the two different emotions. Screenprinted in black and red on Pristine White Colorplan.

We produced two pieces of work for the limited thirteenth and final issue of OWT. The first was a collaboration with Ian Anderson of The Designers Republic™. Ian wrote the intro, we designed his spreads, he was happy and so were we. The second piece was based around the issue’s theme of “Reprocess”. Zines were overprinted in two colours on a range of GF Smith Colorplan stocks.

Here's some more info about #13 from the guys at OWT:

“When we started OWT zine we agreed on a run of twelve issues. This is our thirteenth.

Commissioned by the Manchester School of Art and in collaboration with the Graphic Design team, Issue 13: Reprocess follows a different approach to usual. We not only focused on how work can satisfy a theme, but also, how it changes meaning when juxtaposed with a different creative’s work.

Submissions from the OWT back catalogue form a background layer of pre-existing themes, ready to be manipulated and reprocessed by new work. This changes the context and makes new interpretations while initiating serendipitous collaborations. GF Smith Colourplan and six-colour Riso printing help add further variables. No two zines in the run of 150 are the same.”

Buy it here!

Design promo work for the documentary film 'Poly Styrene: I Am A Cliché'.

Produced by Velvet Joy Productions and narrated by her daughter, Celeste Bell, the film examines the past through the lens of the present by revisiting pivotal moments and iconic spaces in Poly’s history, while at the same time raising awareness of the issues she struggled with - and rose above - throughout her life. It also explores Poly’s legendary anti-consumerist stance, and muses upon what she would make of the gentrification of her old stomping grounds and gig venues in London, Hastings and New York.

Some of this work was featured in the new extended edition of ‘The Art of Punk’ which is published by Schiffer and available to buy now.

Folding poster for a Swiss exhibition organised and curated by the Manchester arts collective “100th Monkey”. The Swiss connection gave us the opportunity to produce a piece of design work based around the clean, Swiss school sensibilities that we all know and love! The black and white colour scheme was also wholly appropriate.

Print For Good is a new initiative producing printed items for sale with profits going to good causes. With a passion for print, along with wanting to support charitable organisations, its aim is to collaborate with artists, designers, printers, thinkers and do-ers, crafts people essentially, to produce exclusive and limited printed items. It aims to explore the medium of print with its collaborators by creating items that people will want in their own homes or studios. 

We were asked to produce an identity and promo postcards for the initiative. Postcards were letterpressed and come in three different flavours: Pantone Green on Powder Green Colorplan, Warm Red on Vellum White Colorplan and Burgundy on Citrine Colorplan — all 350gsm.

Print For Good is kindly sponsored by GF Smith. Print For Good website...

We were kindly asked by the people at Print For Good to design their second print release on any theme that we wanted so we were more than happy to oblige. Originally designed on a much smaller scale over two pages and featured in the OWT fanzine, we developed and reconfigured the design specifically for this release.

An A1 screen print that will make any print/football/design fan salivate. Each print is individually hand pulled in Manchester United red on beautiful Mohawk Superfine Ultra White Smooth paper, 270gsm. Yes, beautiful. ‘But it’s just white paper.’ No, it’s Mohawk Superfine Ultra White. The release is an edition of x25, hand numbered and signed on the reverse (not by Eric). We have a feeling these will go quick. Go here. Now.

We said:

“Undoubtedly one of the greatest players to ever grace the turf at the Theatre of Dreams, Cantona was not only a footballer, but a poet and a gentleman both on and off the pitch (just ask Matthew Simmons). We proudly present one of our favourite Cantona quotes in all its glory and one that Loose Collective has always stood and worked by since its inception. This large format version now comes with added player stats! We hope that the big man would approve. Part of the proceeds on sales will go to Cancer Research UK, a charity that is close to our hearts as well as that of our families.”

Print For Good is sponsored by GF Smith.

SOLD OUT.

We were asked by our friends at The Lab to design a piece for the Leeds Print Festival 2014. Letterforms were sourced from type specimen sheets dating from 1628-1900. Final print was a letterpressed ‘Split Fountain’ — the first in Pantone Neon 806/Process Blue and the second in Pantone Yellow/Neon 805. As more prints came out of the press during the print process the two inks on the rollers gradually mixed so no two final prints are the same — they have varying colour gradients on them. Prints were handed out to print delegates on the Sunday during the opening weekend of the festival. They seemed to go down very well!

Branded notebooks are screenprinted in black and have a nifty ‘A Series’ paper size guide on the back covers. They're available to buy here.

We were recently asked by ace rock band ‘Riding The Low’ to produce some design work for their annual ‘Christmas Craptacular’ in their hometown of Burton On Trent. The brief was “Christmas, skulls and Mexican wrestlers” so naturally we jumped at the chance. That kind of brief is right up our street.

The gig took place at ‘The Tower Brewery’ so it made sense to us to produce some flyers that doubled as beermats. They were letterpressed in gold and red onto thick uncoated beermat board by our mates EE Chrisp. A3 posters followed the same vibe, litho’d in red and gold onto two different stocks — thick newsprint and uncoated poster card. Posters were on sale at the gig on the 28th December for a festive £5; beermats were used at the venue on the night. According to Paddy Considine... “a lot of stuff got stolen!”

Invite/Flyer for an art exhibition that was housed and curated in a church. This provided the starting point for us visually so we created a brand and design that referenced the kind of church signs that you see all over the more “religious” states in America. Invites were letterpressed in warm red on luxury gloss and uncoated boards.

‘Silence Of The Photograph’ is a photographic project that seeks to document something about the lived experiences of hearing loss. Using portraiture and interviews the work presents individual perspectives of the everyday and physiological experiences of hearing impairment.

The project was the brainchild of photographers Gavin Parry and David Penny in collaboration with the University of Manchester Audiology Department. SOTP was also a part of the ‘Artefacts & Experiences’ exhibition at Manchester Central Library.

Promotional papers containing portraits and interviews with participants were lithoed full colour onto newsprint stock. We also designed internal exhibition signage boards, screenprinted in white onto GF Smith Royal Blue Plike.

Identity system for a new start-up production company called Sound Of Science. Sound Of Science will be creating live visual/aural science and music experiences which celebrate the universe in which we find ourselves. Some of the brains behind it were responsible for Polar Live. We were asked to create an identity encompassing logo design, business cards and an initial website landing page.

Business cards were printed full colour litho on both sides and come in a variety of flavours with a mixture of 15 original, inspirational images, that celebrate the universe we live in, on the backs.

Branding, exhibition flyer and vinyl signage for a multimedia exhibition held in Manchester and organised by “Contemporary Art Manchester”. We used the simple idea of a camshaft for the main symbol in the CAM logomark which suggested movement and progression.

The graphic for the Trade City exhibition itself was derived from the profile of the CHIPS building which is where the exhibition was being housed — it’s quite a strange looking building, but helped convey the idea of a dynamic city of sorts. Colours were based around concrete and iron — the building blocks of a city. The flyers were letterpressed in Metallic Copper on greyboard which reinforced this theme throughout. Folding programmes were lithoed in bronze onto uncoated paper.

Part of the Manchester International Festival 2009.

Dani Abulhawa is a performance artist who explores gendered play in public urban spaces. Instructional, information-led flyers were created to accompany a performance called “True Love Waits” by Dani as part of the exhibition “Tempting Failure” held in London. The piece involved the participation of the audience so these flyers were produced to instruct them. The design is minimal and information heavy to convey clarity, but with a playfulness that conveys the tone of Dani’s work.

Invite, folding flyer/posters and banner for multimedia exhibition organised and curated by Manchester arts collective “Interval”.  The exhibition was a rolling exhibition over three days. On each day a different set of artists exhibited — this and the name of the exhibition gave us the idea to design the invites as a turnstile ticket with tear off stubs — one for each of the three days. Invites were letterpressed in gold with perforated tear off stubs for each exhibition day and printed on matt box board. Folding flyer/posters were printed full colour onto bible paper.

Accompanying 64 page book for the exhibition “UnSpooling — Artists & Cinema” at The Cornerhouse Gallery, Manchester. We worked directly with the exhibition curators to create a limited edition companion piece that celebrated a love of cinema. Wiro bound, with a 16:9 widescreen ratio page format and a silver foiled greyboard cover. The inside was printed full colour litho + Pantone neon 811 throughout with typographic and symbolic references to the golden age of cinema. Lovely!

The folks at MADE NORTH kindly asked us if we'd like to be part of ‘Sheffield Design Week 2014’. We like Sheffield so we said “Yes!” We were asked to contribute T-Shirt designs for their exhibition ‘Yorkshire in Yellow’ — the brief being to create designs celebrating the UK stages of this year’s Tour de France which are taking place in Yorkshire. As we’re big lovers of the wonderful Yorkshire dialect we thought the combination of the classic French font Didot and some lovely Yorkshire phrases would make the perfect celebration.

We produced a number of phrases that worked in a cycling/racing context and picked our favourite two for the final exhibition. Visitors to Sheffield could see the final T-Shirts on display at the city's Millennium Gallery from June — August 2014.

You can now buy our shirt here.

A printed publication is also being produced featuring all works by the participating artists, designers and creatives. Reyt good!

Zoe Hitchen is a fashion filmmaker and photographer who also has an obsession with triangles. After two years working directly with Nick Knight at SHOWstudio she made the leap and went solo to forge a career on her own. She consequently needed a new identity and came to us for help. {Un}titled is her new guise. We created a new identity system that encompassed a logomark, business cards, letterheads and a new website design, which is still an ongoing process. Zoe just needs to find time to sort out her portfolio - she’s rather busy! Since going solo she's worked with such people as Dazed And Confused, i-D and The British Fashion Council.

Business cards were letterpressed in silver and black on Pristine White ultra-thick GF Smith Colorplan and letterheads were litho'd in silver and black on uncoated paper. Web build by OWT Creative.