Leeds Bread Cooperative xmas card

This is the Christmas card that I've designed for the Leeds Bread Co-op, in addition to the other work that I'm doing for them. The brief specified a red/white colour scheme, and I spent some time experimenting with how to add slices of colour to best effect. Originally I thought using slices of digital colour with an overlay effect might look good, but it turned out that the intricate line work in the drawing just got lost.

I was hesitant about mixing cut paper (in the end the red slices were cut up monoprints) with the black ink drawing; although I'm an analogue worker, it's quite unusual for me to mix methods of image making. However I'm actually really happy with the finished product. I'm especially pleased with the composition, and like how - even though I haven't used a background colour - using the edges of the frame makes the image look sort-of gift-like.

These are being printed in a batch of 100 by Footprint workers co-op, and I look forward to seeing the physical product.

Rainbow Junktion Christmas poster

Finished the Christmas poster for Rainbow Junktion. Generally I'm happy with it, I think the use of textures and hand cut paper ephemera is effective. Still enjoying pushing this way of working further. I also like the colour palette, and am happy with how the printed colours sit along side each other (I wanted to keep Photoshop tweaks to an absolute minimum.) I'm happy to be making hand-rendered type, and want to incorporate more of this in future work.

Since sending it to print I have revisited this image and now think something in the composition of the central 'tree' looks slightly off - a little too far to the right perhaps? Were I to do it again, I would probably experiment more the sprigs of rosemary, to see it could use them to better effect as bushy pine needles. 

Recent Rainbow Junktion posters

Some promotional images that I've produced for the Rainbow Junktion cafe since the end of September.

Rainbow Junktion flyer

I've designed a flyer for the Rainbow Junktion Community Cafe. I'm pleased with how I've managed to utilise my hand-lettering skills, and think the end result is cheerful and effective. These are going to be printed by the Footprint workers co-op.

front

back

Some images that I've made for the Rainbow Junk-tion Community Cafe in Hyde Park. The cafe is a part of The Real Junk Food Project network, and is  situated at All Hallows' Church and Community Centre. The church is progressive and inclusive, doing lots of work with and for the wider, non-church going, community. It's also all a bit delightfully DIY and I want the work that I make to reflect this ethos.

Leeds Radical Herbalism Gathering flyer

 A flyer that I designed for the Leeds Radical Herbalism network, to be distributed at pop-up tea stalls around the city in the run up to the gathering.

Xmas card design

A commissioned xmas card design for All Hallow's Church & Community Centre in Leeds. 

Paper cut shapes from monoprint. 

As the card is for a church I was keen to steer clear of Xmas tropes (reindeer/elves/etc), and as the church is very community orientated I thought showing pairs of hands building the tree together was a nice, elegant design idea.

Other potential design ideas, incorporating a monoprint collage background and hand cut type. I like the type itself itself, but think actually the clean symmetry of the image I decided upon is the most effective.

This was a fun little brief and it was good for me to work with a quick turnaround, just to get me out of the 'comfort zone' of quite long, open ended briefs.

Logos for Leeds Radical Herbalism Gathering 2018

Two potential logos designed for the Leeds Radical Herbal network. Personally I prefer the bottom image, but the top one seemed to resonate with more people and ended up being the one that was chosen.

RadHerb

Some images of various leaves and herbs that I've made to use for the RadHerb material. I'm really enjoying cutting up monoprints to build images, it is a way of working that compliments my aversion to planning or using a sketchbook. I can just bulk print and cut up lots of shapes until I'm happy with the outcome. 

However, this way of working does have limitations. For instance, layering shapes can be difficult as the textures get lost in one another 

Rainbow junktion decoration

This is a collection of images showcasing the interior of the Rainbow Junk-tion cafe. This decoration job was such a fun fortnight. I hand-printed all the lino stamps over walls, and made the Rainbow mosaic at Seagulls Paint. 

As one of the aims of The Real Junk Food Project is intercepting waste,  I used only lino offcuts that were donated by the Leeds Print Workshop, and a local DIY store. The wooden A-Frame board was reclaimed from a cafe that were throwing it out. The printing inks were donated from the art department of a local school at the end of the summer term.

Photograph by Hamish Irvine for TRJFP

What this taught me:

ASK for things - people are generous and it is possible to work on very little budget

Don't over complicate things. I think the rainbow theme is very effective.