Art Map Wolverhampton is an integral part of Project Dandelion, a public art project that enables new art commissions and projects to take place across secondary schools in Wolverhampton. Supported by Centro, Substrakt were brought on board to work alongside the students to produce a printed map and website showcasing art and culture across the city for visitors and residents.

We began the project by visiting the King’s CE school for workshops with the students. Over the sessions we introduced the students to various stocks, inks and finishes. We took samples to spark debate and presented existing maps to engage in discussions, using the feedback to work towards our design. Within their lessons, the students were producing artwork in response to public art within the city, which we were to incorporate into the map.

During the research the students realised they were keen to produce something that stood out from the other tourist maps; we explored different folds, introduced them to Pantone swatches and looked at various ways of illustrating Wolverhampton in a clean simple form that would translate into print and web.

We collated the students’ research and mapped out places of interest and public art onto a vector-illustrated map. Using tones of grey with fluorescent red and green we ensured a bold contrast, the grey representing the industrial city and brights celebrating the culture and vibrant art scene.

The result was 22k A2 art maps; 24pp printed black, Pantone 803 and 805 onto 130gsm uncoated stock.

The accompanying website is based on the visual style of the printed map, and expands on the initial idea and concept of Art Map Wolverhampton. Using the online version people have more information available to them, such as bus routes, transport type accessibility, links to further information on other websites and easily accessed directions through Google Map.

It's built on Wordpress to manage the content, Google Maps API 3 to generate, style and control the map & locations, and is responsive to the browser size & device being used. This means users on larger screens will see a scaled site, with larger images, larger maps and more info on screen, where as small screens still get to view the site at a scale more appropriate to their display. It also works with mobile, meaning people can take an optimised version of Art Map Wolverhampton with them to the art locations instead of, or as a companion to the printed map. www.artmapwolverhampton.co.uk

We first worked with Rare games earlier in the year designing vinyls for their new Birmingham office, so when we were approached in September to help out with their press day we were keen to get involved.

October was to see the worldwide release of Kinect Sports: Season Two and Rare were set to hold a press day on 8th September, inviting UK, European and American journalists to preview the game. Rare HQ, Twycross, was to be transformed, each new sport having its own area - stylised with artwork, character cuts outs, lights, bars and even an igloo!

Substrakt worked with Rare producing assets, large-scale prints and vinyls for each individually themed room spread across the site - in the building, marquee and igloo. Some of the deliverables included twelve 5ft character cut outs, large logo wall vinyls, material banners, designed flags and magnetic signs for the golf buggy.

During the installation, Andy and I also got a cheeky play on the darts and baseball, top stuff!

Thanks to Rare for the photos!

Pointe Blank is a collection of original images inspired by the story of Coppélia. In a first-of-its-kind collaborative project for Birmingham Royal Ballet, 27 artists and designers have been invited to produce individual pieces of artwork based upon the tale of toymaker Doctor Coppélius, and his attempts to breathe life into his most prized creation.

Over the past few weeks I’ve been working on a rather exciting personal project with Rob Lindsay from Birmingham Royal Ballet. Rob got in contact at the end of April to discuss a collaborative design project he’d been thinking about, so over a good cup of tea we sparked off some ideas. Often people decide a show isn't for them as soon as they read the third word of 'Birmingham Royal Ballet presents...' But sometimes people will take a chance if they already know the plot of the piece. They're not actually coming for the dancing, they're coming for the story. Rob wanted to reach the ballet out to a wider audience, collaborating with other creatives to design something around their recent production, Coppélia. Birmingham Royal Ballet were 100% supportive.

"The appeal of Coppélia for such a project was that it’s got a lively and colourful story, but one that’s not already been told in hundreds of different ways, like Cinderella or The Sleeping Beauty. Even as a ballet, it’s not quite crossed over into the public consciousness in the same way that The Nutcracker or Swan Lake has. So it meant – or at least I’d hope that it meant – that the artists could interpret the story with very few visual preconceptions." - Rob Lindsay, Birmingham Royal Ballet

After a few meetings we’d cracked a concept and entitled our project Pointe Blank. I put together a list of artists and designers I admired or had previously worked with and we wrote the brief. We explored options for a physical exhibition too, an opportunity to bring the creatives together, as opposed to an online presence only. The brief given to the contributors did not require them to present Coppélia as a ballet, only that ideally, they include some reference to Birmingham Royal Ballet. Production images were available, but not initially provided in an attempt to keep the brief as unprescriptive as possible.

We launched the collection at the Hippodrome on Monday 13th June to the artists and invited guests. It was a great evening with my friend Nat tickling the ivories and Lewis being our photographer. David Bintley, the director of Birmingham Royal Ballet did a speech too – it was great to hear his genuine support and excitement over our project. We also launched the collection online that evening and received over 2000 views on the Tuesday alone!

www.pointeblank.co.uk

Artwork shown above from Substrakt's Ryan and Claire :)

We’ve been busy working with Rare, the games designer that produces Kinect sports, as well as legendary titles such as Banjo-Kazooie and Perfect Dark, on the interiors of their Birmingham and Twycross offices. Rare opened a new testing and production facility in Fazeley Studios last year and soon became our neighbours. With their 10,000 sq ft office space and the 25th anniversary rebrand they were keen to implement their new look.

Using a pattern of simple graphic shapes with bright hues we mapped out a series of locations for the designs that flowed around the interesting shapes of the studio space.

During the project we were invited to Twycross to revamp their reception area. Working alongside the Assistant Art Manager at Rare we produced large scale wall graphics and implemented the new identity in the space.

Ammo Magazine is a lovely A6 printed publication made up of talented artists and studios. It has an incredible reputation in the illustration world and I was delighted to contribute to the recent issue as one of the four interviewed artists. Issue 6 is now available to buy online with surreal cover artwork by Gabriella Barouch.

Interviewed Creatives: Claire Hartley / Dale C Bowers / Rilla Alexander / Timba Smits

Featured Artists: Alison Richards / Alyssa Nassner / Barnaby Purdy / Carlos Garde-Martin / Chris Madden / Chrissy Lau / Claire Hartley / Dale C Bowers / Dale Edwin Murray / Gabriella Barouch / Harriet Gray / Herbert Loureiro / Jim Bobbin / Katarina Ilkovicova / Kyle Smart / Luke Waller / Marianne Vincent / Nikko Barber / Rilla Alexander / Sandra Dieckmann / Steven Jarvis / Timba Smits / Valéry Goulet / Zansky

Mag Specs: A6 Landscape, 64 pages, Perfect Bound, 350gsm Cover, 160gsm Internal Pages, Full Colour.

Having previously worked with Mark Rose and Andy Williams we were approached by the former Capita Lovejoy directors to give their new venture an identity. In our first workshop we developed a name for the new planning and design practice; assessing their skills, background, target audience and brainstorming their key values as a company.

Design, development, delivery, derive, detail, depth were a few of the key words we came across – all beginning with De. We found the prefix De is often used to indicate removal or separation that we felt was quite appropriate to this new company - branching off from Capita. We explored various visual directions and felt that hyphenating the De could be a strong asset to the visual identity, following with some of the above key words across various media. During development we were drawn towards the name Define: “To determine with precision; to mark out with distinctness to ascertain or exhibit clearly”. We explored the colon mark as it often follows the word Define preceding a definition, set as two equal circles it lent itself to an interesting abstract element that could be implemented across the identity in a bold yet simple visual way.

As a new company we believe it’s important to invest time in all the small details, in this case - embossing, foiling, fluro ink and a subtle animated background on the site. We are currently working on the full website and introductory brochure.

The Not In collection is a wonderful idea that created space for creatives who haven't appeared in the big design publications like Creative Review. The site showcases all types of creatives from designers, illustrators to photographers. I was lucky enough to be featured alongside many talented individuals including my friends over at Tiptoe Collective.

The poster has been designed including all creatives featured since the launch in September and is colour coded to their speciality in a wonderful info graphic. You can order your copy at Counter-Objects. 

Over the past few months I've been pursuing a little self set idea called Illustration Sundays. No strict rules, deadlines or timeframes just an excuse to sit down and illustrate to my heart's content. With it being the festive season and thoughts of a white Christmas I attacked my Moleskine with fine-liners and my personal card project commenced...

Those of you who have been following my Twitter would have seen recent updates of my progress over the past few weeks. The result being a limited run of 100 sets of three hand drawn illustrated Christmas cards. Each set contains three different designs of A6 cards printed on 350gsm 100% recycled stock with coloured envelopes. 

Sets are available to buy at £6 and there's a few ways you can get hold of them by either popping by Substrakt towers, following this link to my site or via Paypal with this button.

Merry Christmas! x

Last weekend I hopped on the train and went up north to Liverpool. I'd never properly explored the city and with it being named European Capital of Culture last year and hosting Liverpool Biennial, (a contemporary visual art event) my adventure begun...

First stop was the Walker Art Gallery which was grand Victorian building promoting itself as the 'National Gallery of the North'. Its collection proudly announced artworks dating right back to the 13th century, including art heros such as Rembrandt, Turner and David Hockney. I didn't visit all the rooms but I did enjoy The John Moores Painting Prize. The competition has ran for the past 50 years and is open to everybody so attracts over 3,000 entries so there's a eclectic mix of both established artists and new talent. Some weird and wonderful things to say the least!

Next door, as it seemed we were right in the centre of the 'cultural quarter' was another neo-classical building housing Liverpool World Museum. Just so you know, I went to the aquarium and checked out some pretty amazing fish ;) 

After previously visiting 3 of the 4 Tate galleries I was looking forward to ticking off Liverpool as I strolled towards Albert Dock. There were quite a few tourists around and a massive que at The Beatles Story as it attracted fans for what would have been John Lennon's 70th birthday (This was later confirmed as we walked down Mathew Street later on!) The main Tate exhibition was 'DLA Piper Series: This is Sculpture' which asked key figures from the cultural sector to co-curate and pick works from the collection to represent their interpretations. Each room was donned with a fluorescent hue dissenting from the traditional white wall gallery space which was pretty cool. As I approached one of the rooms presented with a wall of wireless headphones, I took the opportunity and the headphones, pulled back the black curtain and entered the room curated by Hemingway & Son. With the likes of Greg Wilson and Yousef playing in my ear I stepped right into a disco environment fully equipped with mirror balls, ambient lighting and an interactive light up dancefloor! The juxtaposition of the 80s disco vibes and modern contemporary sculpture was definitely a different way to look at the 25 life size sculptures focusing on the human body. They explain a little more thoroughly of their 'nightclub in a gallery' idea here. Other curators included poet Carol Ann Duffy and artist Michael Craig-Martin, definitely worth checking out if you're tup norf' anytime soon!

Taking part in the Biennial were venues A Foundation and Contemporary Urban Centre about a ten minute walk from the centre. Named the 'Baltic Triangle' and a bit of a hidden gem the area had qualities similar to those of Digbeth with its abandoned warehouses, numerous Grade II listed buildings and affordable creative spaces. With a no larger than A2 sized board sat in the middle of a unused road we were directed to the A Foundation. What looked like an oversized garage door appeared to be 2500sqm of exhibition space with cafe and bookshop. Currently showing was Bloomberg New Contemporaries which shows the best of up and coming emerging talent from across the UK. I was a bit overwhelmed by the space and the quality and range of work spanning all medias. If you don't get an opportunity to check it out then it's on at the ICA in London shortly. Last but not least was headed over the road to the Contemporary Urban Centre, (NB: the entrance is a little hard to find on the massive scale Grade II listed warehouse!!) The centre was a stunning space for creatives with art galleries, a unique cinema, studio spaces, cafes and a gig venue. Unfortunately we arrived on the one day they were closing early so we didn't get to see much of the City Spaces 2010 exhibition.

So we ended our day (I won't tell you about my evening!) in the Leaf Tea Shop & Bar, set on the ground floor on the opposite side of the building to the CUC. We arrived a bit late for it's high tea menu (we're quite partial to these thanks to the folks at Fazeley...mmm) but just in time for a cheeky beer and shortcake. Looking back I wish i'd tasted one of the show-stopping amounts of loose tea on offer served in their fancy teaware, but hey it was getting dark! Alongside its imaginative interiors, the laid back art cafe vibes, tasty cakes and the slick branding no wonder its became a worthy hang out to Liverpool creatives embracing the amazingness of tea, cake, and music! I'd say it's right up there with the likes of London, Berlin and New Yorks cultural hubs.

So yeh, Liverpool was pretty inspiring :)