WORK
the brief: Music/nighttime/edinburgh festival. i'm an edinburgher so i was delighted to be invited to design the title sequence for this sky arts commission for iwc. it was really important for me to capture the feeling of the environs of edinburgh and the atmosphere of the festival as it lights up the nights around us here in old reekie. and importantly I wanted to abstract the architecture and compound it with music and colour. so the idea came pretty fast, turning instruments into landscapes which pay homage to the familiar landmarks of edinburgh while exuding the energy, light and colour of the edinburgh international festival. i had in my mind the language of lp cover art. from chopin to monk and beyond, focussing on 'beyond'. it came pretty fast as things do when you tap a decent vein and i've included my pitch treatment below - the development from pitch to delivery was so minimum i feel like it demonstrates a great relationship with the client who was delighted with the idea.
WE REALLY WANTED THE MAPS FOR 'ISLAND CROSSINGS' IWC'S OB DOC ABOUT CALMAC FERRIES TO STAND OUT SO I USED SOME MAPPING SYSTEMS WHICH INCORPORATED THE TOPOLOGY OF THE LANDSCAPE AND ULTRA HIGH RESOLUTION SATELLITE PHOTOGRAPY TO CREATE THE LOOK. TIME CONSTRAINTS MEANT WE COULDN'T DELVE INTO THE ORIGINAL CONCEPT OF INCORPORATING WEATHER AND LIGHTING TO MATCH THE STORY BUT AS YOU CAN SEE IN THE ORIGINAL MOVING TEST HERE, THE POTENTIAL FOR ENHANCING THE STORY VIA ENVIRONMENTAL CONTROL IS V COOL.
'STOLEN: catching the art thieves', a documentary series by lion tv, was 3 x 1hr programmes telling fascinating stories about art heists. the characters involved and the story of the theft/recovery of famous works of art. i made a package of graphics including titles, maps and plans, content graphic montages and mugshot sequences.
it was so inspiring working with a variety of old newspaper clippings, snapshot photographs, cctv, crime case studies and tying them in together to create a coherent look across the series.
Harry Birrell Presents Films of Love & War. It's impossible to not fall in love with this absolutely beautiful documentary film. Written around the story of amateur filmmaker Harry Birrell who had the rare privilege of taking a film camera on his tours of duty during the Second World War. An almost lost archive of movies, photographs and diaries combine to tell a compelling and evocative story. Exquisitely directed by Matt Pinder, I was overjoyed to be asked to bring much of the archive to life.
