If you’re from north of the Watford Gap, you’ll know that southerners can be a bit snooty about the north at times. In fact, I bet the idea of a visiting a ‘provincial’ northern town like Bradford or Warrington would get those Kensington yummy-mummy sorts quaking in their Manolos. Not that it bothers us lot – after all, us northerners are made of far sterner stuff.

How refreshing it was therefore, when I stumbled upon the work of John Bulmer, a photographer from the home counties, who during the 60s and 70s captured the stark beauty and honesty of working-class Northern people and their communities. In a time when industrial landscapes and economic deprivation meant that for many conditions were more than a little grim up north, he scratched the region’s soot covered surface and revealed its character and charm.

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Monday at the Red C began like any other. Employees were pulling themselves into the office for yet another busy week, priority for most of course being a beverage before the start of their working day.

This particular morning was different though. The kitchen was brimming with a variety of delicious cakes that staff at Red C had spent their weekend baking. This change in morning ritual came about in support of ‘Time for a Cuppa’, an event that raises awareness for those affected by dementia which was organised by ‘for dementia’.

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Yep, it’s that time of year again where the whole agency get into the festive spirit and have a go at coming up with new ideas for the agency Christmas card! This year’s challenge certainly caused a stir with an extra sprinkling of motivation coming from the special prize of a brand spanking new iPod Nano for the winner. So everyone quickly huddled in their groups making sure their ideas weren’t over heard – we’re not competitive – honest.

And this year’s winner is… drum roll… Mrs Katie Shoard! Our Senior Copywriter.

The judges had a hard time choosing the winner but decided to go with Katie’s copy-based route that uses a quirky, colourful illustrative design that pokes fun at Christmas clichés and conveys Red C’s fresh approach.

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Along with giving me an addiction to Fig Rolls and introducing me to the music of Mr Scruff I also credit my old Art Director, Simon Rowlands, with introducing me to the photographic work of Martin Parr about 6 years ago… and ever since then I’ve been a fan of his unique views of both Britain and the world in which we live.

Internationally recognised as a brilliant satirist of contemporary life, Martin Parr has led the development of the British documentary tradition with wit, style, and intelligence in a career that boasts numerous publications and exhibitions. His work is held by major galleries and museums worldwide. ‘Common Sense’, which this week graces our reception area, combines extravagantly lurid and luscious colour with Parr’s trademark sense of irony. Though hilariously funny – as always with Parr’s work – there is a sharp and biting edge to the humour.

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Robert Frank’s ‘The Americans’ was the book that changed the way I looked at photography and i’m envious of anyone picking it up for the first time. The beautifully sequenced, haunting photographs in ‘The Americans’  break all technical rules of photography in favour of a spontaneous, coarsely poetic beauty that I never seem to tire of. Not bad for a book that’s over 50 years old.

‘The Americans’ was created during a Guggenheim funded road trip across America in 1956 and 1957 in which the Swiss born Frank (sometimes accompanied by his young family) set out to to document “how Americans live, have fun, eat, drive cars, work and dream”. Frank shot from the hip and worked intuitively often snatching shots surreptitiously with his hand-held 35mm Leica, using his unique outsider perspective to expose themes of power, racism, inequality, and alienation. By the end of his 10,000 mile journey (in which he himself experienced prejudice after being arrested under suspicion of being a communist spy) he had made more than 27,000 photographs and had ‘sucked a sad poem out of America onto film’ as Jack Kerouac writes in the breathless introduction that accompanies the book.

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Negative Space by Noma Bar

Can a picture really paint a thousand words? Well, yeah, if Noma Bar designed it. A modern-day master of the ‘less is more’ approach to design, Noma’s ingenious use of negative space gives his work a startling subtlety that creeps up and smacks you between the eyes.

Throw in some incisive wit in his creative handling of current political and cultural issues, and you’re looking at one of the most prestigious designers of the minute. He’s hot stuff. And once you’ve seen his work, you’ll know why. Read more…

Confession time. After a week striving to produce fabulous concepts and design work for our clients I sometimes like to unwind by looking at fabulously bad concepts and design. One of my favourite places for this is a wonderful blog called Awful Library Books, the brainchild of Mary Kelly and Holly Hibner, a pair of public librarians from Michigan who catalog the outdated, weird or just completely insane books gathering dust on library shelves across America.

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You get a great feeling of pride when you see your work appearing in a book. It’s like that nice feeling you got when your Mum put that picture you did at school on the fridge for all the family and relatives to see. I knew when I received my copy of ‘Touch this, Graphic Design that feels good’, that I had a piece inside it… it was only when I flicked through the pages that I was amazed to see three pieces of work I did with my then Art Director, Simon Rowlands, had been chosen to appear in this fabulous book.

Compiled by Designer Scott Witham, who has worked for global clients including Sony, Virgin, Orange and the Royal Bank of Scotland, ‘Touch this, Graphic Design that feels good’ features intriguing projects that incorporate a gamut of “you can’t print on that” materials, including pleated, Issey Miyake type forms and razor-thin metal business cards; X-ray film; heat-sensitive inks; ceramic tiles; and carpet samples. In short, there are design solutions in this book that use any and everything, except plain paper.

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When Julian asked me to give Gary Numan a call about some illustrations, I was unimpressed. Partly because I’m often the butt of the practical jokes round here, and partly because I’m more of an Ultravox man myself.  So it was with some apprehension that I went back to my desk to make the call. As I dialled I decided I’d play it safe: skip the musical chit-chat and get straight down to business, which turned out to be a wise move when illustrator Gary Newman – and not the King of synthpop – answered the phone.

A pioneer of doom-laden electronic music he may not be, but Gary Newman is one of the UK’s top illustrators. His signature style is zesty, hedonistic, jet-setting. Just the kind of thing we were looking for to add some wow-factor to a “WIN YOUR DREAM HOLIDAY” DM pack.

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Back when I got my first job in 1996, my Creative Director gave me a book to look at called ‘LaChapelle Land’ that simply astounded me. Needless to say I hunted down my own first edition numbered copy… and it takes pride of place on my bookcase at home.

‘Heaven to Hell’ is LaChapelle’s third in a trilogy that began with ‘LaChapelle Land’. The images contained within the pages and follow in the same astonishing, color-saturated, and provocative style but this time there is more of a reference to Renaissance, art history, cinema, The Bible, pornography, and the new globalized pop culture… hence the title ‘Heaven to Hell’.

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