Tuesday, 6 November 2012

Scottish Artists Manifesto

Thank you to graphic designer, James McNaught, for sharing this insight to the thinking behind this wonderful design, letterpress printed on our Heidelberg platen

This project was the result of a commission to design postcards to display a specially written poem written by Don Paterson, OBE. The poem, which enshrines creativity and the arts, will serve as a manifesto for Scottish artists. Many leading artists have already signed these cards, which will be sent to the Scottish Parliament as part of a campaign to improve the way in which Creative Scotland – the funding body for Scottish arts – is operated. It's been a real privilege to be able to contribute, even in a small way, to this movement.

As far as the design is concerned, I wanted to keep it simple and to the point (the words themselves have such beauty and power that I just wanted to let them shine!) I force justified the text and replaced line breaks with a simple decorative element to give me more control over the composition, and afford the design an authoritative, almost biblical quality. To give it a more human feel, it was letterpress printed on textured, creamy-white card (360gsm Materica Gesso) with metallic gold ink (Pantone 271C).


View James' portolio here:

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