# data[].attributes.body
Using the book "St Kilda" by George Seton as reference to draw images relating to the island customs

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Hand drawn and etched in copper then hand printed at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Monotype Dance Sequence
Monotype dance sequence hand-printed at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Drypoint Etched Dance Sequence

Sequence etched into copper using drypoint then hand-printed at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Hand Printed Skull Praxinoscope
Etched praxinscope hand printed at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Etched Metamorphosis Animation

Hand drawn and etched animation, printed at Edinburgh Printmakers.
Rotating Portrait Rotating Portrait 2

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Mask Boy Etched Praxinoscope Hand drawn and etched in copper then hand printed at Edinburgh Printmakers. Monotype Dance Sequence Monotype dance sequence hand-printed at Edinburgh Printmakers. Drypoint Etched Dance Sequence Sequence etched into copper using drypoint then hand-printed at Edinburgh Printmakers. Hand Printed Skull Praxinoscope Etched praxinscope hand printed at Edinburgh Printmakers.

# data[].attributes.body
It was custom of the islanders to prepare in every family, on Michaelmas Day, an enormous cake, compounded of various ingredients, 'This cake belonged to the archangel, and had its name from him. Every one in each family, whether strangers or domestics, had his portion of this kind of shew-bread; and had, of course, some title of the friendship and protection of Michael.'

# data[].attributes.body
Book written and illustrated by Beth Waters, monoprint images

# data[].attributes.body
Combining modern imagery with old images of St Kilda, creating a fake narrative of how islanders would interact with the island if they were to still inhabit it in present

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Take a cruise with the National Trust for Scotland to spend six days exploring the lonely and forgotten islands of Scotland in this 1950s travelogue. Board the steamer 'Meteor' at Leith and head to Shetland, crossing turbulent seas to Fair Isle, Lerwick, Out Skerries, Papa Stour, and Foula, one of the most remote inhabited islands in Britain. Call at the tiny island of North Rona before heading to St Kilda, Mingulay, Barra, and Iona for six days you'll remember for a lifetime.

This film was made by the National Trust for Scotland in 1958. The Trust formed in 1931 in order to protect Scotland's heritage; it now cares for over 70 gardens and designed landscapes, 129 properties, 100,000 artefacts and 190,000 acres of land, making it the largest landowner in Scotland. The Trust acquired Fair Isle in 1954, and St Kilda in 1957, shortly before this film was made. The National Trust for Scotland has offered cruises for over 60 years, carrying 30,000 passengers on ten different ships. It continues to offer cruises to Scottish Islands, but now extends its journeys to destinations such as Ireland, Iceland and the Faroe Islands.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Take a cruise with the National Trust for Scotland to spend six days exploring the lonely and forgotten islands of Scotland in this 1950s travelogue. Board the steamer 'Meteor' at Leith and head to Shetland, crossing turbulent seas to Fair Isle, Lerwick, Out Skerries, Papa Stour, and Foula, one of the most remote inhabited islands in Britain.

# data[].attributes.headline
Highland History and Culture - Image Archive

# data[].attributes.subject
Highland History and Culture - Image Archive

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Communication Design School of Design

I would describe myself as an illustrator, designer and dealbhadair who's work is tactile, instinctive and narrative-driven.

My studio output this year has focused on my fascination with the history, landscape and culture of my home turf, Lochaber - it's history marked by semi-mythical beasts, warring factions and, to this day, tyrannical landlords. I aim to put my own spin on my homeland's heritage and tradition of oral and visual bardic storytelling through my comic and print works.

My comic, Rìoghachd na Forraiste Fiadhaich or The Wilds of Rùm, encapsulates all these themes and ideas. The narrative framework is based on a research expedition undertook to the biggest Small Isle in the depths of winter. The volume - drawn in sumi ink and risograph printed - incorporates printmaking, my own typeface design, and utilises repurposed waterproof fabrics - an essential shield from the harsh elements. I collaborated with poet Cameron Wilson on a series of Gàidhlig couplets in the comic, taking form as collagraph prints that add to the visual narrative. I was further inspired by Bansho shashin zufu by Sadahide (1864) - a stab-bound woodblock manga full of vibrant vistas and island landscapes - after reading it in the GSA special collections, purchased in the late 1800s by the school during an official visit to Japan.

I have also included smaller separate projects from the year in my showcase, including developmental projects, poster work and children's book illustrations.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I would describe myself as an illustrator, designer and dealbhadair who's work is tactile, instinctive and narrative-driven. My studio output this year has focused on my fascination with the history, landscape and culture of my home turf, Lochaber - it's history marked by semi-mythical beasts, warring factions and, to this day, tyrannical landlords.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Communication Design Glasgow School of Design

I work with textiles and music to tell stories about people and places. I enjoy researching specific locations and people in history and making things to dress up in. A focus on sustainable and traditional hand craft practices and an interest in folk and social history permeates all my work. I write music and sing stories too.

My work is very process driven, I like spending time learning and perfecting techniques as I believe the making to be as much a part of the work as the finished product. I'm also interested in using ancient techniques to explore modern shapes and experimenting with mixing methods of construction and decoration; using history to influence but not dictate the form and feeling of my work.

Sustainability and ethical practice are very important to me and I endeavour to fully research and consider the work I make and how it impacts the environment as well as trying to address ideas of consumerism and waste in the themes of my work.

The Pilgrimage Project

The main project of my final year of university, this combined drawing, song writing, printing and making garments under one theme, an imagined trip to the Outer Hebrides. The project started with conversations with my dad about the trip that he did around Northern Scotland in the summer of 1991. His stories and memories, as well as those of my mum and two other friends who accompanied him, inspired the works; each piece reflecting vague memories and imagined places. Shown here are a selection of outcomes, they are documented more extensively under their individual headings: Battledress, Escapade, Pilgrimage EP, Memory Quilt, Broadside, Song Cards, and Pilgrimage Drawings.

Battledress

The Battledress combines the various wearable items made for the Pilgrimage project: a pair of knitted socks, a shift, a pair of pockets, a headscarf and a waterproof dress coat. All of these items take inspiration from historical textile practices and were designed and made by me.

Each item was inspired by a story or place described to me in the interviews I conducted at the beginning of the project.

The socks, or 'hose', came from a comment my dad made about all the serious walkers going up Ben Nevis wearing red socks and peddle pushers. Very warm for winter walking and held up by cotton tape garters tied below the knee.

The shift is a response to my research on medieval Scotland and the prominent evidence of history within the landscape, visible next to the signs of encroaching modernity. It is hand sewn and traditionally constructed from a 13th century pattern.

The pockets were inspired by 17th and 18th century detachable pockets, worn under the skirts and reached by slits in the side. Mine are made from a linen napkin belonging to my great grandfather's household, emblazoned with his family crest. If there is no mobile phone signal on your journey, why not carry a pocket encyclopedia for those moments when you need a quick answer or a bit of cerebral entertainment? One of these knowledgable tomes (not pocket size) provided evening entertainment for the 4 on long drives.

The headscarf is embroidered in cross stitch with the word 'SCRAMBLE' which is what you would do if you were being chased down a mountain by an angry ram, which did happen to my dad.

The Escapade is a waterproof dress which packs down into a small bundle, like it's inspiration, the Pac-a-mac.

All photographs taken by fellow student, Tom Ive.

Pilgrimage EP

Follow the 'Music' link in my bio to listen.

The four songs of this EP are based on the interviews and research from the Pilgrimage project.

Whisky Galore was constructed from lines taken almost verbatim from the interviews and is about the melancholic beauty of Scotland.

The Misty Isle Hotel is a ballad about a hotel in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, the passage of time and the tourist industry in the Highlands.

Kite Song documents the remarkable Scottish wind holding a kite that had been pegged in the ground, up in the air for an entire day.

The Banquet is a Medieval invitation to a feast with the Clan MacLeod on one of their table mountains, based on an urban legend that they held banquets on the hill to intimidate their guests.

The guitar and vocals were recorded in my bedroom in Glasgow, the bass and percussion in Stroud at Sponge Studios. The tracks were mixed by Jam Sponge.

I made a score for the Banquet, based on examples of medieval sheet music which was often very illustrative and non-linear. Here the staves follow the lines of the landscape in photographs my dad took on his trip. The crest is the very same that adorns the pockets for the Battledress.

Escapade

I shot a lot of footage of the Battledress once it was complete, in various locations near Glasgow. Had further travel been permitted, I would have taken the costume to some of the places it was inspired by and filmed it in those spaces. Failing that, I felt it was important for the costume to be seen in nature, it is an outdoor outfit after all. A 3rd year Communication Design student, Mourad Kourbaj, edited this footage together. The soundtrack is 'Whisky Galore' from the Pilgrimage EP.

Memory Quilt

This quilt is pieced from cut up linen shirts given to me by my parents. The back is a sheet I used to sleep on as a child, worn so thin in the middle but still stiff and starched at the edges. I had intended to quilt it whilst travelling in the footsteps of my dad on my journey up to see the Callanish standing stones on the Isle of Lewis, as this was his and was to be my destination. It was instead quilted in my bedroom in Glasgow but will be my companion and keep me warm when I make the journey at a later date.

Memory quilts and commemorative quilts are a long tradition. They are made in remembrance or celebration of a place or a person, a group or an event. This celebrates the tradition of patchwork and quilting in my family, my connection to and love for them.

Broadside

In the 17th century, popular and new ballads, telling well known tales or stories of current events, were printed cheaply and disseminated like newspapers for musicians and singers to interpret as they liked. I made one for the ballad of the Misty Isle Hotel, with a small print of the real building in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye.

A run of 21 are available for purchase on white Zerkall mould made acid free smooth and as well as 3 copies on the sun-bleached green and just one on the mustard yellow. Contact me by email for details.

Inverkip

A collaboration with Rhian Lloyd, 3rd year Communication Design.

Combining our joint love of costume making and folk history, this project centred around the small coastal village of Inverkip in Renfrewshire. Despite being a hotbed of witchcraft activity in the 1660s with many women put on trial and murdered for their suspicious activities, our research trip revealed no trace of this dramatic history. We resolved to take some 17th century sorcery back to Inverkip.

"As the tide leaves some things and takes others, so the past is in turns remembered and forgotten. Perhaps in our washed-away histories we have become wary of gatherers. Certainly in the 17th century a woman collecting washed up bones from Inverkip's shore might have been thought suspicious, though her corset might have been constructed from whale cartilage. Even taking sand could be directions from the devil." From Rhian's brief.

"While thinking about the way the beach may have looked in the mid 17th Century and looking at the discarded plastic and refuse of the modern world, time becomes as fluid as the river. The trees are mostly new, they have not witnessed much change. Some perhaps were germinating in a time when witches roamed this shoreline, and pushed up their shoots as the dead twigs were gathered for the lethal pyre." From my brief.

My pair of sleeves were inspired by the yellow 'special mark' buoy in Inverkip Bay, a signal of buried treasure, sewer outlets, waterskiing boundaries and shallow water amongst other things. A bright beam signalling something. A special mark for marking a special thing. Their shape is influenced by 17th century designs. The skirt is for gathering, combing, collecting; an apron all the way around.

Kite Song Cards

A set of cards for viewing and reordering the lyrics of the Kite Song from the Pilgrimage EP. These small symbol drawings are based on musical notation, common patchwork designs for quilts and the shapes of items from the Battledress. Each has a symbol on the front and a lyric on the back and they can be shuffled to create new narratives or new pattern sequences as the viewer chooses.

Drawings

A selection of drawings from throughout the year. Along with writing reams and reams, drawing and painting helps me think and allows ideas to sort themselves in my head before I go about them.

The main project of my final year of university, this combined drawing, song writing, printing and making garments under one theme, an imagined trip to the Outer Hebrides. The project started with conversations with my dad about the trip that he did around Northern Scotland in the summer of 1991. His stories and memories, as well as those of my mum and two other friends who accompanied him, inspired the works; each piece reflecting vague memories and imagined places. Shown here are a selection of outcomes, they are documented more extensively under their individual headings: Battledress, Escapade, Pilgrimage EP, Memory Quilt, Broadside, Song Cards, and Pilgrimage Drawings.

The Battledress combines the various wearable items made for the Pilgrimage project: a pair of knitted socks, a shift, a pair of pockets, a headscarf and a waterproof dress coat. All of these items take inspiration from historical textile practices and were designed and made by me.

Each item was inspired by a story or place described to me in the interviews I conducted at the beginning of the project.

The socks, or 'hose', came from a comment my dad made about all the serious walkers going up Ben Nevis wearing red socks and peddle pushers. Very warm for winter walking and held up by cotton tape garters tied below the knee.

The shift is a response to my research on medieval Scotland and the prominent evidence of history within the landscape, visible next to the signs of encroaching modernity. It is hand sewn and traditionally constructed from a 13th century pattern.

The pockets were inspired by 17th and 18th century detachable pockets, worn under the skirts and reached by slits in the side. Mine are made from a linen napkin belonging to my great grandfather's household, emblazoned with his family crest. If there is no mobile phone signal on your journey, why not carry a pocket encyclopedia for those moments when you need a quick answer or a bit of cerebral entertainment? One of these knowledgable tomes (not pocket size) provided evening entertainment for the 4 on long drives.

The headscarf is embroidered in cross stitch with the word 'SCRAMBLE' which is what you would do if you were being chased down a mountain by an angry ram, which did happen to my dad.

The Escapade is a waterproof dress which packs down into a small bundle, like it's inspiration, the Pac-a-mac.

All photographs taken by fellow student, Tom Ive.

Follow the 'Music' link in my bio to listen.

The four songs of this EP are based on the interviews and research from the Pilgrimage project.

Whisky Galore was constructed from lines taken almost verbatim from the interviews and is about the melancholic beauty of Scotland.

The Misty Isle Hotel is a ballad about a hotel in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye, the passage of time and the tourist industry in the Highlands.

Kite Song documents the remarkable Scottish wind holding a kite that had been pegged in the ground, up in the air for an entire day.

The Banquet is a Medieval invitation to a feast with the Clan MacLeod on one of their table mountains, based on an urban legend that they held banquets on the hill to intimidate their guests.

The guitar and vocals were recorded in my bedroom in Glasgow, the bass and percussion in Stroud at Sponge Studios. The tracks were mixed by Jam Sponge.

I made a score for the Banquet, based on examples of medieval sheet music which was often very illustrative and non-linear. Here the staves follow the lines of the landscape in photographs my dad took on his trip. The crest is the very same that adorns the pockets for the Battledress.

I shot a lot of footage of the Battledress once it was complete, in various locations near Glasgow. Had further travel been permitted, I would have taken the costume to some of the places it was inspired by and filmed it in those spaces. Failing that, I felt it was important for the costume to be seen in nature, it is an outdoor outfit after all. A 3rd year Communication Design student, Mourad Kourbaj, edited this footage together. The soundtrack is 'Whisky Galore' from the Pilgrimage EP.

This quilt is pieced from cut up linen shirts given to me by my parents. The back is a sheet I used to sleep on as a child, worn so thin in the middle but still stiff and starched at the edges. I had intended to quilt it whilst travelling in the footsteps of my dad on my journey up to see the Callanish standing stones on the Isle of Lewis, as this was his and was to be my destination. It was instead quilted in my bedroom in Glasgow but will be my companion and keep me warm when I make the journey at a later date.

Memory quilts and commemorative quilts are a long tradition. They are made in remembrance or celebration of a place or a person, a group or an event. This celebrates the tradition of patchwork and quilting in my family, my connection to and love for them.

In the 17th century, popular and new ballads, telling well known tales or stories of current events, were printed cheaply and disseminated like newspapers for musicians and singers to interpret as they liked. I made one for the ballad of the Misty Isle Hotel, with a small print of the real building in Dunvegan on the Isle of Skye.

A run of 21 are available for purchase on white Zerkall mould made acid free smooth and as well as 3 copies on the sun-bleached green and just one on the mustard yellow. Contact me by email for details.

A collaboration with Rhian Lloyd, 3rd year Communication Design.

Combining our joint love of costume making and folk history, this project centred around the small coastal village of Inverkip in Renfrewshire. Despite being a hotbed of witchcraft activity in the 1660s with many women put on trial and murdered for their suspicious activities, our research trip revealed no trace of this dramatic history. We resolved to take some 17th century sorcery back to Inverkip.

"As the tide leaves some things and takes others, so the past is in turns remembered and forgotten. Perhaps in our washed-away histories we have become wary of gatherers. Certainly in the 17th century a woman collecting washed up bones from Inverkip's shore might have been thought suspicious, though her corset might have been constructed from whale cartilage. Even taking sand could be directions from the devil." From Rhian's brief.

"While thinking about the way the beach may have looked in the mid 17th Century and looking at the discarded plastic and refuse of the modern world, time becomes as fluid as the river. The trees are mostly new, they have not witnessed much change. Some perhaps were germinating in a time when witches roamed this shoreline, and pushed up their shoots as the dead twigs were gathered for the lethal pyre." From my brief.

My pair of sleeves were inspired by the yellow 'special mark' buoy in Inverkip Bay, a signal of buried treasure, sewer outlets, waterskiing boundaries and shallow water amongst other things. A bright beam signalling something. A special mark for marking a special thing. Their shape is influenced by 17th century designs. The skirt is for gathering, combing, collecting; an apron all the way around.

A set of cards for viewing and reordering the lyrics of the Kite Song from the Pilgrimage EP. These small symbol drawings are based on musical notation, common patchwork designs for quilts and the shapes of items from the Battledress. Each has a symbol on the front and a lyric on the back and they can be shuffled to create new narratives or new pattern sequences as the viewer chooses.

A selection of drawings from throughout the year. Along with writing reams and reams, drawing and painting helps me think and allows ideas to sort themselves in my head before I go about them.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I work with textiles and music to tell stories about people and places. I enjoy researching specific locations and people in history and making things to dress up in. A focus on sustainable and traditional hand craft practices and an interest in folk and social history permeates all my work.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
I am a Glasgow-based illustrator/knitter. I am interested in the cultural and traditional context of knitting, as well as the intersection of knit and illustration. I am also interested in world building through creating artefacts and narratives.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
In my work I tend to draw on themes of social history and the relationship between place and identity, but my process is always firmly based around exploring and playing with narrative. I am inspired by hearing the stories of others, and appreciate finding ways to visualise them through a variety of…

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
Communication Design Glasgow School of Design

Winner

The Kerry Aylin Prize for Distinction in Printing

Glasgow/Liverpool based graphic designer interested in all things type and printing. My practice this year has mainly explored themes of nostalgia, with a focus on world-building and typeface design. I most enjoy utilising traditional graphic design skills and tend to use wit and narrative to communicate my ideas.

Flourish

Shuggie Bain is a Man Booker Prize winning novel written by Douglas Stuart. The novel centers around Shuggie Bain, an effeminate boy who spends his 1980s childhood in poverty stricken Glasgow. The project was was commissioned by Picador to mark the publication of the novel in paperback with the intended outcome of a mural at the Barrowland Ballroom and posters around Glasgow, with a 6-sheet poster to run down Sauchiehall Street. Cobolt Collective were selected for the project and Jack Batchelor, a fellow Communication Design student, and I were brought on to produce the typeface to be used in the designs. With a 2-week turn around, we immediately began to research and found key phrases in the book that would inform our ideas. Throughout the book, Shuggie is referred to as being 'no right', a feminine presence in a very masculine world. After coming across the word 'flourish' in one of the our quotes from the book, we decided on the concept. The idea was to create a typeface that presents the concept of toxic masculinity and juxtapose it with the addition of flourishes, demonstrating the idea of something being 'no right'. The flourishes enhanced the letterforms whilst also harking back to the idea of dance and movement, a common theme throughout the book.

Huddleston

This project was inspired by the talk 'To All The Fonts I've Loved Before' by Eric Hu. I decided to look back to my family history and create a typeface dedicated to my Grandad and his old fishmongers. The initial stages of this project were sentimental as I allowed myself to indulge in my childhood memories of both the shop and my Grandad. Collecting photographs and speaking to my mum about her memories proved to be emotional and encouraged me to produce a typeface that respected our combined memories, using the shopfront as a starting point. The type specimen borrows its visual language from the shop itself, including images of my family and pairing them with words and phrases relating to my memories, as well as including a poem written by my Grandmother.

Fake Fans

Inspired by the concept of paper towns - a fictitious entry on a map used to help unmask copyright infringements - Fake Fans is a project exploring the tense football rivalry between two teams - Coulthard F.C. and Arundel Rovers - residing in the same fictional town of Wanhall. Originally, the project was light-hearted and comedic in nature, with pub brawls and frivolous arguments dictating the narrative and outcomes. To give the project some reality and context, I looked into the 3-day week of early 1974.

The 3-day week was introduced by the Government in response to the miner's strikes and fuel shortages. The country was told to "Switch Something Off" and the working week was shortened to only 3 days, with many factories opening Thursday - Saturday. This led to the initiation of Sunday football as, although previously a legally religious day of rest, workers could no longer attend Saturday matches. The outcome is an archive of work belonging to a Coulthard F.C. supporter and relating to a particular match in '74 - documenting the rivalry between the teams as well as hinting at the social context at the time. Drawing on satire and the tongue-in-cheek attitude of '70s lower-league English football, the project is an exploration of narrative and world-building.

Shuggie Bain - Flourish Typeface

Midway through the year, I was invited to collaborate with Cobolt Collective and fellow student Ellie Bainbridge to create a unique typeface celebrating the paperback launch of 'Shuggie Bain' (by Douglas Stuart), a brutal, visceral tale of poverty, addiction, and growing up queer in 1980's Glasgow.

One of the most ubiquitous typefaces of the era was 'Compacta'. It can be found everywhere across 80's Glasgow, from the merchandise window in the Barrowlands to Anti-Poll Tax demonstrations in the East End. It presents itself as a 'masculine', geometric form, rigidly structured, threatening even. There was a relationship we wanted to explore there, it felt like it keenly mirrored the contextual gender politics that Shuggie-who is described as 'no right' by those around him-was living through. 'What use is a soft boy in a hard world?' One character asks. We wanted the typeface to reflect the break that Shuggie's masculinity represents from the older, more toxic models of his selfish, absentee father, and how against all odds Shuggie manages to 'flourish' in a restrictive, disadvantaged and openly hostile environment.

A real turning point in the design process was the description of the 'happy confident loops' in his mothers' signature. Agnes' imprint is all across Shuggie, it's where many of his defining qualities stem from, most importantly his pride and his determination to survive and succeed. It made perfect sense to introduce some of my own mother's proud 'flourishes' into Compacta's forms.

These letters are joyous acts of rebellion against their harsh, unforgiving roots; even as the bullies taunt him at his window, Shuggie still dances in his living room: '[...]

Flourish

Shuggie Bain is a Man Booker Prize winning novel written by Douglas Stuart. The novel centers around Shuggie Bain, an effeminate boy who spends his 1980s childhood in poverty stricken Glasgow. The project was was commissioned by Picador to mark the publication of the novel in paperback with the intended outcome of a mural at the Barrowland Ballroom and posters around Glasgow, with a 6-sheet poster to run down Sauchiehall Street. Cobolt Collective were selected for the project and Jack Batchelor, a fellow Communication Design student, and I were brought on to produce the typeface to be used in the designs. With a 2-week turn around, we immediately began to research and found key phrases in the book that would inform our ideas. Throughout the book, Shuggie is referred to as being 'no right', a feminine presence in a very masculine world. After coming across the word 'flourish' in one of the our quotes from the book, we decided on the concept. The idea was to create a typeface that presents the concept of toxic masculinity and juxtapose it with the addition of flourishes, demonstrating the idea of something being 'no right'. The flourishes enhanced the letterforms whilst also harking back to the idea of dance and movement, a common theme throughout the book.

Huddleston

This project was inspired by the talk 'To All The Fonts I've Loved Before' by Eric Hu. I decided to look back to my family history and create a typeface dedicated to my Grandad and his old fishmongers. The initial stages of this project were sentimental as I allowed myself to indulge in my childhood memories of both the shop and my Grandad. Collecting photographs and speaking to my mum about her memories proved to be emotional and encouraged me to produce a typeface that respected our combined memories, using the shopfront as a starting point. The type specimen borrows its visual language from the shop itself, including images of my family and pairing them with words and phrases relating to my memories, as well as including a poem written by my Grandmother.

Fake Fans

Inspired by the concept of paper towns - a fictitious entry on a map used to help unmask copyright infringements - Fake Fans is a project exploring the tense football rivalry between two teams - Coulthard F.C. and Arundel Rovers - residing in the same fictional town of Wanhall. Originally, the project was light-hearted and comedic in nature, with pub brawls and frivolous arguments dictating the narrative and outcomes. To give the project some reality and context, I looked into the 3-day week of early 1974.

The 3-day week was introduced by the Government in response to the miner's strikes and fuel shortages. The country was told to "Switch Something Off" and the working week was shortened to only 3 days, with many factories opening Thursday - Saturday. This led to the initiation of Sunday football as, although previously a legally religious day of rest, workers could no longer attend Saturday matches. The outcome is an archive of work belonging to a Coulthard F.C. supporter and relating to a particular match in '74 - documenting the rivalry between the teams as well as hinting at the social context at the time. Drawing on satire and the tongue-in-cheek attitude of '70s lower-league English football, the project is an exploration of narrative and world-building.

Shuggie Bain - Flourish Typeface

Midway through the year, I was invited to collaborate with Cobolt Collective and fellow student Ellie Bainbridge to create a unique typeface celebrating the paperback launch of 'Shuggie Bain' (by Douglas Stuart), a brutal, visceral tale of poverty, addiction, and growing up queer in 1980's Glasgow.

One of the most ubiquitous typefaces of the era was 'Compacta'. It can be found everywhere across 80's Glasgow, from the merchandise window in the Barrowlands to Anti-Poll Tax demonstrations in the East End. It presents itself as a 'masculine', geometric form, rigidly structured, threatening even. There was a relationship we wanted to explore there, it felt like it keenly mirrored the contextual gender politics that Shuggie-who is described as 'no right' by those around him-was living through. 'What use is a soft boy in a hard world?' One character asks. We wanted the typeface to reflect the break that Shuggie's masculinity represents from the older, more toxic models of his selfish, absentee father, and how against all odds Shuggie manages to 'flourish' in a restrictive, disadvantaged and openly hostile environment.

A real turning point in the design process was the description of the 'happy confident loops' in his mothers' signature. Agnes' imprint is all across Shuggie, it's where many of his defining qualities stem from, most importantly his pride and his determination to survive and succeed. It made perfect sense to introduce some of my own mother's proud 'flourishes' into Compacta's forms.

These letters are joyous acts of rebellion against their harsh, unforgiving roots; even as the bullies taunt him at his window, Shuggie still dances in his living room: '[...]

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Glasgow/Liverpool based graphic designer interested in all things type and printing. My practice this year has mainly explored themes of nostalgia, with a focus on world-building and typeface design. I most enjoy utilising traditional graphic design skills and tend to use wit and narrative to communicate my ideas.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
St. Kilda, Its People and Birds (1908) Williamson Kinematograph

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
St Kilda, Britain's Loneliest Isle (1923-1928)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
BBC Scotland Highlands and Islands reporter

A new book challenges an idea of St Kilda as a lost world where islanders lived in isolation from wider society.

St Kilda: The Last and Outmost Isle draws on the most detailed archaeological survey of the archipelago ever undertaken.

It features rarely seen and previously unpublished photographs of its inhabitants, visitors and landscape.

People lived permanently on St Kilda for thousands of years until the last left 85 years ago.

St Kilda, a group of small islands and towering sea stacks, lies 40 miles (64km) west of North Uist in the Western Isles.

The book follows an eight-year survey and research programme by the Royal Commission on the Ancient and Historical Monuments of Scotland (RCAHMS) in partnership with National Trust for Scotland.

RCAHMS is now part of new body Historic Environment Scotland while the trust works with the Ministry of Defence and Scottish Natural Heritage in managing St Kilda, a designated World Heritage Site.

The book's authors, archaeologists George Geddes and Angela Gannon, have lived for months at a time on St Kilda and this has given them an understanding of what life was like for former inhabitants.

Mr Geddes said the islanders were often thought of as a "lost tribe", who escaped modern life until the last minute as "a virtue of their isolation and self-sufficiency".

He said: "Most of us have a romantic notion of St Kilda as a place apart, a place that is somehow different.

"Having read a book on the islands as a teenager, I first went there to escape from another job, and found that living there changed my life completely."

Mr Geddes said those who had lived on the islands on a more permanent basis were closely connected to communities in the Hebrides and west Highlands.

He said: "Their way of life was very similar to those living in the rest of the Western Isles.

"For all of the historical period, St Kilda was part of a farm with another island, Pabbay, and the islanders paid rent to the Macleod chiefs, much the same as any other Highland community.

"Of course, they were far more self-sufficient than you and I, but they were very much tuned into a complicated clan economy."

The book also explores islanders' use of almost every corner of the archipelago.

Growing crops and raising cattle and sheep, they also famously harvested seabirds for their meat, feathers and eggs from cliffs and sea stacks, such as 196m (643ft) Stac an Armin.

Since 1957, people have lived on the main island of Hirta on a temporary basis to operate a military radar station.

Hirta is also busy during the summer months with researchers, volunteers and tourists.

Among the book's rarely seen photographs are images taken by Scottish climber and broadcaster Tom Weir. They include pictures showing early work to establish the radar station in 1957.

Mr Geddes said: "Most writers at this time saw the arrival of the first machines on the island as a kind of desecration of the islands, just then becoming a National Nature Reserve."

He added: "The military pictures are fascinating as they capture a huge change in the culture of St Kilda, many of the soldiers initially sent to build the base being far from happy about it."

From photographic archives, other powerful images were found for the book. Many of them show people who lived, worked and raised families on St Kilda.

"In a few cases, all that has been written on the back of some of these photographs was the word 'natives'," said Mr Geddes.

"The book tries to explain that St Kilda, its landscape and people, fit like a glove with the rest of Scotland.

"St Kildans were just as individual as you or I, and their story is as much about their choices and decisions when faced with living in this difficult place, as it is a story about wider historical and societal changes."

The BBC is not responsible for the content of external sites.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
New book challenges St Kilda's 'lost world' tag

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
A new book challenges perceptions of St Kilda being an isolated lost world populated by people living in isolation from the rest of Scotland.

# data[].attributes.body
Monotype dance sequence

# data[].attributes.body
“The great toes of the cragsmen are widely separated from the others, from the circumstance of their frequently resting their entire weight on that part of the foot in climbing,” Seton wrote.

Martin considered them “the happiest people in this habitable globe . . . far above the avarice and slavery of the rest of mankind.”

By the time Seton visited, steamships were regularly bringing Victorian holiday-makers to see the savages in their midst. (An account from 1900 describes how the tourists treated the islanders “as if they were wild animals at the zoo. They throw sweets at them, openly mock them.”)

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
In 1877, George Seton, a visitor to the tiny Scottish archipelago of St. Kilda, observed that the men living there had an unusual physiological characteristic. "The great toes of the cragsmen are widely separated from the others, from the circumstance of their frequently resting their entire weight on that part of the foot in climbing," Seton wrote. These men with prehensile feet were residents of the most remote settlement in the British Isles, forty miles out in the North Atlantic, where seabirds, garnered from the towering cliffs, formed the major part of their diet. A hundred years after Seton, another visitor wrote that "even today a boat setting out for St. Kilda is by no means assured of reaching its destination."

These were unnerving words to recall as I stood, clad in oilskins and a lifejacket, on the pier at Uig, on the Isle of Skye, at seven o'clock one morning in August. Though the air was cold and still, the sky a smooth overcast, the captain of our small boat assured us that the ocean swell would make the journey to the islands uncomfortable, and that the weather could worsen at any moment.

We day-trippers were fortunate. The weather did change, but for the better, and the sea was glassy flat. What was once an arduous, daylong voyage in an open rowboat was now an exhilarating rush toward Britain's highest sea cliffs and biggest seabird colony, and to a UNESCO World Heritage Site where we could happily examine the ruins of a village that had been home to as many as two hundred people. A bright sun made the green hills, speckled with violets and tormentil, shine, and turned the sea pewter gray. Only the cliffs, falling improbably from hilltops and cols and making it impossible to land anywhere but the village bay, reminded us that the islands are often cut off by storms for weeks, or even months, at a time.

Hirta-the "big" island, at two and a half square miles-was inhabited for thousands of years, with Soay and Boreray (the latter four miles distant) reserved for sheep. The islanders farmed little and fished less, preferring to subsist on seabirds. They developed extraordinary climbing skills, scaling thousand-foot precipices with cowhide ropes to harvest fulmar from the cliffs of Hirta, puffins from the Dun-a dinosaur spine of an islet, broken off from Hirta a few centuries ago-and gannets from two great sea stacks. At their population's peak, the islanders took an annual harvest of tens of thousands of birds and eggs, which one sixteenth-century traveller, Martin Martin, found to be of "an astringent and windy quality." (The St. Kildans reportedly thought that they tasted best after they had been covered in peat ash and aged for several months inside turf-topped stone huts, called cleits.) To match their strange diet, the St. Kildans, who spoke only Gaelic and had minimal contact with their feudal overlord, on Skye, had an unusual economic and political system. A parliament of all adult men met each morning, and the most important possessions-the arable land, the few climbing ropes, the single boat-were held in common, with each family benefitting from and responsible for its share in proportion to its needs. Martin considered them "the happiest people in this habitable globe . . . far above the avarice and slavery of the rest of mankind."

Other visitors from the mainland found the St. Kildans' life style brutish and backward and were determined to civilize them. Missionaries arrived in the early eighteenth century, bringing with them education, disease, and, eventually, a Sabbatarian tyranny so complete that the islanders were prohibited from speaking on Sundays. Meanwhile, advancing technology slowly made the island's traditional exports of mattress feathers and lamp oil, both derived from seabirds, obsolete or unprofitable. The population, battered by high emigration and an infant-mortality rate of eighty per cent, declined. By the time Seton visited, steamships were regularly bringing Victorian holiday-makers to see the savages in their midst. (An account from 1900 describes how the tourists treated the islanders "as if they were wild animals at the zoo. They throw sweets at them, openly mock them.") Finally, in 1930, fewer than forty St. Kildans remained, dependent on tourism for their livelihoods. That summer, after petitioning the British government for evacuation to the mainland, they went voluntarily into exile, scattering across the west of Scotland. The final surviving islander died last spring.

Today, the only human inhabitants-a handful of military contractors and employees of the National Trust for Scotland, which owns the islands and is represented there by a ranger-are seasonal. St. Kilda has returned to the birds, which now number nearly a million. The gannet colonies are so dense that, from a distance, they look like snow.

Vivi Bolin, the current ranger and a trained biologist, described her stint on Hirta as "the holy grail." She believes that the islanders, thriving in isolation, lived in stable balance with their environment. "Even though, in many ways, the St. Kildans had, of course, an extremely hard life," she said, they also had "a good diet" and "a generous landlord." So why did they evacuate? Bolin told me that with "this combination of disease and knowing there is a different way of life, the attraction is too big: you'd want to leave." She compared the islanders to uncontacted peoples in the Amazon, who, despite the rules meant to protect their way of life, still have regular run-ins with outsiders. (In September, ten members of an uncontacted tribe were killed by gold miners in Brazil.)

Mainlanders always knew that St. Kilda was there, and to describe its people as uncontacted is hyperbole-so why does it, in common with other abandoned places and lost or threatened cultures, arouse such fascination? Perhaps it's because, in our globalizing, urbanizing, capitalist age, such places remind us that there are alternative ways to relate to the world, and the people, around us: they spur our utopian imagination.

In 1930, after the evacuation, several hundred people applied to resettle St. Kilda. Permission was denied. The dream of escape, though, lives on. As Bolin said, on the islands, "we can almost pretend that we have a community."

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
A Trip to St. Kilda, Scotland's Lost Utopia in the Sea

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Fergus McIntosh visits the Scottish archipelago of St. Kilda, where for centuries local residents subsisted on seabirds captured from the islands' towering sea cliffs, and discusses why the settlement was abandoned.

# data[].attributes.body
Martin gives a short account of what appears to have bee na species of 'anachd' or shinty, a game which the Scottish Highlands have long enthusiastically practised. 'They use', he says, 'for their diversion short clubs and balls of wood. The sand is a fair field for this sport and exercise, in which they take great pleasure, and are very nimble at it. They play for some eggs, fowls, hooks or tobacco; and so eager are they for victory, that they strip themselves to their shirts to obtain it. They use swimming and diving, and are very expert in both.'

# data[].attributes.body
'The Lover's stone': He elsewhere gives a curious account of the mode in which a youthful St Kilda wooer was expected, in former times, to exhibit some proof of his courage, before securing the plighted troth of the object of his affections. For that purpose he assembled his friends round the inner margin of 'the lover's stone', resembling a door in form, which occupies the very verge of a perpendicular precipice, from twenty to thirty fathoms in height, at the south-east corner of the island, the situation being indicated in Martin's map under the name 'the mistress stone'. Planting the left heel on its outer edge, and with the sole foot entirely unsupported, he extended his right leg beyond the other and grasped the foot with both hands. He continued in this ticklish position sufficiently long to satisfy the spectators of his pluck and devotion; and after the performance of the feat - a practical illusion of the proverb, 'Faint heart ne'er won fair lady' - he was 'accounted worth of the finest mistress in the world'.

# data[].attributes.body
Wedding attire: "Both men and women were very decently attired - the former in jackets and trousers and black silk neckerchiefs, and the latter in printed dresses, bonnets and shawls."

# data[].attributes.body
"Stone of Knowledge", which is said to have possessed magical qualities, in a way of conferring the gift of second-sight for a limited period on any one who stood upon it 'the first day of the quarter.'

# data[].attributes.body
The air [he says] is full of feathered animals, the sea is covered with them, the houses are ornamented by them, the ground is speckled with them like a flowery meadow in May. The town is paved with feathers, the very dinghills are made of feathers, the ploughed land seems as if it has been sown with feathers and the inhabitants look as if they had been all tarred and feathered, for their hair is full of feathers, and their clothes are covered in feathers. The women look like feathered Mercuries, for their shoes are made of gannet's skin; everything smells of feathers, and the smell pursued us all over the islands - for the captain had concealed a sack-full in the cabin.

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.title
St. Kilda, Its People and Birds (1908) Williamson Kinematograph

# data[].attributes.body
Reduction linocut animation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Hand carved and printed animation made in Crow's Shadow Press, Oregon. The boy and girl emerge from the darkness, change shape and expression, get lighter and brighter and are eventually carved away completely. Made with reduction linocut and around 1500 photoshop frames.

# data[].attributes.body
Risography printed animation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
The 280 frames of this animation were printed with a risograph. This animation is one part of our Bachelor project "schlicht und ergreifend". It is an approach to the japanese philosophy wabi-sabi and treats one of its main aspects: transience. (This project is a collaboration with Anna Schuierer)

# data[].attributes.body
Hand Printed Animation

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
Short experimental animation consisting of about 90 hand printed frames.  Shot with a Nikon D3100.

# data[].attributes.body
Two Faces - Alison de Vere

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.readable_text
If you can read a face like a book, then here it is a book of poetry. Loose brushstrokes sketch a series of portraits of two faces, one male and one female, whilst the verse on the soundtrack tells the tale of both one and a thousand relationships. Alison de Vere was responsible for both the text and images, and the film was released in the same year she worked as a designer on the animated Beatles feature, Yellow Submarine (1968).

Though she had worked in the animation industry since the early 1950s, this was Alison's first independent short. Almost a decade later her second, Café Bar (1975) brought here considerable festival attention, followed by Mr Pascal (1979) and her masterpiece The Black Dog (1987).

# data[].attributes.attachment_link.description
An abstract poetic tale that tells both one and a thousand stories of love and loss, by a designer on The Beatles Yellow Submarine film

# data[].attributes.body
He also mentions that the islanders observed the festivals of Christmas, Easter, Good Friday, St Columba's Day and All Saints, on the last of which 'they have an anniversary cavalcade, the number of their horses not exceeding eighteen; these they mount by turns, having neither saddle nor bridle of any kind, except rope, which manages the horse only on one side. They ride from the shore to the house, and then after each man has performed his tour, the show is at an end.' Macauley connects the St Kilda 'Derby' with Michaelmas, when he informs us, 'the ablest horsemen among them ride their little high-mettled nags, like so many Numidians or old Britons, without saddles, stirrups, or bridles. Those who distinguish themselves in these races, are supremely happy in the rewards of honour and glory which they obtain, through strangers to the royal plates of the moderns, and the palm crowns of ancient times.' The nature of the ground could not have been very suitable, one would think, for rapid riding...

# data[].attributes.body
Images from my trip to St Kilda in 2019