All posts tagged education

Promotional posters for Book Week

Design for Book Week poster - Read, Write and Blue

Design for Book Week poster - Read, Write and Blue

Engaging children in reading, before JK Rowling came along, was always a bit hit and miss. Over the last few years I have worked on a variety of reading promotions including themed Book Weeks. Here I offer some of the material I’ve produced in conjunction with these events.

The promotional material here was designed to appeal to school children aged 11-18.  Some years we specifically targeted sub groups such as boys with the ‘Get Booked’ campaign which featured football hardmen Vinnie Jones and Roy Keane discussing their favourite literature.

One theme, entitled, ‘Would like to Meet”,  engaged and challenged the viewer to work out which literary character was placing lonely heart adverts in the local paper. These themes proved very popular and helped in planning and guiding the course of other events such as  quizzes and competitions held during the week.

“Our best themes were slightly risque and had an air of ambiguity about them, which would cause quite a stir among the students (and the staff) We did not want the tame and sometimes slightly corny slogans which seem to pervade the national psyche when it comes to young people and reading.”
(Librarian Charlotte Smith)

Poster Gallery:

All material was backed up with Book Week Websites which have been archived online.

Northhampton University lecturers photo shoot

Dr Matthew McCormack in the Northampton University Library

Dr Matthew McCormack in the Northampton University Library

I have just completed the post production on a photo shoot at Northampton University, the brief was to provide photographic portraits for a teaching and learning brochure published by the university. Previous versions of this document have been very corporate; this year they wanted something more dynamic! I set about packing my strobist gear and put my creative head on.

I knew things would have to move fast on the first morning as seven lecturers were scheduled in seven separate locations plus we managed to squeeze in another set-up when the chance presented itself. The key to this is simply how fast you can work using off-camera flash system. A second morning’s session went without a hitch and even included an extra quick shoot in the cafe at the university. I have it on good authority, from patrons, that Martin in the booth serves the best coffee. He was also very patient as I clamped strobes all over his work area, so a big thanks to him.

All were good natured at the thought of being photographed and accommodating to what must have seemed bizarre requests from yours truly as I hung out of windows, dangled off balconies and re-arranged dinosaurs and Lego robots! Enjoy the pictures.

Picture Gallery: