The marks are in and I’m pleased to announce after much debate and several glasses of wine…

“Two members of the Ski Chair Lift Phobia Society practise sitting close to the edge!” is the winner

Thanks to all the entries, we had a lot of fun. As no one guessed the location exactly, a spot prize, was awarded to @spalmerama, for his attempt to ‘tempt’ the judges with a topical MCFC joke about Tevez – however my team being Norwich meant it was still a tad too painful after the football lesson the other week. Still we beat Newcastle comfortably enough!

Alan Ward

As it’s that time of year to have a little fun, opposite is our christmas card image.

We are looking for the best caption to go with this image and will be giving away a small selection of publications from the Axis archive as a reward.

Click on the image for a larger version.

Open only to UK submissions, you may email us or tweet a direct message to enter.

The winner will be selected by ourselves and Len Grant, ‘photographer extraordinaire’ on Dec 15, so we can send the winner their christmas package.

image © Axis

On Tuesday 8th myself and Mark Doyle took a roadtrip over to Llandudno to catch ‘Red Black Other’ by David Nash before it finished. Mark, the Head of Collector Development for the Contemporary Art Society in the North West (quite a mouthful) hadn’t been to see the new look Mostyn Gallery since it had reopened with its fabulous new extension, and was interested in researching the possibility of a CAS trip there next year. So I’d suggested we pop over for a day by the seaside, and I’d treat us to fish and chips afterwards. Sadly the weather wasn’t quite as I’d planned as we headed off to a wet Wales.

Having designed the exhibition publication and been there on the opening night I was keen to catch it again in a quieter moment – its always hard looking at work at previews, there’s people in the way!

Here are a few pictures I took on the trip.

Mr Doyle not happy about the weather.

Mostyn’s beautiful facade through the rain spattered windscreen.

The ‘Red Mountains’ with the wood engrained concrete interior  of the new build in the background. Just loved that juxtaposition, intentional or not, I don’t know.

A close-up of the ‘Redwood Cut Ups’ from which I took details for the screen-printed cover.

The giant pencil stubs, well that’s what they remind me of – ‘Red Dome’ and a detail.

‘Blue Ring’ made of blue bell seeds scattered on a plinth with a luminous pastel canvas seemingly reflecting on the wall.

‘Encased Cross’, my little iphone couldn’t get the colour right at all but loved this piece.

Detail from ‘Millennium Door’.

The Black room with ‘Husk’ in foreground, ‘Torso’ left and ‘King and Queen’ right – and some bloke walking through shot.

Detail for ‘Queen’ which I found fascinating as from the front they both looked quite robust and balanced but from close up and at a particular angle they became very delicate and tall, looking quite unstable. Quite a skill judging the overall balance and effect.

It had stopped raining by the time we walked along the impressive victorian promenade, the sea and sky meeting in a Lowryesque blur on the horizon. Mark declared he didn’t fancy full-blown fish and chips as he was on a diet, so we ate fishfinger sandwiches (the food of Kings) and soup in The Fat Cat – worth a visit if you are in town – discussed the state of the artworld and then headed home.

The seagull on the chippy van looked like he’d have mugged anyone who went near him.

AW

To see the book in detail [click here]

Axis Projects is delighted to announce the launch of a new publication.

This book is the definitive reference on the Domini Canes commission from Lowood Gallery and Kennels, Cumbria that Simon Patterson undertook nearly 10 years ago. Not until now has it been properly documented.

Available in a standard and special edition. For more details click here

This book is the definitive reference on the Domini Canes commission from Lowood Gallery and Kennels, Cumbria that Simon Patterson undertook nearly 10 years ago. Not until now has it been properly documented.

The publication includes an interview with the artist by Patricia Bickers and historical notes on the Monastery of San Marco and its frescos that inspired Simon’s work.

Extract from interview in book with Patricia Bickers:

Q: How did you make the leap from the idea of prison cells to the idea of monk’s cells, specifically the cells frescoed by Fra Angelico and his assistants for the Dominican Convento di San Marco in Florence?

A: The genesis of the work is no longer so clear in my mind after all this time, but so many things seemed to point me in a particular direction – not least the idea of dogs guarding the Christian ‘flock’. It was an added bonus, too, that Jeremy was familiar with San Marco, having spent time in Italy many years earlier and he quickly caught on to what I wanted to do and encouraged me.

Obviously entry to a monastery, unlike a prison, is generally voluntary, but there are otherwise many similarities. I distinctly remember, for instance, being struck by the strict routine of feeding, grooming, and exercise that shaped the day, both for the kennel staff and for the animals in their care. At some point this, and the obvious need to segregate the sexes, must have chimed with my sense of a monastic order. I also thought the name, Lowood Pet Hotel, was amusing but also true because in a way the kennels function somewhat like a retreat, both for the animals and their owners, which also has an obvious religious resonance.

When I went to Florence the year before my first visit to Lowood – to oversee the publication of a book that was being printed there – I took some time out to visit San Marco. I was astonished by the intimate scale of the cells, and by the fact that each cell is individually frescoed with a different contemplative image. I translated this by the simple means of having the walls of the kennels painted in different colours. I chose colours that corresponded as much as possible to those used for fresco painting at the time, principally earth pigments such as yellow ochre, burnt umber, red earth, ultramarine blue and variations in between with the addition of white. In other words: yellow, red, blue, brown and white.

ISBN 978-0-9554825-4-0

72pp foil and blind embossed hardback

42 colour words and 7 reference images

Dims 220 x 172mm portrait

The format of the publication references the look of Kennel Club stud books

It is an edition of 500, of which the first 100 have a numbered and signed, tipped-in digital print by the artist

the special edition also has a marker ribbon and black endpapers, standard edition has white endpapers and no marker ribbon

To buy either version click here

The latest catalogue to accompany Paisnel Gallery’s upcoming show for November, features the lovely Wilhelmina Barns-Graham work Eight Lines, Wave Rhythms on the cover with the title writ large in beautiful Jenson small caps.

Axis is delighted to continue building this series of catalogues for Paisnel Gallery, each having a different typeface featured, but at the same time a clear housestyle being evident. The importance of colour reproduction continues to challenge us and the colour experts we work with, especially as some of the paint pigments and inks need very careful conversion from RGB to CMYK. We think the results speak for themselves however, beautiful staccato printing faithfully reproducing the work.

Softback, 72pp with 8pp cover.

Axis Projects is delighted to announce the launch of this publication.

This book is the definitive reference on the Domini Canes commission from Lowood Gallery and Kennels, Cumbria that Simon Patterson undertook nearly 10 years ago. Not until now has it been properly documented.

The publication includes an interview with the artist by Patricia Bickers and historical notes on the Monastery of San Marco and its frescos that inspired Simon’s work.

Extract from interview in book with Patricia Bickers:

Q: How did you make the leap from the idea of prison cells to the idea of monk’s cells, specifically the cells frescoed by Fra Angelico and his assistants for the Dominican Convento di San Marco in Florence?

A: The genesis of the work is no longer so clear in my mind after all this time, but so many things seemed to point me in a particular direction – not least the idea of dogs guarding the Christian ‘flock’. It was an added bonus, too, that Jeremy was familiar with San Marco, having spent time in Italy many years earlier and he quickly caught on to what I wanted to do and encouraged me.

Obviously entry to a monastery, unlike a prison, is generally voluntary, but there are otherwise many similarities. I distinctly remember, for instance, being struck by the strict routine of feeding, grooming, and exercise that shaped the day, both for the kennel staff and for the animals in their care. At some point this, and the obvious need to segregate the sexes, must have chimed with my sense of a monastic order. I also thought the name, Lowood Pet Hotel, was amusing but also true because in a way the kennels function somewhat like a retreat, both for the animals and their owners, which also has an obvious religious resonance.

When I went to Florence the year before my first visit to Lowood – to oversee the publication of a book that was being printed there – I took some time out to visit San Marco. I was astonished by the intimate scale of the cells, and by the fact that each cell is individually frescoed with a different contemplative image. I translated this by the simple means of having the walls of the kennels painted in different colours. I chose colours that corresponded as much as possible to those used for fresco painting at the time, principally earth pigments such as yellow ochre, burnt umber, red earth, ultramarine blue and variations in between with the addition of white. In other words: yellow, red, blue, brown and white.

ISBN 978-0-9554825-4-0

72pp foil and blind embossed hardback

42 colour words and 7 reference images

Dims 220 x 172mm portrait

The format of the publication references the look of Kennel Club stud books

It is an edition of 500, of which the first 100 have a numbered and signed, tipped-in digital print by the artist

the special edition also has a marker ribbon and black endpapers, standard edition has white endpapers and no marker ribbon

For multiple copies please contact Alan Ward for discount options at ap@axisgraphicdesign.co.uk

For trade enquires please see trade terms and contact Alan Ward at ap@axisgraphicdesign.co.uk

Lo-fi meets luxury in these two versions of the catalogue for ‘Thy Will Be Done’ at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust in Carlisle.

For more details [click here]

Lo-fi meets luxury in these two versions of the catalogue for ‘Thy Will Be Done’ at Tullie House Museum and Art Gallery Trust in Carlisle.

7000 newsprint publications were produced to be given away free at the show and distributed to local schools and libraries.

An exclusive bound edition of ‘Thy Will Be Done’ was also produced to celebrate international artist Jamie Shovlin’s new
exhibition.

Cloth-bound hardback with matching slipcase, beautifully blind embossed to both cover and slipcase.
Enclosing a unique 64pp digitally printed version of the publication, bound in by a tied ribbon.

Signed and numbered by the artist in an edition of 100.

This ticket for an evening service with Arthur E Lickey – - He makes the Bible plain

—-

Mr Lickey is going to discuss “SATAN IN THE BOTTOMLESS PIT AND THE WORLD PASSING THROUGH THE MIDNIGHT HOUR OF TIME”

Sunday Nov 26 at 8.00pm FREE

—-

came with a second hand book bought in Washington State. Its part of a little collection of stuff sitting on a bookcase in the studio

an inspirational pile of beautiful things that include:

a discount ticket

a 45rpm Thomas the Tank Engine story single

a Monotype type specimen for Gill

a postcard from Lindisfarne

2 pamphlets from Budapest, with hand-written notes

a machine parts catalogue for The Singer Company

and a fancy chocolate bar wrapper

Recently completed project for Cargill, Manchester

Added to portfolio [here]

Designed for Cargill, Manchester as part of their year long centenary celebrations. Cargill produce sweeteners and starches for confectionery, brewing, dairy and baking sectors.

Rich in archival images, it is both a company history and a social document of the people and the development of the site. In parallel, it is a fascinating look at the way photography has portrayed a single company, from lush plate glass black and white prints, to early large format colour including wonderful ‘Kodachromes’, through to current digital images. Full of interesting facts and well researched historical text written by Len Grant, it is a beautifully produced softback with an unusual concertina dustjacket that unfolds into a 2 sided poster of archival images.

A limited edition version has a special half height slipcase.

Alongside the book, Axis has been commissioned to design 2 8ft x 4ft panels in the same graphic style as the dustjacket, to be hung in the staff entrance hall.

Recently completed project for Mostyn Gallery, Llandudno

Added to portfolio [here]

Otherwise known as ‘Red Black Other’

This publication was commissioned to coincide with the first exhibition to make an assessment of the nature of colour in David Nash’s work.

Nash recently had a comprehensive retrospective at the Yorkshire Sculpture Park, of which the publication was in many ways the definitive tome, so we felt any follow up publication for Mostyn needed to fulfil a different objective.

So this book was more tactile and minimalist in presentation, it was all about reproducing the sculptures in a beautiful picture book, with titles of works all removed to the back.

As object, we played with small elements of colour in the head and tail bands and the page marker ribbon, reflecting the 3 core colours Nash used in making new works for this show.

We also wrapping the works in the intense fire endpapers, referencing the production process involved in the making of some of the sculptures.

The cover has a screen printed texture taken from ‘Redwood Cut Ups’ (one of the major illustrated works) over which the typographic foil blocking is laid.

Available from

http://www.mostyn.org/whats_on/detail/ red_black_other

A sign of the times in the arts.

Sadly my old college and its design course are closing after 45 years. There is to be an Alumni show (horrid americanism) of former students. We’ve been given the brief of ‘my favourite word’ so I’ve been busy creating a rather large, but intensely small piece of work for it, here’s a detail, more to be revealed soon.

Can you tell what it is yet!

AW

On a fine sunny day in Manchester, we loaded up a bag full of books we’d designed and set off with photographer Len Grant in tow, to find some friendly souls in Chorlton.

I think everyone enjoyed it. Many thanks to all involved and especially Len for his ability to make great pictures.

The people of Chorlton with Axis books, Thursday 29 September 2011.

“Excuse me, we’re doing some portraits for a trade directory. Have you got 30 seconds?”

“You know I’ve been famous before, I’ve been on a calendar.”

“The Midland Hotel in Morecombe? Before they did it up there was a brilliant rave in the car park.”

“Can I hold that one? It won’t clash with my top as much.”

“Let me check what I’m holding… it’s not full of porn is it?”

We are pleased to announce that the book we designed for Dan Dubowitz and Manchester University Press has been shortlisted for the 2011 Roses Design Awards, organised by The Drum.

The winners will be announced on 13th October at the awards dinner in Manchester, which is great we can get the tram to the awards…

Thanks to Dan Dubowitz for sending these images of ‘The Peeps’ and ‘Wastelands’ featured and sitting on the top two tables in the ‘best of photographic books from the world’ at The Photography Festival Les Rencontres d’Arles, a few weeks ago. Both were produced by Axis within the last year. It’s great that they are receiving wide-spread recognition.

I have just posted a comment on the DNRH blog, part of a project we are currently working on for the launch of the Peeps book we recently designed. Click here to see the blog and website both designed by Axis.

More details of the book here

Gallery catalogue for Paisnel in London, published to coincide with the major exhibition of Frank Avary Wilson’s ‘The Vital Years’. With an essay by Peter Davis, this publication reappraises this artist’s creative output from the 50s and 60s. Cloth bound with a 2 colour foil block to cover. It has 72 pages of full colour reproductions printed with a stuccato screen to enable the detail of the work to really lift off the page.

Promotional posters and flyers commissioned to promote the new Redeye membership scheme. Part of our on-going development of publicity material for Redeye, the photography network that started with the redesign of their logo. Working in conjunction with Words & Fixtures to develop the straplines and text this campaign was launched at Look 11 in Liverpool.

The art newspaper for the 2011 Chorlton Arts Festival has arrived and looks just great. With the new identity driving the change in format, for the first time we have been able to allow the content to breath on the page, making the reading experience significantly better.

Watch out in south Manchester for your copy, it will be available in all local bars and shops and there will be a house to house mail drop over the next few days.

The website also produced by us is here

Light Night Launch for Touched – The Book

Liverpool Biennial @ News from Nowhere – Liverpool’s Radical & Community Bookshop, 96 Bold Street

Readings from the book took place on Friday 13 May by Victoria Allington, Esther Dix and Aimee Jeffery from LIPA, the Liverpool Institute For Performing Arts.

Lovely marginal notes made in the books they read from. 

See here for more details of the book.

Sometimes the smallest jobs bring immense satisfaction. Approached by Peter Fraser to review and update his stationery, Axis designed a suitably reserved and elegant new business card with electronic templates for correspondence.

Anyone who has read American Psycho would want this card to be swapped in the boardroom scene.

In these days of fast turnaround digital print, its great to find companies that still deliver the age old craft of edge gilding. 

Minimalist ‘bling’ factor 10.

A website and identity for TherapyInManchester.co.uk, a private psychotherapy and counselling practice in Didsbury, Manchester, run by Paul Melia.

View website here

Post-biennial publication documenting all of the ‘Touched’ exhibition and ‘Touched Talks’ is now printed and delivered!

Available from Liverpool Biennial online here

Read and see more here

Post-biennial publication documenting all of the ‘Touched’ exhibition and ‘Touched Talks’.

352pp with OTA bound cover make for a substantial publication, with beautiful photography from Liz Locke & Mishka Henner and Thierry Bal showing the work of over 60 artists. ‘Touched’ is printed on arctic volume 150gsm, 4 colour throughout with spot varnishes to the images.

Available from Liverpool Biennial online here

Liverpool Biennial publication “Touched” printing in Antwerp at DeckersSnoeck, filmed by Alan Ward of Axis Graphic Design whilst colour press passing. The book is now in the bindery where it will be OTA bound, and then shortly thereafter delivered to Liverpool.

352 pages plus cover, it is printed on arctic volume 150gsm in 4 colour throughout with spot varnish to the images. It will be available through the Liverpool Biennial and Cornerhouse Publications distribution.

This book documents the artist-in residency of Dan Dubowitz within the former industrial suburb of Ancoats, Manchester – the birthplace of the industrial revolution.

Read and see more here

Reclaim, a Manchester-based youth project commissioned Axis and Len Grant to tell the story of their groundbreaking outreach work with young people from deprived communities.

Read and see more here

A Timeline and document of the regeneration of East Manchester funded by New Deal for Communities and New East Manchester.

A 184pp full colour hardback publication, that tells the story of how 3 east Manchester neighbourhoods pulled their area back from the brink, and through the international sporting spectacle of the Commonwealth Games, achieved one of the most sustained regeneration efforts in the UK.

This book documents the artist-in residency of Dan Dubowitz within the former industrial suburb of Ancoats, Manchester – the birthplace of the industrial revolution.

A miscellany of contemporary installation and archive imagery, a treasury of fact and invention, The Peeps publication has been 2 years in the making – a process of collaboration, research and refinement.

Available through Manchester University Press or Amazon ISBN 978 0 7190 8552 9

———-

In 2002, when the Ancoats area of Manchester was better known as a formidable wasteland, I was commissioned to contribute to its regeneration. Over the next eight years a series of Peeps, viewed from the streets, were walled up in the buildings of Ancoats and the area’s first public square, The Cutting Room, was made.

In immuring charged spaces the Peeps project reveals how what is latent in Ancoats can actively shape its emerging identity as it is remade. These ‘redevelopment’ projects started out with photography and lead to the concrete and permanent Peeps and Cutting Room artworks as the new Ancoats began to emerge.

This book presents these two projects in the context of the place, its people and the Ancoats stories that formed the inspiration and basis of these works.It makes no attempt to describe or explain these artworks, as there is no definitive explanation to be had. The artwork has emerged out of a wealth of influences from personal and written histories, experiences, ideas and images. They are the confluence of many fragments and the connections and reconnections they make. This book sets out to reflect this working process. It explores how a place might achieve a continuity of culture as it passes through a period of abandonment, dereliction and regeneration, and dwells on how an artist might constructively be involved in shaping a city.

Dan Dubowitz, Ancoats, 2011

Reclaim, a Manchester-based youth project commissioned Axis and Len Grant to tell the story of their groundbreaking outreach work with young people from deprived communities. Part notebook and part advocacy document, this OTA bound softback with DVD is the result of their journeys!

Axis were keen to translate the energy and enthusiasm of the mentors and the young people, within the design. Using a variety of visual devices, including comic strip, bold documentary photography and confident typography, a dynamic and stimulating publication was developed.

Essentially a year-long photographic document of the regeneration of a wharfside building in inner Manchester for Town Centre Securities PLC, this commission was a collaboration with photographer Len Grant.

A delicate exercise in the rhythm and flow of picture editing, started for us in hard-hats and hi-viz jackets getting under its very skin and resulted in a beautiful large-format coffee table book of rich and atmospheric pictures.

This started out as a video project but ended up as a book of video stills.

An artist book by Alan Ward, which visits 3 stages of the Tour de France in 2010. This publication is not just about the cyclists, it explores the strange, the unusual, the abstract and the random that surrounds the beautiful madness of the grand tour.

Limited to an edition of 22 – the number of Pro teams in the Tour in 2010 – each book is individually numbered and signed and wrapped in one of each of the 22 team musette feedbags with 2 limited edition postcards and an edition card.

For more details see its entry under ap publishing.

This started out as a video project but ended up as a book of video stills.

An artist book by Alan Ward, which visits 3 stages of the Tour de France in 2010. This publication is not just about the cyclists, it explores the strange, the unusual, the abstract and the random that surrounds the beautiful madness of the grand tour.

Limited to an edition of 22 – the number of Pro teams in the Tour in 2010 – each book is individually numbered, signed and wrapped in one of each of the 22 team musette feedbags used by the riders (actual used musettes!), also includes 2 limited edition postcard prints of Col de la Ramaz summit and an edition card.

Edition: AG2R-La Mondiale | Astana | BBox Bouygues Telecom | BMC | Caisse D’Epargne | Cervelo sold | Cofidis | HTC-Columbia | Euskaltel-Euskadi | Footon-Servetto | Francais des Jeux sold | Garmin-Slipstream sold | Katusha | Lampre | Liquigas-Doimo | Team Milram sold | Omega Pharma-Lotto sold | Quick Step sold | Rabobank | Team Radioshack | Saxo Bank | Team Sky axis

170mm x 170mm square

Hardback in musette bag with two postcard prints and edition card.

152pp

Priced £100.00 including p&p

ap05

Due to the nature of this publication and each unique wrapping, please contact us by email prior to ordering.

Please reply only to my personal email…

Between 15 February 2009 and 16 April 2010, the email addresses at Axis Design, Manchester, received forty-eight unsolicited messages offering a reader a range of relationships with women. [SG]

What do you do with your junk mail? At Axis Design, Alan Ward collected them as they landed in his email account. He became fascinated by the messages and the photographs that attached these emails. This book represents that year long collecting process.

Foreword by artist and curator Simon Grennan.

“Her name is Lyudmila. She is 35 years old. She has no pernicious habits. She does not drink and smoke. She likes to go in for sports and has many other hobbies about which she will tell to you later.”

“This is not spam or other bad things. So, please, answer to me!!!”

“I love animals. Especially I love cats and dogs. I have three dogs which live on my summer residence. In cold time they live at my place. You love cats? Right now on my knees I sits Cat Tomis also helps me to write you the letter:))”

“I search for that person who rescue me from solitude. I feel myself solitary in this enormous, false and cruel world.It is so awfully.”

Strictly limited edition of 48 copies

246mm x 195mm portrait

Hardback 112pp

ap04

Priced £60.00 including p&p

Pictures from 100 years of Guardian Photography in Manchester 1908 – 2008

Edited by Dennis Thorpe

A Long Exposure presents a cross section of an incredibly diverse body of work, focusing on seven photographers who worked for the Guardian in Manchester bewteen 1908 and 2008.

Over the period of a century, they shaped the innovative pictorial style of the Guardian and played a crucial role in the development of modern documentary photography.

Printed as an edition of 500

ISBN 978-9554825-3-3

80pp, 240mm x 170mm portrait format

ap03

For further details on ordering this book please contact ap@axisgraphicdesign.co.uk

Tel. +44 (0)161 882 0004

Priced £12.50

Photographs from the opening of Videogame Nation for Woodhorn in Ashington, nr Newcastle.

Having completely redesigned the show from its original incarnation at Urbis for the gallery space at Woodhorn, it was great to see it insitu, rather than in 3d mode on the computer.

Some photos of ‘The Peeps’ book for Dan Dubowitz on press at DeckersSnoeck in Antwerp. Also the lovely B&B I stayed at called Boulevard Leopold – it looked like a Mark Dion installation. [AW]

The definitive guide to the Lord Leverhulme Collection at the Lady Lever Art Gallery in Port Sunlight. This publication was 2 years in the making in terms of design and proofing. It has a complex hierarchy of typography, which entailed extensive style sheet development and many, many hours of styling. The colour images are beautifully printed with a high definition stocccato screen to avoid any loss of detail.

It became a true labour of love.

275mm x 245mm portrait

252pp softback

Axis has worked with the Biennial in previous years (2000 and 2004) and was delighted to be invited to work on the guide again in 2010. Time was spent looking at how the visitor would navigate the city and the guide, and colour co-ordination for the various strands was developed. A pared down typographic approach made it readable even at the pocket-size scale of the guide. The Scala font family was selected, using the sans for the guide and with the ‘Reader’ post-Biennial publication to come the Scala serif was adopted for that publication.

195mm x 135mm portrait

Softback 264pp

One of a series of commissions for photographer and artist Dan Dubowitz. The website is both a portfolio and a repository for reviews, videos and notes on his projects.

See also the books Fascismo Abbandonato and The Peeps: Ancoats The Presence of Absence.

www.civicworks.net

A limited edition publication to accompany the final exhibition at Urbis before it closed down.

Each was individually numbered and uniquely wrapped with portions of left over Peter Saville billboard artwork from an earlier Urbis commissioned project.

Axis designed the visual branding and the exhibition that also accompanied this publication.

Axis were commisioned by Urbis to design the branding and the complete look of the exhibition.

We love what we do at Axis and we really enjoy working with artists and organisations, however sometimes projects come along that take your breath away, it was a privilege to work with such wonderful material to create this critically acclaimed show.

Black Panther: Emory Douglas & the Art of Revolution was described by Museums Journal as “one of the exhibitions of the decade.”

Axis were commissioned to design an accessible and informative publication on the complex and difficult subject of slavery and Liverpool’s historical involvement at the centre of its global trade. Since completion of this publication, The Slavery Museum has decided that all future publications will follow this model.

210mm x 210mm

Softback 96pp

BS1 was a 2 year artist residency led by Neville Gabie on the Cabot Circus redevelopment in the centre of Bristol.(BS1).

We worked very closely with Neville to develop a series of individual publications which were also collated into a limited edition boxset (100 numbered with signed edition card) at the conclusion of the commission.

Three of the books document Neville Gabie’s projects during his 2 year residency.

Cantata explores the music from the homelands of the building site workforce, it includes a short film on dvd.

Hardback  ISBN 978 0 9547300 5 5

Canteen looks at the favourite food from the homelands of the building site workforce, it is a receipe book with a difference.

Flexi-bound  ISBN 978 0 9547300 8 6

The Promised Land is the final publication in the trilogy, it surveys 4 projects, The Promised Land a short film, A Weight of Stone Carried from China for You, 100% Ford Mondeo, and BS1 – NY10016 – BS1 A Proposal.

Hardback  ISBN 978 0 9561407 0 8

The fourth book in the boxset BS1 explores the temporary artist residencies of Leo Fitzmaurice, Dryden Goodwin, Dan Perjovschi, Dawson/Maia, Donna Daley-Clarke, Marie Jeanne Hoffner and Neville Gabie/David Ogden. The accompanying website BS1 was also designed by Axis www.bs1.org.uk

Hardback  ISBN 978 0 9547300 9 3

The boxset is available directly from the artist Neville Gabie, contact Axis for details

Here is a small selection of logos and logotypes designed by the studio over the years.

A beautiful coffee-table book of abandoned fascist, modernist buildings in Italy that were part of Mussolini’s colonie experiment. Axis worked closely to develop a format and scale of publication that could ideally reflect the work including panoramics which were reproduced on throw-out pages. Produced in three language editions, Axis designed it so that the black plates were only required to be replaced in certain sections, minimising costs.

31cm x 29cm landscape

Hardback 136pp

ISBN 978-1-904587-80-4

When Len Grant and Axis were commissioned to make a quarterly magazine about East Manchester and its regeneration, we both agreed it should play to Len’s photographic strengths. As a graduate of Newport College where I’d studied design along side the famous Documentary Photographic course, I was immediately reminded of the seminal Newport Survey, a series of annual publications that got under the skin of Newport life. This also reminded Len of Reportage magazine, a beautifully produced large format publication. It was this type of format we wanted to explore, allowing the images to speak without feeling cramped. These publications were our inspiration, ten quarterly issues were produced, and several design and photography awards collected during that time.

See also Reclaiming East Manchester.

Client: Lowry

Artist: Jem Southam

Hard bound edition, published in conjunction with exhibition.

Exhibition graphic identity and design.

Came across this nice little review of a book we designed recently. We worked with Liverpool University Press and close friend Helen Tookey (see also Telling The Fractures)

From: res.oxfordjournals.org

This is a compelling and beautiful book, both to read and to look at. Published in conjunction with the festival and exhibition held at the Bluecoat in Liverpool in the fall of 2009 to celebrate the centenary of Lowry’s birth, Malcolm Lowry: From the Mersey to the World is a suggestively hybrid collection of personal reminiscences, scholarly pieces, fiction and photographic reproductions of visual works. As Bryan Biggs and Helen Tookey point out in their editors’ introduction, the volume addresses the geographical, psychological and creative ‘voyaging’ undertaken by Lowry throughout his life, from his notorious first voyage out to sea in 1927 as a young, middle-class Liverpool schoolboy looking for adventure, to the reluctant return to East Sussex from the squatter’s beachfront paradise he left behind in Dollarton, British Columbia, in 1954, now as the famous author of Under the Volcano. Throughout, the focus is on place and on journeys-not only Lowry’s, but also often the contributors’ own, inspired in each case by illuminating, occasionally life-changing, encounters with Lowry and his writing.

Photograph by Bethan Ward

The morning after the night before! Graphics panels tossed aside after the successful presentation of the new branding for Chorlton Arts Festival.

Over the next few months we will roll out the design across print and web-based media in preparation for 2011.

A sneak peep at the new billboards surrounding the Ancoats site for Dan Dubowitz’s ‘Peeps’ artworks and the Cutting Room public square. The billboards are a trailer for the forthcoming website and book about the artworks and the area.

On press at the printing of Lady Lever publication for Liverpool University Press and National Museums Liverpool.

Also photographed the huge ink tanks that feed all the presses. Glorious colour!

Chorlton Arts Festival

When artist Marsha Balaeva came to us with a request for a website to show her year-long project Dreamshaker, we responded with a minimal take on an online calendar. This also offered the structure to show other related artwork projects.

We loved her style and particularly the animation for the band Sunset Rubdown check it out at

http://marshabalaeva.com

Published after a year long oral history project focusing on the experiences of people who have connections to Bloomfiled, Foxhall, Revoe and South Shore areas of Blackpool.

Axis has had a very good working relationship for nearly 20 years with artist duo Grennan and Speandio, designing and working on a multitude of publications including their major retrospective publication for the University of West Virginia. See Kartoon Kings in archive.

This book is a delightful collection of text image and memories. Working with such interesting material is always such a pleasure. This publication was given away free to residents of Blackpool on completion.

230mm x 175mm portrait

Hardback 96pp

Working in collaboration with Partnership Art, Axis designed a series of 20 panels that circumnavigate the complete city wall circuit of Chester, these describe its history and act as a locator for tourists. In conjuction with these panels a series of waymarker posts were also designed.

Tactile in nature, the relief type and image allows opportunities for rubbings to be made. This project was inspired by an old ceramic souvenir tile of Chester that Axis has sat on a shelf.

A selection of publications worked on with Peter Greenaway, including the award winning ‘Luper at Compton Verney’ exhibition publication and ‘Artworks’ for Editioni Lindau and the Palazzo della Pilotta, Parma, Italy

Commissioned by Martin Stockley of Martin Stockley Associates to document his engineering company’s involvement in the regeneration of Manchester, The Reluctant Engineer is a journey through the ongoing rejuveration of Manchester. His hidden involvement in the new buildings and the changing urban environment are revealed not through a practice profile document, but a graphic contemporary sketchbook of thoughts, overlays, collages and photographs. Working with long time collaborator Len Grant, Axis delivered a refreshing, challenging and enigmatic publication.

Axis was happy to be able to help Chorlton High School develop a new website, as a former community governor at the school, Alan Ward (axis MD) used his experience as both a parent and governor to develop the various sections of the site.

Designed as part of the BS1 commission by InSite Arts to document the artist residency of Neville Gabie in Bristol on the commercial and retail redevelopment by Land Securities at Cabot Circus in the heart of Bristol (BS1).

This website was a hub for Neville and the other visiting artists to blog, upload content and inform about their individual projects during their residencies.

www.bs1.org.uk

Axis were commissioned to redesigning the graphic interfaces of the current A-N website. We were asked to look at how all the different facets of a-n’s delivery could be grouped within an on-line hub. Axis worked with platform 3 who did all the background engineering of the site.

www.a-n.co.uk

Axis also design the supplement series ‘Collections’ which accompany the printed magazine, we also design many of the one-off annual publications that go out to magazine subscribers.

“The title of this collaboration between poet and photographer comes from the poem ‘Confessional’. A mother tells her sleeping child how the perfect, single love of pregnancy has given way in ‘the dyad dark’ to something profound and volatile, the recognition of separateness. Supplementing images of separation, breakage, the pain and waste wrought by time’s passing, are sharp photographs of things once home or part of the piety of home, sundered, discarded, perishing. These two forms of recognition combine to acknowledge, accept and transcend the facts they witness to. There is something of ‘the pure grace of dream’ in the beauty of the acceptance that takes place in a set of templates that will be differently real to each reader, and harshly beautiful to every reader.”

Michael Schmidt, Professor of Poetry, University of Glasgow

“This is a fine collaboration. Both poems and photographs are cropped and angled in surprising and distinctive ways that combine feeling, perception and sharp intelligence.”

Jeffrey Wainwright

Printed as an edition of 500
ISBN 978-0-9554825-2-6
32pp dimensions 240mm x 165mm portrait format

ap02

Priced £6.50 including p&p

The first book to be published by Axis Projects, ‘fifteen+one’ celebrates our first 15 years in Manchester, by looking back at our archive and revisiting 15 books we have designed during that time, plus the book which was the catalyst for arriving in the city.

We invited those artists, curators and collaborators to make new work specifically for the publication, some of these responses were directly related to the initial projects, others were completely new and reflected current practice.

With new work by artists such as Peter Greenaway, Mark Wallinger and Mark Dion, this book is truly a collector’s item, however all the artists involved have made it a fascinating and rewarding experience. It is a book rich in content including spot varnishes, 3D pages, inserts, a numbered poster and an artist scratch card – it is full to bursting!

The edition is limited to 500 individually numbered hardbacks.

Artists involved: Paul Melia, Sue Fox, Grennan & Sperandio, Mark Wallinger, Paul Bayley / Michael Trainor, Matthew Frost, Julia Manheim, Bev Bytheway, John Newling , Peter Greenaway, Len Grant, Mark Dion, Neville Gabie, Martin Stockley, Kathy Rae Huffman, Peter Fraser, Ruth Charity

An edition of 500 individually numbered hardbacks
ISBN 978-0-9554825-1-9
128pp, 240mm x 170mm portrait format

Priced £15.00 including p&p

ap01

(last image illustrates the slipcased signed edition nos. 31-50 – email for availability)

The publication was designed as a limited edition artist book, Japanese bound with perforated image stickers to be added by the reader. We were able to indulge ourselves in a glorious trip down memory lane with a very personal take on the first 20 years of Cornerhouse shows.

20:twenty was the culmination of a working relationship that had spanned in excess of 15 years of Cornerhouse collaborations. We were ideally positioned to design this show as we had worked on many of the previous exhibitions that we looked back on in this 20 year retrospective. A graphic identity was developed for both the show and the celebration events. Every single previous exhibition was represented by a new poster design, coupled with an internet archive, selected av content and an original gallery soundtrack created by Axis.

The second of two publication for Further A Field. Furthermore… is a collection of proposals, and as such they are not realised projects. To complement the material we designed an unfinished publication, with all the printing furniture still attached. Colour bars, stitching and plate signatures all exposed indicating how it was produced. In fact the book was left untrimmed and the viewer was required to split the pages open to investigate the artists’ ideas. Internally we reproduced all the envelopes or emails that contained the submissions, using these as visual dividers.

Interestingly this publication was featured in The Best of British Editorial by Index Publishing, where they copied our envelop motif to show the submissions from different design companies…

Concertina artist book for Julia Manheim.

Client: Artpoint

McNaughton Design Award winner

“Loved the cover and the rubber band. Liked the format. Admired its sketchbook informality. Works as spreads and foldouts. A plethora of visual texture.”