NAVIGATING NEWCASTLE

This was another immensely enjoyable job to work on, the basic pitch being to create a tourist guide to Newcastle aimed at a younger and more discerning audience than your typical council produced tourism guide is aimed at - the kind that regularly travels to Newcastle for such events as the This Is Not Art and Shoot Out Film Festival. Having bowed out of designing the This Is Not Art Program it was nice still having something come out that was tailored for and launched at this event.

I co-wrote the guide with Marcus Westbury and in opposition to most tourist guides our mandate was basically to cut "the bullshit" and be honest about the good but not only that, also more importantly the things to be avoided in town. We're still getting emails now telling us how funny and informative the guide is so we're both pretty chuffed with the results.

I took all the photos throughout the publication and the design was in part inspired by and a homage to an old book from the 50's (with photographs by Max Dupain) showcasing Newcastle as a thriving harbour-side industrial town. The collaged approach was a homage to this publication but also aimed to disguise some of the more familiar landmarks of the town within unfamiliar ones and kind of give the feeling of the town being like a rose you peel back petal by petal only to uncover more beautiful colours and scents underneath. Okay, now I'm just getting sentimental!