Caroline Barber

Last updated at 21:26, Monday, 21 May 2012

With a tough brief to crack a Cumbrian firm did what it always does - leaps to the challenge and outshines the best in the industry

PASSING THE BATON Above, Neil Bowness and Craig Butterworth with the finished poster, rolled up and ready to distribute, inspired by an Olympic relay baton.

WHEN journalists around the world received their post one morning just a few weeks ago, there was something different about it.

Among the pile of letters, press releases and brochures was a cylindrical tube – looking remarkably like an Olympic relay baton.

Understandably, with curiosity driven fingers, they cast aside the usual envelopes and opened it first to find an enchanting illustration of a beautiful land bursting with culture – Cumbria, a county in the UK now permanently on their radar, thanks to the creative brilliance of South Lakeland design company Plain Creative.

Just a few months earlier, the firm, based at Pixel Mill in Kendal, had been tasked with finding a way to promote the county during the Olympic year.

Cumbria Tourism, the body in charge of the project, wanted to make sure the barrage of extra tourists arriving this summer for the 2012 games are aware that there is more to see in Old Blighty than just London.

It was a tough brief, claims Plain Creative’s Craig Butterworth.

“We knew we had to produce something for direct marketing, it had to promote all the festivals and events going on in Cumbria throughout 2012, transgress different languages and have an Olympic link.

“We thought and thought about it, it really was a challenge.

“First we considered a brochure format.

“But we dismissed that in the end because we felt it would have been just another booklet on the desk of a journalist containing a list of events.

“We needed to give them something they would remember, something more exciting than what everyone else was doing.”

Quickly Craig, along with colleague Neil Bowness, hit upon the idea of a panoramic, metre-long illustration of the area with its bounty of famed arts festivals, historic sports events and traditional agricultural shows laid out in pictorial form.

The reverse side would contain numerous bite-sized boxes filled with information, pictures and the web addresses of a host of happenings in Cumbria this year.

Finally, it would be rolled up and posted within a cardboard tube given the appearance of a relay baton.

“We had a lot of boxes to tick and this format seemed to do everything,” Craig explained.

“I had a vision of how it could look – but it’s very hard to transfer that to someone else.”

Luckily, Craig arranged to meet north west-based professional illustrator Liam Palmer, whose contemporary designs have secured him a range of prestigious projects nationwide.

Working from a rough drawing produced by Craig, the pair met in a cafe to begin producing a series of initial rough sketches from which Liam could begin work.

Just three weeks later, Craig found himself presenting the idea, along with Liam’s draft illustrations, to Cumbria Tourism’s senior management team.

“We produced pages of paper when Liam and I met to talk about the piece until we got near to what we wanted,” said Craig, who spent 20 years in branding and design before setting up Plain Creative with Neil three years ago.

“We have worked with Cumbria Tourism on a number of other projects over the past few years and have built a good relationship with them.

“They were on board and loved the idea straight away. Then it was a case of getting the illustrative style just right.”

With Liam working on the final version of the illustration, Craig began compiling the information and photographs for the reverse side before designing its layout himself.

The result shows a colourful drawing of the county complete with local landmarks and illustrations detailing events such as the Great North Swim, Ambleside Sports, the World’s Original Marmalade Festival, Westmorland County Show, Kendal Calling and Lakes Alive.

From brief, through concept and draft stage to final product printing took Plain Creative just 12 weeks.

Some 500 illustrations marking the great Cumbrian events of 2012 have now been sent out all over the world.

Craig explained: “As you unroll the piece from its tube it reveals more and more of the illustration and events within it.

“It’s more engaging than just flicking through a brochure, it actually gives journalists a story or angle to write about.

“Also, when it goes overseas it will stand out as typically British in style and will be remembered for that.”

He added: “The relay baton has a strong Olympic association and is our way of saying to the journalists ‘this is what Cumbria has to offer – now it’s over to you’.”

Testament to their talents as a design agency, Craig and Neil have been working flat out since they started the business in 2009.

“We consider ourselves very lucky to be doing what we love,” Craig said.

“It’s always nice to see the finished product but the real buzz for us is in finding out how successful it’s been. That’s the real cherry on the cake.

“We’ll await the results of this project with baited breath.”

First published at 14:08, Tuesday, 15 May 2012
Published by http://www.in-cumbria.com