A publishing project commissioned by the Isle of Man Arts Council.
You might have seen the launch of a rather pretty - if we do say so ourselves - collection of literature floating around the Isle. And if not, we're here to tell you all about it.
Literary Lockdown is the brain child of the Isle of Man Arts Council, a project beginning in January 2021 inviting local creatives to submit a piece of writing inspired by the local lockdowns. In addition to this, creatives were given four prompts to aid them with their creative endeavours; Home, Ritual, Community and Gratitude.
There were so many fantastic submissions that it was decided to commemorate them all within a book which, naturally, required a whole BUNCH of pages...
*Ehem*. That's our cue.
Here at Bunch HQ, we put a lot of thought into the aesthetic of the book, utilising the strong pink colour palette of the Arts Council to help link it back to their fantastic project.
We also used a brush stroke typeface full of personality and hand-drawn flowers to emphasise the hand-crafted and local nature of the book. Full of unique personalities and styles, each with reason to be celebrated.
Together, these elements illustrate the personal and creative growth that these individuals have experienced throughout lockdown, reframing these "unprecented times" as an opportunity to nurture and inspire their creativity.
The context of this flowery, hand-crafted imagery also follows the surge of gardening activity experienced in lockdown, as increased time at home resulted in many DIY home improvements.
A rather poetic parallel don't you think?
The quote on the back cover follows this growth ideology in a way we feel really sums up the resilience of these creatives and the wider island population... "You grow through, what you go through".
Many of these polished pieces will likely have started off in notebooks or similar, which inspired the use of ruled paper throughout the book. Adding the ripped edges signifies that inspiration may strike at anytime and therefore could be jotted down onto scrap paper. Or ripped out with creative passion... you choose.
Once we'd worked our design-y magic we passed the baton onto Words & Spaces, who did a fantastic job printing, chopping and binding the pages into the physical object you see before you.
And if you don't see one before you... what are you waiting for?! Get your own copy today from quirky.im: https://quirky.im/product/literary-lockdown/
Once we had all the glossy copies in hand celebrations were definitely on the cards; in the form of a launch! Held in the Family Library building, we gathered together to share drinks, nibbles and readings from the authors themselves.
A well deserved celebration to mark the end of some testing times. Let's see what 2022 has in store...
If you've got a project in mind and you'd like to set the wheels in motion, drop us a line at talk2us@bunchcreative.im and we'd be happy to have a good ol' chinwag.