John Peel Theatre Website

The last few months have been a blur of activity working on a brand new website for the Wigton Theatre Club, who own and run the John Peel Theatre in Wigton, Cumbria. It has been a very exciting project because this is the first time the club has had any web presence (aside from a recently established Facebook page) so the entire site structure was open for ideas.

It also meant that the project included helping to develop the theatre’s brand and identity. The theatre itself was simultaneously undergoing a refurbishment and we had a unique opportunity to closely match the website to the theatre’s new look. The brief was to keep the best of traditional theatre whilst bringing the feel right up to date. There had to be a balance between information for the public and attracting new members and supporters.

I think we succeeded.

Home page for the John Peel Theatre

www.wigtontheatre.org

Black Adder Website Launched

Last night I published the new Black Adder website. It is still awaiting a few more profiles for the ‘Meet the Adders’ page but otherwise complete. Take a look!

http://www.blackadder.totalserve.co.uk

New Look Website Coming Soon…

I am currently nearing the end of a complete redesign of the Black Adder Rapper and Step website.

I started out designing websites on a very old version of FrontPage, which is now completely out of date and very limited in what it can do. I haven’t actually switched on my PC for a couple of years so it was definitely time to switch to newer software. A couple of years ago I switched to RapidWeaver and it has been brilliant.

It was time to update the format of the Black Adder website and bring it into RapidWeaver. It’s a slow process but the new site is looking good. Keep watching the Black Adder site. Changes are coming soon!

A Sneak Preview…

Though not yet finished, here is a preview of the cover for Bride of the Spear; now due for release in early 2014.

Back Room Work

My last few months have been very busy, but not necessarily with design and website work. I became a new mum recently and naturally that has been my prime focus. That is not to say that I have not been doing any design work. The new cover for Bride of the Spear by Kathleen Herbert, is almost finished and Trifolium Books are still hoping to republish it before Christmas.

As well as the cover design we have been working with our web hosting company, Intoxify Hosting, to ensure that our website is running more smoothly. After a few hiccups with Intoxify’s support service, and a long conversation with them to put things right, I have to say that I am now very impressed with them, and their support has been just superb over the last couple of days in particular. They are worth considering if you need hosting for a Rapid Weaver or WordPress site.

Check back here soon for a preview of the finished Bride of the Spear cover.

It starts…

Our cover image by Ian Carroll is almost ready (see above for a preview) and we have narrowed down the selection of possible title fonts. For this cover we have to be mindful of the other titles in the trilogy; whatever choices I make for this cover will need to broadly match the other books if they are to look like they belong together and yet still fit into the house style.

There is still time to influence the cover design and be in with a chance of winning a copy of the book, by leaving your thoughts about the mock-up cover on the Trifolium books blog.

Bride of the Spear Takes Shape

With a publishing deadline now set, work has started in earnest on the cover for Bride of the Spear. We have had long discussions about the cover photo and other elements and Connie and Mike of Trifolium Books have started to scout locations for the cover photo-shoot. We are delighted that we have secured the fabulous talents of Ian Carroll as our cover photographer for all three of the books. His Flickr photostream is well worth a look. Watch this space for more updates as work progresses. You can also check out The Trifolium Books Blog.

A Cover at Brain Stage…

It is still in very early stages, but the cover for Kathleen Herbert’s first book of her Cumbrian Trilogy (first published in 1982) is set to be my next project. Trifolium Books plan to republish her trilogy, which is currently out of print, under a new trilogy title of Kingdoms of the North.

One of the cover elements of the first book, Bride of the Spear, will be a striking cloak pin made by Connie Jensen, accomplished jeweller and MD of Trifolium Books. See her initial design sketch below. The rest of the cover is still in construction, mainly in mine and Connie’s heads. At this stage we throw our ideas at each other and see if any of them stick. Often the inspiration will come from a single photograph.

Kathleen’s early covers were illustrations, often overly romantic and sometimes deceptive of their gritty, dark and accurate content (see below for some examples). Our aim is to completely freshen up these fantastic books and make them available to a new audience as well as her die-hard fans.

Latest Cover is Finished

It took a little more final tweaking than expected, but at last the cover for The Boy With Two Heads is finished and signed off. The publisher and author are both happy and the pdf is ready for uploading. Below is a sneak preview of the finished cover.

First Photographic Book Published!

My first edited collection of photographs is now available through Blurb.

Entrances and Exits by Kate Jensen | Make Your Own Book