Happy New Year!

I'm sorry that I haven't blogged about the favourite designers yet, but with Christmas, Boxing Day, New Years, and the new project I have been working on, all going underway, I've been extra busy and distracted!

I am starting a new project based on Staffordshire Oatcakes, you see! Have you heard of them? Some people get mixed up with the Scottish oaty crackers, but these are more like oaty pancakes. They're really lovely, but; 1. They don't look all that appetising and 2. No-one out of Staffordshire seems to have heard of them!

Now, I am in my third and final year at university so I have been able to create and tailor the briefs that I work on to suit my portfolio's needs - which is great! So, I have initiated this self-authored brief:

a) To make the local Staffordshire Oatcake look more appealing to people outside of Staffordshire.
b) To get the local Staffordshire Oatcake recognised by people outside of Staffordshire.

This project will involve branding, packaging, logo design, name ideas for the brand identity, and I will be creating the identity for (it could be all or either of these); a cafe, a restaurant, and a bakery.

I have been looking at the old english language and the slang used in Staffordshire and Stoke-on-Trent, to give me ideas on the brand identity, for example, the Oatcake has picked up many nicknames through the years; The Woodcake, The Tunstall Tortilla, The Clay Suzette, and The Potteries Poppadom. These are going to be really fun to work with, and when it is finished I will post it up here and show it off!

For now, here is a brilliant (brilliantly informative - not designed!) website containing much of the history of The Potteries in pictures, and articles and stories... lots of photos showing the same spots, then and now. It's very interesting - take a look, here!

This is a spot I have walked past lots of times!

This is it now...

And this is it back in the 60s or 70s.
How much nicer did it look back then?!