Northern lass moves South (West) for creative employment but has hardly changed at all shock (full story below).
Sally, back at her Alma Mater (last Friday)
Sally (33) graduated in June 2008 with a job secured at Future Publishing, based in the faraway city of Bath, Somerset.
The faraway city of Bath (yesterday)
You must appreciate that the City of Bath, in all it's Georgian splendour and middle class affluence, is a world away from Sally's home town of Bishop Auckland, Co.Durham. So much so in fact, that we were a little concerned about how she would cope with such a massive social, cultural and geographic change.
Bishop Auckland (yesterday)
Happily we can report that our worries were groundless and Sally took to her new lifestyle with gusto. Traditional Bishop Auckland staples such as cheesey chips with a mug of tea (below)...
...became a thing of the past as Sally embraced the 'Tea Room' culture that is synonymous with 'Bath living' (coincidentally the title of a magazine she would go on to design for).
A Bath Tea Room (pictured on Tuesday)
She has developed a real love of those Bath favourites, the Bath Oliver (below)...
Cheese not pictured
... and the Bath Bun (above).
Sally quickly made a home for herself in a rented flat located close to Bath's world famous Pulteney Bridge (see photo at top of post) and got down to some serious editorial design work.
Sally's flat last week
Her real skill and passion for editorial design was recognised immediately by Future who put her to work in the 'Art Studio'. The 'Art Studio' was a specialist team of hardcore editorial designers who had the flexibility, stamina and courage to work on any title within Future's huge portfolio of magazines. This elite cadre were the graphical equivalent of the British Army's Parachute Regiment. If a particular magazine had a designer 'down' or was under staffed a member of the Art Studio would be 'dropped in' at a moment's notice to help save the day.
Sally with just a few of the many titles she helped design whilst at Future Publishing.
During the three years that Sally was a member of Future's 'Art Studio' she worked on magazines as varied as: Classic Rock; Popular Prog; Total Cake; Vampire's Digest; What's an iPhone?; Moulinex Monthly and the evergreen Didn't You Kill My Brother? (a gangland genealogy guide).
It was refreshing to see that Sally still designs everything on paper (below).
Sally went on to bring her attentive audience up to date with her career.
She recently left Future Publishing and now happily works at the dynamic Bath based agency Media Clash.
Sally shows us the new Media Clash identity.
Within a short period of time she has extended her skills to include branding and corporate identity. Happily her first love, editorial design, remains at the forefront of her creative activities as Media Clash are responsible for the design and production of a range of 'city' magazines. These currently have a West Country focus but the company are planning a national roll-out commencing next year in Lincolnshire. Soon titles such as Clifton Living and Bath Life will be joined by Grimsby Existence and Louth Lifestyle.
Lecture over, Sally adjourned to the studio to hand out helpful advice and experience to our third year students including...
...Grace Neal (above)...
...and the Shrewsbury Biscuit (the art student formerly known as Gary Nicholson) pictured above.
As Sally has spent so long in the South West we were a bit worried that she may have spurned her Northern roots. Our concern proved to be unfounded as Sally repeatedly pronounced Bath in a correct, flatten the vowels, Northern style and went on to criticise South Western fish and chip shops for not doing "decent cheesey chips".
In fact apart from one small giveaway, Sally could have been working in the North for the last four years.
What was the giveaway we hear you ask? Well, due to spending a little too long in Bath tea rooms, Sally has developed 'Bath Finger'. This is a straightening of the little finger (when drinking) that develops from using the fine, bone china, tea cups commonly found in Bath tea
rooms and fondant fancy houses (see photos above and detail below).
Sally with her 'Bath Finger'
Happily the condition has no health or design implications and should quickly fade if she ever decides to return to the North.
On behalf of all the Grillust™ team I'd like to say thanks for visiting us Sally, it was lovely to see you and the students really benefited from your advice.
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