Illustrating the Chalke Valley History Festival

I 've  enjoyed working as the illustrator on The Chalke Valley History Festival. This was its third year and in a very short time, thanks to the energy and vision of the organisers, has made itself an indispensable fixture of the summer.

 It's a vivid celebration of the past; not only with its incredible A-list of authors, but also its commitment to entertaining the whole family with noise, colour and fun. This year's air show on a blistering July weekend was a triumph of organisation by James Holland, who along with James Heneage, have helped given history a kick up the curriculum ladder.

My job as a graphic designer and illustrator is to create a visual difference. What could have been burnt parchment and a gothic font free-for-all is non of these things. The reason? It's too obvious, and for a start, I try and give the speakers, from Boris Johnson to Ben Macintyre, a distinct identity within the Festival itself. 

Thanks to James Holland I'm producing work I'm proud of, which is cliché - free (apart from my own, of course) and provides the event with an exciting visual currency of its own.

Where other festivals use book jackets and head shots, we produce exhilarating and colourful work which is what history deserves, as well as the public.

More valley ghosts: 2012 Chalke Valley History Festival

“To promote the entertainment and relevance of history to the widest possible audience so as to furnish it with enough sense of the past to make sense of the future.”

Last year's Chalke Valley History Festival was an outrageous, runaway success. It actually made a profit, and the feedback was all positive. I didn't start working on it until May last year and the work on the graphics for the brochure, the advertising and the all the attendant bits and pieces took all the time from first meeting to opening. 

This year I've started designing early. We're producing postcards and letterheads to prepare the ground visually as prospective speakers, sponsors and advertisers are contacted. And those who were aware of the previous look will see that nothing fundamental has changed: the subjects drift transparently around a now luminous green valley;  the Hawker Typhoon just airborne hints at Antony Beevor or James Holland.  I've still to add Thomas Cromwell and a few more visual clues to produce an interesting, as well as arresting cover for a bigger brochure, for a bigger festival. 

Oh, and a Trojan Horse...and Elizabeth David