Mr.. Charlie Armstrong 133 Sunnyhill Road London SW16 2UW
T: 020 8677 4504 M: 07977 136 523
Current from: October 2010
www.charmstrong.co.uk charliearmstrong@hotmail.com
The Credit Crunchmas Tree
(with signature detail)
Poster illustration I designed to help celebrate Christmas. Reads: ‘Requires: Traffic Cone, Tinsel (optional), Star (light accessory), no presents underneath.’ A valuable money-saving top tip for Christmas for all those feeling the pinch under the current economic climate of clichés.
Kissed By A Fish
The Design Derby event at the Sun & Doves pub in Camberwell ran with a theme of horse racing. On the night my print was available for punters to place bets on with the hopes of winning a copy to take home. The typographic image is inspired by a particularly evocative (real) race horse name.
Giving Directions
Relates to the common and spontaneous practice of using objects within arms reach to create a temporary ‘map’ in order to illustrate or make physical verbal directions. A dialogue of specific directions forms the text within the image. The objects relate to the context of a pub, cafe or kitchen table where such a conversation may take place.
Dripping Type
Two versions of a series of typographic designs I have worked on surrounding the theme of dripping and liquid type.
Holding Battersea
For the novel Holding Battersea by David Armstrong I created the book jacket design and I type set the text of the novel and designed the chapter headings. The cover image was one from a series of images I created exploring the possibilities of collaged and interlaced digital television signals.
Freakend - carnival bonk holiday
A flyer I designed for a warehouse party featuring photo manipulation to create a cross-hatched, hand-drawn, ‘Pop-Art’ image. The effect is created by combining four levels of the original image.
FREAK BEAT - Carnival warehouse party
Warehouse party flyer I designed featuring my typeface ‘Special Op’ (Freak Beat logo, main text Futura Condensed). Images represent either side of the printed flyer.
The Roundhouse - Fresh Cuts Live
An Urban music event at the Roundhouse in Camden, showcasing some of the fresh and up-and-coming talent featured on Roundhouse Radio. The flyer answers the important issues stipulated by the brief, it is recognisably ‘urban’ in styling and features images of the artists. It importantly also adheres strictly to the Roundhouse branding guidelines.
Shoreditch Triangle
The flyer and logo design for two Shoreditch Triangle warehouse parties from 2009. The logo uses a purpose built type face created especially for the logo. 10
Southwark Council
The aim was to rebrand the Southwark logo, I created a digital and modular type effect but I wanted to show how the borough is made up of smaller townships and parishes. To do this I constructed a sign from Post-it Notes and adorned them with the townships of Southwark to present the logo. 11
The London Door Company - Carpenters Newsletter
By featuring some typographic doors, a diagram of a mortise and tenon joint, photographs of the carpenters and painters at work, the colour blue of the carpenters uniforms and a wood ring pattern along the masthead, I allowed the audience to largely influence the design. The tear off slip at the bottom runs with the paper grain making it easy to tear neatly. 12
Lesley Martin - Artist
I designed the ‘Pooches’ logo for a series of mugs produced by Lesley Martin featuring the Nine Lives paintings, the logo was printed as a ceramic decal which is absorbed into the glaze at a low firing temperature. The poster ‘Nine Lives’ was sold alongside the original paintings at an exhibition in the Ice House, Holland Park. 13
Typographic Postcards
I designed ten typefaces which I used to create a series of Typographic Postcards, the postcards act as a way of publicising myself, and were available to buy at my degree shows. There are 20 different postcard designs. 14
Special Op. Type face
‘Special Op’ is one of the ten type faces I created as part of my degree show in 2009. It was designed as a dramatic ‘action-hero’ inspired typeface. It is best applied to situations where it can express its bravery and valour; carrying out dangerous missions to save the world and humanity. 15
Luxuryspanishgetaway.com
Bookings website I designed and constructed for a luxury holiday apartment in the Costa del Sol of Spain. The welcome note and top banner features my typeface ‘Conquistador’. 16
Samuel Arnold
Faced conspiracy charges for his part in the original plot to kidnap the President. The images My source for the drawings and then etchings were photographs taken of the conspirators after their trial. My aim was to link the early uses of photography with the etching technique, the technology of the age for producing images for mass consumption.
Assassins and Conspirators
Above is an etch and sketch of Samuel Arnold, one of the men put on trial following the assassination of Abraham Lincoln. Whilst creating the series of images I researched the American Civil War. Especially the war artists who provided eyewitness images of the conflict. The ability for newspapers to assimilate these images using etching marked a huge turning point in the history of print media. 17
Lewis Powell
Powell by all accounts was an immensely strong and physically powerful Confederate soldier, however he appears to have been dim-witted and impressionable and was almost certainly heavily coerced into the attack on Seward. His physical strength was evident in his execution where witnesses said that he took five minutes to die at the noose. He was praised however for the bravery he showed in facing his execution. This image is remarkably modern and enigmatic for its time, capturing the sitter almost unaware, surely deeply contemplating his fate and the deeds which led him there.
Lewis Powell
Powell was found guilty and sentenced to death for the brutal attack on Secretary of State, William Seward. Seward survived the frenzied attack by luck, he was recovering from a carriage accident with a broken collar bone, the heavy strapping for which deflected Powell’s knife from causing fatal injury. The attack deliberately coincided with the assassination of Lincoln. 18
Michael O’Laughlin
(right)
Like Samuel Arnold, O’Laughlin was judged to have backed out of the conspiracy once the plot had turned to assassination. Spared execution however O’Laughlin and Arnold were both given long prison sentences during which O’Laughlin died in a yellow fever outbreak.
John Wilkes-Boothe
(left)
The man who assassinated Abraham Lincoln in the Ford Theatre 14th of April 1865 did so with a fatal gun shot wound to the back of the Presidents head. He was well known to the theatre, he was a famous actor and came from a famous acting family. His plot was a desperate act designed to translate into military gains for the almost defeated Confederate army of the South. 19
Digital Photography
Some examples of recent digital photography. Locations (clockwise from top left): New York (Staten Island Ferry), New York (Staten Island Ferry), New York (JFK), Prague. Essex (Leigh on Sea). 20