Commissioned by Portland Inn Project In Hanley, Stoke On Trent to work with their resident community to develop the identity for their first ceramic product, the Portland Pigeon.

The pigeons are to be sold in a crowd funding model to raise money for the renovation of a former pub in the neighbourhood into a community centre and hub. The pigeons needed a unique and distinct voice. One that represented them as a thriving community neighbourhood, existing in the legacy of Stokes ceramic history.

Lockdown We had first planned to run the project from April 2020 but as national quarantines began this had to be postponed. So to help with the lockdown for the kids on the street, I made a few home worksheets that got sent out as part of a huge weekly creative drop Portland Inn Project were already delivering. Amongst the activities we made marbled pigeons, hidden word poems, spring vases, and made textured samples of our homes. 

Once we could safely (😷) run workshops again we dived in with a hands on monoprinting day using textures, forms, and lots of plants that surrounded the PIPPIN creative container.

Vernacular typography For the second creative workshop we worked directly with typography, letters and character forms to really try and give us the most inspiration to work from when developing the identity afterward. Together we drew, referenced and pulled from the immediate environment, using the shapes and forms that made up the architecture, infrastructure and landscapes around us. Using these forms to then collage together these unique stuck letterforms.

www.theportlandinnproject.com

photographs: Glen Stoker