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Newcastle Film Society - 2026 Programme
Project type
Newcastle Film Society - 2026 Programme - Illustration and graphic design
Date
2026
Location
Newcastle Australia
Brief
Newcastle Film Society approached me with a simple brief: bold, bright and beautiful.
The graphics needed to feel energetic and welcoming while working across a range of formats including print, screen graphics and event materials.
Discovery
During my Discovery phase I found myself drawn (excuse the pun) to cinema cues - the hand drawn marks editors used to make directly onto film reels to signal where cuts should happen.
Those rough circles, crosses and scribbles appear briefly in the corner of old film reels. Small moments you might only catch if you are looking for them. They are little traces of the human hands involved in making the work.
Before I was a designer and illustrator I was an abstract painter, which feels like about a thousand years ago now. Seeing those marks immediately clicked something in my brain. Loose, expressive and practical all at once. It felt a bit like peeking behind the curtain of cinema.
Newcastle Film Society approached me with a simple brief: bold, bright and beautiful.
The graphics needed to feel energetic and welcoming while working across a range of formats including print, screen graphics and event materials.
Discovery
During my Discovery phase I found myself drawn (excuse the pun) to cinema cues - the hand drawn marks editors used to make directly onto film reels to signal where cuts should happen.
Those rough circles, crosses and scribbles appear briefly in the corner of old film reels. Small moments you might only catch if you are looking for them. They are little traces of the human hands involved in making the work.
Before I was a designer and illustrator I was an abstract painter, which feels like about a thousand years ago now. Seeing those marks immediately clicked something in my brain. Loose, expressive and practical all at once. It felt a bit like peeking behind the curtain of cinema.
Design Approach
The visual language grew from those cue marks. Rather than recreating them literally, I treated them more like elements in an abstract painting.
Shapes are layered, rotated and collaged together to build compositions that feel playful and expressive while still referencing the craft of film editing. The result sits somewhere between graphic design and abstract painting.
Bold colour and simple forms give the graphics energy while allowing the system to stay flexible across different formats.
The visual language grew from those cue marks. Rather than recreating them literally, I treated them more like elements in an abstract painting.
Shapes are layered, rotated and collaged together to build compositions that feel playful and expressive while still referencing the craft of film editing. The result sits somewhere between graphic design and abstract painting.
Bold colour and simple forms give the graphics energy while allowing the system to stay flexible across different formats.
Outcome
The result is a playful visual system that moves consistently across everything Newcastle Film Society produces. The graphics appear across membership cards, printed programmes, cinema screen graphics, pull up banners, website and social media, creating a recognisable visual language that feels energetic and cohesive.
The cue shapes can shift, scale and recombine depending on the format, allowing the system to adapt while still feeling like part of the same visual family.
Projects like this are always a joy. When organisations are open to experimentation it gives space to play a bit as a creative human.
Sometimes the best brief really is just: make it bold, make it joyful.
The result is a playful visual system that moves consistently across everything Newcastle Film Society produces. The graphics appear across membership cards, printed programmes, cinema screen graphics, pull up banners, website and social media, creating a recognisable visual language that feels energetic and cohesive.
The cue shapes can shift, scale and recombine depending on the format, allowing the system to adapt while still feeling like part of the same visual family.
Projects like this are always a joy. When organisations are open to experimentation it gives space to play a bit as a creative human.
Sometimes the best brief really is just: make it bold, make it joyful.
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