Commissioned for Tatton Park Biennial 2012, this romance novella forms part of the Cartland Institute for Romance Research, a mixed media installation that explores the life and work of celebrity novelist Dame Barbara Cartland.

Throughout the publication, type is intentionally set to include various inconsistencies; a detail typical of pulp romance paperbacks. The original cover illustration references the style of Francis Marshall. Marshall’s work often adorned Cartland dust jackets published during the 1970s and 80s.

In addition, UHC produced screen-printed tote bags featuring a technical drawing of our key installation piece; a beautiful hand-crafted replica of The Colditz Cock. These were distributed during the Tatton Park 2012 Biennial preview event.

If you’re a fan of romantic fiction, the novel can be purchased via the UHC Shop.

Supported by Manchester School of Art

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UHC have developed a longstanding creative partnership with Metal Culture Liverpool, working as artists and designers on numerous commissions. This particular project, funded by the Heritage Lottery Fund, set out to publish work from The Edge Hill Archive, a collection of printed artefacts, audio interviews, contemporary artworks and written research relating to Metal Culture’s Liverpool home.

UHC worked closely with Metal to create Edge Hill Station: An Unfolding History, a set of booklets chronicling the history of Edge Hill and the world’s oldest passenger railway station.

UHC and freelance writer Kenn Taylor collaborated to divide content into three unique publications, printed on paper stocks that sensitively referenced past railway ephemera. Original pencil drawings were commissioned from regular UHC illustrator Gareth Brew and presented alongside a series of paintings in response to the station by artist James Quin.

All three booklets were wrapped within a large format gridiron map, tied with twine and hand-stamped in a limited edition of 1000.

Artist / activists Platform are regular collaborators with UHC, working together on projects exposing the dirty reality beneath the gloss of multinational oil companies. Writer Ben Amunwa worked with UHC in the development of Platform’s incendiary publication Counting the Cost: Corporations and human rights abuses in the Niger Delta.

The 27,000 word document implicated Royal Dutch Shell in cases of serious violence in Nigeria’s oil-rich Niger Delta region from 2000 to 2010.

Initially targeted at investors, global media, corporate actors, and policy and law makers, the report went on to make news in The Guardian, and is currently stocked by New Internationalist.

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In Translation is a collaborative art project exploring issues of migration and identity. Migrant women from several community groups in the North West examined and reinterpreted a series of 1920s and 30s Empire Marketing Board posters through a facilitated creative process led by UHC Creative Director Jai Redman.

To accompany the project, UHC’s design team developed a bespoke WordPress site that functions as an accessible online platform, encouraging open dialogue, project documentation, and exploration of personal experiences and memories related to the subject of migration.

UHC also produced the In Translation logotype, and way-finding typography that was hand-painted onto the walls of Manchester Art Gallery for the project’s co-curated 12 month exhibition. Promotional postcards were designed for the event, and certificates of authenticity were produced and distributed with limited edition screen-prints of Migratory Bird Studies, printed by John Powell-Jones.

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This groundbreaking though quite modest looking publication is the outcome of a significant creative relationship between UHC and the Public Interest Research Centre.

The Common Cause Handbook is a guide to the recognition and utilisation of value systems and communicative tools, to encourage lasting social and environmental change. Both groups spent time between Manchester and Machynlleth in facilitated workshops and in-depth project development discussions, to create an accessible and visually appropriate aesthetic.

The solution includes Isotype inspired iconographic images, created to animate the handbook text and locate it comfortably alongside additional type based data-graphics.

The final handbook was produced with the support of Oxfam, WWF, and Action for Children, and took form as an A5 publication, printed on 100% recycled FSC approved paper.

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