Loose Collective

posted by Marcroy March 23, 2014

Loose Collective is an independent creative studio based in Manchester, UK. Their design work has been featured in numerous major design books by publishers such as Victionary, Rockport/Rotovision, Thames & Hudson, AVA and Bloomsbury. They are regular lecturers on the BA(Hons) Graphic Design degree at the Manchester Metropolitan University and they work with clients, both big and small, who are willing to think a little bit harder. As you may see, they prefer not to follow the herd.

EE CHRISP:
Good old Mr Chrisp is not only a rather close chum of Loose Collective, but also a rather spiffing old school letterpress printer so they helped him out by creating a new identity for him, with various items of print. Thankyou cards are letterpressed in black on a variety of coloured and textured stocks. A3 posters are lithoed in black on white and pastel green uncoated papers. Both promo items utilise Mr Chrisp’s unique and distinct use of the English language.

Loose
Loose
Loose
Loose
Loose

PRINT LIKE YOU MEAN IT:
They were asked by friends at The Lab to design a piece for the Leeds Print Festival 2014. Letterforms were sourced from type specimen sheets dating from 1628-1900. Final print was a letterpressed ‘Split Fountain’ — the first in Pantone Neon 806/Process Blue and the second in Pantone Yellow/Neon 805. As more prints came out of the press during the print process the two inks on the rollers gradually mixed so no two final prints are the same — they have varying colour gradients on them. Prints were handed out to print delegates on the Sunday during the opening weekend of the festival. They seemed to go down very well!

Loose
Loose
Loose
Loose

RIDING THE LOW:
They were recently asked by actor Paddy Considine and his ace rock band ‘Riding The Low’ to produce some design work for their annual ‘Christmas Craptacular’ in their hometown of Burton On Trent. The brief was “Christmas, skulls and Mexican wrestlers” so naturally they jumped at the chance. That kind of brief is right up our street.

The gig took place at ‘The Tower Brewery’ so it made sense to produce some flyers that doubled as beermats. They were letterpressed in gold and red onto thick uncoated beermat board by EE Chrisp. A3 posters followed the same vibe, litho’d in red and gold onto two different stocks — thick newsprint and uncoated poster card. Posters were on sale at the gig on the 28th December for a festive £5; beermats were used at the venue on the night.

Loose
Loose