‘Writing In Books’ is my response to a brief about the nature of books. What I love most about books is they are able to be passed on. Not just forwarded or redownloaded – each book is a physical object that can be travel from person to person, and it becomes even more pronounced when a book has an inscription in it. My concept was to produce a book of these found notes. The final result is a hand-bound hardcover book that contains spreads from 60 books that had all sorts of inscriptions in them. From the introduction:

“Ever since our little hands worked out how to hold a crayon, we’ve been told not to make marks inside books. ‘Treat them with respect,’ they said, the parents, teachers and librarians of our young lives. My parents have been teachers, librarians and book shop owners at one time or another, so that point was fairly hammered into my siblings and I. After all, we had free reign of the shop as young ragamuffins, and who could predict the damage that one magic marker could do when wrapped in twitchy fingers.

But you see, writing in books is a marvellous thing.

Handwritten inscriptions in the inner pages of a book can tell you where it came from, who it came from and why. How old is it? Has it travelled across the world? They are time-capsule glimpses into the lives of each book and its owner, and the journey it has made from one set of hands to the next. Every message tells a story in its own right; of love or friendship, business or indifference, of what the book meant to its reader and why they needed to share it. It makes that book – that object – completely unique. Reproduce the text a thousand times over, and you still wouldn’t be able to capture it. It’s the feeling that comes with running your finger along lines inked into a page and knowing that another skin once did the same. It’s the mystery of finding a cryptic scrawling in a second-hand paperback and the thrill of turning a page to discover a heartfelt confession from somebody you’ll never know. You can’t get that with a computer screen or a Kindle.

In these pages, you’ll find a collection of messages found inside books, from blunt Christmas greetings and family in-jokes, to century-old study notes. They’ve been plucked and borrowed from the shelves of family and friends, second-hand book stores, charity shops and my own personal library.  So next time you pass along a book, remember to write a message inside. You never know where it might end up.”

‘This Must Be Where Pies Go When They Die’ was a response to a brief about fan fiction. I conceived, designed and constructed a board game based on the cult television show Twin Peaks. It’s essentially a murder mystery game, the aim being to find out who killed Laura Palmer from the list of potential suspects. Players collect letters that spell out the murderer’s name as they move around the board, and use them to guess the killer. Moving around the board roughly follows the narrative from the series.

‘There’s a Lot of Spare Time in Bodega Bay’ is a 30 page comic book that tells the completely true story of how Alfred Hitchcock tormented his actress Tippi Hedren on the set of The Birds. Hand-bound copies were produced to be sold at Central Saint Martin’s 2^nd year BA Graphic Design Pop Up Shop.

 ’If These Walls Could Talk’ is a 70 page photo-based book that chronicles the cracks, holes, bicycle smudges and various bits of damage that have been inflicted on the walls of the slightly dilapidated house that I used to call home (until 2011). From the introduction:

“The story of our house is told through its walls. Over three years, fourteen tenants have passed through those hallways, each leaving their mark. There’s a narrative that’s told through each graze from a bicycle tire, each scraped piece of wood, each smudged fingerprint on the faded paint. Those walls have seen hedonistic parties that inflicted damage and destruction. They’ve seen fights and reunions. Each hole has a reason and every crack, a tale. The wall records everything, holding memories in its scars.”

‘The Spruce Moose’ was my answer to a brief about creating a new kind of paper airplane. You can download the template to make your own Spruce Moose by clicking the plan below:

Now take a look at this jaunty instructional video on how to fold and fly your new airplane:

Starting from an established airplane design, it took 41 prototypes to develop my own airplane. Here’s a chart that maps out the process (click to enlarge):

‘Untitled Outback Thriller’ is my response to a brief about cinematic photography. My concept was to create series of photos based on isolated breakdown thrillers with a hint of ‘ozploitation’ cinema. In planning the shoot, I wanted to get the feeling of ‘Wolf Creek meets Picnic At Hanging Rock’.  

A full set of the shoot and larger images can be found here.

‘Expose Your Food’ is a guerrilla-style project about exposing food industry jargon by revealing what the additives in processed food really are. Stickers that say exactly what is contained in those ingredients are designed to be placed on food packaging in supermarkets. Downloadable sticker templates could be downloaded from www.exposeyourfood.com (currently inactive).

From a photography brief about portraiture. This is my brother, the rocket scientist.