Lighting a Guinness

What kind of cake do you get a cake for the man that only drinks Guinness?

Well, you could look out Nigella's Gunniess Cake recipe and make such a cake... from scratch. You could devise some sort of floating candle palava in a bowl of Guinness jelly. Or, if you only have an hour or two before said man's impromptu birthday celebration, you could make a Guinness glass topper.

This simple bit of (not patented) Themo-Blue Peter magic helped to make an ordinary pint of Guinness a 'birthday pint' for a good friend of mine. You only need an A4 sheet of paper, some coloured pencils, scissors and tape. Yes, there was cake and cards and singing, but how much fun would it be to have a pint delivered to your table that looked like this?

Happy birthday, Twin!
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The knot's undone

The booklet for the Thebans' 10th Anniversary is finished!


I'm really pleased with how it turned out. The idea of using Celtic knots has remained an integral part of the book's design. However I've distilled it down to something less obvious. To design a book that was totally illuminated was not only crazy time consuming but it looked, well... old. It didn't really reflect the ground-breaking accomplishments of the club. However, I still wanted the Celtic connection to be part of the book as, after all, it is a Scottish rugby team and 'Caledonian' (Latin name for Scotland) is in the team's full name.


NOT coincidentally, the book is typeset in a font call 'Scotch Roman MT'. There is no 'Scotch Latin' font but it is as close to poignant as you're going to get.


I used the knots primarily as section dividers in the book and as decorative elements at the end of chapters. I think it was a far more elegant solution for incorporating the Celtic element than anything more obtrusive like full-on illumination.

For the cover, I wanted to find an image to represent the ideal of 'brotherhood' which is part of the team's original motto. Like a gift I came across this match picture in Newcastle. The facelessness of the players coupled with the huddled embrace shows that they no longer stand as individuals but as a team.


For the title, I also added in the 'Thebans Knot' into the text. This 15 crossed knot represents the unity of a team on a rugby pitch. 15 crosses for the 15 players of a full squad in the shape of, you got it, a rugby ball. It coincidentally fit perfectly into the cleft of the 'C' so I was well pleased with how the integral elements of the book could be brought together on the cover in a very tasteful way, if I do say so myself.

Not only writing the book, but getting to design, typeset and illustrate it has been such a joy for me. It's a rare thing for an artist to have the opportunity to oversee every aspect of a project on behalf of someone else (Stationery fetish appeased as I even got to choose paper weights, etc at printer!). And even more special for the fact that it is my rugby team. I hope that not only the design, but the writing does justice to the decade of success that the team has seen.


You'll be able to buy a copy on the team's website after the Anniversary Dinner (14th July). Or, buy a ticket and you'll get a copy free on the night! Might even get it signed if you're lucky. ;-)
Now it's done, I suppose I have to get back to working on THE book!


Enjoy!
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