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Feed My Ride Commission

This year’s Tour De France departed from Yorkshire in England. To celebrate the event, Progress Packaging in the UK commissioned designers and artists to design a musette bag. Manual’s Creative Director Tom drew his inspiration from the rolling hills, valleys, and peaks of West Yorkshire, and the nearby Yorkshire Dales, where Tom is from.

Musettes are 300 x 360mm, screen printed black on custom dyed yellow cotton with embroidered tag and internal pocket. See all the designs here.

The bag designs were also reworked into a pair of A1 posters, available to buy from Print Process

Letterform Archive talk: Color as Character

Last week we filled a room at Letterform Archive for Tom Crabtree’s salon talk, Color as Character.

Surrounded by a chromatic array of artifacts pulled from the Archive’s collection, Tom traced a path from early sources of inspiration to the identities we create today, with color as the main character throughout. Along the way: a rainbow sweater from childhood, fluorescent screen prints from college, and a kaleidoscopic mix of historical influences, including David Hockney, Eduardo Paolozzi, Piet Zwart, Otl Aicher, and Wim Crouwel.

The evening offered a personal look at Tom’s relationship with color, and the role it continues to play in shaping the way we design at Manual.

Thanks to everyone who came out, and to our friends and neighbors at Letterform Archive for hosting, especially Stephen and Angie.