Freestyle

In 2005 I had booked DJ Yoda to play at Headspin on the Saturday night of the Easter weekend which was at the end of March. Someone in Stirling had got in touch with me and was going to put him on there on the Sunday night and we were going to share flight costs, saving me a few quid.

Next thing was that this other guy cancelled his event, leaving me to pay for the flights on my own, the return journey of which was now useless so I would also have to buy another ticket to fly Yoda home on the Sunday.

I decided to put Yoda on myself on the Sunday night. I thought Dundee might be a good option, not being too far from Edinburgh and there not being huge amounts of competition there. I got in touch with Mark who I worked with at The Vaults, as he was originally from Dundee, and asked if he would be interested in co-promoting this as a one-off event.

After discussions we decided that we would put it on as a monthly event with a different guest DJ every month. Full steam ahead, we got the ball rolling and that meant producing flyers and posters.

The first flyer design is here.

I wanted a strong and immediately identifiable design which would form a recurring theme throughout all the flyers and promotional materials. I re-used some of the elements I had previously used in the Spin Off flyers in Edinburgh but, I think, improved on them greatly.

The effect with the partially obscured breakdancer was achieved by having two layers of text and two layers with the breakdancer figure, the top one of each at 60% transparency.

I was really pleased with this flyer. The night went really well too and was a sell-out.

Onto the next flyer and I kept the imagery and layout pretty much the same but with a simple change in colour.

Again the night went well and I was pleased with the outcome of the flyer.

For the next one I again changed the colour, this time to green, to complete the RGB triptych.

The eagle-eyed amongst you will spot the difference between who we had proclaimed would be playing in May on our previous flyer and who actually ended up doing it. The problem with trying to have the Next Date information on the flyer is that we needed to have the booking all tied up and confirmed two months in advance. On that occasion the booking we thought we had fell through, but it turned out well because A Skillz was excellent.

A slight change in the design for the next flyer, the first of what would be my CMYK range.

The Deadly Avenger night was notable for being very quiet, not many people turned up for that one. Deadly himself was a very nice guy but wasn't too bothered about playing records and was quite happy just to have a few drinks and a laugh with us. This was the beginning of the end for Freestyle.

Next up was a residents night, and as it turned out, the last Freestyle we ran due to declining turnout and rapidly decreasing bank balance.

I was sad for the night to finish but it wasn't feasible to continue losing money after a few poorly attended nights. Maybe if we had stuck at it it might have taken off, but it's difficult to promote a night in a different city to where you live.

I was very happy with the output for our publicity materials though. I think the branding was strong and recognisable and the concept was good, getting what the night was about over perfectly. If only more people were interested in what we were doing it would have been great.

However, onwards and upwards, I had new job to concentrate on.

Spin Off

At the start off 2005, club venue Cabaret Voltaire was taken over by new management.

I had previously been involved with the management at another venue so they offered me to run a midweek night and do something in a similar style to Headspin, my other long-running club venture.

I grabbed the opportunity as I was by this time out of work having been made redundant from my day job working in Fopp Records and it didn't involve any financial input from me, being on a simple share of the door takings.

The night was to be called Spin Off and, naturally, I was going to design the flyers for it.

The first flyer was a DL size single sided number, the other side being used to promote another night on at The Cab. Here is what I came up with.

I was excited about the new fonts and the image I had found and thought this looked a good flyer that got the spirit of the night over well. The silhouetted breakdancer was going to be our motif. Prepare to see these elements again sometime.

The next flyer I didn't feel was quite as successful but the management seemed to like it so we went with it.

The night took a while to get going, and we ended up not charging to get in as the midweek crowd are very price aware and there was a lot of other free nights on.

As it was starting to get busy, building a decent crowd every week, the management lost faith in us and pulled the plug. I wasn't too fussed as I was finding the weekly gig a bit of a strain and had also found a full time job which meant that lots of late midweek nights weren't a good idea.

I do think I produced some decent work for the night though which I would develop a bit further in my next adventure.

The Vaults

Back in 2004, two guys I kind of knew, Euan and Mark, were looking after booking the weekend nights at a new space, called The Vaults, that had opened up. They offered me a Friday night to put something on. I decided to resurrect the name Beats n Pieces, though the music policy wasn't quite the same as its first incarnation, more downtempo, hip hop, funk and soulful sounds.

I managed to persuade the guys to get me to design the flyers and posters which were to cover all the nights on each month.  It was a good regular gig for both DJing and designing.

Here's the first Vaults flyer I did, from September 2004.

For the next flyer I split the Friday and Saturday nights to a side each and, trying a build a bit of brand recognition and develop a distinct style, kept the flyers in a similar style with a change to the colour.

I realised that I was too often relying on the same favourite fonts, especially Impact, so I changed it for the next one but kept the layout the same except for the colour.

I enjoyed doing those flyers, and DJing at The Vaults, but eventually the management decided to something else with the space. I had made a good friend in Mark though and we would work together again before long.