Fine Art student Christopher Bunn, 35, from Sandbach in Cheshire, entered a competition held by My Clubmoor to transform the area around its community hub.
Chris was named as one of three winners of the graphic design/typography/mural competition and will see his work transferred onto the shutters on the local shops adjacent to their Community Hub.
His design has been sent to the artist Aaron Givens from @GRAVEYARDSHIFT (Instagram,) who has worked with My Clubmoor for several years, to adapt to fit the shutter front.
My Clubmoor is a group of residents who are passionate about where they live and volunteer to make the Clubmoor area the best it can be.
Chris said: “I decided to get involved because of the positive ideas which centred around the feelings of community, which people can hopefully relate to and take inspiration from such community groups.
“It was raining in sunny Cheshire when I created the artwork and I was inspired by Aaron’s original message of ‘come together’ and loved what they were doing at ‘MyClubmoor. I painted the words by hand, which gave the work a personal feel, and I have kept the design simple by playing with the positioning of the word ‘community’ and seeing what it can represent. Sometimes words can be taken for granted without actually seeing what they are made up from.
“I was excited to hear that I have been an influence with their design process and I can’t wait to see the final artwork in situ.”
The judges said they ‘loved the style of font you used in your design with paint brush strokes along with the shapes used to make up the lettering of the ‘M’ making a heart shape. It gave a real unique look compared to the other designs that were designed digitally’.
Chris added: “My plans for the future are to keep getting that buzz from painting and I would also like to be able to do what I love as a job in the future.
“I’m really enjoying my time at the University and the best thing is that I get to speak with like-minded, creative people who can help me with my own development as an artist.”
Daniel Ryder, Creative Projects Officer at MyClubmoor, said: “This project came about because some of our local business owners were inspired by our community hub shutter and had asked if we could decorate their shutters to spruce up the area and give our mini strand of shops a new urban and modern feel.
“We worked with our local councillors through Liverpool City Council and were able to secure funding to paint the shutters for three local businesses over the road from our hub to generate a new exciting buzz to almost match what we had already achieved with our shutter.
“Working with the artist we put together a tutorial pack and video for entrants to follow at home as the project had to change due to COVID -19 from our original plan of running 12 weeks of workshops, face-to-face, designing the shutters together with the artist. The changes to the project worked well and we had an influx of fantastic designs and ideas.”
The other winners were Catherine Bayley and Ria Matthews and all the designs are currently being applied to the shutters. My Clubmoor plans to hold a celebration event to showcase the work later this month.
Bernadine Murray, Associate Professor and Head of Art and Design at the University of Chester, said: “This is a fantastic project and having one of our students be part of this community initiative chimes perfectly with the University of Chester’s mission to develop students who take pride in helping shape society and have a positive impact people’s lives, which is something that art and design have the power to do.”
To attend the event or finding out more about the work MyClubmoor does, visit www.myclubmoor.org.uk or keep up to date via social media @MyClubmoor (Facebook, Twitter and Instagram).
