Hats off to award-winning Hatters

My Stockport poster takes cover design of the year

One of my works has helped a Stockport firm win a national award.

Hatters, a leading North West promotional merchandise company based in Heaviley, won the  cover design of the  year at the Advantage Group brochure launch event with an adaptation of my Hats off to Stockport poster. 

The finishing touches were done by Future Design, another Stockport-based company.

Hosted at the 4-star Georgian country house hotel Sopwell House, the Advantage Group brochure launch takes place annually, bringing together merchandise distributors from across the country.

Hatters has just celebrated its 25th anniversary, and it seemed fitting that it should be marked by an image of the iconic Battersby Hat Works in Offerton - a symbol of Stockport’s industrial heritage.

Founded in 1994 by Managing Director Jo Shippen, Hatters has grown year on year and has worked with scores of national and blue-chip brands.

It specialises in promotional merchandise, print management and product fulfilment – including ordering of stock, storage and delivery.

Jo Shippen said: “I’m delighted that Hatters has been recognised for the brochure cover this year.”

 “It means a lot to me – and the team, that it has coincided with our 25th anniversary and I couldn’t be prouder to be celebrating our milestone achievement in this way.”

 “We couldn’t have done this without Eric Jackson from Statement Artworks and the team at Future Design for pulling it all together for us. It’s truly been a team effort.”

The winning cover design, and right, the original.

The winning cover design, and right, the original.

Vimto poster at Vimto HQ

Like all true Mancunians, I love Vimto - so much better than that Ribena stuff, which is only fit for Southern softies.

So imagine my delight when I got a commission from one of the Vimto family to paint a poster which reflects the company’s unique appeal not just in Manchester but across the world and especially in the Middle East.

The company was created by the Nichols family in Manchester, and remains in the family to this day, hence the headline Nichols and dimes to show how successful it has been.

Here is me presenting the framed poster to Vimto’s Commercial Controller James Nichols at the company’s headquarters in Newton-Le-Willows.

Such an honour!

Thanks to the lovely Mel in Pop Boutique on Oldham Street for being my model - another true Manc from Ancoats.

www.statementartworks.com

vimto meet 3.jpg


Statement Artworks on new Co-op website

Exciting news for Statement Artworks. I am one of the first artists in the country to be signed up to the Co-op's brand new local.co.uk website, which is now live (www.local.co.uk). Manchester is the pilot city but the site will soon be rolled out across the country. Watch me being interviewed by the Co-op (https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL9gVDiqd8VQyC8Q5HD7XlZ4H_ViTHMmEf). Most of my images are on the site, in A3 poster and A4 mount options, and you can buy directly through the Co-op. You can buy from me still at markets, and this weekend I am at Stockport and the Northern Quarter, while on Tuesday I have a stall at Victoria Station. My two latest images will be on sale, plus an adaped version of my Offerton poster, which now has Stockport as the banner. That, along with lots of other images, will soon be for sale at the Hat Works Museum in Stockport and at Staircase House.

Stockport poster

Stockport poster

Map of the British Isles

Map of the British Isles

Man City - bitter Blue?

Man City - bitter Blue?

Make a statement with your art!

This Sunday we are at the West Didsbury Makers Market and the Treacle Maket in Macclesfield. Can't find your way to those places? Well you'll be wasting your time consulting my map of the British Isles, but you can hang it on your wall. Yep, my new poster is now for sale in A4 size at the markets, and any size you like online. See you on Sunday! www.statementartworks.com

Map of the British Isles

Markets this weekend. Yes, really!

Statement Artworks markets

I'm now officially bonkers. This Saturday I'm at Urmston market and on Sunday it's Knutsford. Hopefully the mercury will rise just a tad to stop my fingers and toes dropping off. I'll have all my usual stuff for sale, plus the newbies shown here. See you at the weekend (huskies optional).

Cheers - Eric

Oldham poster, Statement Artworks
Wythenshawe for web.jpg
Bowdon poster, Statement Artworks
Mancunian Way, Statement Artworks

Mancunian Way, Statement Artworks

Bespoke Manchester Alphabet from Statement Artworks

Put your loved one's name in

the Manchester hall of fame!

The original Manchester Alphabet

The original Manchester Alphabet

And the bespoke version...

And the bespoke version...

I started doing them as presents for friends, but now they are taking off with the public - my bespoke Manchester Alphabet posters. So in this example, I've changed the original P is for....to P is for Phil Jones, who is my mate over the road. I've added some other details and used his name in the headline too. All I charge for the work is an extra tenner on top of the framed and poster prices. Just contact me on statementartworks@gmail.com if you fancy having one done for you, a friend or relative. And if you live in Sale, check out my Sale poster on www.statementartworks.com - the strap line at the bottom could easily carry your name or street or both!

 

Whalley Range poster by Eric Jackson, Statement Artworks

Whalley Range. Just the name sounds Wild West. Well, it was wild once, in the sense that drugs and prostitution were its main industries. But now the 'prozzies' have been replaced, slowly, by professionals, and it's becoming so gentrified that the term 'ChoBo' has been coined, by estate agents, to indicate it's the 'Chorlton borders.' Sick, obviously, but let's not forget the fact that Whalley Range possesses some of the finest buildings and streets in the whole of Manchester. It's real, old Manchester. Gritty and gorgeous in equal amounts, rich and poor, trendy and trackies cheek by jowl. And to cap it all there's the Carlton Club, as old school as you can get, but more wonderful and special than any arsey posers' club in the city centre. You'd have to be a real wally not to love Whalley Range. Love goes out to Laurence Hopkins, a mate and one-time resident of the Range, who helped me with the research. www.statementartworks.com

 

Whalley Range poster

Worsley, deliciously rich Tomato Soupville!

No, it's not polluted - it's the iron oxide, or something like that, that seeps into the water, which gives the Bridgewater Canal in Worsley its distinctive orange colour, an almost identical hue to that of tomato soup, in fact (many thanks to my old mate Simon Donohue for coming up with that comparison). And that, along with the classy Arts and Crafts homes and buildings, makes Worsley one of the most sought-after districts north of the Irwell. The jewel in Salford's crown. Deliciously rich! So cool is it, in fact, that it was recently featured in the The Great British Interior Design Challenge. Now that's trendy. This poster, by Eric Jackson, is available from A4 size all the way up to A1, through statementartworks.com and at the usual markets and selected shops/galleries.

Worsley, good enough to drink!

Worsley, good enough to drink!

Stretford poster by Eric Jackson, Statement Artworks

Stretford is famous for its association with football and cricket, with United and Lancashire County Cricket Club on its borders in Old Trafford, but it was once celebrated for having one of the finest cinemas in Britain.

A few years before the outbreak of the second world war, the Longford Cinema opened its doors for the first time, and its revolutionary design and state of the art interior and acoustics were hailed as 'the future' of wide-screen entertainment.

Sadly, the once-grand building has changed hands, closed, re-opened, been neglected and finally abandoned to rot. Admittedly it's on the unlovely Chester Road, but it remains a scandal that nothing has been done to use this masterpiece in some way. Instead, it has been daubed various shades of blue and pink over the years and stands as a testimony to council inertia.

Myposter features it in steam-punk mode and the Hopkins family of Old Trafford on the tandem. As for the geezer on the flying machine? That was instead of a flying pig, which is about as likely to happen as something being done about the great Longford Cinema.

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Eccles poster by Eric Jackson, Statement Artworks

Do you know Eccles has one of the finest restaurants in the north west? Put it this way, if Smiths was in London, Giles Coren would think it was the best thing since sliced Prosciutto. It's not all good, though - the one-way system is like entering the third circle of hell. It's a pity, because within it there's the Church Street area, which would not be out of place in a quaint market town or village. Of course, Eccles is famous for its cakes, which are beyond wonderful. Just don't mention Chorley...

This poster is available through www.statementartworks.com

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The Heatons of Stockport poster by Eric Jackson, Statement Artworks

Go on, you've heard it so many times, haven't you? Strike up a conversation with anyone from the Heatons, especially Heaton Moor, and you'll get: "It's just like Didsbury, with so many great shops, bars and restaurants, and the houses are amazing, but so much more affordable." And then you'll hear the 'added value' bit. "And it's so much easier to get into the countryside and the Peak District here, yet we can still get into town in 15 minutes on the train. And we've even got the 192 bus every minute."

Now they've got the revamped, Art Deco style Savoy cinema to boast about too, and who can blame them? It's a stonker of a place. See the latest movie then pop over to Damson, one of the hippest restaurants in the north west.

The four Heatons - Moor, Mersey, Chapel and Norris - form the trendiest corner of Stockport, giving the town a much-neeed cachet. If that gold dust could be sprinkled over the regeneration projects currently sweeping Stockport, then the town will once again be able to lure in the visitors from the affluent suburbs.

This poster is available through www.statementartworks.com

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The War of the Roses (continued) - Lancashire or Yorkshire, by Eric Jackson

The Singing Ringing Tree sound sculpture stands high on the moors close to Burnley, and most importantly, on the Lancashire side of the border with Yorkshire. When the wind blows, its tubular steel construction gives off an eerie, enchanting whistle. Of course, this isn't aimed to denigrate our lovely friends from Yorkshire. We never tire of hearing how Yorkshire is the greatest country in Britain, with the best beer and the best food and the best scenery. A quote heard on a recent flight to Hamburg, said by a Yorkshire bloke on a stag do to a German man in the next seat: "The next time you come to England you should forget about Manchester or Liverpool or London. They're rubbish compared to Yaarkshire. Yaarkshire's got everything. Go to Leeds - it's brilliant." He didn't, of course, mention anything about football. The models, by the way, are my beautiful friends and neighbours in Cale Green, Simon and Mandy Morrison and their daughter Emma. The poster is available from www.statementartworks.com, selected local galleries and shops and the best markets in the north west.

 

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Lymm poster

The Cheshire village of Lymm, hogging the scenic limelight between Warrington and Altrincham, has a lot to offer. It has a dam (a catch-all title that includes a tiny weir and largish lake), a quaint village centre complete with stocks, the curvaceous Bridgewater Canal, and more chi-chi shops and eateries than you can shake a baguette at. It even has something called the Bongs, like something from Lord of the Rings. Then there are all the ducks - the real ones around the lake and canal - and the plastic ones that compete in the annual duck race. All very hunky-dory, except that all those attractions come with a price - the crowds that flock there every weekend, clogging up the paths, roads, car parks...in fact everywhere. Oh the perils of being pretty...

Poster available from statementartworks.com

Lymm poster from statementartworks.com

Lymm poster from statementartworks.com

This is the North by Eric Jackson, Statement Artworks

That errant 'r', pronounced in bath and path, and probably a few other words, by people from the south of England, is just wrong, wrong, wrong - a stupid affectation probably brought over by the Normans, whose linguistic influence generally stopped at the point now known as the Watford gap. The little 'r' is the one thing that truly separates northerners and southerners. In most other respects we're exactly the same, at least genetically. This poster is available at markets around the Greater Manchester and Cheshire area, and online from statementartworks.com

That little 'r' - the true definer of where you are from in England

That little 'r' - the true definer of where you are from in England

Bollington poster by Eric Jackson

The folly of White Nancy stands sentinel over the Cheshire town of Bollington in the foothills of the Pennines and on the edge of the Peak District National Park. From White Nancy you can see across the Cheshire Plain, with Manchester in one direction and Jodrell Bank and the Welsh mountains in the other. Cheshire's Chamonix then? Well the people have a kind of mountain man sensibility, judging by the amount of Gortex and Nordic walking poles on show. It's a lovely place, though, albeit mostly strung along one winding road, so it's hard to pinpoint a centre. The cricket ground is amazing, as are some of the pubs and parks, and to top it all there's a micro-brewery. So when you finish any of the many walks on offer, there's always a great pub and a pint to look forward to. The very big one downside for me - no railway station. But that's not Bollington's fault, just that cretin Beeching who closed half the stations in the sixties. The poster is available at markets and online at www.statementartworks.com

Bollington Poster by Eric Jackson

Bollington Poster by Eric Jackson