Graphics Union UK | Membership

✨ INTRODUCING ✨Meet the new faces of the Graphics Union! We’re so excited to introduce the team dedicated to supporting our community through fun socials, instagram posts, and plenty of member-only exclusives. We can't wait to see what we all create together this year! If you're new here we've just released our latest Newsletter sent out to the members emails! ✨️ 🪑 CO-CHAIRS: Thomas Love Ruta Daubure ℹ️ ADVISORY: Kathy Heaser 🪙 TREASURY: Ciara Erskine 📣 COMMUNICATIONS: Louis Bailey Flo Tasker 📍 REGIONAL REPS: Ant Harding (Manchester/NW) Sophie Cowdrey (Cardiff/SW) 🎟 SOCIAL EVENTS: Charlie Austin Vicky Cohen Sian Lipscomb Kate Potasova 🙋GENERAL HELP: Sara Azmy, Angel Cheang, Kathy Heaser, Gabby Leon, Sian Lipscomb, Sophie Moore, Kate Potasova, Emma Plumpton. 📸 SOCIAL MEDIA: Clara Cuffe, Rachel Kelly Graham, Billy Churcher, Mely Mendez 🛍 MERCH & PERKS: Sophie Powell Betty Woodhouse If you want to help our committee this year on any special projects we would love to have you!! Email [email protected] for more information or send us an instagram message. ------------ 👋 We represent Graphic Designers in Film & TV across the U.K.

(Re) Introducing: ⭐️ GU PRESENTS ⭐️ That’s right, we were due a rebrand! #GUthursdays is now ⭐️GU Presents⭐️, everyone’s favourite bi-weekly spotlight showing off glorious graphics by our marvellous members. Do you have a job coming out soon you’d like shown off to the world? Or a past project you’d like to get more flowers? Give us a DM and we’ll see what we can do! We are no longer checking the #GUthursdays hashtag. To get our attention, please tag us @graphicsunion in your stories, and send us a message! Our followers L⭐️VE seeing your work, and we do too! #graphicsunion #graphicsforfilm #graphicdesignforfilm #graphicprops #graphicdesign #filmgraphics #filmandtv #filmandtvproduction

Graphic Designer HOT TAKES! Ever looked at somethiand thought "oof I can't unsee that now" No, just us? 1) The "brand-free" Generic Store When branding feels designed without purpose and results in a "visual vacuum" leaving a space seems uncanny if not intentional. 2) UI "Technobabble" Design The fantastical approach to hacking and non-fictional UI traits. 3) The Clearly ‘Filler Text’ When text is noticeably filler or placeholder text in a closeup. 4) Localisation and Translation Failures When productions ignore the mechanics of non-Latin scripts, resulting in broken Arabic, default system fonts on ancient scrolls, or nonsense "filler" text for native speakers. 5) The Intra-Decade Anachronism When modern design elements like the Gotham font (2002) or 20th-century billboards appear in historical settings where the technology or culture to create them didn't exist yet. 6) The "Vector" Blood and Grime When a prop or graphic is very clearly faked to look old or worn that it's noticeable. 7) Overly noticed "Notice boards" The poor taste of overdoing noticeboards in unnecessary scenes for "aesthetics" too. 8) Conveniently named files When a file is perfectly named, especially if it's incriminating stuff! Do you have any pet peeves or an expert eye on details you’ve caught when watching a show or movie? Or perhaps you’ve seen enough portfolios that maybe something appears repetitive? Let us know! #graphicsunion #graphicsforfilm #graphicdesign #graphicshottakes

A lovely Saturday social with some of our members! A great chance to connect and chat over drinks for our second Spring Social of 2026! We would love to host more gatherings like this and enjoy our time together as a community. And hope to see more new faces! Thank you to each and every one of you that showed up for the this weekend! We hope you had a great time with us! Be sure to keep an eye out for any future socials and any events we might have in store🌻🌸 Thank you @charlie_marie_austin & @floda for the photos! 📸💕 #graphicsunion #filmindustryevents #graphicsuk

⭐️The Other Bennet Sister⭐️ reimagines *Pride and Prejudice* through Mary’s eyes, finally giving the neglected sister her spotlight. Our production designer, Tim, established beautiful mood boards and palettes that we translated into our visual language. We tackled 1800s essentials: dance cards, pamphlets, books, signage, canvas prints, letters, and sheet music. I’m really proud of the level of detail we achieved; for the letters the wonderful Deborah Hammond handled the scripted correspondence while the rest of us dabbled in calligraphy for dressing. We established different wax seals for each family and got them etched out of brass by @ppdltd . We also used the Jane Austen historical ink from @l.cornellisen_and_son , made using the original recipe. Some of the prop books that were sourced by our set dec department needed a graphics pass to add finishing touches; lots of title blocks and inner pages, using dry transfers from @bel_signs . A few of the scripted books such as Fordyce’s Sermons and Theory of the Earth were real publications from the 1800s and I was amazed to find entire scans on @internetarchive that I could digitally clean up and print. A couple of these books are bound by Abbey Bookbinding. We also learnt some bookbinding techniques in-house to create our own prop sketchbooks. Other lovely tasks included making beautiful dance cards for each of the balls, Mary’s crime pamphlets were a really fun and quirky graphic to research; they were essentially the 1800s version of a true crime podcast, detailing sensationalist tales of murders, trials and executions. @jessthomasart provided some lovely signwriting for us to establish the Meryton shops in Episode 1. We also sourced a lot of public domain artwork for our Longbourn, Netherfield, Gardiners House and Pemberley sets, sent to @abcdesignswales for printing onto canvas and ageing afterwards with crackle glazes and wood stains. PD: Tim Dickel SAD: Ali Adam SD: Kate Beckly GD: @sophiecowdreyart AGD: @elberrygraphics Art Dept Assistant: @rubyboswellgreen Art Dept Trainee: @james_frith_designs © Bad Wolf / BBC

🌼☀️🍻 This past Sunday some of our lovely members got to connect and chat over drinks at our first Spring Social of 2026! We love being able to host gatherings like this and enjoy our time together as a community. Here are some photos of the event! ⭐️ Thank you to each and every one of you that showed up for the London Spring Social! Did you have a good time? Be sure to join us at the next one this Saturday in Leeds, or any of our future gatherings! 🖋️🌸 #graphicsunion #filmindustryevents #graphicsuk

✨️Deep Dives! ✨️ We’ve been diving deep into the tactile world of stamps and labels and no, we aren't just talking about the ones you lick and stick. We’re exploring the "bite" of Letterpress, the 3D ridges of Intaglio, and those grainy Hand-Struck marks that turned ordinary paper into legal history. Whether it’s a high-security royalty or a 1970s driver’s licence, every mark tells a story of how ink meets paper. 🖋️📖 Examples by our very own @pocketfulloffilm 📸✨ Check out more of his incredible collection over at @ephemeravault . #Philately #Letterpress #VintageDesign #PrintingHistory StampCollecting GraphicDesign EphemeraVault #Stamps

A selection of print automotive advertisements! 🏁📚 From Oldsmobile’s early illustrated promise of “the best the field affords,” to mid-century Chevrolet and Dodge campaigns, these layouts knew to sell aspiration. In the era of the celebrated “Madmen”, these advertising agencies targeted automotive demographics— Campaigns from brands like Ford and Dodge leaned into pastel palettes, soft interiors, and copy that positioned the car alongside fashion and beauty — something to coordinate, accessorise, even “wear.” Elsewhere, Jaguar Cars leans into atmosphere and seduction, positioning the automobile less as transport and more as an object to be pursued — even captured. “The Car” evolves into a cultural signifier: gendered, romanticised, and deeply embedded in the visual language of its time. Chevrolet, Ford Mustang, Oldsmobile, Dodge, Jaguar), spanning early 1900s–1970s. Sources: historical magazine print ads (Life, automotive archives, and collector scans). #GraphicsUnionUK #VintageAds #AutomotiveDesign #PrintCulture #VisualHistory

Two cities, two socials! 🚀 April is looking busy, and we’re heading to London and Leeds to celebrate the start of spring. Come join the Graphics Union UK crew for a relaxed drink and a chat: 🗓 London | Sunday 19th April, 2pm onwards The Heist Bank, Paddington 🍕🍻 🗓 Leeds | Saturday 25th April, 2pm onwards White Cloth Hall, Central Leeds 🧥✨ (And yes, for the 25th, we expect to see those light jackets!) Both events are super low-pressure, perfect for catching up or meeting new people in the industry. Whether you’re a regular or it’s your first time coming along, you’re more than welcome. Which one are we seeing you at? 👇

🔍 Your go-to spots for everything font research 🔤✨ Here are some must-know sites every designer should bookmark 👇 🧠 Fonts In Use
Real-world typography inspiration—see how fonts are actually used in branding & design
 🔤 Wordmark.it
Preview all your installed fonts at once—perfect for quick comparisons
https://wordmark.it 🕵️ Font Ninja
Identify any font on a website instantly (yes, it’s that easy 👀)
 🎨 Typewolf
Curated font pairings, trends & modern design inspiration
 📚 Letterform Archive
A goldmine of typography history, rare fonts & visual research
 ✨ Walden Fonts Co
Beautiful, expressive fonts with a strong creative aesthetic
 ⚡ Pro tip: Don’t just collect fonts—study how they’re used

On the job looking like Miley Stewart, but turning into Hannah Montana at the wrap party. ⭐️🩷🎸 Hoping you all get to enjoy the best of both worlds like Miss @mileycyrus ✨ 20 year anniversary is wild! #GraphicsUnion #GraphicDesigners #HannahMontana #GraphicDesign #FilmGraphics

Heated Rivalry 2025 Sky & Now TV Graphics by Stephen Crowhurst! As the Graphic Designer on "Heated Rivalry", there was a fantastic opportunity to build out the visual world of the show through graphics supporting both character and story. Very early on, the vision from our Production Designer, Aidan Leroux, was to dive deep into the world of professional hockey and the professional athletes that make up the game. From a Graphics point of view, sports environments are full of visual language. Team branding, arena signage, media graphics, locker room materials, the hotels they frequent, the airports, etc. So there were a lot of opportunities to design authentically in that world. One of the most enjoyable parts of the job was developing the graphic identity around the teams featured in the series. That, of course, falls into locker room signage and arena visual identities; everything had to feel believable within the high-stakes world of professional hockey while also serving the needs of the story. The amount of work and variations of team logos that went into this makes my years in Advertising before Film... look like a cake walk. We really put the time and effort into this, and I am so glad we did. There was also an immense amount of collaboration across departments to make sure the graphics integrated seamlessly into the sets and served the overall vision. Working closely with the Showrunners, Production Art Department and Costumes, we built a visual language that carried through all of the environments. It was truly all hands on deck from start to finish. Productions tend to move quickly and involve a huge number of graphic elements that appear on screen only for a moment, but those details help sell the reality of the world. I’m really proud of what I was able to offer to the larger teams involved and grateful to have worked within such a talented art department, bringing this story to life. Literally THE BEST Art Department team in Canada. Production Designer: Aidan Leroux Art Director: Alder Dunlap Graphics: Stephen Crowhurst Set Design: Dave Wood Set Dec: James McCrindle Costume: Hanna Puley © Sky & NowTV ©CraveCanada