The Circus is Coming to Town... with Giants & Bears!

The circus is coming to Leeds this summer in the form of an extravaganza of a show 'The Giant & The Bear' and we couldn't be more happy to announce that we will be indulging all of our circus fixations Art Directing the show!

'Roll up! Roll up! The Giant's travelling circus is coming to Quarry Hill, and you're invited to come and play.

Unlimited Theatre and West Yorkshire Playhouse team up with circus artist Layla Rosa (Shunt) and game designers Hide & Seek to create an extraordinary family event for all ages, experiences and levels of daring.

Create your own adventure from a pick 'n' mix of experiences including.... New Versions of Old-Fashioned Games! Guided Mystery Tours! Hula Hooping! And a Flying Ballerina in a breathtaking finale in a Big Top tent for One Week Only!'

For more information please have a look at the West Yorkshire Playhouse 

Polishing our shoes & sharpening our pencils....

This week we polished our shoes, sharpened our pencils and set off to teach some unsuspecting first year students on the BA Illustration course at Stockport college. We will be working with them over the next couple of months on a brief that has got our imaginations running wild, with trips to graveyards, espionage and secret dinner parties planned to say this isn't your average illustration project would be an understatement!

So a year has past...

A year has past in our studio, look whats changed...

Putting our feelers out....

We are currently on the look out for experienced freelance assistants for upcoming projects in summer 2012. If you have experience in set design/prop making, whether it be for photography, festivals, theatre or film and have any/all of these qualities we want to hear from you!

DO YOU...

- See the funny side of life
- Enjoy a good cup of tea
- Have a good 'Guilty Pleasures' playlist
- Like cats
- Have BIG dance moves
- Have the ability to fix anything with Gaffa tape
- A penchant for fishing wire
- Enjoying playing
- Are willing to work until the jobs done
- And can decipher our ramblings


For more info please see here

If you think you fit the bill then please email us your CV and a visual portfolio to hi@lordwhitney.co.uk

It's Nice That...

What better thing to wake up to on a sunny Saturday morning than a lovely little feature about our recent mailout from design blog It's Nice That.

'Lord Whitney is a collaboration between two Leeds-based broads who dabble in everything from prop making and set design to photography and styling. They’ve sent through a sizeable unbound broadsheet, an apt form for displaying some images of their most recent life-sized installations. Drawing inspiration from carnival culture and sci-fi while appropriating materials found around their studio, these are some studied constructions that maintain an aura of fun and frivolity. Nice one ladies!'

Why thanks chaps, we are honoured!

The Spellbound Forest...

We're very excited to be art directing a most magical event this year called The Spellbound Forest. We will be working with the wondrous Wild Rumpus Events to turn some of the most stunning woodland in the UK into a forest full of Fairy Tales.

'Wild Rumpus & The Forestry Commission invite you and your family to step into The Spellbound Forest. Twisting paths through the forest tell the twisting tales of English Fairy Tales through theatrical performance, music, visual art and dance. From the youngest to the oldest member of your family, lose yourself in the enchanted world of fairy tales, where men can become birds, tears become rivers, and children whirl at the elven ball. The Spellbound Forest won’t just tell tales though, we will create our own new English Fairytale, dance our own new dance, and sculpt a marvelous creation to live in the forest long after the magic has faded.'

The event takes place on 19th & 20th May in Delamere Forest, Cheshire.

For more information and tickets please visit www.spellboundforest.org.uk

'Connoisseurs of all things make believe'

So with the new year comes some new promo for Lord Whitney. We've been busy creating new business cards with the help of many of our wonderful friends. Massive thank you to Tommy Davidson at 'Prints of Thieves' for screen printing them, and having the patience to get 'that red' we wanted so beautiful and bright looking. Huge thank you to Daniel Lancaster for helping us design them, and for correcting all our typography errors. And finally thank you to the wonderful James and Laura at Duke Studios and of course the 'motherfrickinlaser' for laser etching and cutting them so perfectly. We love them and will be throwing them your direction very soon!

We've also been very busy finally doing some promotional material, 'Hello' will be winging its way to many a desk this week, so keep an eye out. Here's a couple of sneaky pics...

'Not Bored Room' at Duke Studios...

A few weeks ago we were asked by the amazing super duo Laura and James at Duke Studios to design their meeting room in their brilliant new studio. 'The Not Bored Room' is not your average meeting space, step through the door into the Dukes private study full of many wonders and curios where parrots fly, planets move and ideas form!

Here's a few sneaky photos, more to follow soon...

Some things that have made us happy this week:

We can not wait for this!!!

Pretty much the best Star Wars costumes ever.

No Borders Mag...

Happy New Year! We are back after a lovely break and what better way to start the year than this lovely feature about us in No Borders Magazine which you can now download for your ipad.

We have big plans for 2012, world domination being top of our list so watch this space...

Lord Whitney's Antarctic Expedition...

Seasons Greetings from Lord Whitney

Fimbulvinter...

A few photos from our stage design at the recent Fimbulvinter exhibition with The Dead Sea Mob.

Fimbulvinter...

This winter we are setting sail with the Dead Sea Mob to bring you Fimbulvinter... the winter to end all winters. We will be adding our own little winter magic to the event which promises to be an awesome night.

'An evening of live art and stunning creation with The Dead Sea Mob and friends Eight Bit, Guy McKinley, Michael Shantz & Mr Gauky. This is our last show of the year and one last chance to light it up- so we've pulled out all the stops and called them in from all corners. Parliament of Feathers will be along to do what they do best and they'll be making prints on the night and our friends at Dirtyface will capturing the magic for all to see...
So Manchester, mark December 15th on your calendars and get yourselves down the Night & Day Cafe for pressies, prizes, exclusive merch and anything else we can think to throw atcha, check the Facebook event to let us know you're coming'

We hope to see you there!

No Culture Icons Film Lab...

What can we say, we love working with film so what better news than to hear about No Culture Icons new film lab, if ever we needed an excuse to use more then this is just it!

They are currently running a competition to win a months free processing so quick get those films in the deadline is Jan 31st 2012-

'No Culture Icons are passionate about film based photography, by maintaining and expanding its fellowship. We are interested in supporting and introducing film enthusiasts. This competition is designed to support this ethos. By using our service, you have the option to select whether or not to enter the competition. When you use our service and receive your film back, the shots on that roll are entitled to be entered into the competition.'

See more information on the film service here or join the facebook group for more news.

Christmas is Coming.....

This week we went on a epic adventure to shoot our annual Christmas card, we will say no more at the moment... but watch this space!

Duke Fever...

A more noble look we are currently trying out!

Today we spent the day prancing round as a pair of French Dukes for an ongoing project with the rather fabulous Duke Studios in Leeds. Currently the founders of Duke are working their noble socks off to transform the first floor of Munro House in Leeds into a multi use creative space with mother frickin'lasers and everything... and we are doing what we do best and prancing about in costumes!

As part of this transformation we will be collaborating with the talents that are Laura Wellington & James Abbott Donnelly to style their very aptly named meeting room 'The Not Bored Room'. We will be creating a vision of wonder and curiosity alongside creating a full lineage of previous Duke owners charting their desmise and squandered millions along the way. All will be unveiled at their grand opening so sign up to their newsletter for more details at www.duke-studios.com.

Alice in Wonderland...

Last weekend we created a Mad Hatters Tea Party to celebrate the opening of Alice in Wonderland exhibition at the Tate Liverpool. Our set was brought to life by the fabulous Curious Company  and many tiny Alice's. The exhibition runs until 29th January at TATE Liverpool and is well worth a look with some fascinating photography and illustrations alongside more recent influences in contemporary art, we highly recommend a visit.

Nutcrack Night....

Over Halloween weekend we spent our time creating a haunting atmosphere for Nut Crack Night a  new arts event offering an antidote to the over commercialized ghoulfest that Halloween has become. Set in the stunning Astley Hall in Chorley the event offered a slice of the magical and macabre with an evening of theatrical performance, wild dancing, light spectaculars and masked mayhem.

See more images of the event on our Facebook Page