30 April 2012

It's Your Choice - Visual Research

To help me with designing a travel guide, I wanted to look at other designs that I feel fit with the style that I want to create mine in. I want to create something that is relatively simple, but also appears sophisticated and stylish. 

Taken from Elle Uk.



Taken from Phaidon

The Wallpaper travel guides are incredibly sleek and contemporary, I own the one for Paris, and it is compact and concise in terms of the content of the book, and the design of the front cover is also simple. The books are all colour coordinated according to different cities, and there is a minimal amount of text used. 


Taken from Louis Vuitton

Probably the most decadent travel guides you could get hold of, but I like the fact that whilst they are their own product range, they maintain the same style as the original Louis Vuitton bags, but they have also played around with the design so that it feels fresh and modern. The use of a simple block colour again means that they can be coordinated and defined in a simple manner, although I do think that some of the colours do feel a little garish, particularly the green against the brown background. 
The illustration style also appeals to the fashionable crowd, as they are very pretty drawings. The simple sans serif typeface used also compliments the contemporary style. 




Taken from Aisle One

It's always nice to have a bit of modernist inspiration, and I think these travel guides look interesting and cool, although a little dated now. The illustrations are simple but effective and manage to perfectly communicate the iconography of the cities in a witty and engaging manner. 

It's Your Choice - Research

This is a travel guide created for www.chorley.gov.uk , that details the different activities available for people visiting Chorley.






It's Your Choice - Research


Research taken from www.chorley.gov.uk

Chorley has much to offer with beautiful countryside, from the rugged magnificence of the West Pennine Moors to the beauty of Rivington, Chorley's "mini lake district".
There is scenic woodland and grassland in the popular Yarrow Valley Country Park and Cuerden Valley Park plus hundreds of acres of pdf icon Astley Park close to the heart of the town centre and the Leeds Liverpool Canal - its yours to enjoy.
Walking
There are a series of five special Chorley Walking leaflets with walks to suit the experienced rambler or the gentle Sunday stroller. With rich wildlife, fascinating historic features and good pubs along the way these walks are a feast for the senses. You can download free copies of the Chorley walks here.
  • The Chorley Circular (9 miles) 
  • Botany Bay Circular (11 miles) 
  • Brindle to Withnell Fold Nature Reserve (4 miles) 
  • Whittle-le-Woods and The Walton Summit Branch (6 Miles)  
  • Rufford and Mawdesley (6 Miles) 
Cycling
The rolling countryside to the West of  the Borough offers idyllic cycling routes along quiet country lanes passing through picture postcard villages such as Croston and Mawdesley.  Whilst to the East the hills of the West Pennine Moors offer routes that are both scenic and challenging. Click here for information on cycle routes.
Canals
The Leeds Liverpool Canal runs right through the borough and what was once a symbol of Chorley's strength during the industrial revolution, is now transformed into an attractive route for narrow boats, walkers and cyclists rich in wildlife. The Canal is the longest in the country and is linked to 2,000 miles of inland waterways. Recently the Ribble Link was opened which joins the Leeds Liverpool to the Lancaster Canal. For further information click here to access the British Waterways site.
For cruises, try:
  • Canal Cruises: Boatel Party Cruises 01257 273269
  • Canal Boat Hire: L & L Cruises. 01257 480825
Rivington
With its rugged hills, picturesque reservoirs and woodland, Rivington is Chorley's mini lake district, with a natural beauty to rival the real thing. The famous Rivington Pike, an ancient beacon to warn of invasion, is a landmark that dominates the local landscape. However, what makes Rivington different is the influence of Lord Leverhulme, founder of Lever brothers, who created a number of unique features which he gave to the local people. These include, the Japanese Terraced Gardens on the Northwest slopes of the Pike, a beautiful real life secret garden and the Replica of the ruined Liverpool Castle.
Rivington Barns
These unique Saxon Tithe Barns are well worth a visit. The Great House Barn is open daily with a tea/coffee shop, also serving light meals. The Hall Barn is famous for its nights out, with a variety of special entertainment, including Bavarian Nights, Barn Dances and Medieval Banquets. It is also available for functions. The Hall Barn is open every Sunday and hosts an antiques fair on alternate Wednesdays

Its Your Choice - Research


Another piece from Wikipedia that details the culture and things to do in and around Chorley, some of which I will be featuring in my travel guide.

Culture and community

Chorley Little Theatre
Chorley has two historical societies, the Chorley Historical and Archaeological Society and the Chorley and District Natural History Society. It also has a civic society.
Chorley Little Theatre was built as one of the town's first electric cinemas in 1910, it has been owned and operated by volunteers from Chorley Amateur Dramatic and Operatic Society (CADOS) since 1960. The society put on at least six productions a year (typically four plays, a pantomime, and a musical) and shows by Chorley Youth Theatre and big-screen films from Chorley Empire Community Cinema. It underwent refurbishment in 2010 and hosts touring comedy and music shows from old and new acts.
Astley Park, the town's urban, town centre park includes the Grade I listed, Astley Hall and also the renovated and refurbished Coach House Gallery and Walled Garden. The Coach House Gallery presents a seasonal programme of visual arts exhibitions from local and regional artists alongside an outdoor cultural events programme in the Walled Garden. These events include live music, theatre, dance and community arts events.
The Arts Partnership is a youth arts charity that operates from their own venue on Railway Street in the town centre. They run a number of arts and creative schemes with a diverse range of young people. The murals at the railway and bus stations were produced as part of projects from the registered charity.
Cedar Farm Galleries in Mawdesley houses a number of artist's studios, retail stores and an on site restaurant.

[edit]Places of interest

Astley Hall

It's Your Choice - Research

Taken from Wikipedia, this details a history of Chorley, which I hope to use as a feature in my travel guide, to provide the reader with a little bit of history and background. 



Chorley is a market town in Lancashire, in North West England. It is the largest settlement in the Borough of Chorley. Chorley is located 8.1 miles North of Wigan and 19.5 miles north west of Manchester. As with the Lancashire and Greater Manchester region, the town's wealth came principally from the cotton industry. As recently as the 1970s the skyline was dominated by numerous factory chimneys, but most are now demolished: remnants of the industrial past include Morrison's chimney and a few other mill buildings, and the streets of terraced houses for mill workers. Chorley is known as the home of the Chorley cake.

[edit]History

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The name Chorley came from Anglo-Saxon Ceorla-lēah = "the peasants' clearing".

[edit]Early and Roman history

The area around Chorley has been inhabited since at least the Bronze Age. The earliest find came from 3500 BC on Anglezarke Moor at Round Loaf. A farmer at Astley Hall Farm found a pottery burial urn from this period in 1963. This find was followed up with further excavations, with further artifacts being found. Objects from these excavations are on display at the hall's museum.[citation needed]
During the Roman era a Roman road ran near Chorley towards Wigan. It is believed that Romans settled at Brindle to the north of the town, as Roman remains were discovered there in the late 1950s.

[edit]Late Middle Ages

A market charter was granted to the town in the 1250[citation needed] and there is evidence from 1498 that the market was actually taking place[citation needed] Nowadays, the town has two markets, the Flat Iron Market and the Covered Market. For one weekend each year, French market traders sell their produce in the town, with Chorley's merchants returning the favour in France. The market has a number of specialist cheesemongers who purvey the local Lancashire cheese in various forms. Chorley is also famous for its famous Chorley cake.
During 1442 a local noble named Sir Rowland Standish (a relative of Myles StandishMayflower passenger and military commander of Plymouth Colony), who had fought atAgincourt, brought back to Chorley the skull and bones of Saint Lawrence and interred them at an altar at the parish church. With the bones interned there the church was renamed St. Lawrence's. Records of this are mentioned in the Harleian Manuscripts. The bones were not of the 3rd century saint but are believed to be the bones of Lorcán Ua Tuathail, a saint canonised as St. Laurence from Dublin, who died in Normandy in the 12th century. The bones went missing in the Reformation under the rule of King Henry VIII.

[edit]17th and 18th centuries

According to the apocryphal story, James I after a good meal, officially knighted Sirloin steak ("Sir" loin) at Hoghton Tower, a large stately home to north east of the town, whereWilliam Shakespeare once worked. Astley Hall is a more central stately home, set in the middle of the town's largest park, Astley Park. Oliver Cromwell visited here on his trek through the region.
On 27 November 1745 when Bonnie Prince Charlie and his Jacobites passed through Preston and Wigan on their way south to Manchester and Derby in the hope of taking London and the Crown, Chorley was a mustering point for the Government scouts tracking them. The Prince and his Army marched through Chorley itself on 10 December on the way back toCarlisle and Scotland and their dreadful day of destiny on Culloden Moor near Inverness the following 16 April. There was considerable local support in the town for that famous lost cause.

[edit]19th, 20th to 21st centuries


Chorley Town Hall

Chorley Council Building, Union Street
Chorley, like most Lancashire towns, gained its wealth from the industrial revolution of the 19th century which was also responsible for the town's growth. Chorley was a vital cotton town with many mills littering the skyline. Today only three mills still remain working.
Also Chorley in its location on the edge of Lancashire Coalfield was vital in coal mining. Several pits existed in Duxbury Woods, the Gillibrand area and more numerously in CoppullChisnall Hall Colliery at Coppull was considered the biggest Lancashire pit outside of Wigan and one of many located in the Chorley suburb. The last pit in the area to close was the Ellerbeck Colliery in 1987 which was located south of Chorley, between Coppull and Adlington.
The town played an important role during the Second World War, when it was home to the Royal Ordnance Factory, a large munitions manufacturer in the village of Euxton about 2 miles (3.2 km) from the town centre. A smaller factory was also built near the Blackburn-Wigan railway line in Heapey.
In the 1970s Chorley was designated as part of Central Lancashire new town, together with Preston and Leyland. The original aim of this project was to combine the three settlements into a single city with a population of around half a million. Although this never came to pass, and the project has since been abandoned, Chorley benefited from the urban renewal commonly associated with new towns. Examples include a bypass of the town centre, and the Market Walk shopping centre.
Chorley saw the completion of the largest Mormon temple in Europe in 1998, known as the Preston England Temple.

[edit]Governance

In 1837, Chorley joined with other townships (or civil parishes) in the area to become head of the Chorley Poor Law Union which took responsibility for the administration and funding of the Poor Law in the area.[2] Chorley became incorporated as a municipal borough in 1881 by its first mayor William Augustus Smethurst. The town's population remained roughly static in the 20th century, with the 1911 census showing 30,315 people and the 1971 census showing 31,665. Under the Local Government Act 1972, Chorley became the core of a larger non-metropolitan district on 1 April 1974. The present Borough of Chorley has forty-seven councillors, representing twenty electoral wards.

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