We were asked to paint a mural and design a poster to celebrate the beautiful novel, Shuggie Bain by Douglas Stuart. Set in our beloved hometown of Glasgow, the book is rich in vibrant visual stimuli and depicts nostalgic imagery of the city in the 80s that inspired the content of the artwork.

The mural includes the quote, “You’ll not remember the city you were too wee, but there’s dancing. All kinds of dancing.” The words come from a section of the book where Agnes is telling her son, Shuggie, about the brilliance and the beauty of Glasgow. The image of Shuggie, which appears in the centre of the mural, is bringing to life the closing lines in the book where the protagonist twirls and dances in the street. The fireworks going off whilst he dances are another reference from the book, and also give a nod to the stars on the iconic Barrowland Ballroom sign (where the mural is painted). This famous Glasgow venue is referenced throughout the book, so to have been able to paint it on the side of this building felt wholly fitting, giving Shuggie the centre stage in the city that he so greatly deserves.

We had the pleasure of working with Ellie Bainbridge and Jack Batchellor - two students from Glasgow School of Art - to design a typeface for this project. Ellie and Jack designed ‘Flourish’, a typeface that explored the absurdness and toxicity of traditional notions of masculinity. They transformed a typeface widely recognised from 80s Glasgow, used on miner strikes and poll tax placards. Inspired by the ‘happy confident loops’ of Shuggie’s mother, Agnes’ handwriting as inspiration, they added these ‘flourishes’ to the harsh, rigid forms. This mirrors Shuggie’s story in the book, in the same way that he ‘flourishes’ in spite of a life full of the rhythms of a more restrictive, disadvantaged and openly hostile upbringing—dancing, even as bullies taunt him—so too do the letters of ‘Flourish’ dance (and flourish!) in spite of their restrictive, condensed roots.

Photos by Ricky Frew.