ABOUT

Zip was commissioned by Milton Keynes Council with support from the National Lottery Heritage Fund as the creative agency for the MK Skate project. The entire project encompassed a wide range items, developing a brand identity, designing a two part exhibition, both indoor and on-street as an historic trail, with flyers, trail map, digital posters, a website, merchandise, and a book to preserve this skateboarding history and the pivotal part Milton Keynes has played in the development of UK skateboarding culture.

MK Skate, a history of skateboarding in Milton Keynes is the culmination of a unique two-year heritage programme led by creatives and the community of local skateboarders, it explores the seminal role Milton Keynes has played in the development of UK skateboarding culture from the mid-1970s to the early ‘90s when it was arguably the UK’s street skateboarding capital. The project preserves stories, heritage items and documents of value to this story, ensuring that they are protected for generations to come

Many aspects of this unique book take a different route to what might have been expected from an historic documentation of a subject often misconceived by the wider public. As part of the MK Skate team we collaborated with everyone to bring all of these complicated components together.

We wanted to keep the cover bold, classic and simple - what would the local skaters identify with immediately that sums up the Milton Keynes skate scene? but be intriguing enough to tell a story of it’s own for someone outside of the skateboarding scene. We used the project logo for MK Skate which on first glance has a set of brackets surrounding the type, with a curious ’18’ number on one of them. This in fact represents a well loved obstacle which is the old Bay 18 bar from the Bus Station, now known as The Buszy. We then chose the iconic texture of the cornish granite which is used throughout the infrastructure of Milton Keynes’ centre, specifically we photographed the blocks by Station Square another significant spot in this heritage story.

Next the structure of the book, there were so many incredible images that needed including, if we had opted for a chronological structure to the story the earlier imagery was rare and often not in great condition. The team chose to tell the story in much the same structure as the original exhibition trail - a logical journey taking the reader from the train station, then onto all the sites a skater would naturally follow when exploring the town.
This journey is then interwoven with guess essays and interviews with notable people involved in the project, with a summary about the project towards the end.

Aesthetically we decided to give the book a classic feel with a gridded bold type and structure that felt timeless, reflecting the gridded architecture of Milton Keynes itself. We wanted this book to feel clean and spacial, not to go down the predictable ‘urban distressed’ look that is so often expected by viewer outside of the skateboarding community, whilst also not being to heavy hands with the design that it competed with the strong photography featured, therefore giving the whole book an authentic identity that would be taken seriously by anyone dipping into this culture for the first time.

FULL SPECIFICATION
Book block: 296 x 299mm (Landscape)
Extent: 120pp text + 8pp endpaper + hardcover case.
Printing text paper: Full colour throughout (4/4), printed on 120gsm uncoated wood-free paper FSC.
Printing cover paper: Full colour on one side (4/0), printing on 128gsm gloss art FSC paper + matt lamination.
Cover Note: Spot UV and deboss for a 150mm x 150mm logo.
Printing endpapers: One colour on one side, printing on 140gsm woodfree paper FSC.
Binding: Hardback casebound, section sewn with separate endpapers, square backed spine over 3.0mm thick Grey Chip Board.