“The history of my home town, Manchester, has always fascinated me, and it becomes even more fascinating when one is made aware of the city’s role in the development of the nation and the world as a whole.
Manchester’s story is deeply intertwined with industry and scientific innovation, most noticeably from the time of the industrial revolution, and this is evident in the buildings, bridges, archways, railways and canals that permeate the city.

The cotton mills , powered by steam for the first time, played a huge role in the city’s rebirth as the first industrial metropolis, and the canals and railways, which were new innovations at the time, aided this process.

In the following years, Manchester’s scientific community was elemental in key discoveries which changed the course of history. John Dalton’s atomic theory was the forerunner of modern medicine, Ernest Rutherford discovered how to split the atom at Manchester University, and the most significant development in recent history, the first programmable computer, was also developed here in Manchester.

As an illustrator I am interested in shapes, patterns and textures. For this piece I decided to focus on the shapes, symbols and repeating patterns that portray the innovations, architecture and science that I described above.

I have combined threads of cotton, warehouse windows, cogs and wheels, railway tracks and early chemical symbols to create what could be likened to a modern version of a Manchester coat of arms, in the centre of which is a new version of the Lancashire red rose.”