Northern Poetry Library

The Northern Poetry Library (NPL) houses the largest collection of contemporary poetry outside London in the UK. The project remit – following the award of an Arts Council England grant – has been to raise its profile in a number of ways, to safeguard and build a future for the collection.

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The central plank of the NPL project has been to create a digital presence for the library, part of the public library system. Lemony Design has project-managed, designed and developed a website, social media campaign and e-newsletter, with a wide remit aimed at raising awareness of the library among poetry-lovers, those new to poetry – regionally, nationally and internationally.

Partners and project participants include Woodhorn Museum, Palace Green Library, November Club, International Print Biennale 2016

Date: 2016 - 2019 / Client: Active Northumberland / Role: Creative Director, Design and Developer / URL: northernpoetrylibrary.org.uk / Tags: Book Design, Events Diary /

A collaboration with Lead Poet Lisa Matthews, the design aims to make poetry accessible without dumbing it down. We decided on a story-based approach to captivate visitors, with photographer Phyllis Christopher commissioned to produce a set of stunning visuals to accompany three "library stories" viewed as full-screen images and step-by-step content hyperlinked to break-out content.

FEATURES
- Responsive design website, powered by Wordpress CMS
- Library information, catalogue search and what's on "up front"
- Custom-built news and events system, devised for easy maintenance
- Custom platform to enable the creation of a growing database of poems, poets and poetry primers that may be added to the site, supporting single page-poems, poetical sequences, audio and video formats.
- Mailing list sign-up and dedicated campaign
- Social media Twitter campaign, feed to and from website

The NPL project also commissioned Lemony Design for the design and print production of an anthology of poetry - Among Woods and Water - celebrating the library.