November 12 2008 | 9:04 am

Made in Sheffield

Made In Sheffield – Yes we are, so was Tony Christie, and so was his new album. Produced by Richard Hawley and featuring songs from the Arctic Moneys, Jarvis Cocker and the Human League, we handled everything from Tony’s golf clubs to his family tree.

We like a challenge and changing people’s opinions about Tony Christie post Amarillo is certainly a big one…

We’d worked with Tony before, around nine years ago when we designed the album campaign for The All Seeing I. He featured on “Walk Like A Panther” which had a great video shot in Sheffield’s Sheaf Market (our idea). Getting involved was a no brainer – we loved the prospect of being part of an all Sheffield team of musicians and creatives and we’re all big Hawley fans.

As for our input, we pretty much nailed the idea and overall concept/direction fairly quickly. The album wasn’t just about the music being Made In Sheffield, but ran deeper than that, with Tony’s career and his family all being made here too. The only lip service to Sheffield’s steel history we wanted to pay was to design Tony his own stamp or maker’s mark, designed to sit alongside the simple family tree graphics and the photographic concepts we had in mind.

We worked with Shaun Bloodworth who not only is a brilliant photographer but has in-depth knowledge on TC and his history living in Sheffield – he was an obvious choice. We decided to photograph the entire Christie family over a couple of days in locations that Tony either lived in or performed at. The album cover shot is actually in the Ivanhoe Working Men’s Club – Tony’s first gig back in 1961.

Alongside all the campaign work we also sold the idea of a making documentary about the project to Creative Sheffield who had the foresight to see this as a great opportunity to market the city. The film was directed by the legendary punk film maker Don Letts and his production company Brassneck TV.

Hopefully Tony’s next album will be Made In Rio!