King Offa’s own Badge

When you need to refresh your clothes,
Your shoes, including your toes.
When your pigment’s been bleached
And your end has been reached
We are here at the end of your nose. Hello.

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With a little help from his loyal subjects, King Offa has new clothes. Whilst his PR guys were pushing for something bright and vivid – Offa was hooked of the look-of-his-age – something cosy and matching his long long long long Dyke.

We brought in a selection of hand woven local materials whilst his PR guys spoke of a flashy new brand identity for ‘the street’. We quietly created a look to emphasise the rural  nature of his earth workings and combined it with a simple back-to-basics head band. Offa smiled, which is rare for him, and gave us the go ahead for the makeover. Exit PR guys. Enter quality.

We worked with Julia’s structure to freshen Offa’s image and adapted Joanne’s early colour scheme to fit in with Offa’s back to nature range. He wanted to ensure that his regular and new visitors to Knighton would still be able to recognise him in logo form as well as a welcoming character to the Offa’s Dyke Centre where tourists come to find news of all the local attractions and supporting local businesses.

When the new badges are ready, Offa will be presented with the first one we unpack, along with files of his logo in various formats so he can use it for greetings cards, forms and party invites.

Offa’s new brand identity badge is fit for every dyke walking king and queen as they arrive in Knighton from the North and South.

Snowmen migrate for Winter

Summer Snowmen migrate for Winter

Summer Snowmen migrate for Winter
Coils of worm earth solid as stoneGarden mess in turmoil now
Green on green and overgrown

Cook’s food dormant
Veg. plot low

Creepy crawlies all in bed
Hiding from the snow

Creak the doors that swell with moisture
Float the sodden leaves through drain

Compost sleeps and all is quiet
Pitter patter tip toe rain

Apples fridged, fresh imported
Quilted covers cosy toes

Long the shadows, branch lines sorted
Hearth fires spit as each one glows

Cups of cheer on tables welcome
Parties out – no mess to clear

Bring the pot roast to the hungry
Hurry fingers Winters here.

 © Grant

Background:
The HoBB was covered in snow. I’d been out taking photos. I sat down by the log fire and started looking at illustrations by Scarf, Tomlinson, Emett, Rackham, and Heath Robinson.  I then did an online search for welders to help me build the hood of a Steam Punk iron forge. As the fire burnt, wrote and edited this poem many times until it appeared to dart like a mayfly at a storytelling round, not always sure of where it is going or where it should land. If you share the moments in the poem you will be in the same mood as I was then. If not, here’s some of the snow images for you:


(Comments Closed)

Adrian Waldorf – Hmm… fun!, but i don’t see what mood you were in when you wrote it?
GrantoftheHoBB – Thanks Adrian. I was in a fun mood when I started writing the thing, and through writing it, ended up in a “Mood-Swing”
Nocturnal Rogue – I love season themed poems and I enjoyed reading this. My favourite lines were; ‘Creak the doors that swell with moisture
Float the sodden leaves through drain’ Nice!

Danielle N Josh -Great Loved it enjoyed reading it

GrantoftheHoBB – Thanks Danielle.