First Teamwork Tales Comic Complete

The first collaboratively created comic of our current Lottery funded project Teamwork Tales is finished with more soon to follow!

Produced by a team of men at Menscraft, an organisation in Norfolk focusing exclusively on men’s health and wellbeing, the new comic “Real Magic” follows the tragic adventure of a hubristic magician in late 1800’s New York.

Amazing T-Shirt Designs From Our Latest Lottery Project

Custom T-Shirt designs

Joining Stories, Essential Sequential’s year long project funded by the National Lottery Community fund, ended in February 2023

The project worked with young people aged 18 to 24 years old to create designs that ended up as amazing, original printed t-shirts for them to keep!

The Lottery Community funding allowed us to work with 4 groups of young people living in deprived urban areas of Norwich who were experiencing (or were at risk of experiencing) loneliness, isolation and their associated effects on wellbeing.

Over a series of 6 free sessions taking place in central Norwich locations each we facilitated each group to create their own custom T-shirt designs inspired by heroes, villains and monsters that resonate with them.

Exploring these heroes and villains allowed participants to identify and discuss qualities each character possessed that held power for them and think about how they might use what they learned to improve their own lives.

Not only that, they went away with a brilliant, one of a kind t-shirt to remind them of the experience!

Book Now for Free Website Design & Social Media Management Training

As part of the Norwich 100 Day Challenge Essential Sequential Project Coordinator, Stuart Paterson, will draw on his years of experience in graphic design and marketing to make the process of creating and managing your own (or your organisation’s) website and social media presence simple!

These Free 2 hour training sessions will take place at Norwich based Venues between 23rd and 31st May 2022

  • Budget Website Building for Individuals & Small Organisations
  • Social Media Marketing: Making it Manageable, Measurable and Effective

No experience in building websites or Social Media required!
No complicated technical details to remember!

Use our simple online form to Book places now

Spaces are limited so book places for you and any friends or colleagues who’d like to join now!

 

Attend and be eligible for a £300 grant

Business In The Community (BITC) have also pledged further opportunities through small grants of up to £300 for economically inactive* attendees to start community projects, or to invest in further bespoke training!

 

*Economically Inactive people (aged 16-64) who are not involved in the labour market – they are neither working or effectively seeking employment (i.e. have not been in invited to a job interview in over a month)
Economic inactivity includes students, early retirees and the long-term sick.

Introducing Joining Stories, Our New National Lottery Funded Project

Essential Sequential is very pleased to announce our new National Lottery Funded  project; Joining Stories!

The new year long project will start in February 2022 and will work with young people aged 18 to 24 years old in deprived urban areas of Norwich who currently experience (or are at risk of experiencing) loneliness, isolation and their associated effects on wellbeing.

What will the Joining Stories Project Do?

We’ll be using some of the remote working techniques that we learned during our last project Sharing Stories (which took place during the height of the Covid-19 pandemic) to facilitate equitable collaborative activities, both online and in-person as required, producing pieces of sequential art that
will be reproduced on ethically sourced T-shirts for each participant to keep.

There will also be a printed booklet produced and distributed of the work created to promote this and future projects.

If you or anyone you know might want to get involved in the Joining Stories project get in touch now!

Sharing Stories Project overcomes Lockdown to tackle loneliness and isolation

Despite challenges of lockdown and social distancing the first comic of our Community Lottery funded project Sharing Stories is complete!

The Sharing Stories project’s goal is to help women facing loneliness and isolation in Norwich and surrounding area through working as teams of comic creators.

The 20 page comic, Sharing Stories: issue #1, was produced in partnership with ArtAtWork CIC by women attending their weekly Art & Wellbeing sessions.

Stuart Paterson at sharing stories comic workshop

One of the attendees, Alison, had to say about the project:

“To start with the thought of making a comic was totally out of my comfort zone, but as Stuart explained things as the weeks went by I began to somewhat understand some of the process…

In the end our little group (as we were separated into different groups) we got a theme going and it became exciting wondering what the next week involved.”

Holly Sandiford, Project Coordinator at ArtAtWork CIC, said:

“The sessions were a real success in terms of skills, confidence, and wellbeing. It was a completely new experience for the group and the way that it was meticulously planned and structured meant that everyone was able to participate fully without feeling daunted.

One participant is non-verbal and autistic and a big comic lover and I have never seen her enjoy a session so much. It is great to be able to offer these opportunities to people who otherwise wouldn’t engage in the comic world.”

More Sharing Stories are in the pipeline working with other partner organisations.

Download a digital copy of this and other Essential Sequential Now

Sharing Stories: Women making comics

lottery community fund comic project

Sharing Stories is Essential Sequential’s latest Lottery Community Fund project for 2020 which focuses on co-creating comics exclusively with women and people identifying as female.

Get in touch now if you or someone you know would like to get involved!

What are Sharing Stories’ project goals?

Similar to our previous comic creation projects working with marginalised and vulnerable groups, Moving Ink and Studio GY, Sharing Stories will deliver a programme of workshops and online sessions, engaging a minimum of 80 women and people identifying as female in Norwich and surrounding rural areas.

The project is especially interested in benefitting those currently experiencing (or at risk of experiencing) loneliness, isolation and their associated effects on wellbeing.

What will the project deliver?

This project will be running until June 2021 and will cover a variety of design techniques and creative tasters allowing participants with different interests and skills to collaborate towards the shared goal of co-creatively producing 4 comics exploring themes and issues important to them.

The final comics produced will be shared both physically in print and digitally online.

Download examples of comics produced on previous projects by signing up to our mailing list.

How can I get involved?

If you or someone you know would like to create comics with us on this or other projects please email project coordinator Stuart Paterson.

If you work for another project or organisation working with people who might enjoy and benefit from creating comics in a collaborative setting then please get in touch to make a referral to the Shared Stories project or ask any questions.

After School Comic Club

The ES Comics Club, facilitated by a professional Illustrator and Comics Creator will be starting in Jan 2019!

At the weekly sessions children aged 8 and above can work individually or as teams to develop story ideas, write scripts and produce artwork for their own comic strips.

At the end of each term comics will be selected to appear in a new issue of The Nutcase, a professionally printed comic which each club member will receive a free copy of.

Download a free copy of The Nutcase now!

When and Where does the ES Comics Club happen?

The club for children aged 8 and above takes place over 10 sessions running from 3:15pm until 5pm on term-time Wednesdays at Stoke Holy Cross Primary School.

ES Comic Club Summer Term dates 2019

  • Weds Apr 24th to Weds May 22nd
  • Half term break
  • Weds Jun 5th to Weds July 3rd

How can my child join?

Club membership costs £80 per term (10 sessions) which includes all materials and professionally printed copy of the final comic.

Spaces are limited so please book early.

Bookings can be made through our partner Schools Out after schools clubs

To register your child fill out the Schools Out Registration Form and tick the box for ES Comic Club in the Booking section (towards the end of the form)

Once registered Schools Out will send an invoice for club membership (£80).

 

New Comic & Design Studio Project for 2019

Following on from the success of our 2016/17 Big Lottery funded project Moving Ink where we co-created comics with NEET young people in Gt Yarmouth Essential Sequential are very proud to have been awarded another Big Lottery grant for our new project Essential Studio GY!

What is Essential Studio GY?

The project will engage 80 young people, aged 16 to 25 in the Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft areas with the aim of expanding their capacity, confidence, and skills through the creation of comics.

Successful Comic creation is multi-disciplinary, requiring a variety of skill sets and is greatly aided by working as a team (writer, artist, graphic designer) – Essential Sequential’s skilled facilitators will assist local participants to form themselves into creative teams resulting in new, original stories in graphic form.

Progress Update: July 2019

Working alongside fantastic partner organisations Map and East Coast College, both of whom work with hundreds of Young people in Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft, we were able to smash our initial engagement figure.

Stuart Paterson from Essential Sequential with team of comic creators at Lowestoft campus of East Coast College

We went on to create comics with teams of young people, giving them a real experience of what it’s like to work creatively to a tight brief and deadline.

Dave Canham, writer for one of the comics, had this to say about being involved;

 “I’m so happy that I’ve got something out there with my name on it that I can say to my friends and family that I was part of the team that made it.”

Comic cover
Cover image for comic produced by young people in Lowestoft for their forthcoming comic.

All the comics produced during the course of the project will be available in print in various venues in Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft.

A supporting document, The Studio GY Plan Potential, will also be released collating evidence and thoughts gathered from organisations and project participants regarding local skills/ training provision and issues surrounding the employment market.

Please email us now to be informed of exact release dates of both of these.

Want to get involved?

If you’re a young person aged 16 to 25, live in the Gt Yarmouth or Lowestoft area and would like to take part email us now!

Likewise, if you are a professional creative or part of an organisation who’d like to find out more get in touch!

Come to one of the launch events!

Attend to on of our Launch events taking place at the following locations and dates:

  • Lowestoft Kirkley Centre: Friday January 18th 2019 (10am till 12pm)
  • Gt Yarmouth Library: Friday February 1st 2019 (1pm till 3pm)

Register now to book your place now!

What other aims does the project have?

The secondary aim of the project is to investigate both formally and creatively, opportunities to better inter-connect local creative practitioners to the design needs of Great Yarmouth’s social industries.

By getting local creative professionals involved, sharing their time and skills, the project will gather evidence as to the viability of a community based creative and commercial design studio.

The aims of the studio will be to meet the marketing and communications needs of regional non-profit organisations, whilst working in partnership (rather than competition) with local creative firms by utilising the skills the young people participating have developed in the creation of comics with the view to potential long term employment in the creative industries.

New Comic: Hidden Fable: Fall of the Mage Tower

Comic Cover

Essential Sequential are very proud to announce the release of their new community created comic, Hidden Fable: Fall of the Mage Tower in both print and digital format.

The 18 page comic, Part 1 of a 3 part story, has been created by a Gt Yarmouth based team Dave Canham (Writer), Hasina Choudhury (Pencils) and Freddie Cummines (Inks) as part of a Big Lottery Funded project working with young, unemployed people in Gt Yarmouth and Lowestoft facilitated by Stuart Paterson (Essential Sequential Project Coordinator).

Download a copy of Hidden Fable: Part 1 for free as a digital download Now!

Physical copies of the comic (printed by Gt Yarmouth based firm Blackwell Print) are also available at the Neighbourhood Centre in Gt Yarmouth and MAP.

To help us promote and grow we hope you don’t mind if we also add you to our mailing list in return (it means we can also let you know when Parts 2 and 3 are available)

You can always unsubscribe using the link at the bottom of any email we send you!

Comic Creation at Yarmouth Youth Arts Festival

Essential Sequential is partnering up with Map to give young people in Gt Yarmouth a taste of comic creation as part of the Young@Arts Festival taking place on Wednesday 24th Oct 2018.

**Post Updated Jan 2019: This event went brilliantly, and Map made this great video featuring our Comic Workshops (zoom to 00:33 to see the work we did)**

Young@Arts 2018 from MAP Young People on Vimeo.

(We’ll also be at a similar festival taking place in Lowestoft for the Making Waves Together project – a post will follow about that shortly!)

If you’re aged between 11 and 19 come along to our workshops, experience something new and be inspired by the ever-growing world of arts and culture. Great Yarmouth is booming with talent and opportunities for young people to grow their creativity. DJ Shingleman will also be playing live music throughout the day.

WORKSHOPS ARE FREE and include a FREE MEAL. Places on workshops are limited, please sign up by calling MAP on 01493 854839 or register at Eventbrite.

We’ll also be sharing information about Essential Sequential’s new Big Lottery funded project, Essential Studio GY, where we’ll be looking for young collaborators to help us set up Great Yarmouth’s own comic production studio!