We were challenged to tackle ISTD’s 2026 brief, ‘Trade Matters’, challenged us to look at dying or forgotten trades and explore the history of the trade, and how or if it should be reintroduced.

We crafted Black Diamonds. Growing up in Barnsley meant growing up in a post-mining powerhouse and seeing how the fall of the industry impacted a town and its culture. This lived experience pushed me to explore the industry and its fall. This publication looks at the events that led to the fall of the mining industry from 1883 to 2015 and includes an exclusive interview with Keith Nixon, the last miner down the last deep coal mine at Kellingley Colliery.

The publication combines many different making techniques, including laser cutting, screen printing and bolt binding, and is presented coated in coal dust from Kellingley Colliery. Being covered in coal dust means that every time someone interacts with the publication, it leaves its mark on them, and they leave their mark on it, making it a forever-evolving and developing piece of visual media.

The publication’s colour and typeface take inspiration from the visual identity of the 1984–85 Coal Not Dole stickers, using Maya Lemon as the stock and Akzidenz-Grotesk Next as the typeface.