Hi! I'm Matt D Woodman^[MISTD]

I’ve been freelancing under various guises for The Bristol Cable since as early as 2014. Initially, intrigued by the concept of an independent and democratic media co-operative operating in the community to challenge corporate conglomerates, I began contributing as an pro-bono Print Designer on the first handful of issues, when the publications was in its early infancy.

Growing from a local challenger comprised of volunteers to a pioneering public interest organisation The Cable has amassed thousands of paying members (myself included) owning their own media, giving voice to the people and supporting independent investigative journalism that holds power to account. The paper operates on the fundamental principles that investigative journalism should be; inclusive, relevant and reporting: impartial.

As time has passed my involvement with the paper has been less frequent but the opportunities no less exciting. In latter years The Cable’s focus has turned towards digital publishing and we have collaborated on numerous award winning, nominated and shortlisted projects vying for attention alongside national media outlets (including projects; The Cornerman and Ice Cream Slavery case).

Most recently I worked with the founding team to re-design their website homepage to improve the visual appeal, navigation, highlighting of their USPs/campaigns, access to (and speed of) information, quality of the User Experience and better serve the needs of their users.

In 2018 The Bristol Cable, Bristol’s pioneering independent public interest media co-operative, approached me with a unique proposition. Having worked with The Cable on a number of previous projects they knew that I could accommodate tight newsstand deadlines, bringing digital expertise and creative flair to a project.

The team were seeking to publish a true crime digital interactive docu-series; the culmination of years of work by their investigative journalist collaborator, The Guardian’s Michael Gillard.

In this four-part limited series The Cable sought to unmask one of Britain’s most elusive crime bosses, The Cornerman, so-called for taking a corner out of every crooked deal that came his way and hurting those who didn’t pay up. Firmly on the police’s radar ever since his name was linked to two notorious and still unsolved gangland murders twenty years ago in London, The Cornerman used his connection with one of the capital’s most successful crime families to build a network of protection rackets, terrifying local communities and rubbing up against high society.

The exclusive series traces the complex rise, fall and criminal history – over decades and across multiple cities – of a gangster whose whispered named induced fear from London’s glitzy West End, extending along the M4 corridor to Bristol, and his connection to a string of unsolved murders.

Podcasters Joel Barber and Cam Scott initially approached me in a strictly advisory capacity to provide typographic consultation on a light refresh of their joint sporting venture ‘Giving the Game Away‘ – a podcast focussed on the mental aspects of elite level sports athletes.

Though initially only a podcast they were looking to expand their offering moving into daily social media content, competing in a market with such established brands as The Athletic (rebranded by GretelNY) and High Performance podcast. I presented a shortlist of options based on sound rationale and typographic research. From there we collaborated to refine the specification of the project and the team quickly realised that there was much greater scope for a complete visual overhaul of the GTGA brand including; colour palette, logotype/mark, typography, and delivery of highly flexible, adaptable and easy to expedite social media Photoshop templates.

Studio Mud, a boutique web design agency based in Bath, commissioned me as a freelance 2D animator to bring life to a suite of service icons (drawn in-house) for their 2021 rebrand.

Although stylistically/aesthetically simple by nature, a handful of these line illustrations presented real challenges when it came to making them move – chiefly because some required an element of 3D perspective. Working with the client I refined the looping stings to meet their exacting specification, resulting in a finished product that we were collectively very happy with.