Communication Design School of Design

Nancy Heley (she/her)

I am a designer who is motivated by communicating humorous and playful ideas through the moving image.

Over the past year, I have dedicated myself to creating short, advert-style films that explore the intersections of our society and culture. My ambition is to examine complex themes, which include taboos such as modern relationships with money and the Scottish cultural identity, in a way that is accessible, entertaining, and challenging.

Alongside filmmaking, I have a passion for publication design. Being the Graphic Designer for The Glasgow University Magazine (GUM) has given me valuable skills in understanding layout design and typography rules and principles.

I am now looking to enter the world of Art Direction and Advertisement.

Contact
nancy.heley@yahoo.com
Website
Instagram
Projects
How To Drink Irn Bru
Ashes To Ashes
The ‘M’ Word – Staying Afloat
The Egg
The ‘M’ Word – Courting

How To Drink Irn Bru

A two-minute film that explores Scotland’s love for Irn-Bru, presented in a wine tasting spoof.

I have always been fascinated by Scotland’s strong identity and wanted to explore this further. A vital aspect of this rich culture is the food and drink; there are many staple pieces, such as Irn-Bru. Combining these ideas together, I started using Irn-Bru as a vehicle to investigate Scottish culture further.

 

Ashes To Ashes

This year, I was the graphic designer for The University of Glasgow Magazine.The issues include: Seeing Red, Over The Top, and Ashes To Ashes.

Ashes To Ashes was the last issued I designed. The theme had connotations of re-birth, nature, circular. This issue had a completely different atmosphere to the last two, as I took influence from delicate, simple, and fragile design. In March 2023, GUM won the Best Graphic Design Award at the Spa Journalism awards, which is a massive achievement of mine.

 

The ‘M’ Word – Staying Afloat

Staying Afloat explores the embarrassment and shameful feelings one might have about your parents still financially supporting you.

This uncomfortableness is presented through a set of armbands printed with ‘Bank of mum and dad’ across them. Within the film, the character has to wear his emotion on his sleeve and put the armbands on every time he makes a purchase. I wanted to have the shots in a documentary style, reflecting the personal and confrontational atmosphere of this topic.

View the film here: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=zhjk8AA1R6g

The Egg

From The Archive was a process led brief that explored the relationship between moving image and classical music. I have produced four short films, solely using archive footage found across the internet, each exploring a mundane, everyday object, such as eggs, shoes, telephones and water.

Each film takes us on a journey from production to consumption. Paired with a piece of classical or opera music, I wanted the challenge of making these mundane objects become exciting and humorous through the music and editing styles.

‘The Egg’ explores the simple journey of an egg (to put it bluntly). Paired with the famous classical piece Also Sprach Zarathustra, the song has associations with space and epic journeys, contributing to the film’s humorous tone.

The ‘M’ Word – Courting

A film from my project ‘The M Word’, which explores the money taboo in British culture.

Courting explores the awkward conversation about splitting a restaurant bill in the style of a tennis match, which reflects the back-and-forth nature of this classic argument. In the style of a Charlie Chaplin film, it is set as a silent film to reflect the old-fashioned nature of the conversation and to show over-aggregated emotion without using dialogue.