‘Creative Producing’ can be a bit of a nebulous term, applied to anyone doing anything even vaguely involved in making something within the creative industries.
My definition of it, in terms of what I do, is that I either devise, plan and execute a project, or collaborate with other creatives to aid in their delivery of a project.
In this respect, my output is quite varied, including music videos, project co-ordination, design, and events management. But variety is king, and I think that my breadth of experience in various fields enriches the contributions I’m able to make.
My applicable skills in relation to this include:
Directing planning and editing music videos, and promotional videos for social media
Designing posters, artwork, visual assets
Planning and executing photo shoots
Planning, co-ordinating and duty managing large scale events including national tours
Advising, supporting and connecting creatives to opportunities to further their careers
Below are some examples of projects I’ve helped steer and develop:
LIVE AT THE CHURCH – VIDEO LIVE SESSION (2025)
Role: Producer, Editor, Project Co-Ordinator
Inspired by Nigel Godrich’s ‘Live From The Basement’ series, I worked with talented videographers and audio engineers to create ‘Live At The Church’, a series of live performances by my project Scatterchild.
I sourced the crew, planned out the shoot and scheduling, as well as sourcing, props, lighting and equipment. I also edited the entire project, and created social media clips to promote the videos.
AN EVERYDAY LANDSCAPE – ALBUM CAMPAIGN (2024)
Role: Designer, Producer, Artist, Copywriting
In 2024, my project Scatterchild released their debut album An Everyday Landscape. This record was a culmination point; 5 years of writing, performing, and brand focussing. As well as writing and producing the music myself, I designed and organised all the visuals for the record, including the gatefold sleeve, merchandise, music videos and promotional assets.
The theme from which the album takes its title is, basically, wanting something bigger from an ordinary, everyday life – and how the beauty in the everyday only appears when we allow ourselves to see it.
Another core theme of the album was nature versus cities and feeling overwhelmed, wanting more from ordinary life. As such, the visuals drew from forests and landscapes, with songs ‘Run Too Far’ and ‘The Landscape’ accompanied by sweeping visual shots of the peak district. We also playfully interpreted ‘everyday’ objects and activities to give them a darker slant. For example, we used a bleep test as a metaphor for pushing yourself too far and destroyed a doll’s house to represent the broken promise of a failed romantic relationship.
I designed the gatefold sleeve to place the subject in focus on the cover, but the interior and back panels were left as pure forest, to give the wraparound feel of nature surrounding the subject. I also created ‘scribbles’ of various objects, each one representing a song on the album. These objects hinted at stories contained within ordinary and unusual things.
These scribbles also formed the basis for badges I designed to promote the album. Other merchandise included ‘track & field’ T-Shirts, tying back to the ‘Bleep Test’ video, and ‘Sad Yelling’ T-Shirts to tie into the branding of Scatterchild. A great deal of care was taken to make sure that the physical content related back to core concepts, images, and themes of the album.
In promoting the record, Scatterchild toured, put out regular social media content, attended various networking and related events, and created strong visual assets to promote the 3 preceding and 1 post-album singles. This culminated in a sold-out album launch show at Low Four, Manchester, where I continued threading the design aspects of the album into the live event experience. We had projections, TV screens showing the music videos, merchandise on sale, as well as bespoke artwork decorations onstage. We also invited multiple collaborators to join us onstage to further the community we’ve been building with our live shows.
An Everyday Landscape currently has over 21k streams on Spotify, and Scatterchild was Bread Records’ best performing artist of 2024, tripling our monthly listeners in that year.
You can listen to the album here: https://ffm.to/aneverydaylandscape
BONFIRE TIDE – MUSIC VIDEOS (2023)
Role: Producer, Concept, Art Consultant, Location Scouting, Prop Design
I have developed various concepts for music videos in collaboration with director Matthew Boone and cinematographer James Oldham. Both are award winners in their field and well worth checking out if you have any video work you need doing. Most notably, we worked together on videos for ‘Burn The Sky’ and ‘Every Terrible Thing’.
‘Burn The Sky’ lyrically, was inspired by myths and stories of the sun & moon as lovers. As such, we wanted the video to have some sort of mythic, visual grandeur. I pitched Boone the idea of having the band perform in front of an indoor star or sun, inspired by Olafar Eliason’s ‘The Weather Project’ for the Tate Modern in London. In developing this concept, we settled on having a large moon lit up and suspended behind the band, with the members gradually trickling in as the song built to a climax.
For ‘Every Terrible Thing’, I sourced the location for the shoot, which dictated the development of the video’s concept by Boone. Having hired Antwerp Mansion, a derelict building in the heart of Rusholme, Manchester, we leant into the song’s concepts of loss, placing the band as spectral figures haunting the ruins of a once glorious mansion.
“Jay is one of the most creative people I know…his visual ideas and meticulous execution… combined with his friendly nature and professionalism, it makes him a dream collaborator. I can’t recommend him enough”
Matthew Boone
I created other visual content for Bonfire Tide, including edits of videos to promote their debut album and 2025 tour supporting China Crisis.
COLLABAVIRUS – CHARITY PROJECT (2020)
Role: Project Co-Ordinator, Producer, PR
When the first coronavirus lockdown started, I decided to unite some creatives to make some new music. Sharing samples and ideas with each other digitally, the idea was to use the digital space to foster an online community for people stuck at home on their laptops. The name ‘Collabavirus’ came from a portmanteau of coronavirus and collaboration.
The key was collaboration. Everything had to made with someone else, be that as a feature, or using one of their ideas or samples as a starting point. As the project coordinator, I set deadlines, created regular updates for the team, and took the lead in sourcing press coverage and recruited collaborators. Eventually we had an album and decided to release it and donate the proceeds to charity.
After researching and putting the shortlist to a vote, we decided to donate the profits to Olympias Music Foundation. Now a vital resource for music education in the North West, at the time OMF was relatively new, and I was thrilled to be able to support such a fantastic cause.
“We were lucky enough to be part of this project and all proceeds have gone towards OMF. (Donations) could support a workshop for children with Special Educational Needs and Disabilities as well as a hour-long choir rehearsal for Children’s Voices or Women’s Voices.”
Patrick Shepherd, former Producer and Events Administrator at Olympias Music Foundation
Now titled Collabavirus: Isolate & Collaborate, the record was featured on Ellen Ellard’s BBC Introducing show, and had attention from national press including Yuck, The Cambridge Independent, Candid Orange Magazine, as well as being part of Bravo Designs’ feature on sustainable fashion. It led to meeting and working with artists I went on to collaborate with again on music journalism and musical features, and it is to this day one of the projects I am most proud of having founded.
Graphic Design by Jay Plent
You can listen to and purchase the record here: https://collabavirus.bandcamp.com/releases
Graphic Design & Artwork
Role: Graphic Design, Artistic Direction, Photography
Below are examples of art, posters and designs I have created or assisted in creating. I take a fairly simple approach to artwork, guided by the simple philosophy of “does it have impact?”.
Credits for photography listed by example.
ADDITIONAL CREDITS
Video editing for various Scatterchild projects, including live sessions and social media content.
Currently helping facilitate events for students at BIMM University Manchester including Freshers Fairs, Graduation and Film Screenings.
Events and Box office assistance for Waterside Arts (2019-2025), including shadowing David Agnew (Sound Roots, The Met) in development of music outreach and lineup for Prism Festival 2024.
Event management and assistance for Bread Records (Various)
Artist Liason at WomeX 2024