Chain Reaction at the TUC, great days out for the family and less stress for the festival co-ordinator

In 1910 the women chainmakers of Cradley Heath fought a successful ten-week dispute to establish a minimum wage for their labour, the first link in an 89-year chain of events leading to the national minimum wage. At the time the dispute was of international significance and received so much support that there was enough surplus money in the strike fund to build a Workers Institute. When that became redundant the TUC helped the Black Country Living Museum dismantle and reconstruct the building on their own site.

Since 2005 an annual festival mounted by the TUC in conjunction with the Black Country Living Museum has been held, the only one in the country specifically to celebrate the struggle of working women.

Homer Creative got involved in 2006 and 2007 designing a range of items including an identity using illustration and appropriate typography to raise the profile and aid recognition of the festival. The organisers were so pleased with what we did that they asked us to continue the work.

As the Women Chainmakers' Festival became increasingly popular it grew and in 2008 we worked on a more substantial, improved programme, easier to use and attractive enough to keep as a souvenir. We kept the design style, refreshing it and linking it more closely with an exciting new poster featuring today's trade unionists commemorating the chainmakers' achievements.

We love being involved in this festival. 2010 saw a celebration of the hundredth anniversary, so we used an image, by kind permission of the Black Country Museum, from an original photograph of charismatic strike leader Mary McArthur speaking to strikers.

We worked the image a little bit to bring out the sepia quality and that went well with gold, which we chose as a celebration colour, rather than the usual silver, for the metal chains. We produced big posters that were also sold as souvenirs on the day and became popular collectors' items. And the day was great: music, theatre, a banner procession with all the trades unions, speeches, a new children's arena and of course the queues for the fish and chip shops were as long as ever and worth the wait.

The festival co-coordinator always has a big job to do and even more so in a centenary year. Because we understand what is involved in the festival, we all strive to make our part of the process as easy and stress-free as possible.

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