Herr David Reling-Burns, formerly Mr. David Burns, born 1963 in Liverpool, Great Britain, studied Graphic Design, specialising in Illustration, at De Montfort University, Leicester. (BA Hons Degree, 1987-90) Today however, David is a permanent resident of Germany, happily living in Stuttgart, at the heart of the Southern German region, Baden-Württemberg working as a freelance artist/designer and creating mostly rhyming picture books for little ones.
He is also an enthusiastic musician/composer/songwriter.
In brief, mid 90’s, back in sunny Brighton on Great Britian’s South Coast, David became a director of Sussex Publishing Ltd. He gained valuable hands-on experience in desktop publishing, advancing his training as an illustrator and graphic designer with commissions in the immediate region and also worked from a second home in Brixton, London, too, contracted to Lambeth Counci, working on departmental, promotional and large format print projects. On returning homeward eventually to the Northwest, already having spent some twenty years in the South, he independently formed Fuse Graphic Design, trading from premises in the George Street Quarter of St. Helens, catering mainly to St. Helens Chamber of Commerce start-ups and such, in the creation of marketing materials, etc.
In 2003 David won a locally prestigious design competition in the conceiving of a befitting design to the entire architecturally revamped, spider-glass fitted facade of the Theatre Royal. Few realise still that the design is of Ballet’s Rudolf Nureyev, juxtaposed with an all-enveloping salacious mouth. Revitalised, on the back of this ambitious project David began realising further funded public art projects; designing original, colourful printed vinyl designs affixed to suitable modern building substrates; such as, glazed surfaces and powder coated structures.
During this time, his nearby actual hometown, the City of Liverpool, was drawing focus. David was selected to participate creatively in the successful European Capital of Culture bid of 2008, as lead artist, on what became known as the SHOPS UPFRONT project. David worked on art-on-building projects throughout the wider Northwest Region of England. Accrington, Bolton, Kirkby, Knowsley, Oldham, Nelson.
With the march of technology, vinyl graphics for want of a better term, has become all too commonplace. Advertisers were not slow to spot the potential to wrap everything in their immediate sights with advertisement printings. Vinyl decals appear everywhere today, wrapping buses, trucks even aircraft, let alone sections of buildings. Advertising is well suited to short-term solutions and vice versa. Vinyls can be surprisingly resilient to daylight and the elements, the Theatre Royal’s vinyl graphic is mostly still intact eighteen years on.
Illustration, Graphics, Picture Books:
David occasionally turns his hand to writing/illustrating his own brand of rhyming children’s stories:
Drawbridge Troubles is a fairy tale he believes may perhaps form the start of series concerning a likeable king and his castle. – El Maestro, Juan Pablo Diablo, circus master extraordinaire, arrives at King Edgar’s castle, only to find his audience trapped behind stone walls. Can his troupe of entertainers, by way of rescue, bridge the encircling moat?
Sleepy Mouse is a gentle, rhyming bedtime story featuring Sleepy Mouse, a curious, little house mouse that sleeps by day, and has the run of a big, echoey house, all to herself, by nightfall. – Or has she?
Robonaut Rescue tells of the fast-paced adventure of two imaginative boys that are happily sped through an inexplicable wormhole, in what becomes a mission to rescue three capricious robot-astronauts.
The task of illuminating the tales is underway. Two are almost finished. Should anyone wish to see how the works are coming along, as of November 2021, by pure happenstance, they are actually on display at the Gesundheits Zentrum, Mössingen, 19th November 2021 till 8th April 2022. (They can be seen along with works by Aaron König, Ellen Schwarzburg-von Wedel and Arabell Watzlawik, (Kunst im GZM Bilder_Bücher_Bilder curated by Jochen Gewecke)
Public Art:
David’s visual language and creative skill-set affords him the confidence to originate and deliver site-specific concepts. Each artwork is designed for its location, with the physical and social context of the work, always informing the final design. He approaches each new public art brief with original research, engaging with the immediate or wider community as appropriate. With many years of experience in creating concepts and images, David is accustomed to working to deadline within budget.