Long time no blog

Its been ages since I've posted anything on here (partly due to the stinky robbers that keep stealing my computer), here's a quick update.

Lots of website design:
http://www.givingbacktogod.co.uk/
http://pattestingbirmingham.com/
http://www.freshwindsimmigration.co.uk/

And an annual report:
http://www.freshwinds.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/11/Annual-Report-screen.pdf

Organised a collaboration with university students (they did most of the designing):
http://www.freshwinds.org.uk/wp-content/uploads/2011/12/FITC-winter2011.pdf

And loads more - at some point I'll upload a new set of nice portfolio things.

JSM Heating

Shelsley Walsh Doodles

This is just a doodle I did at the Shelsley Walsh Hill Climb (cars doing time trials up a hill).

Teddy Bears Picnic

A client wanted a teddy shaped leaflet for a Teddy bears picnic so I've developed brushes and patetrn swatches for the illustration. I'll post the final leaflet once it's done but here's what we have for now. The blue bear is done using patterns while the brown is expanded gradients with strokes added.

logos

Just a quick piece on designing logos for people. It's taken me a long time to notice that people are greedy: bellow are 5 versions of a logo for our database systems. Starting with the design my boss sketched and wanted to something I think could be used as a corporate identity for our database solutions.











Only when I submitted them I found there was a problem. My boss wants all the elements of all the designs combined into one logo... "sorry thats not going to work" is what I should have said, istead I said "I'll see what I can do". Now I get to spend a whole day trying to cram 101 solutions into one design that I know isn't going to work one its own, never mind when its combined with the company logo.

It's all very well and good giving people options but if they can't make decisions then offering alternatives is floored from the start. I might just start from skratch and only show them one design.

An update

Its been a while since I've posted anything on here.. to be honest I've been too busy working to spend time to put anything up. Here are a couple of examples of the work I've been doing at Freshwinds. The logo's existed but all the other elements needed to be sorced. Nothing exciting but I'm happy with them.

More of my owl.

Finally finished!

owl mark 2

I've added a bit of colour and more detail around the eyes... still needs something more though.

What happens when the internet goes down at work

an owl I drew when the internet decided to crash earlier on today at work, and I could no longer get annoyed with html coding... I think it was a fairly productive use of time... not sure the boss would agree though.

New job!

I've finally got a job I really want, and here's the work that got me it. FIAS is a new branch of Freswinds and I was asked to create an identity that supported the current brand but also represented all possible target audiences.

The colour pallet and typefaces are takes from the current brand. The bird is added as a positive representation of immigration and freedom. While the overall design aims to create a friendly yet reliable and knowledgeable image to create trust in the advice FIAS will give.





Freshwinds are a Birmingham based charity that help all sorts of people in the area - from health care and therapy to legal help with benefits. I'm really looking forward to starting next week.