Vizzarre!!!

JSM Heating

2011-10-05T14:08:00.001+01:00

Shelsley Walsh Doodles

2011-08-21T15:20:00.005+01:00

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

Teddy Bears Picnic

2011-08-04T12:55:00.006+01:00

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

2011-07-22T14:00:00.005+01:00

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

2011-06-17T13:11:00.002+01:00

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.

2011-05-05T13:02:00.001+01:00

Finally finished!

owl mark 2

2011-05-04T17:14:00.003+01:00

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

2011-05-04T16:47:00.002+01:00

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!

2011-03-16T14:45:00.004Z

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.

Happy Birthday Grandma

2011-02-24T11:45:00.001Z

A birthday card for my grandma - I made the mistake of cutting the pieces of the tree out before photographing it and it took over an hour to work out how to put them back. I think it was worth it. just hope she likes it.

Portfolio

2011-02-09T10:56:00.015Z

So here it is - what I've done in the last 6 months.

Action for Children in Conflict

2011-02-07T20:08:00.003Z

Here's a couple of images of the work I've been doing for a charity in kenya. I met one of the volunteers over xmas when I was out there and have been doing flyers, posters and newsletters for them.

Find out more about what they do here: http://www.actionchildren.org/

DRB work

2011-02-01T12:57:00.002Z

Here is a small selection of what I did at DRB Marketing between August and January.

Partnership Agreement

2011-01-27T17:05:00.003Z

Last day at BCU

2010-08-26T11:31:00.006+01:00

It's been a while and I've been rubbish. Here's an examples of what I've been up to at BCU over the last month and a half.

I've done 15 of these for the library over the last month. Unfortunatly they are being printed in black and white. but thats life I guess.

Finally, I'm leaving BCU. I've got a new job working for a small agency in the city centre. so hopefully I'll soon be posting new stuff that isn't all BCU. I might put a few photos up of the things I'm waiting for from the printers when I get them but in general NO MORE SQUARES!!!
: D

Creative Boom

2010-07-13T16:40:00.003+01:00

I'd just like to say thank you to www.creativeboom.co.uk for putting me on their directory :D go have a look, there are some really interesting people on there.

BCU Plaid

2010-07-08T15:38:00.003+01:00

These haven't been signed off yet but I'm working on them. Its a design for a silk scarf for staff to wear and its hurting my eyes trying to get it right. I miss being a kid and making these patterns with strips of paper.

Bu one from BCU Alumni store here:
https://store.bcu.ac.uk/browse/extra_info.asp?modid=1&prodid=35&deptid=70&catid=15

More Shakespeare

2010-07-05T00:00:00.003+01:00

Finished first line of the piece.

These are two I've started but are nowhere near finished.

I'm not sure if I ike the white paper... I was trying to do one with colour but I'm not sure this works... I might try painting it then working into it with biro.

I was asked what I was going to do with them earlier... any ideas?

Goodbye Gemma

2010-07-03T13:14:00.004+01:00

My housemate moved out today, as a leaving present we put together this collection of images of fun times in Birmingham for her.

These are the forgeries of jealousy:

2010-06-24T10:43:00.003+01:00

First line of the titania speach is a big doodle on the bus, tangled plants mixed with images of fire stars and eyes, its a start. the text is what I can remember of Caslon with a few alterations where the bus went over spead bumps.

Erasmus

2010-06-22T15:28:00.006+01:00

Here's the most recent thing I've been working on at the uni.
It's a brochure for Erasmus in BIAD.

This is the final version, its the simplist of the designs I did but I'm pretty happy with how its turned out. Can't wait to see the print.

Happy summer soltice

2010-06-21T23:19:00.005+01:00

Thought this poster I did last year was fitting, its a quote taken from A midsummer Night's Dream, Titania:

These are the forgeries of jealousy:
And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea,
To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind,
But with thy brawls thou hast disturb'd our sport.
Therefore the winds, piping to us in vain,
As in revenge, have suck'd up from the sea
Contagious fogs; which falling in the land
Have every pelting river made so proud
That they have overborne their continents:
The ox hath therefore stretch'd his yoke in vain,
The ploughman lost his sweat, and the green corn
Hath rotted ere his youth attain'd a beard;
The fold stands empty in the drowned field,
And crows are fatted with the murrion flock;
The nine men's morris is fill'd up with mud,
And the quaint mazes in the wanton green
For lack of tread are undistinguishable:
The human mortals want their winter here;
No night is now with hymn or carol blest:
Therefore the moon, the governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air,
That rheumatic diseases do abound:
And thorough this distemperature we see
The seasons alter: hoary-headed frosts
Far in the fresh lap of the crimson rose,
And on old Hiems' thin and icy crown
An odorous chaplet of sweet summer buds
Is, as in mockery, set: the spring, the summer,
The childing autumn, angry winter, change
Their wonted liveries, and the mazed world,
By their increase, now knows not which is which:
And this same progeny of evils comes
From our debate, from our dissension;
We are their parents and original.

I'm going to work on illustrating this whole section, just looking at each line in turn and taking from it the obvious images and hopefully developing a theme.

Happy Birthday Dad

2010-06-01T22:16:00.001+01:00

Apart from the amputated foot not a bad job for my dads birthday card using facebook photos.

More BCU

2010-05-26T10:39:00.002+01:00

Just a few of the bits I've been doing in the last few weeks at Birmingham City University. Really enjoying it, just wish there was a bit more variety in it. Need to get back on the ball with my own stuff I think.

Akiru Minerals

2010-05-10T13:33:00.003+01:00

This is a project I've been working on for my dad, he's setting up a prospecting company in Kenya called Akiru Minerals. Akiru means hope, rain or blessing in the local language.

Above: initial ideas looking at rain, water and the idea of molecular structures in a corporate style.

Below: I also sent these ideas, looking more towards the local, tribal ideas.

The feedback from these ideas was that they liked the second set of ideas, but rather than the outline of lake Takana they wanted a map of Kenya and the colours taken from the flag including the image of a hammer.

Above: the idea they liked

Below: the ideas I've most recently sent. we will see if they like the turn back towards the corporate look.

Working for family is a learning curve and a half, its difficult to guide a client when you know they like something that isn't the best idea. I'm hoping to find a compromise that works for them and is a good basis for a larger identity project I can work on.

BCU

2010-05-05T11:29:00.004+01:00

One month in and my artworking at BCU is going well. here are a couple of examples of things I've been working on. The employee guide has been artworked in the style of the prospectuses we did last summer, just waiting for some feedback. the flyer for BSA ent to print last week. It's all based on exesting brand guidelines, but is great for getting better at doing things quickly, and is giving me a new insight into working with briefs from a huge variety of people.

2010-04-04T20:57:00.002+01:00

http://cannydvd.com/

Stuff I've done for the DVD company on their website.

Too many Logos!

2010-04-04T20:45:00.002+01:00

Last month I designed a logo for Eclipse media for Canny DVD, Canny minds already existed and I used the current logo to create the new Canny DVD logo. They then asked me to develop this into a logo for Canny Store and Canny Media Group.

These are the options I've send to the company... fingers crossed they like them.

Still not entirely sure how the logos are meant to work together. But I guess that's not my job!

Illuminate Stationary

2010-03-23T22:33:00.003Z

Here's the stationary I've been working on for Illuminate lighting based on the identity I designed for the business cards. Its starting to take shape.

Wall

2010-03-23T16:29:00.000Z

RDF collection

2010-03-22T12:24:00.002Z

I've finally got round to mocking up some of the sleeves I've designed for RDF. they don't look to shabby together. I do really wish now I'm doing the artwork I'd done something slightly more elaborate but at the time of design I was going to be giving the artworking to someone else. never mind, they are appearing on Amazon now.

Swans!

2010-03-15T16:44:00.002Z

or rather one very greedy swan happy to eat crisps out of my hand.

(yes the last one got photoshopped)

Pinhole fun

2010-03-15T16:36:00.004Z

Just some fun!

:-)

new logo work.

2010-03-15T14:24:00.002Z

Just a quick one, spent the morning working on a new logo... just wish i had slightly more idea of what the brand identity was supposed to be.

More flowers on some cards

2010-03-10T22:32:00.002Z

Mothers day card I made on the train earlier (yes the Maltesers are hers too)

My grandmas birthday card.

The top shop bag is going a long way... might need a new one soon though :P

Branding Me

2010-03-08T18:44:00.003Z

Right here's my business card design, front and back.
I'm still not sure I'm finished but its a start, trying to show creativity and simplicity.

More on my wall

2010-03-06T22:52:00.004Z

Soon going to have to start getting something to stand on to keep drawing. Its not quite pulling together yet but its starting to look like a place and not a wall which is what I want. I did have a dream that I was using lino cut letters to write poems on it as well... might give some type a go.

While I carry on I'm going to start thinking about narratives, I really like the idea of doing some stop-motion set in the scene. Any ideas of stories or poems?...

Illuminate lighting

2010-02-18T23:10:00.003Z

Business card/ identity design for Illuminate Lighting ltd. The space to the right of the card is for added information about a particular service or date of a meeting.

Top Shop Flowers

2010-02-10T13:32:00.005Z

I liked the print on a paper Top Shop bag so decided to make some flowers with it. I might try making some smaller ones as accessories... then hope I don't get rained on :)

Something random

2010-02-10T13:21:00.003Z

I decided I wanted to do something creative that also had a purpose so decided to decorate a wall of my room, I cant actually do anything that will stick to or colour the wall so I've pinned and blue tacked it all up. (The images are in reverse order and are taken on my phone so sorry about the quality). Now I need to go buy some more brown paper.

CV design

2010-02-07T23:15:00.003Z

Never sure how much design to put on a CV so kept it simple but easily navigated, and took my time getting the type right... I hope

DVD sleeve designs

2010-01-20T20:33:00.003Z

Case designs I've done for Eclipse media.

Logo re-design

2010-01-19T23:47:00.003Z

Howdy, the DVD company I've been freelancing for got me to redesign their logo last week, the brief was "It needs to look the same but different" Perfect... so I decided my best bet was to just fix it. Not the most interesting thing in the world but I hope its an improvement... they were happy with it anyway.

Freelancing

2009-11-05T16:46:00.007Z

Since finishing at the university I've been weighing up my options. I thought about going back to bar work (its not quite off the cards yet) but decided to give myself a couple of weeks off before I decided anything for sure. During that time I've managed to get a fairly big client with regular work coming my way... not the most exciting stuff in the world it has to be said.

I'm designing DVD case templates for an online company who have some pretty big contracts with RFU (Rugby people) and Channel 4. Here are the first two designs I've done, like I say nothing hugely exciting but its work and what they want. The idea is that they are able to change the images and titles within a collection without having to do much extra work.

The images aren't finalised, the company need to source some better quality images.

And some more...

2009-10-16T14:20:00.001+01:00

BCU

2009-10-16T13:54:00.005+01:00

Right so it's just about over. not that anything I've done has been sent to print. Luck of the draw I guess that I got all the prospectuses that have been put on hold while they rewrite various courses. Typical of my luck, but also NOT MY FAULT.

Anyway, while I've been waiting for them to sort out the course information I've done more template stuff. All the content is made up, just based on lose band guidelines.

(sorry about the quality of these)

BCU templates

2009-09-15T16:42:00.002+01:00

Been busy trying to think up things to design for BCU for a template gallery, I've got dosens of basic things but not very much have been working... but here's what I did this afternoon...

Muchuu Party: Coincidences and fun

2009-07-19T14:48:00.005+01:00

I got an email last week from a band manager, John Mostyn, asking me if I wanted to be involved in the graphics for a new duo he was launching.

Coincidence number one: I had already heard the band, they are called Muchuu and do electro poppy stuff and were having a party in Malvern (where my mum lives).

Coincidence number two: I was at the pub with a couple of the tutors from uni and mentioned John had invited me to the party on Friday. They both went mad because one of them was going They had also taken the music to Hong Kong to get the students out there to work on the graphics.

Coincidence number three: when we arrived at the Custard Factory to get the minibus we bumped into another graduate from my year who was there to do the photography.

I'm still waiting for someone to jump out and yell "Gotcha".

The party itself was amazing, really lovely old building done out and fit Muchuu down to the ground. The audience was a mix of friends and family of the band, and people involved in the management. Here's a few pics I got before my camera died on me.

What I do when I'm bored

2009-07-15T20:04:00.004+01:00

This is the result of having nothing to do... maybe I should have nothing to do more often... not that that will happen in the next 3 months, not that I'm complaining :D

Homebase

2009-06-15T22:13:00.002+01:00

My final major project focused on creating a new brand identity for Homebase's grow your own range. I developed an identity that targeted young families and differentiated itself from the current market.

Portfolio Bits

2009-06-15T22:08:00.001+01:00

Here are some of the pages from my portfolio.

Co-operative project

2009-06-15T15:13:00.002+01:00

Co-operative project pages taken from my portfolio.

Final flyer

2009-04-21T15:36:00.002+01:00

Here's the final flyer design we used, I've done some signs for the different stalls that I'll post up later. x

Fun Day flyers

2009-04-15T15:05:00.004+01:00

I've designed this flyer for a university fund-raiser. It's based around the identity Sarah created for the fun day and graduation show and is designed to be given to first year students in halls. Lets hope it works.

Business cards

2009-03-19T22:36:00.002Z

Business cards at the Fontastic exhibition! (photo stolen off Alex). The cards are Tetra-tetra flexigons, they each have four sides with examples of my work and the typeface.

2009-03-07T21:53:00.000Z

2009-03-04T20:20:00.002Z

This is my final type poster for the typeface Sanif, it is a typeface designed to be fun and relaxed. I also see it as a typeface school teachers could use instead of comic sans (which they seem to love for some reason). The poster is in a style that represents the type, its personal and and honest. I'm going to do light and display versions too. x

2009-02-24T02:55:00.003Z

Its getting there, this is the light and medium versions. I've decided to develop a series of fonts based on a shape that combines classic and modern.

Type Project

2009-02-23T01:53:00.003Z

We have been asked to design a typeface at uni, this is my basic idea (I still need to create the rest). I wanted it to be something that I would like on a personal level and would represent me, but also something that would work in different contexts. I haven't started playing with the size yet but its a starting point. Each letter will be broken down into parts and each part will have a personality and description.

2009-02-10T23:58:00.002Z

AHHHHH... just re-read a brief we were given telling us to do a micro project so here's my micro project in an hour... taken from a D&AD- adding a new value to the HOMEBASE family with a range of 'Grow you own' seeds. I started by changing the lines on the original logo to soften them then added the plants and the type.

2009-02-10T17:59:00.002Z

A poster about my view of design, and about how bad my last project really was. Its a statement I believe, but the colour and type (Barnbrooks' False Idol) is more about how I feel a lot of design ends up. A little bit negative I know but its my response to being made to do something I don't want to.

2009-02-09T18:51:00.001Z

Valentines cards for the stall, for some reason the photo has flipped itself but you get the idea.

Valentines Stall Flyers

2009-02-04T16:54:00.003Z

I've used the 181 logo the Vis Com branding team designed (http://1-8-1.blogspot.com/) to create a Valentines day logo that can be used on the fund-raising stall in uni next week. I tried to keep them as simple as possible but in keeping with the 181 branding so far. They are designed to be printed on coloured paper (cost effective).

Christmas lights

2009-02-04T02:03:00.000Z

This is a piece I did for The Bond in Digbeth, its a complete breakdown of what we did from brief to realisation. Its still up now, go down and have a look if you like the look of it.

Ps. if you click on the image you can see the detail (it took me ages to work that out)

xx

Hello Hello

2009-02-04T01:34:00.000Z

Hello Hello. Not too sure what to start with so enjoy my visually bizarre collections of stuff. It'll be a mixture of uni work and stuff I do outside, photography, graphics and crafts its all in here. Let me know what you think :)

I've started with my portfolio as it was 6 months ago. I'll add more as I do it.