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The Senses – Photo-Manipulation Book

Posted 04 Jan 2010 - 4 Gratefully received comments

This is a showcase article to show off one of my strongest pieces of work from the last year. As with all creative fields the last thing you completed is always your best piece of work, or you should at least strive for that statement to ring true.

This particular example is a gift that went wrong. It went wrong by turning into a design project!
My fiancee and I always agree to make presents for one another for birthdays, anniversaries etc, this book was my gift to her this xmas.

Recently I have been pushing myself to rediscover Photoshop, this project was part of that goal. I set out to create five simple photo-manipulations that represented the senses (touch, sight, taste, hearing & smell).
My aim for each image was to make them striking and unsettling by manipulating body parts in subtle ways. My hope was to make the viewer do a double take and be drawn into the images.
I knew I was on the right track while I was working on each picture if I got a little shiver down my spine.

I then decided that the pictures deserved a nice showcase book. I fashioned this by cutting mountboard pieces to size, making frames and sandwiching the images between the pieces to make a nice solid page, and a substantial looking book even thought there are only six pages.
I decorated the facing or title pages with a cut vinyl pattern that compliments the gothic feel of the overall piece.
I bound the pages by drilling them and crating a loose binding with a piece of ribbon. I couldn’t do it any more securely because it would have been impossible to turn the pages.

It may seem like an odd present for the joyful xmas celebrations but I knew she would love it!

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Design Process – Seven Acres Business Park

Posted 02 Nov 2009 - 3 Gratefully received comments

I thought it was about time I shared a few of my more recent projects with you. I’m not just going to show you the results, I’m going to try and show you how I got there.

Client: Seven Acres Business Park
Company Overview: Seven Acres is a small rural business park on the outskirts of Ipswich. The business park is comprised of a number of industrial and office units in quiet surroundings that are conveniently located to the larger centres of business in the area.
Project Brief: We began the project with the aim of developing an identity for Seven Acres Business Park.
A further aim was to implement the design into a website, to help publicise empty office space as and when there is any available.

Initial Meeting: Below is a scan of my notes from my first client meeting-

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How effective is your Business Card?

Posted 23 Oct 2009 - 6 Gratefully received comments

When you hand over your business card to a prospective client, you need to be sure that it will perform it’s task in your absence.
At the risk of asking a stupid question (a risk I run on a regular basis): What is the function of a business card?

I’m still toiling away without a stable internet connection, so I’m still quite focused on my real world self-promotion efforts. Part of this is sorting out my own business cards. Since designing them as part of my identity I’ve had a few print runs, but I decided to refine this latest batch.

A few little improvements include heavier board and larger radius corners to give the back designs more of a playing card feel.
Please take a look at the self promotion page of my portfolio to take a closer look at the card designs.

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DF Book Cover Competition

Posted 30 Jul 2009 - 3 Gratefully received comments

Design Forums have carried on from the success of their first competition by launching a new one! This time the challenge is to come up with a book cover design.

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DF Poster Competition Winner

Posted 18 Jun 2009 - 5 Gratefully received comments

The result of the Design Forums poster competition was announced today, and I was delighted to find out that one of my designs was chosen as the winner.

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Book Group Online – Bookmarks

Posted 18 Jun 2009 - No Comments - leave yours now!

Book Group Online is a great forum website where you can talk about books, and anything else, with fellow bookworms. These bookmarks are designed to help spread the word about this fantastic online community, so that it can keep growing.

BGO members have been leaving them in returned library books, sending them away with books they have sold over the internet, or just leaving them in libraries and book shops (with permission), to help spread the word. The more contributors there are the better the site becomes.

Each of these bookmarks is available to download for free.
Click the title link that appears above your favourite bookmark to begin the download. The file is a pdf containing an A4 sheet with 5 copies of that particular bookmark ready to be printed and cut out.
Spread the word, keep BGO alive!

BGO Bookmark 1

BGO Bookmark 2

BGO Bookmark 3

BGO Bookmark 4

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Alive and V-Dubbin’ 2009 T-Shirt

Posted 14 Jun 2009 - 4 Gratefully received comments

A local VW enthusiasts club called the “Suffolk Bug’rs” has staged their first big open event this weekend, it’s called “Alive and V-Dubbin’ 2009”
I was asked to design the event t-shirt. The full back design had to include an illustration of the three main vehicles that would feature in the show, the Beetle, the split screen camper and the bay window van.
I went for a mixture of American roadside diner, and Hawaiian spirit icons to make up the design in support of the vehicle illustrations.

Full Back Illustration:

Full Front Illustration:


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