The Sacred Book Of Lovely Grafiky Stuff

Rather than lamenting the lack of a Grafik subscription that I put on my Christmas list but my significant other decided to ignore, I decided to fluant my love of the magazine, henceforth to be called the sacred book of lovely graphiky stuff, on my blog by posting a collection of my favourite covers from 07/08/09. Oooooh lovely!

Root Ginger: A Study of Red Hair by Jenny Wick

My newest brief is a negotiated brief in that I have written it myself and justified it through a proposal setting out what I want to do and why. It has been approved so now I can talk about it freely without the worry of a knockback on a project I am really excited about doing. I am going to be writing and designing a gingersaurus! 'What is that?' I hear you ask, well its a big book about those ginger folk. So rather than post some rather boring photocopies of from history books, and pictures of famous ginger people I thought I would tantalize you with a couple of fantastic photographs from the Root Ginger Collection by Jenny Wick. The original exhibition was held in 2009 at the Idea Generation Gallery in London and though the time has long since passed that we could all go and point and giggle at such an exhibition you can still view the collection online at;
http://www.guardian.co.uk/lifeandstyle/gallery/2009/jan/24/ginger-redhead-exhibition-pictures

This is one of my final design solutions for my last brief. The project is a live brief from D&AD designing ambient media for lastminute.com, focusing on a sting/ident animation to drive people to their website and also encourage people to use lastminute.com to facilitate their use of free time or use of spontaneity.
My concept focuses on colour communication of the brand, I have created a camper van to communicate the brand through the use of the logo's 100% magenta colour but also by using the vehicles to communicate travel. The strap line 'do more good stuff' was provided by the brief, My concept started off on paper as a map drawn from the birds-eye view with the little vehicles driving round or over to create the strapline so that at point a of my animation a hand drawn map with architectural elements from all over the world would be seen in soft pale pastel colours. Then a sound effect would play car doors closing and an engine starting. The vehicle would then go around the map and create the strapline in it's wake. I really liked this concept but unfortunately it did not transfer well onto screen. I was disappointed but wanted to find a solution so that this concept could be realised. I began looking through illustration magazines and my own collection of inspirational illustration work and happened upon a piece that integrated typography into an illustration and this helped me to create my little animation idea.
This sting is part of a collection comprising of an interactive web banner and a microsite design that are to follow that all follow a similar concept. I really enjoyed this project and learned so many new skills, this is an area of design I have never experienced before and although I came up against a lot of problems during the learning process I was really enjoyed it overall.

Cheeky Penguin! Inspiration / Web Services—Penguin Book Pastiche

A very witty take on some of the most popular web services from French illustrator Retrofuturs.

Whap! My top 13 crazy stationary/brand designs

Whap! Like a flash of satori, your company letterhead should be a slap in the face of consciousness. The whole point is to grab your readers’ attention by the throat on first contact, then make them beg for more in the long run. Considering the chronic short-attention span of a generation raised on cable TV and the internet, this is saying a lot. I’ve gathered 13 of the most eye-popping letterhead designs so far to illustrate my meaning. Albeit the designs are stylistically distinct from one other, this showcase is a marriage of cutting-edge creativity and effective brand communication. Enough said.