Thoughts on Design
The Value Of White Space
What is white space? And why is white space so important in design?
I’d say that I have an ongoing battle (too strong a word probably) with most of my clients regarding white space. With them trying desperately to steal it from me, and me wrestling it back at every turn with my persuasive ways 
First of all, WHAT is white space?; White space is sometimes described as ‘negative space’, its essentially that bit of space in between words and imagery that is filled with nothing at all. It shouldn’t be viewed as blank space that should be filled at every opportunity, it serves an important role in design and marketing.
In short it’s vital, not just for aesthetics, but for marketing effectiveness, and here’s why: Read the rest of this entry »
Helping Keep Mail Alive
For the first time in donkey’s years I’m sending out some promotional postcards to carefully selected specific business owners. So if you get one, it means you’re SPECIAL, keep your eyes peeled to your doormat!
If you just want one anyway because you’re nosey, let me know
Read the rest of this entry »
Concertina Business Cards
On Saturday I popped into the fairly newly opened branch of Wysteria Lane in Birmingham, which is a beautiful shop filled with gorgeous products and extremely imaginative display areas.
Image courtesy of ‘Style Birmingham’
While there I picked up one of their flyers at the till so that I could online shop with them at a later date as I don’t get into the city much. Not surprisingly their flyers were far more imaginative than most also and I thought the retail business owners amongst you would find them interesting. Read the rest of this entry »
Beauty Salon Reception Branding
Bristol based Escape Health & Beauty salon sent us these photos of their new reception area, which is just beautiful. A month or so ago they asked us to design a wall canvas for them to be used at the reception in replacement of an old wall canvas design we had created for them in 2007.
Escape Salon has been a client for 5 years and our work for them has included logo design, print marketing materials (including their salon brochure) and website design. Apparently the new wall canvas design has been attracting plenty of compliments from customers and so that is great
Below you can see the wall canvas design. Read the rest of this entry »
Paper Couture – Jennifer Collier
I’ve become intrigued by paper crafts lately (origami and such like) and hence recently came across the work of Jennifer Collier, who creates things from paper. I make it sound boring, it’s not, and it’s way beyond ‘origami’
You can view some of her work below and shop for items in her online shop at Made By Hand Online. Jennifer also exhibits her work around the country – you can check dates and locations on her website under ‘exhibitions’. I for one will definitely be visiting one of her exhibitions in the future if I get a chance. Read the rest of this entry »
Getting Creative With Facebook
Though we all grow weary of Zuckerbergs desire to constantly change the Facebook system, all the creative types must surely be loving the new cover feature that allows us to plaster up a giant 850×315 pixel image behind our profile picture. Read the rest of this entry »
Vintage Rocks Hair Parlour
I do so love it when ‘vintage’ meets ‘business’ A while ago I happened upon Vintage Rocks Hair Parlour online, probably whilst leering at other vintage things one day.
I was really impressed by their unique brand image and how professionally this is presented and very importantly ‘adhered’ to in each and every way they market themselves. Read the rest of this entry »
David Airey Exposes Shutterstock Artist
I know there are a hell of a lot of cheeky ‘designers’ (word very loosely used in this scenario) out there, but this example is just amazing … check out how David Airey exposes how someone blithely sells the MGM lion in vector illustration format on Shutterstock for £29 a pop: Read the rest of this entry »
Christmas Marketing Tips
And so the Christmas marketing season begins in earnest. I’ve just created the December advert for local women’s only gym ‘Gym & Slim’, as part of their year long local newspaper advertisement marketing plan. Gym & Slim capitalise on events such as Christmas, New Year, Easter and more throughout the year to market their business to new customers. Read the rest of this entry »
Jamie Oliver Designers
I’ve got to say, though Jamie Oliver is a mildly irritating little smug face (sorry), he always seems to have the most incredible designers involved in his projects.
Case and point below. Read the rest of this entry »
