Russell Hall Design

A New Home...

2011-05-23T23:21:00.008+01:00

Well it's been a long time in the making but I'm finally all set up and running as a new Limited Company. Has been in the planning stages for quite a while as client work has, of course, taken priority. As my client base has increased and with long term growth in mind it's a good natural progression to be setting up my own small studio.

My new online home is at intothewhite.co.uk so please take a look round. All future work will be showcased on the new site, and a brand spanking new integrated blog has already started.

My freelance site and this blog will remain up (as long as it still brings in some traffic!) but for new content why not sign up to my e-newsletter on the homepage or subscribe to my new RSS feed.

News Update

2011-01-16T16:10:00.002Z

Well you may have noticed the tumbleweed on this blog of late, and I can only apologise. It's been a manic few months with lots of exciting new jobs and a considerable amount of business planning on my part. I've got some big changes coming very soon and whilst I'm in the process of putting these into action this blog will be on a short break. In the mean time if you are looking news, hot links and general design/ life babble why not follow me on twitter.

Rousler Carbon

2010-08-12T11:03:00.006+01:00

Rousler Carbon approached me with the need to expand upon their original company logo for their business specialising in bespoke high performance, low weight Carbon Fibre equipment, primarily for the motor sport industry.

Whilst happy with their original logo they needed a uniform set of logos for single colour applications such as t-shirt embroidery and car decals.

The first step taken was to refine the primary full colour logo. Whilst retaining it’s original characteristics I developed the 3D feel with more realistic shading and added a subtle carbon texture to the Rousler lettering. The colour palette utilises a darker red to add intensity. A uniform set of single colour variants were also produced.

A secondary logo was also developed without the containing lozenge for height restricted applications, such as perimeter board sponsorship, again with a uniform set of single colour variants.

A final version of the logo was produced for very small scale reproductions such as product stickers. This version has looser kerning and has been stripped back to increase legibility at small scale.

The company also required basic brand guidelines to be produced as well as standardised templates for word documents and PowerPoint presentations.

Recent Design Work

2010-06-04T13:18:00.011+01:00

Once again I've been a little lax on the blogging front, but not without good reason. It's been all systems go for the last few months with my regular clients all busy and some new client wins. Hopefully good signs that the economy is getting a little more stable and marketing budgets are returning, but only time will tell.

To prove I've not been slacking take a peek at some of my recent design work for a lovely new client Lily Lolo Mineral Cosmetics. Great to work with a company that really invests in their on and offline marketing and work with some beautiful photography. Shown below are some recent posters, newsletters, e-mailers, year planners.

Also worth noting is the company's Facebook presence. Lots of small businesses are setting up Facebook pages but don't really do anything to warrant becoming a 'fan', or provide any use other than shameless plugging. Lily Lolo's is a shining example of how to do it right, with plenty of discussions, tips, information videos, and Q & A. The amount fans and user generated activity speaks for itself.

13th Street Identity

2010-04-20T18:20:00.005+01:00

Out of all the portfolio showcase/ portal sites available Behance Network has to be the best. Always inspirational and quite dangerous to have poke around the site (you can loose hours if your not careful). Absolutely love this recent post of corporate stationery for German Horror Channel 13th Street by Jacques Pense at Jung von Matt agency.

Beautifully executed (no pun intended) and good on the client for obviously not being afraid to go the whole hog with the concept. Well worth checking out his portfolio on the site too, top notch.

The Session Album Artwork

2010-03-09T22:56:00.003Z

Well I really have no clue where the time is going at the moment, the start of the year has flown by. I've got big plans for 2010 and am busy getting some schemes in order for the start of the new financial year so I'll keep you updated.

Anyway another little project I've just finished up is the album artwork for Coventry based band The Session. Really enjoyable project as other than some samples of the style of artwork they liked I had total creative freedom.

The band needed a emblem/ logo and designs for the inner and outer sleeve. The emblem and cover illustration takes inspiration from folk art and also utilises a 17th century etching for the basis of the outer sleeve. The inside spread is a collage of photographs I took from the studio and bits of equipment used in recording sessions.

Alexander McQueen

2010-02-11T16:46:00.008Z

Totally shocked by the death of Lee McQueen, a true loss of creative genius. So much more than a fashion designer his collaborations with Puma, Samsonite, Bjork, Nick Knight to name a few have provided some of the most stunning pieces of design and iconic images of the last 20 years. A truly rebel style, here's just a few images that show what a talent he was.

NTI Healthcare Website

2010-02-10T15:26:00.004Z

Apologies that it's been rather quiet around here since Christmas. After the expected slow down in December things have got very busy since the 1st of Jan. Lots of interesting new opportunities and February seems to be whizzing by so may not get much chance to post for the next couple of weeks.

Here's one of the projects that has been keeping me busy in January. Following on from the branding work I completed last year I've been working on a new website for NTI Healthcare. The site aims to provide a quick introduction to the company's services but is also designed to easily allow for expansion of content in the future. I implemented a clean, uncluttered design, suitable for their target audience, and a simple jQuery slider on the home page to offer an instant overview of the services on offer.

Hot Links

2009-12-21T16:39:00.006Z

Got my inbox down to zero and am winding down for Christmas, so final post for 2009, a quick round up of some interesting finds from the last month or so.

There are loads of to-do list manager apps around but I've been using Teux Deux, a browser based app, for a couple of weeks and really like it. I love its simplicity and uncluttered design, hoping they do develop an iphone app as this would make it pretty much perfect.

Definitely my gig of the year, a welcome return for Skunk Anansie. Couldn't resist picking up a signed copy of this ltd edition collectors box designed by Shotopop, it's a really treasure chest.

Very entertaining round up of customised My Little Ponies on SpoonGraphics, I want a My Little Mr T Pony for christmas

Bizarre combination of classic asian ceramics and manga-esque design from Brendan Lee Tang, how great would one of these look on your mantlepiece.

Porcelain artist Kate MacDowell's work is another slightly surreal find but absolutely beautiful.

DesignM.ag give a very useful round up of organisational resources for designers, including a couple of my favourites, Dropbox & Daylite

Another useful post on DesignM.ag with some great free fonts, quite a few I hadn't come across before. Most on the list are via Font Squirrel, which I've mentioned previously so note to myself to keep checking in on that site.

I haven't got round to installing Google Chrome (now available for Macs), more than happy with Safari to be honest, but shall download for cross browser testing. I do love the series of supporting low-fi ads, no idea who is behind them by but they're great.

Essential Reading

2009-12-17T16:11:00.006Z

As the year draws to a close I thought I'd put together a small list of some of my favourite design/ inspiration books I've purchased in the last 12 months (and a couple that are on my xmas list). Whilst the web is great for inspiration it can be difficult to know where to start, so a well stocked shelf of inspiring stuff at your fingertips is a must if you ask me.

Destroy/Rankin: I'm eagerly awaiting delivery of this one, ordered it a while ago but as I was one of the first 20 to order, mine's signed by Rankin so have to be patient. The books a collection of re-worked classic Rankin photos by various artists/ designers and comes with a behind the scenes dvd too.

Logo Lounge 4: I'm a big fan of the LogoLounge series, not as nicely presented as the Los/Dos/ Tres Logos books but still a great resource for branding inspiration and a fair bit cheaper. The option to join online and search the whole database is good too but it will cost you.

Negative Space: By Noma Bar is one on my wish list, some clever visual trickery using a very minimalist style.

Boxed & Labelled: I've always been a sucker for good packaging and this book contains some real beauties. Also worth mentioning again is the very good Lovely Package, really nice blog site for packaging inspiration from round the globe.

Papercraft: Another for my wish list, Papercraft takes a look at, well work created from paper. Mixed reviews for this one but I do love a bit of hand finished design and the DVD with it adds appeal.

Little People In The City: by Slinkachu is a little book full of big photos of little people, humorous and sometimes touching miniature street art.

Derren Brown Portraits: Who would have known Derren Brown had a talent for portraiture. His exaggerated celebrity portraits are so full of detail; especially the craggy Tom Waits, Ian McKellen and Clint Eastwood. Too seaside caricature like for some tastes but I think they're great.

Business Graphics: One of the most useful reference books I have bought in recent times from Rockport. Virtually every other page has a post-it sticking out of it at the moment, highly recommended for anyone producing corporate marketing and branding.

Adrianne Illustration

2009-11-23T17:09:00.003Z

Good friend of mine, the very talented illustrator Adrianne Yates has been rather busy of late. As well as various commissions for magazine illustration work, her fantastic photographic journal Today I Am Loving... and wedding stationery designs, she has also set up a couple of online shops. A selection of her beautiful illustration works are available as limited edition prints, greetings cards, stickers, badges and notebooks at Folksy & Etsy. Perfect little stocking fillers.

Core Branding Processes

2009-11-18T21:12:00.010Z

I've always found the processes behind design work as interesting, and sometimes more so, than the results. Having noted that I regularly show new work on this blog but have never gone through processes involved, I thought I'd redress the balance.

The steps I take in core branding briefs is something I need to explain quite often, (mainly due to many budget 'designers' willing to knock up a logo in a couple of hours), but that is a whole different blog post! So I thought it would be of interest to show my processes when it comes to tackling branding briefs.

This is by no means a comprehensive 'how to' guide but does explain a some of the basic steps involved in any considered branding brief. The images (click to enlarge) take you through some of the of prep work I created for a recent branding brief.

Research
The first step after defining the needs of the brief is to do a bit of visual research on competitors, target markets and associated industry. The depth of this research often depends on the clients needs and available budgets. However I always put together a short research report to identify any market trends and get a feel for the sort of approach the client prefers and what is appropriate for the target market.

Initial Thoughts

Following on from the research I then set about brain storming, sketching initial ideas and putting together a broad selection of possible base typefaces and colour schemes.

Initial Concepts

Exploring as many possible routes in a rough and ready fashion starts to sort the wheat from the chaff. Any ideas that have possibility for expansion go forward to the client for feedback.

Refined Concepts

From initial client feedback generally one or two routes are chosen for further development. Shortlists for base and supporting typefaces, refinements to icons and colour palette are made.

Final Revisions

Following any further comments from the client, final decisions about the finer points of the logo are made, along with final print and web safe colour palettes and house typefaces.

Final Artwork Files

Once the branding is approved the final artwork files are produced. Typically this consists of full colour, single colour and mono versions of the logo as vector EPS files, high res CMYK Tiffs, and web ready Jpegs or PNG files. If required basic or full brand guidelines are produced including logo usage guidelines, Pantone, CMYK, RGB & HEX colour references and web and print rules.

Basic Branding Implementation

Depending on the clients specific requirements a number of core branding stationery and template items are produced, with close reference to the core brand guides, typefaces and colour palettes. Typically including options for letterheads, comp slips, business cards, powerpoint and word templates.

Solid, considered logo development from the outset not only helps create the foundations needed for establishing a coherent brand, but also makes the development and implementation of all subsequent materials easier and stronger.

Hot Links

2009-11-11T10:04:00.005Z

Finally got round to sorting my RSS feeds on my new Mac so here's a round up of some interesting web finds over the last month or so. If you're a regular to this blog then sign up to my twitter for more hot links and design related musings.

Just treated myself to this limited edition book Destroy/Rankin featuring reworkings of classic Rankin Photos by a variety of designers and artists. The the hard back book comes with a behind the scenes DVD and essays from Marianne Faithfull, Peter Saville and Damien Hurst amongst others. With all proceeds going to YouthMusic.

Some amazing macro shots of water splashes on Design Beep, great to see a photo of Corrie White's studio set up (in a kitchen), proof you don't need a high spec studio set up to get great shots

Interesting iPhone app concept for Jamie Oliver, puts together recipes, shopping lists, step by step photos and video clips

HypeforType have released another set of exclusive typefaces designed by the likes of Research Studios and Non-Format

Fantastic, complex illustrations from Gary Milne

New York based Studio Von Birken have a simple/ distinctive A-Z website showcasing their work

Really like this new typeface developed by Fontsmith for the UEFA Champions League, a solid looking san serif but with distinctive sharp terminals/ ears and tall x height

Clearance Sale: Identity

2009-10-13T12:24:00.005+01:00

Following on from my packaging round up of great work that somehow slipped the net of my Hot Links posts, here is some excellent identity work.

Classical approach to bespoke tailors Norton & Sons identity by Moving Brands

Love the colour palette for Hello Communications work book, want one

Form have a great folio of work, especially like the bold identity for DSFX with it's imposing oversized logo

Austrailian agency Cornwell's identity for Design Live

Company's identity work is always slick, especially like the branding for The Larder restaurant

Chicago based Arlo have an extensive portfolio of quality branding work, get yourself a cuppa and take a good look round, inspiring stuff

Top iPhone Apps

2009-10-10T13:25:00.004+01:00

Well I had an iPhone for a few months now and do love it, so thought I'd put together a quick list of my top Apps. If there is any more I should know about post a comment.

CamraBag

Whilst the camera on the iPhone isn't the greatest this app can really bring your photos to life, with a range of filters and effects that can be easily applied to your shots.

RedLaser

This barcode scanner works really well for easy price comparison, just hold a products barcode up to your camera and it will take you to a price list of online suppliers.

RadioBox

This app practically gives your iPhone a digital radio, searching hundreds of global stations for online streaming and storing your favourites. How well it streams depends a lot on the station, I mainly listen to BBC 6music on it and works really well on 3G rarely cutting out/ buffering.

Around Me

A great app when you are in a town your not familiar with, gives you location and mapped routes to nearest, bars, restaurants, ATMs, supermarkets, petrol stations, car parks and more.

BBC iplayer

Whilst not an App (just a link to the website) the iplayer works great on the iphone, easy to navigate and great video quality.

PopCap Games

PopCap make some great addictive games two favourites for the iPhone are Peggle and Bejewelled but they have a lot more to play online

There are loads of to do, and list apps to choose from, two of my simple favorites are the free To Do's and Shopping List Lite.

Remote

Control your itunes or apple TV from your iPhone, easy to set up and just works

Illustration Work

2009-10-06T17:09:00.004+01:00

Just a quick update with a couple of illustrations I have produced for a new client Apache Associates. They required two vector illustrations for the developing LGBT holiday section of the Sunsational Leisure website. The first is a image is bespoke commissioned illustration whilst the second has been adapted to suit from a stock illustration (click to enlarge).

Clearance Sale: Packaging

2009-09-21T10:25:00.006+01:00

Well once again I've been slacking with my hot links blog posts. My excuses are a combination of mac trouble, with temporary loss of all my RSS feeds and being just plain busy. Anyway in preparation for sorting out my all my feeds and bookmarks I thought I'd have a bit of a clearance sale of stuff that slipped through the net. So to kick us off here's some rather good packaging work.

Great Packaging from DesignFriendship for The Kitchen, minimal packaging with some lovely typographic work

Identity and Packaging for Petite France by Peter Hanberger

Unusual approach for Manual Co. packaging from Peter Gregson, his blog/portfolio is well worth a visit.

I love the contrast between the packaging and contents of Campbell Hay's identity and packaging for Lola's Kitchen

Return of the the Living Red is a really smart concept from M/A/S/H

Help Remedies packaging offers a refreshingly friendly and simple solution to healthcare packaging

Tank have a great folio of varied work including this set of packaging for Bumble & Bumble

Ateronon Product Introduction Catalogue

2009-08-08T16:51:00.007+01:00

One of the most enjoyable projects I have recently completed is a high spec product showcase for Ateronon. The 44 page oversized A4 catalogue features some nice print finishing including, a high gloss cover with red foil blocking and embossing, and semi-transparent lining sheets for the opening and closing pages. The catalogue is screw bound with inside pages printed on a heavy uncoated stock. As this was a short run it was printed digitally but the quality is outstanding. Big shout out to Emmerson Press who we're a pleasure to work with on what was a fairly complex job with a very tight turnaround.

Ateronon Marketing

2009-08-08T16:40:00.005+01:00

I've been doing a lot of marketing material lately for the newly launched Ateronon dietary supplement, on behalf of a new client NTI Healthcare. I have been working on marketing materials ranging from Trade Adverts, consumer leaflets, POS units and a high spec product catalogue. The later I will add photos of in a separate post.

Orgasmic Catalogues

2009-08-08T16:22:00.008+01:00

Well I've gone snap happy again today in preparation for a long overdue update to my main portfolio website. Got some great new projects to add as well as some glowing testimonials from some new clients. Here's the first post today with some photos of the Orgasmic catalogues I recently designed. The business is really taking off for my client and some more promotional material is on the horizon.

MIS Branding

2009-07-31T21:32:00.002+01:00

One of my recent projects has been the branding of Marine Information Systems. The company provides web-based data storage and processing systems to members of the oil industry and those involved in its shipment.

The branding was required to sit at ease with the traditional corporate nature of the client base, along with providing a reference to the oil shipping industry.

After exploring a number of initial routes I developed an identity based around the icon of a moving propeller to reference both sea shipment and with subtle connotations to power and a driving force.

The icon and a marine inspired colour palette were also applied as key elements to the companies core business stationery.

Catch Up

2009-07-31T15:01:00.004+01:00

Well it's been a manic month for me, probably the busiest of my freelance career so far. I've been working on a variety of projects including a vast array of marketing material for the newly launched Ateronon dietary supplement, in house work again for Global Radio and the branding of a new specialist IT company serving members of the Oil Industry.

Not as welcome this month has been some IT issues with my mac which has had me pulling my hair out on several occasions. Touch wood all is running fine at the moment thanks to Time Machine transporting my Mac back to a couple of weeks ago, before I had any issues. Really is a great feature that I'd not had to put to the test until now and once I'd figured out how to do it was really straight forward.

The problem was with my OS crashing and after hours of tinkering, a couple of visits to the Apple store, and a failed archive & re-install I found this article for restoring using time machine on Duncan Davidson's blog. Really simple when you know how so thanks to Duncan for the step by step guide, really makes you appreciate what the bloggasphere can do when the sh*t hits the fan.

The only issue was having to rescue the two weeks worth of work I'd done since the restore date. Whilst you can use time machine to jump forward and pick them up individually I'd saved the files (and emails) I'd been working on on a separate hard drive and simply dragged them back over when I was done.

Anyway shall be posting some pics of what I've been working on in the next week or so when I get stuff back from the printers, so keep 'em peeled.

Hot Links from June

2009-06-29T18:39:00.006+01:00

Bit of a bumper Links post this month as I've come across a fair few quality resource and inspiration sites of late, so here goes;

You can never have access to enough textures, especially if you want to rough up too polished looking vectors, so texture lovers is worth bookmarking

If you're into creating T-Shirt graphics then this round up of free blank Vector and Bitmap Tees from the ever reliable Spoon Graphics will come in handy

Simon Schubert's images made from simply creasing white paper are great, simple idea but I bet they are a nightmare to make

AlexandFelix series of 13 Queens images are remarkable as no computer post production was used, all painstakingly arranged and lit in the studio.

Greek Mouse Graphics have a great portfolio, especially loving their extensive packaging work, clean and often witty

Studio On Fires LetterPress blog will have you stroking the screen hoping to cop a feel

Just-My-Type is a side project of designer Jakob Nylund and he's kind enough to provide free .AI files of some beautiful display typefaces

A lot of television idents have got pretty impressive of late and The Ident Gallary brings together the best in one nifty site with stills and videos from mainly UK favorites

Blogged about this site before but it's finally fully live. HypeforType have some cracking exclusive typefaces from cutting edge designers as affordable prices, nice

Dzine is a very useful blog for inpiration and this selection of Flash 3D environments provides interesting viewing

Another round up from Dzine with packaging design. I do love the new Diesel bottle, it's the sort of idea most companies would veto at the first round for being to costly, un-practical

Lovely Package does exactly what it says on the tin/ carton/ box, a very nice blog giving big pictures of stylish packaging

The Design Inspiration site has a nice round up of some experimental typography

I'm Off On My Jollies

2009-06-15T12:20:00.003+01:00

Well I've had a busy couple of weeks trying to put all my outstanding projects to bed before taking 10 days off. Been an interesting mix of work lately including the latest SpeakOut, some work for a couple of Pharmaceutical companies and branding work for a computer information systems company (hopefully have the final branding to show by the end of the month).

Also I've finally completed the two catalogues for Orgasmic Ltd, was held up a little with some supplier changes but is off to the printers as I type. You can take a look at the catalogue layouts below, but be warned, the contents are of an adult nature!

SpeakOut Issue 4

2009-06-02T11:40:00.001+01:00

Just sent issue 4 of SpeakOut off to print, the online version is above, click on the image for the full screen version.

Hot Links from April & May

2009-05-30T14:22:00.005+01:00

Well I did promise a bumper links post this time to make up for my slacking last month, so here's my top finds from April and May

Great stop motion film, Wolf and a Pig made from over 1,300 photographs

PSDtoWP. Give them your PSD layouts and get a fully functioning wordpress theme in return. Sounds like it would be of dubious quality but it does come highly recommended and may be worth a shot

Ginou Choueiri's potato portraits, I want one!

Very stylish product photographs from French Photography studio Palast

Several artists have collaborated on Art Nouveau inspired T Shirt designs, especially like the photography by Steve Carty

Loads of great fashion branding and packaging work from dyhr.hagen

InPrint, online gallery and store for buying Ltd Edition art prints

Freelance Switch has a good round up of very nice business cards

Some interesting free typefaces from FontFabric

Dzine puts together an impressive collection of digitally manipulated photos

AlternativeTo is a growing site providing links to download free Opensource software alternatives to loads of different software. I actually prefer using the free NeoOffice to Microsofts Office suite

Business Link Press Release

2009-05-29T08:33:00.004+01:00

I've had a fair few dealings with Business Link West Midlands of late. They initially got in touch with me after last years Plus+ Design Festival and provided some great info packs for writing a business and marketing plan, both of which I'd advise any freelancer to do. Apart from giving you an overall view of your current activity and 'where your at' business wise it really helped me focus on where my client base is currently coming from and what I can do to target new clients.

I also attended a series of free business seminars about time management, marketing and financial planning. Really useful stuff and 100% free, so I'd recommend signing up for their newsletter to find out about any more upcoming events.

Anyway off the back of this I had a mini interview and photo shoot for a Business Link press release and an article is online at the Birmingham Post website, cheesiest photo out the lot used and slightly embellished text of course but all good publicity.

Admitting Defeat

2009-05-15T11:49:00.005+01:00

Well I've tried to find time and failed so my Links from April will now merge with a bumper Hot Links from May at the end of the month. At time of writing my unread RSS feeds is up to 592 posts so I'm sure there will be a be a few gems amongst them and I already have some of my own finds lined up. Been rather mental recently which is great news for me, been working on some briefs for two new clients along with juggling my other projects.

Here's a couple of other bits I've been working on recently. I've taken an advert out in the Further Education Financial Yearbook, as I have a lot of experience in marketing/ design for Higher Education establishments. Would be good to expand on this so hopefully the ad will generate some interest.

The other big project is for Orgasmic. Having produced the company logo I'm now working on two product catalogues for their Underwear and Toys range (Tease) and their Fetish wear collection (Please). It's been a bit of a mammoth task sourcing and cutting out the high res images for the catalogues but I am now finally getting on with the design proper. The covers for both catalogues are below, still need some tweeks and tidying though.

Coping with downtime part 2

2009-05-06T15:57:00.002+01:00

Part two of my MTB post on coping with downtime is now live, check it out here. Will get round to my hot links from April real soon.

Coping with down time

2009-05-01T16:00:00.003+01:00

Part of my guide to coping with quiet spells as a freelancer is now live over at Media Talent Bank, glad I've got that written as ironically I now seem to be majorly busy.

Orgasmic Logo

2009-04-30T18:49:00.003+01:00

Just got sign off for a logo I have created for a new adult lingerie and toy catalogue company 'Orgasmic'. The client wanted a classy vibe to set themselves apart from what can be a trashy (visual wise) industry. The bespoke 'g' was a bit of a nightmare to get right as it needed to be subtly reminiscent of a sperm but still fit with the other characters. I do quite like the simplicity of the solid colour version but am exploring some 3D effect options for different applications.

4 Networking

2009-04-30T12:33:00.003+01:00

I've always cringed at the idea of Networking events. Being a creative type I prefer to let my work do the talking and am happiest getting on with the job of producing it. After looking into Networking organisations in my local area a few months back I was rather put off by what seemed to be a whole stream of etiquette, rules for joining, not to mention the financial outlay.

After attending a couple of recent free Business Link seminars; they we're very good by the way, I got chatting to Bernadette Jones and she mentioned 4Networking, of which she helps run the Birmingham City Centre meet ups.

On the promise that these events are a lot less stuffy/ restrictive than many other network groups I went along to my first session yesterday. I have to say I'm very impressed, the set up is informal but structured, you each have a 40 second round to introduce yourself and the services you provide, followed by three 10 min chats with anyone you may be able to help or could help you.

At the time of writing this I have two meetings with new contacts lined up and some details for a few more referred from one of the attendees. As a non-networker I'm very impressed and have signed up for a 6 month passport so I can visit some of the other groups in the local area, as and when my commitments allow.

If you've been looking for a networking group then register for the free online forum and get involved.

Tales of the Times

2009-04-21T10:03:00.003+01:00

Another small post on Media Talent Bank, just giving my experiences of the dreaded 'R' so far. Be good to hear others experiences too, think you have to be a member of MTB to leave a comment on their site though.

Daylite & Billings

2009-04-08T16:39:00.003+01:00

I had a lovely chin wag with photographer Paul Painter over at Painter Creative last week. Whilst chewing the fat on this, that and the other he showed me some rather interesting software from Market Circle, Daylite and Billings. I'd had a look around for various studio management/ invoicing software on a couple of occasions but never found any that seemed to suit my requirements. A lot of software on the market will do some tasks but then requires you to have several, incompatible programmes running at the same time.

Having installed a trial of Daylite last week I have to say I'm very impressed. Has too many functions and uses for different company set ups for me to go into but here's some of the main features I'm using which will help make my workflow a lot more organised.

Storing Contacts: Has a great, easy to navigate system for importing contacts and linking them to specific groups; IE web developers, recruitment agencies etc, organisations (so you can keep track on multiple contacts within the same company), or prospective clients/ leads. It will automatically link contacts to any projects you have set up with them, so you can get an overview of who is putting what your way.

Groups: Also very useful for setting up mailing/ newletter lists.

Opportunities: This section is great and means I can effectively keep track of all the random enquires or make notes of any possible leads worth chasing; bye bye to my 10+ sprawling Excel sheets, you won't be missed.

Projects: Create custom 'pipelines' with the different stages involved for different jobs, so at a glance I can see where I'm at on a project and if time schedules are slipping.

Calendar: Syncs with iCal but I've got it set up to only show my work related appointments and notes so I can stay in work mode.

Billings is a separate piece of software that integrates with Daylite to send out and track estimates, invoices and payments. Only downloaded this yesterday so a bit early to comment although I'm finding customising the invoice templates to match my previous ones a bit of a nightmare. Think I need some more time to get my head round it. One feature which is great is the timer to keep track of hours worked. I currently use a desktop widget but Billings timer lets you specify several projects to time for and also uploads the data straight into your job file so you can effectively track costs (if you bill hourly) and also compare how accurate your estimate was.

Daylite costs £129.00 per user so not an insignificant outlay and has a lot of features you need to take time to explore to make it worth the cost. However I do think by the time my trial version is up I'm likely to think 'what would I do without it'. Billings is a lot cheaper at £29 as it's a more straight forward programme but I'll reserve judgement on that till I've played around a bit more, though I'm thinking it's worth it for the time tracking functions alone.

Anyone with any experience of these or similar products please drop in a comment.

Hot Links from March

2009-04-03T10:34:00.005+01:00

Here's my round up of top web finds from the last month.

Good friend of mine Adrianne Yates has updated her website with a raft of great new illustration work

Great fashion and advertising photography from Chris Nicholls

The Behance Network is proving to be a cut above other portfolio showcase sites, check out the work of by Madrid based styling and art direction duo Kattaca

Fav Up is a growing inspiration site for logos, business cards and websites from the same people who bought you the very useful tuts+ websites

Jamie Delaney has a great portfolio of tight typographic lead pieces

Photography with a surrealist twist from Troy Cobern

Other worldly illustration from Most Wanted

4AM Project

2009-04-02T17:31:00.003+01:00

The very talented photographer Karen Strunks has been keeping herself busy with the ever-growing 4AM project. Some of Karen’s photos have brought life to the inside covers of the last two SpeakOut magazines and now you can get involved. The global following gathered for this project is truly inspiring so hats off Karen! On a local level if you’re a keen photographer and fancy snapping Birmingham at 4am then set you alarm early on 04/04.

Design For Retail Mailer

2009-03-27T12:41:00.006Z

To get the word out about my new MicroSite, DesignForRetail I have produced a mailer to send to local fashion retailers. The gate fold design features a small amount of introduction text on the services I offer, my new business card and folds out to reveal some examples of my work. Due to the short print run they were digitally printed by Emmerson Press in Coventry, who I would highly recommend; professional and friendly service.

New Business Cards

2009-03-27T12:32:00.004Z

Been doing a bit of work on self promotion recently, shall post some images of my DesignForRetail mailer in a moment. Had a bit of a shabby, cheap set of business cards for a while so I decided it was high time do a proper job on them, results above. For those interested in the details it's full colour front and back 400gsm matt laminated both sides with spot UV highlights on the front. If you need any doing I'd recommend printing.com, they have various special offers throughout the year, these cost £99 for 1000, bargain!

Great Online Inspiration Books

2009-03-21T11:15:00.003Z

Well I've spanked on about how great issuu.com is for a while but if your still not convinced and haven't signed up for your free account take a look at some of the inspiration design books from Bangkok user Hahru. He has uploaded loads of great content covering print, packaging and advertising, each one packed with innovative design works from around the globe. To see more I suggest you sign up.

Links from February

2009-03-06T10:34:00.003Z

Here's a quick round up of some interesting sites and articles from February

Zen Environments is the portfolio site for Zach Johnsen. Including a great series of mixed media drawings utilising graphite, water colour and coffee!

London Based Fold7 have an extensive design folio of quality works across the design spectrum

Ron Winters Keyboard drum kit is great fun, I like to make noise

Very elegant geometric style flash website for Dior by Sryup Design

Online magazine Digital Temple is great and is powered by issuu.com which I'm also very fond of

Animated short tracking the origins of the credit crisis by Jonathan Jarvis

Dixon Baxi's rebrand for Five USA. Their site gives a nice breakdown of the different elements they produced for the launch. Creative Match also has an interesting article on the first ever live video feed outdoor campaign created for the station.

Design for Retail

2009-03-03T22:16:00.003Z

My new micro site, Design for Retail is now live. It's a showcase of my work aimed specifically at fashion retailers. Had a few teething problems with Internet Explorer but hopefully running fine now.

Online Resources for Freelancers

2009-03-01T20:50:00.003Z

Had another little post added to Media Talent Bank, this time giving a quick overview of some useful sites for work at home freelancers.

Taking Care of Business

2009-02-18T21:01:00.003Z

Just added another post over on Media Talent Bank this time giving a quick check list of the official steps you need to take when setting up as a freelancer.

Candy Magazine

2009-02-18T19:07:00.002Z

Good to see Candy Magazine is back online. It's had a redesign, I'm not too keen on it to be honest, but the content is great as ever. It's still an online PDF and free to download so take a look.

Ginger Monkey Design

2009-02-17T22:39:00.003Z

I don't normally dedicate posts to single folio websites, preferring a monthly round up of hot links, but have made an exception for the the uber talented Tom Lane AKA Ginger Monkey. I'm a big fan of ornate/ floral design when done well (so many try and fail, me included) but few master the Bezier Curve better than Ginger Monkey. His folio site is a joy and the clean design and clear photos as a folio site should be. Anyway not going to spank on any more just take a look.

Christmas Revisited

2009-02-09T22:53:00.003Z

Okay so Christmas has been and gone ages ago but it's snowing so what the heck. The award winning CiB blog just posted a link to this little gem on vimeo from Old Dead Eye, taken at Brum's Christmas German market. Don't think I've ever seen the town looking so pretty, this guy should work for Marketing Birmingham!

SpeakOut Issue 3

2009-02-07T14:27:00.003Z

Just finished designing issue 3 of SpeakOut magazine, click on the image above to go to the online version. It's just gone off to the printers so should be around birmingham in a week or so. The editors are looking at funding routes to continue the magazine so if you are interested in advertising or want to contribute with articles, photos or your thoughts then get in touch with the team.

Links for January Part 2

2009-02-05T16:00:00.010Z

Okay here's part two of my January finds, really should give a nod to some of the great blogs I find some of this stuff on. I tend to upload interesting sites on a daily basis on to ScrnShots so can't always link back, but to name a few that you really should check out:

Great folio with a distressed style from fabien barral

Interesting insight into Museum of Art and Design branding and the processes involved on Pentagram's blog

There's some great illustrators on the Debut Art Agencies books, well worth a look

Design Studio 10.5 have some really nice work and a nice clean site.

There's lots of places to get free textures for all your photoshop needs but the Lost&Taken blog is one of the best and you can submit your own to share the love

Great photography from David Lindsay Wade with interesting option to navigate the site via your webcam

SixScents is a collaboration between six artists and perfumers, series one is beautifully packaged and a very elegant logo

FontExplorer X Pro

2009-02-04T14:06:00.005Z

Well the guys at Font Explorer must have heard my previous musings about possibly switching to Suitcase and worked round the clock to release FontExplorerX Pro!

Having used the free version for a year or so I was loathed to move to Extensis Suitcase but the extra features seemed worth the investment. But now the Pro edition of FontExplorer has all you need; with an easier to resolve font conflicts area, the all important font auto activation (with PlugIns for all versions of CS including 4), and the same easy to navigate userface as the free version. I was especially impressed that all my smart sets/ folders and groupings were imported without me having to lift a finger.

Also as a bonus till the end of Feb it's 50% off, £34 (inc vat) as apposed to Suitcase which comes in at around £80. If you have a hefty amount of fonts to manage I'd recommend downloading the free trial

Crash Competition Update

2009-02-03T14:07:00.002Z

Well in one of my first posts on this blog I mentioned the JG Ballard Crash Cover design competition. The Times/ Harper Collins competition was posted December 2007(!) and not a lot of news has come through since. Still no news from The Times but the Ballardian has news of an update so hopefully we will get to see the winner and some of the other entries in the next few months. My entry can be found here.

Links from January Part 1

2009-02-03T12:10:00.009Z

Here's part one of my round up of hot links from January.

Great 2 part packaging design inspiration overview from Dzineblog

Useful resource of blank stock imagery, add your designs here. Great for pitching your designs and visualisation. Downloads come as layered photoshop files to make life even easier

Spoonfed design gives 11 essential tips for print typography

Great portfolio of Californian designer Tomi Lahdesmaki

Chester based freelancer Jon Lord's work makes me quite jealous

Oslo based studio Your Friends have some great clean typographic posters and layouts

Book cover design archive is a great, expanding resource of book jacket design. Also worth checking is Smashing Magazines round up

Talking Typography 2

2009-01-30T10:20:00.004Z

Been rather busy last couple of weeks so apologies for my lack of postings. Be back in a few days though with a bumper round up my hot links from January. In the mean time here's a couple of typography links worth checking.

Regime is the first typeface in about a year from Barnbrook's Virusfonts. In 8 weights plus italics it's pricey but a beauty.

If you are feeling the pinch but want to expand you collection then fontsquirrel is worth checking out. Hand picked 100% free fonts, so save yourself hours of trawling on other free font sites for anything half decent and take a look.

Design Forums

2009-01-10T12:10:00.003Z

Recently joined up to Design Forums, well designed and thought out website with a good selection of contributors. Definitely worth a look if you have any nagging design related questions or want feedback/advice on your work from other professionals.

Talking Typography

2009-01-05T19:51:00.006Z

If you're a designer than a good selection of quality typefaces are as essential as your pen and paper, but building a decent collection can be an expensive game. However don't be tempted to download millions of free fonts from da font, 1001 free fonts, or freebies from Computer Arts etc. Whilst a few of the fonts on these sites will do you for display purposes, you will rarely find quality for free and will inevitably end up spending many an hour deleting all the rubbish (I used to be a bit of a type hoarder and recently deleted over 5000 fonts that I had never and would never use, which was a bore to say the least). Below are some links to some quality font foundries and resources that have reasonably priced and some free wares to boost your collection.

You Work For Them has a great selection of interesting typefaces and vectors at a reasonable price.

If you like your type dirty then you'll love Misprinted Type, some great display typefaces and a fair few quality freebies.

Identikal have a good selection of futuristic/ geometric gems.

Hypefortype bring together some great typographers every three months to give you limited edition typefaces from as little as £10.

The Linotype collection is extensive and if your looking for some free font management software you can't get better than FontExplorer 10.

If you have some money to spend on your font management than Extensis Suitcase fusion looks worth a go (30 day free trial available if you want to test it). Main advantage over Linotype is it's automatic font activation system, which if it works as suggested has me tempted; won't miss searching my 200+ variations of Helvetica for the correct one to activate.

Finally get yourself some nice typography based i-phone and desktop wallpapers at Typenuts.

SpeakOut Issue 2

2008-12-30T23:44:00.003Z

SpeakOut Issue 2 is out now and here's a few photos of my layouts. The deadline for articles and contributers for the next issue is 9th January so if you want to be involved get in touch here.

4 Talent Photos

2008-12-30T23:01:00.005Z

Been meaning to post some photos from the latest 4Talent for a while, below is the great cover illustration from Christain Zebitz and my spreads featuring illustration from Kate Copeland. Not sure what the future of 4Talent Magazine is as the dreaded 'R' word seems to have claimed the jobs of the Networks teams. Real shame as they were a great bunch to work with and the magazine since changing from Ten4 to 4Talent looks and reads better than ever but we shall have to wait and see. My previous spreads for 4Talent can be seen here.

Links from December

2008-12-27T14:59:00.004Z

Here's a round up of some great links from the last month or so.

Spoongraphics round up of cool designer toys and vinyl figures

Strange| Beautiful inspiration site full of all sorts

From the makers of the Behance Network comes Served, five sites full of design inspiration split into Typography, Photography, Industrial/Product Design, Fashion, Motion Graphics.

3 part photography/ photojournalistic review of the year, with some amazing shots from global events in 2008

Some great illustrative prints from Alberto Cerriteno

Everyone's been bigging up Magdalena Czarnecki's work on several blogs but it is outstanding, I especially like the origami packs for WWF fundraising

Round up of 10 most innovative concert visuals from 2008 on accent feed blog

'Static and reactive' visuals from Portuguese Art Director Nuno Trafaria

Illustration portfolio from New York based Jinyoung Shin

The Creative Review Blog takes a look at Elliot Young Studio's hand stitched programme for the Royal Variety Perfomance.

A Bit of Christmas Cheer

2008-12-19T20:25:00.004Z

Well I noticed I've not been very festive in my blogging, Christmas wind down just hasn't happened yet, but I have had a couple of interesting yule related briefs. Firstly, below is my E card for Equalities charity Brap, it has an alternate Christmas message focussing on work to be done in 2009. Secondly my design for Trent FM's Charity Ale pump, if your drinking in any Nottingham pub this weekend why not get yourself a pint and do your bit for charity at the same time. Finally a desk top advent calendar for the Hit Music Network's clients, printed with the stations logos foiled on.

Hit Music Network- Part 2 of 2

2008-12-12T14:18:00.003Z

Continuing from my previous post here's some more of my print designs for on air promotions for the Hit Music Network.

Hit Network Radio Designs- Part 1 of 2

2008-12-12T11:38:00.006Z

Well as the end of the year approaches I thought I'd put together a bit of a retrospective of some of the work I have done for a regular client, the now Global Group owned, Hit Music Network. They are a great small design team to work for and hopefully I shall be continuing to freelance for them in the new year. Always a challenge to come up with new idents that give consistency to the brand but stretch across a number of local stations. The basic rules of thumb, Avant Garde & an adapted Century gothic, the core brand colours pink, green and black and a clean visual approach.

MUTO- A Wall Painted Animation

2008-12-11T10:14:00.003Z

Just mental, god knows how long this took to produce, find out more on the blublu blog

Links from November

2008-12-03T20:18:00.010Z

A quick round up of the interesting sites & articles I have come across in the last month.

Beautiful paper illustrations from Yulia Brodskaya.

Great round up from DesignM.ag focusing on interesting typography.

I've been a big fan of M/M{Paris} for while, since their visual collaborations with Bjork on a number of her CDs & DVDs. Their new catalogue of work for sale has some great, but pricey limited edition prints.

Not had much chance to play around with this but looks good fun, Hobnox have made online versions of Rolands old music mixers and pedals, you can twiddle away to your hearts content and record up to five minutes of your sampling. (Just a point to note you need the latest flash player to view)

If you use a Wacom tablet then this round up of tips and tricks again from DesignM.ag will help you get the most out of it.

To be honest most of it is hot air and only relevant to large companies but there are a few interesting insights in Design Weeks Creative Survey.

Poladroid

2008-12-03T13:29:00.005Z

Do you love your 100 mega pixel, 50x optical zoom, image balancing, super Digital SLR Camera? Great as they are, for some images I miss the personal feel and wonky colour balances of the old Polaroid photos. Mourn no longer Polaroid's decision to stop production of it's film (planned 2009), now you can turn any jpeg into a one of the litttle beauties.

Poladroid is a free mini application with a great interface that will develop your jpegs into high res polaroid style photos. The image develops on screen and you can pick it up and shake it as you would the real thing to speed it's development.

True you could quite easily set yourself a template in photoshop in no time but would miss out on the randomness of the tones/ sharpness of the images, just like the real thing. It's only available for Macs at the moment but a PC version on it's way according to the website.

CG Arts Online Magazine

2008-12-02T15:38:00.003Z

Well don't know much about this one as the magazine and website is in Chinese but it's worth a download, especially if your into fantasy or character illustration. Quite chunky files 50MB+ so don't say I didn't warn you!

Cubist Sound & Vision

2008-11-22T10:31:00.004Z

Here is a couple of interesting videos to some great live music visuals. Firstly the muched talked about Killers performance at the EMAs, very reminiscent of Etienne De Crecy's live shows this year (see last video). But for a truly immersive experience check out Barcelona's Kubik club, an outdoor nightclub with walls made from glowing industrial containers that pulse to the beat of the tracks.

Creative Resources

2008-11-21T15:11:00.004Z

Just added another post to the MTB Blog, with a top 5 free Creative Resource sites. If you are a regular to this blog you may already have seen these but worth a look non the less.

Media Talent Bank Post

2008-11-17T13:46:00.002Z

Just added another post to the Media Talent Bank site, this time discussing every new freelancers first question, 'how much should I charge?'

Plus 2008 a Visual Overview

2008-11-17T00:30:00.004Z

Better late than never above is a visual guide to this years Plus festival. Only had time to whizz round for an hour or two with my camera so missed the Jonathan Barnbrook talk but all in all the event seemed to be a success, though some of last years contributors were noticeable by their absence.

From talks with some of the exhibitors, this may be due to the current crowd that the exhibition attracts, mainly students. Whilst this is great and I noticed a few coaches outside the venue from around the country, speaking from a business point of view I think a lot of local small companies are becoming increasingly weary in these belt buckling times.

If you are spending not an insignificant amount of time and money to exhibit the main return for companies is to showcase their skills to potential new clients. Perhaps the entry charge of £15 a day is off putting to a lot of the general public and local businesses.

I get the feeling the main thing that comes out of the event for many companies is to be inundated with CVs from visiting students. It's a shame as I'm sure the event costs a lot to put on and margins are tight but I do think the entry price a little steep to reach the broad audience the event deserves.

Regardless of the above it's all about some great work on show. Especially from Fluid, (having done a fair bit of freelance for them recently I was very impressed with their stand and publicity material for the event, as I know how busy they have been of late). Great to see the Cov Uni stand and chat with one of my old tutors, complete with some very nice work and a selection from it's metal type vaults, takes me back to my Uni days! The Baskerville headstone in development was fascinating to watch and I was very impressed with the quality of work from Sutton College.

The Forgotten Project

2008-11-16T16:26:00.003Z

Well I had grand plans for the last month, unfortunately most went out of the window due to heavy work load. One of which was to exhibit at this years Plus festival. Started some initial faffing and then got waylaid. The title for this year was Hybrid and I started some typographical musings getting quite hung up on the word 'mongrel' and it's connotations to the modern day graphic designer; a cross breed of traditional and digital technologies and working with widening media. Anyway it got swallowed in the workload but here is some initial ideas, no idea where they were going and probably never will!

4talent Issue2

2008-11-16T15:51:00.004Z

Here's a sneak peak of my layouts for the forthcoming 4Talent magazine, for an article on crime fiction from Northern Ireland. Not sure when it's due out but will post some photos when I get a copy.

SpeakOut Issue 2

2008-11-16T14:31:00.002Z

Well here's one of the projects that has been keeping my busy over the last couple of weeks. Issue 2 of SpeakOut magazine will be available in and around Birmingham in the next week or so. Quite pleased with the layout of this one, helped out by some great photography by Michael Correll & Karen Strunks

Belated links from October

2008-11-16T13:53:00.008Z

Sorry for my lack of postings recently had a busy few weeks, so in an attempt to make up for it take a look at my hot links from October.

Haunting photography and post production images from Oleg Duryagins.

Multicolr site lets you pick your key search colours and it searches flicker to find images with these colours in them. The best bit is the site allows you to specify up to 10 colours at a time, great for helping to create moodboards.

Who is Max Kerning? Find out by viewing the link, quite funny in a nerdy graphic designer kind of way.

Very good portfolio site from Mate Steinforth.

Australian Graphic Artist Justin M Mallers folio site, Superlover.

Illustration Links

2008-10-28T13:15:00.006Z

A quick round up of the interesting illustration sites I have come across of late.

Illustration portfolio and shop from Australian Ghost Patrol

Portfolio site from Barnaby Ward

German artist Heiko Muller's illustration work

Ian Francis' mixed media artwork

Hyper Real Photography Round Up

2008-10-22T23:00:00.010+01:00

Here's a quick round up of some of the best photographic and digital enhanced imagery sites and folios I have found on my travels.

Bizarre looking photography mainly consisting of variety of machinery and gadgets from Caleb Charland.

Craig Sheilds digital illustration portfolio.

Often quite disturbing digitally enhanced photographs from Ricardo Salamanca, especially interesting to see the before and after shots.

Fashion photography website from Miles Aldridge.

Takeshi's folio site.

Creative fashion photography portal site digital softbox.

Prolific fashion photographer Steven Klein's extensive fashion portfolio.

Midlands Design Events

2008-10-22T21:51:00.009+01:00

It's going to be a busy few weeks in the Midlands for big creative events. Hopefully a good sign of the Midlands getting more established on the creative map.

Hello Digital kicks off with Hello World on 23-24th with Hello Digital on till the 26th. A chance to meet life sized robots, control a giant wall of sound and see some leading lights of the animation world at Millennium Point.

Plus+ on 5th- 8th November looks like it's going to be better than ever. As always showcasing creative talent in typo/graphic design, plus a great line up of speakers including Jonathan Barnbrook & Airside, can't wait.

Wolvehampton plays host to the Flip Animation Festival on 6th - 8th November, clashing with Plus+ is prob not a good idea but if your more into your animation than graphics looks worth a visit.

Media Talent Bank

2008-10-21T17:03:00.004+01:00

I've recently signed up to be a guest blogger on Media Talent Bank. If you want some hints and tips on things to consider before going freelance then read my post here. I shall be posting a few more hints and tips in the next few months so keep 'em peeled and if you've not already registered with the website click here.

Scandinavian Illustration

2008-10-16T13:31:00.010+01:00

A massive generalisation I'm sure but there seems to be something delicate and quite beautiful about Scandinavian illustration and design. If your up in the north over the next couple of weeks there is an exhibition entitled tradition in Newcastle showcasing 10 designers/illustrators. If not head to the collaborators page and check out their websites.

Little People

2008-10-16T13:12:00.003+01:00

I love this guys work you may have seen some of these before, street art on a miniature scale, little hand painted models left around london. Slinkachu's blog has lots of examples and book of his work is also available, just ordered my copy.

The History of Visual Communication

2008-10-16T12:07:00.001+01:00

If you are interested art/ design history and want to learn a bit more about the how it has developed from cave paintings to the present day then checkout this website. As well as text and image overview of the various developments through time it also has downloadable, walkable 3D VRML features for each section. I can't seem to get the viewer for Intel Macs so let me know if it's any good.

New Mac Book Pro

2008-10-16T11:26:00.002+01:00

Well the guys at apple must have been rather busy of late, with the new 3G iphone, ipod touch, nano and now redesigned Mac books. If you want a tour of the new design, along with some rather over the top interviews with apple big wigs (the senior vice president of design Jony Ive looks like he might cry at the beauty of the whole thing) check out the online video.

I'm slightly undecided on it's visual appeal, the crisp screen and upgraded graphics performance seems the main pull but I think I prefer the all silver appearance of the previous Mac Book Pro. Then again I might just be saying that because I only bought mine 6 months ago and am a bit miffed that they've brought out the new one at around the same price point.... I'm so fickle.

Hand Made Font

2008-10-16T11:10:00.001+01:00

Firstly I must appologise for my lack of posts in the last couple of weeks been rather hectic. Came across this interesting site selling hand made fonts from a variety of objects, from Estonian based design company. Not a new concept but they are very well made and some of them quite beautiful.

Links from September

2008-10-01T10:41:00.002+01:00

Online horror mini movie Outbreak where you make the choices that decide if you survive!

Polish studio Ars Thanea, with intricate photoshopped images and advertising campaigns

FFFFOUND upload or view some of your favorite images found on the web and the site will recomend others you may like, good source for random inspiration.

Clean design and typography folio from Simon Bent

Adobe CS4

2008-09-25T09:08:00.002+01:00

Well it doesn't seem 5 minutes since Adobe CS3 was released but on Tuesday there was a live launch broadcast for Adobe CS4. A fair few tweaks and enhanced features especially in the integration of flash and dreamweaver. There are new feature tours and the full hour launch broadcast available on AdobeTV

an issuu solved?

2008-09-16T22:16:00.001+01:00

Get your own - Open publication

Well I was eager to have a play around with the previously mentioned issuu.com so above is Issue 1 of SpeakOut Magazine. I have to say overall I'm very impressed. It will help extend the reach of a small run/ limited budget printed magazines/ brochures but also enable creatives who may not have the web skills to develop a full online portfolio but need to reach potential clients screens.

The account features and uploading are easy to follow and can be done by pretty much anyone (as long as you are able to put together a multipage PDF). I'm loving that they have invested the time in making it easy to upload your magazines onto blogs, facebook etc and (unlike some flash based viewers) the display keeps text easily readable. Alternate viewing and navigation modes along with easy printing options complete the package.

I'm not without a few grumbles though, the search options seem limited at the moment so finding other decent magazines/ folios published on the site is a bit of a trawl. Hopefully this is something they will address with advanced search options. A note of caution for those generating PDFs from InDesign, it doesn't like any effects you may have added, transparencies, drop shadows etc. I tried several PDF options to try and solve the problem but ended up just taking all the effects off the original document. If anyone knows a way round this I would be grateful!

issuu.com

2008-09-16T19:34:00.001+01:00

Get your own - Open publication

Well fuzed magazine is always a well designed and interesting read but my main reason for this post is to check out the embedding features from issuu.com Online publishing of your own material via the site offers some interesting possibilities which I for one will be exploring a bit further.

ScrnShots

2008-09-12T07:55:00.001+01:00

If you are anything like me you spend a fair amount of time trawling the net for interesting new sites, blogs and inspiration. Often when you stumble across a good site you don't have time to view in depth and you end up clogging up your bookmarks bar or forgetting the web address. ScrnShots is a neat, free application that lets you take a snapshot of any sites you want to keep and upload it's details onto your own profile page. From here you can also search other peoples links and add to your favorites. You can check out my page here.

Should give a nod to Spoon Graphics Blog for pointing me to this one, a great blog to keep an eye on especially if your after vector based tips & tricks.

Design Your Own Trainers

2008-09-09T23:36:00.001+01:00

This is so much fun! Check out the trainer templates on PIG Mag, download the PSD file and (as long as you have photoshop) start playing around with your own designs. The sections are all set up in separate layers so it's super easy. You can import imagery too for a truly personalised look, can see many an hour slipping by already, really should go to bed! Above are two of my quick designs with anatomy and poker-esque graphics.

4talent Photos

2008-09-08T17:33:00.001+01:00

As you can probably tell I've gone a bit snap happy today, so while I'm at it here's a couple of pics including my spread for 4Talent Magazine and the nice cover illustration by Petra Stefankova. The article was shortened to one DPS in the end which was a bit of a shame as it compromised the layout a bit but here it is.

Lift Leaflets

2008-09-08T13:02:00.001+01:00

Again in a quick follow up to my previous post, here's a few photos of leaflets I produced for the 'lift' project, still two or three more to come as the project develops.

SpeakOut Issue 1

2008-09-08T12:32:00.002+01:00

Further to my earlier post the 1st issue of SpeakOut is now out (click on photos above to enlarge). Keep your eye out around town to get your hands on a copy and if you want any work to be featured in the next issue get in touch with the editorial team

Bak Magazine

2008-09-03T20:45:00.001+01:00

There is some great online magazines around at the moment and I'm always pleased to find a new one. Bak is a downloadable flash magazine with loads of great photography and illustration, and a pretty nifty interface. Personally I prefer a good old fashioned PDF as the text legibility tends to suffer on the flash versions, but to be honest I'm pretty much in it for the pictures anyhow.

If you like this then check out Candy Magazine too, though I think they maybe having a bit of a web refurb at the moment, as the back issues aren't currently on there. If anyone has any more to share please post a link.

Kin- A Creative Family

2008-08-25T18:49:00.002+01:00

Well I've been quite busy working in house for clients recently but when I'm not you can often find me at the Canal Basin in Coventry, working alongside a very talented bunch of freelancers at Kin Creative. The breadth of skills within the small but highly qualified team allows for high end design at a lower cost than your typical agency. So if you have a meaty project that requires more than one set of creative hands get in touch.

SpeakOut

2008-08-22T12:47:00.001+01:00

Once again working with BRAP I have produced the first of an initially scheduled three issues of SpeakOut magazine. The project aims to investigate what it is like to live in Birmingham, and explore the different lives of it's inhabitants. I created the logo and layout for magazine which will be distributed from the start of September so look out for it.

The editorial team are on the look out for anyone wishing to contribute, whether your a writer, poet, photographer, illustrator or artist. If you fancy getting your work in print and seen by all of Brum, get in contact with the editorial team.

4talent

2008-08-21T21:24:00.001+01:00

Channel 4's Ten4 magazine has had a re-launch, it's put on a few pounds (now bi-annual and just shy of 200 pages) and is now known as 4talent. Still has the same mix of showcases, advice and interviews stretching across all creative media but just looks that bit better on the coffee table.

I designed a four page spread for the first issue, an interview with Scottish Radio presenter Diane Knox. Only having two cheesy publicity photos to go with I embellished the first spread with floral based vector illustration with hints to radio paraphernalia.

Find out more about 4talent and all contributors here

Chocosho

2008-08-21T20:39:00.001+01:00

Recently found this nice little website of oddities Chocosho. It's a collection of fashion and lifestyle bits from emerging (mainly American) product & fashion designers. I especially like the 'tape' dispenser above, not sure I can justify the $25 shipping charges on it though!

Bread & Butter

2008-08-21T17:11:00.001+01:00

Well it was a while back but found a few nice pics on my mac from the last Bread & Butter tradeshow (click on the images above to enlarge). All about what's hot for the coming season in the fashion biz, but a good inspirational visit for designers too. Unfortunately it's not open to the general public and you have to be invited by a exhibitioning brand or be a buyer for a retailer. If you can blag your way in and fancy taking in the sights of Barcelona for a couple of days it's well worth a visit.

The branding and invites for the event are always themed really nicely too, international air travel when I went, complete with boarding passes and stewardesses on arrival.

LIFT Branding

2008-08-21T15:47:00.001+01:00

I've recently hooked up with a lovely new client BRAP for the branding and ongoing marketing materials for their equal opportunities training program 'lift'. I have created their logo and am currently working on information leaflets for the four strands of the training program.

The logo uses a clean rounded base font, with a vibrant highlight colour. The simplified 'helping hand' graphic visually portrays lifts aim to provide support and prop up those working for equality in the work place. Four secondary logos were also completed for each of the strands with the corresponding letter in the acronym highlighted and 'lifted'

All the leaflets will follow the same format with different colour schemes and simplistic layout to keep the uniformity of the brand. Hopefully, budget permitting, when all leaflets are complete I will produce a square format folder which will double up as a mailer to potential clients.

JG Ballard Crash competition

2008-08-21T14:35:00.001+01:00

Well finally there's a tiny bit of news on the Times Online JG Ballard Crash Cover Competition. Still no news of any shortlist; the best six are meant to be presented to the great man himself to choose the winner, but judging is now underway. Apparently the amount of entries mean they are still looking over the work, with the May winner announcement long gone!

I shall post a link to the winning entries when they put one up but here is my entry along with a couple of other concepts I considered. I decided the strongest concept was the first one; Banksy meets HR Giger at a porno show. Although I quite liked moodiness of the other concepts they didn't quite convey the fetishistic aspect of the novel.

A few of the other entries can be seen on the rather nice Ballardian website here

Welcome to My Design Blog

2008-08-21T14:20:00.000+01:00

Hello there! Thought it was about time I tried out this blogging malarkey so here it is. I will be keeping you up to date with what I've been up to work wise and posting a few design gems I have found on my travels. Feel free to post any comments or send me some of your thoughts, ideas and work to hello@russelljhall.com and I'll post up the best of them.