ISU Man Illustrations

ISU strive to improve the care sector in Denmark, this includes the sub-sectors of elderly care, child care, handicapped, asylum seekers and the unemployed. To achieve their goals the give alot of talks, lectures and seminars around the country. We all have been sat in such events and felt ourselves nodding off. Not to belittle whichever seminar you are attending, its simply being sat in one spot having to focus on a human voice at the other end of the room for hours on end - its this that sends us into a trance.

The director of ISU approached me to discuss ideas on how to keep people awake! A fireworks show was out of the question so we came to the conclusion that amusing illustrations would help the cause. I would come up with a set of cartoon characters which could be illustrated into various amusing scenarios - which would be used to illustrate points that the speakers were trying to convey. These drawings became known as the ISU Man Illustrations.

They were very simple, as you will see. They were also fun to create. The idea is for more of these drawings to be made over time. The style will be developed also, while maintaining ISU's branding

A2 Posters

Previously I had designed 12 page and 8 page brochures promoting the welfare of the elderly in Denmark. The client (ISU) wanted me to convert the covers of each of the brochures into A2 posters. The posters were to be printed at put up across Denmark to promote the availability of the brochures.

This was a very quick job indeed, very easy. It was also my first job completed in a different country. I was in the United States at the time, proving to myself that I really can work for anyone, from anywhere!

America photography trip

It's been a long time dream of mine to publish a book of photographs depicting various parts of American culture. I figure these photographs taken with an English eye would create some interesting results. We all know that American culture is full of absurdities and uniqueness, or maybe that is just me - because I'm English. Either way, I've thought about it a lot.

This month, I traveled to the States and spent twenty five days driving around, meeting people and taking photographs. I had a whale of a time. You can see some of the photographs in the portfolio section on my website.

I started the trip in Kansas City, Kansas. I ventured East through Missouri, Ohio, and stopped for a while in Michigan. I then continued on to Pittsburg, PA for a few days which was an eye opener. I stayed in the ghetto. My last stop was Virginia, before turning back to Kansas City for my flight home.

All in all, I had driven 5500 miles and taken over 2000 photographs. I learned alot and it was ALOT of fun, I will be doing it again for sure.

ISU Promotional 8 page leaflet

This was a relatively quick job, only a couple of days in fact. The client needed a previous 12 page brochure adapted to an 8 page layout.

The client in question (ISU) is a delight to work for, as they don't expect the impossible. For such a job it's reasonable to understand that losing four pages of space will cause havoc for re-laying out text. What I'm saying is that ISU edited their text down, to which I am extremely greatful! I could have, and would have, fit the original text in - however it would have required a microscope and shoe horn!

Prior's Field School speech day

I must be doing something right, this is the third year in a row I've been asked to be involved with this event. I've posted about it each year but I will briefly describe it again.

It's actually a highly enjoyable job which takes an incredible amount of concentration. This is a good challenge for me because I'm used to working alone at my own pace and listening to music, great for creativity but not great for concentration.

It's a two day event where the pupils of the Priors Field all girls boarding school put on a bit of a show for the parents on the last day of term. The pupils leaving this year play the songs they have written, play in orchestras, show their art, and give speeches. The teachers also give a round up to the years progress and give out prizes to exceptional students.

My role is to get to grips with the running order of the show by being at the rehearsals on day 1, and on day 2 I have to film and edit LIVE to 6 plasma screens broadcasting to over 1000 parents. I control two broadcast quality camera's and a basic live mixing desk. The sound, probably the most important part of the production is done by a friend and sound engineer who runs the company Kinetic (based in Woking).

As I've said before, if I have children, and if I have a girl, I will be thinking about paying for her education at this incredible school. Very impressive indeed.

Sorry there is nothing to show you, but it's all mixed live.

Q Holidays business cards

Q Holidays were one of my very first clients as a sole trader a few years back. I designed their logo and branding. Over the the last 2 years I've had the pleasure of designing their stationary and various other posters and magazine adverts.

There's something pleasing about designing things using imagery of beautiful far off places.

Anyway, this month they asked me to create three more business cards for them. The same as the previous ones, only this time for their new employees.

Shavings Carpentry branding

Shavings Capentry is a new company formed from one of my previous clients from a few years ago. I designed some business cards which, apparently, he still gets compliments for. So this saw him come back to me and ask me to design his new branding.

It was an interesting brief for three reasons;

1. he's usually doesn't have any pre-thoughts on what he wants and likes me to come up with something unhindered (this is always fun),
2. his business has two sides to it, a capentry side and then an aquatic side, so therefor it involved a common theme but a different concept for each,
3. not only was it a logo he needed, but brand colours, 2 business cards and finally some headers for his website. (The website itself was designed by a friend of mine, however the headers were from me.)

I was two things, to make the design funky, and most importantly different from every other company in his industry.

I decided on the colour pallette and set to work. His carpentry side should have an element of seriousness, less playful perhaps due to his client base and target market. Whilst perhaps I should make his aquatic side the funkier of the two, as this was the smaller parts to the business. The bulk of his income comes from carpentry, and fish collectors are less critical than someone having a cabinet or patio decking built. Also on the same note, I convinced my client that it was worth spending a little extra on the carpentry business cards compared to the aquatics. They were printed double sided with a matt laminate, while the aquatics cards were printed 1 side.