Return of the ISU Man Illustrations

Last month I created a concept and some illustrations to aid some of ISU's seminars. The illustrations depicted amusing scenarios to help convey various points made by the speakers - to help keep the attendees awake!

The illustrations went down very well, so well infact I was asked to create another six this month.

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.

12 Page Sales Brochure

Last year I created an 8 page Sales Brochure for ISU promoting the welfare of elderly people. You can see the design and write up for it in last years blog entries. This year, they want to continue the theme but they needed to increase it to a 12 page brochure.

They also asked me instead of using Oak trees as symbolic imagery to use Apple Blossom instead. So this year, that's exactly what I did. The theme and colour scheme is the same, only this time we've used blossom.

The brochure was also adapted to an 8 page emailable version which is slightly heavier with text. The 12 page printed version is led via imagery, which makes it more interesting and appealing.

Year 2009 - 2010

I'm quite excited about this new tax tear, infact no, I'm very excited about it. Getting involved with the data entry work for the last 3 months turned out to be exactly as I thought. Mind numbing, but an opportunity not to be missed. I got my head down and now I have payed ALL of my debts off, yes, I'm debt free, a free man. Now the money I earn isn't The Man's but it's mine. So I have plans to make and I'm very happy.

By the way, ISU were extremely pleased with the quality of work from me and the team I put together.

This tax year, I have decided to do something I've always wanted to but never been able to. That's to get involved with some charity work. I can do that now I have no debts, I feel safer. So my first task is to choose a charity or organisation. My heart is with green issues and animal welfare so that's a good place to start. I have browsing to do!

A quick break

Today I took a much needed break from the 3 month task I outlined in the last post (February).

I've been for a long walk to enjoy some nature and take some appreciative photographs. It was lovely, my bum is no longer numb from sitting.

I didn't manage to take any outstanding photographs, they were all just ok. Neverless, I got out away from all those numbers, and to be honest, I'm using this blog for that very same reason now. Any excuse to not go back to it right now!

The Credit Crunch

ISU contacted me and offered some relatively average paid data entry work. They sounded a bit desperate as they had 3 months to enter 20,000 documents into a database. They had worked out that it was around 2,700 hours of work, and were struggling to find people and they had a 3 month deadline.

After thinking long and hard, I thought that I could kill 2 birds with 1 stone here. Not only could I help out one of my largest clients, but I could also perhaps buy some of documents from them and then farm them out to various unemployed or struggling friends. Considering we are in the "credit crunch".

I ended up buying 1,500 hours from them and will farm out around 950 of those hours. I helped out ISU, I'll help out some struggling friends, and I will also make some extra money myself. The internet really has made the world a smaller place.

Anyway, this means that ALL creative jobs will be on hold until this huge task is complete, which is going to be the end of April.

The ISU man

While working on the previous job in December I had an idea of making the text heavy documents a little more interest for the reader. We all know how easy it is to lose concentration and interest at seminars sometimes, regardless of the content.

ISU agreed and wanted to see my idea. I thought that by having a cartoon character illustrating various points throughout the documentation it would create a focal and talking point, therefor keeping people involved and awake.

I asked ISU to send me a list of phrases and points that were important for them to get across, and then I would set about creating and using a cartoon character to do so. It was up in the air, a gamble, and none of us were sure of the response. But after they were finished and seen, they tell me that they are very happy with them, and their clients often comment on them.

So it worked, and the clients are amused and awake during those seminars. ISU commissioned me to create 20 different illustrations for their next teaching pack.