Business Cards

Below is a collection of some of the business cards I have designed and produced in the last few years.
Let's face it, most business cards are just glimpsed at for a few seconds and then left in a darkened place for years. So I think they should be intriguing enough to provoke a immediate response.
Hence, I like to keep my designs clear and simple as I believe it's the information that is the most important element here, rather than over-designed versions where the vital information is lost, cramped, or way too small/light.
My designs feature text in a legible point size surrounded by a fair bit of white/light space for those extra inked-on scribbles, and I like to use photographs or graphic devices on the image side wherever possible. For instance, my own cards (both my personal one and the revised design for Amelia Parker clay pipe jewellery) feature my own shots of clay pipes – these images always get a good reaction.
Another clever design device for the picture side of the card is to zoom in on an element of an image, or the logo itself, which then becomes clearer on the information side.

Designs for a book of family history

The brief was to design, artwork and produce a series of books for a client who was keen on the clean lines of the Bauhaus. 
One of the books was to be picture-heavy containing archive photos and letters, so this was the book I chose to use for my initial designs. Below are some of the spreads presented at the first design meeting. Each row shows one of three different ideas on the same basic grid but implementing different Bauhaus-style devices. The middle one, shown here in blue, was chosen and, so far, three books based on this template have been produced, each using a different colour in place of the blue.    

Designs for a cookery book

This book was to be a collection of ideas and collected recipes so, rather than produce a conventional recipe book, I suggested a kind of reportage/snapshot style, intended to convey a certain feel, mood, and sense of location. For this presentation I sourced images of ingredients, implements and locations from photo libraries that could be easily imitated. I chose to use various cuts of American Typewriter throughout to give the sense that the author was using an old typewriter to collect his ideas. Scribbles on notepads and chalkboards make take that idea even further. Sadly, the budget did not stretch to photography, so this idea was shelved. 

B&B quarter page ads

Here's a small selection of some of the ads placed for Braybrook & Britten in the period 2010-12

Hand-Painted Signs of Kratie book

Sam Roberts and I became friends through our interest in London's ghostsigns (faded hand-painted advertisements on brick walls). Sam has been out of the UK for the past 2 years doing voluntary work in the Far East. He started to notice that some of the lovely hand-painted signs in Cambodia were gradually being replaced by modern versions, so he got his camera out and started taking snaps. The end result is this 140pp book, that I designed and artworked for him applying his words and pictures onto a simple, and very adaptable square grid.

Braybrook & Britten small catalogue Autumn 2012

Design and artwork for B&B catalogues is only started when the new products have been photographed. Many items are carry overs from previous catalogues and, unless there is a good reason for a whole page repeat, they need to be juggled about so that customers do not think they are looking at last year's version again. 
In 2012 there was no large catalogue but the bulk of the product shots, namely the jewellery items, still needed to be scaled at actual size before being further reduced to 80% for here. During the rough layout stages items get moved around a lot from page to page until the client is happy that we have achieved the best spreads to sell from.

Ideas for redesign of B&B catalogues

The client noticed that some of the best selling pages in the B&B catalogue where those that had bleed images or coloured backgrounds, and suggested that we introduce some coloured panels to the general design.
A nice idea, but it was a tough call. The cufflinks spreads already use squared-up panels, but they are all small products – applying the same idea to other pages which show items of varying shapes and sizes, especially in the jewellery section where they need to be shown at actual size, makes it hard to create a grid that works without looking too messy.
Shown below are the initial ideas I came up with, using random colours in blocks (colours would obviously be specifically mixed for each page to best enhance the products).
But, realising that this would make each page an even bigger jigsaw puzzle than usual, plus creating further photographic and/or repro work, this idea has been shelved for the time being.

Braybrook & Britten small catalogue, Winter 2011

Seasonal product spreads appear in these pocket editions. Also included are many repeat spreads from the full size general B&B catalogues, but it's not just a simple job of scaling down as all of the fonts change for ease of legibility, plus the grid is slightly different as this one isn't perfect bound. 

Braybrook & Britten discount leaflet

B&B catalogues are designed to be stylish, clean and easy on the eye. But every now and then a stock clearance is needed to make way for new products. This particular 8pp A5 leaflet was inserted into Sunday magazines and the like. The aim was to make it say 'sale' and 'reduced' without looking tacky. 

Alive creds/thanks booklet

My client something that he could give as a thank you to his existing clients which could also be used as a promotional item in the future. He wanted something conversational.

He also knew what he didn't want... he didn't want pics of events, or anything corporate, or logos, or the 'our brief was this, so we did that' approach.

All the six case studies in this A5 booklet contain stories told by Lud and feedback from each of the clients invlolved. We're rather pleased with it!

Jack Morton brand identity guidelines

Putting together succinct guidelines can sometimes be a hard job. Less is more. Especially on those pages that show what cannot be done with the logo – let's face it, that could go on ad infinitum!

I worked closely with the brand designer on this one and we spent a lot of time on the naming and collating of the various master logo files, so as to (hopefully) avoid any confusion, and make these guidelines as easy as possible to follow and adhere to.

Earlier JM brand identities that I have worked on can be found here.

Islington Green Dental Practice redesign

A new logo and identity for IGDP, including stationery, leaflets and assorted items of print. I also proofread and/or re-wrote all the literature.

American Express Business Travel – Earls Court 2011

Those blue blurry lines again. But this time with no background image and the whole effect looked a lot cleaner and neater. I managed to find time to go to the show and take some photos of the finished product. Happy to say I was really pleased with the quality and finish of the graphics.

Pastiche record cover

This was a private job for a friend who wanted something special to give as a wedding present.

I created an LP-size pastiche mock-up of the cover of one of their favourite songs. It was float-mounted and framed and now hangs on their wall. Smaller versions were made for close relatives.

Amex Pacesetters 2010

Every year Amex put on a 'thank you' event for their best-performing employees, and in 2010 the theme was 'magic'.

Shown here is a very small selection of some of the items of collateral and event graphics I created which included elements for an Alice In Wonderland courtroom complete with 'wooden' walls and desk (a pic of the finished thing is shown bottom left).

KIT promotional postcards

A series of promotional postcards for KIT who produce lightweight technical garments etc.

The images were chosen and supplied by the client so it was all about making them work as a family of five.

John Cullen Lighting product catalogue

What a job! This product brochure, showing John Cullen's full range, was a tough job to produce, what with all the images to collate, diagrams and illustrations to draw or re-size, dimensions and spec to be added on at artwork stage, etc. The pictures down the right-hand edges show off some of the products in situ. This is the second version of this catalogue I have produced; products are always changing or being added/deleted.

As I write this I am in the process of designing the 'sister' design brochure which is picture-led and inspirational.

Motorcycle magazine and press ads

If you have ever flicked through motorcycle magazines you will have noticed that most ads are loud, packed with images and over-colourful.

For MotoEvolution's diverse range of bike products we wanted to make the ads a bit classier but without looking out of place on the same page.

NPA redesign

NPA's expansion has been rapid and their promotional leaflets, brochures, website etc all need to be brought together and given a simplified identity to connect the seven sectors and make them look part of the same forward-thinking company. Following on from the success of the partial redesign for the panels at Excel 09, I came up with an idea to replace the existing mis-matched leaflets and gatefold brochures with DL-sized swatch cards that could be tailored to suit each individual client's needs. These would be fronted by and held together with die-stamped composite plastic manufactured by the company itself.

The website would also echo the same design.

Unfortunately this project is on hold for the time being.

Brochure design for bespoke kitchen company

I designed this in close conjunction with Iain. Our client wanted the brochure to be clean, modern and use plenty of white space. From the client's large database of images we chose what we considered to be the best ones and, using these as inspiration, invented a flexible grid and a palette of earthy yet contemporary colours to complement them.

Sadly, probably due to the current financial climate, the client pulled out and the project has been shelved. Fingers crossed they change their minds as this would have been a lovely piece of print.

Postcards for the Ghostsigns Archive

In conjunction with The History of Advertisng Trust (HAT) and Rank Hovis, Sam Roberts has been busy setting up an archive of all the old painted advertising signs that were painted directly onto walls over the past century. As well as taking lots of photos of these myself, I have been helping him with design and artwork for various items in conjunction with this project. This set of 10 postcards has been created for the launch event, though we hope we may be able to sell more in the future to help fund the project.

We are also working on a book of the same.

American Express London Skyline panels

As previously mentioned, Amex has a really strong identity for Business Travel which involves a fair bit of Photoshop work. Once an image is sourced, either from Amex's database of images or from a picture library, the general layout/design has to be agreed before blurred movement lines are added in specific shades of blue. In this instance I needed to find a suitable image that would be OK to use at 8 metres wide and really lucky to find the one below on Flickr. A mobile of logos and other Amex images hung above it. I understand it was well-received.

NP Aerospace product cards

These product cards were created for use at the Excel 09 event using the same colours for the 7 sectors, but an overall grid/graph background was added to denote technical design.

Initial designs for full page ads

The client, a bespoke kitchen maker, was a bit vague as to what was required; what look to achieve for their high-end advertising campaign. There was even talk of producing a new logo. Using three very different images, Iain and I came up with a few rough ideas to show them how each might be used in various different ways. One of those images is shown here.

The project has been shelved for the time being.

Stationery evolution

I have produced the artwork for the stationery for this company for over 12 years through 3 different name changes and 5 different identities. It comprises not just the usual letterhead, comp slip and business cards, but also a long list of labels, stickers and inserts for items such as CD cases, presentation documents and wallets, VHS and Beta tapes and cases, document covers, even carrier bags.
Shown here are the four early identities. Guidelines for the current one can be found here.
Please note the lovely thank you letter addressed to me which reads:

"Dear Jane... The brand launch, without doubt, was our best ever... An enormous amount of credit for the success goes to you, because without your hard work and professionalism it would not have been possible.... [we] found working with you very reassuring. Yours is certainly a job where patience and unflappability are a bonus and you have it in abundance...."

Braybrook & Britten mini catalogues 2009

Two smaller brochures for B&B ; a 12pp insert and a 48pp Christmas mailer based on the full-sized September version.

These are not just scaled-down versions of the earlier ones, but re-styled and re-jigged pages as the fonts all change for these smaller editions for ease of legibility, so everything has to be cross-checked for erroneous line breaks, mentions of 'actual size' etc.

Braybook & Britten catalogue 2009

64pp plus covers. Layouts for B&B catalogues are planned once all the products have been photographed. All jewellery has to be shown actual size and this means it is always a major jigsaw puzzle. During the rough layout stages items get moved around a lot from page to page until the client is happy that we have achieved the best spreads to sell from.

Shown here are pre-press pdfs, hence some really rough cut-outs; the extensive Photoshop work, to merge and montage some images together, is done by the repro department at the printers.

NP Aerospace event graphics and identity redesign

NP Aerospace wanted a more modern, clean, coherent identity. And they wanted this to start from the Excel 09 event where they had a large stand.

Time was of the essence, so, retaining the roundel version of the logo, I designed a template that could be adapted for use on each of the 7 sectors, giving each of the 1.5m triptychs a dirty pastel backround colour, utilising a red thread to hold together the 'story' of how their products are manufactured from start to finish.

This design was then adapted for use on the individual product cards using the colours as an overall grid background.

The same idea was also applied to the 3 panels for the IST toblerone, part of the same stand, shown here bottom right.

Nokia

Shown here is a design for a 4pp magazine insert, and some small pocket brochures. Nokia, as with most large well-established companies, already has a strong identity and strict corporate guidelines, so it's always a challenge coming up with new ideas and thinking within the box, to make each new item have an identity of its own

Jack Morton marketing

At JM they call these 'Snapshots'. Each 2-sided card is about one aspect of the company's strengths, or for one event or project.

My task when designing and artworking them, was to set up a loose template and then, depending on the images available for each one, choose the most intriguing or arresting image for the front of each card. For some of the more generic cards, a whole new image might need to be sourced or created from scratch.

On the reverse of each card a small selection images were chosen to accompany the text describing briefly the project from brief to completion.

There are 100s of these.