Logopalooza

A recent client of mine was a sports bar setting up in Banbury. The entire thing was a new venture so that meant I got to work on the identity from scratch – always fun! The client came up with a bunch of ideas for themed evenings and such, and wanted some logos designing for them all. In about an hour. So this was rapid fire logo design, done with time to spare!



They also set up a members group for special offers etc... They wanted a membership card and logo designing for these that people could take away when they signed up.

Email Promotion

Another job I've worked on recently is a email promotion for my studio, to send out to specific groups/individuals who might be interested in using our services. A good excuse to make someting pretty and eye catching.

You can view it live (with links) here

Earth's Elementals logo

Recently I designed a logo for a company called 'Earth's Elementals'. Now they've got a shop, with a sign and everything.

I'm also doing some work for a new bar in Banbury at the moment, which I'm pretty excited about. In fact, shop and building fronts are pretty awesome to work on in general. If you want one doing, let me know!

Abandoned Places

Last weekend I decided to investigate an abandoned service station I pass every day on my way to work. I love abandoned things - the gradual encroaching of nature, the inane acts of vandalism, the air of melancholy that hangs over a place that used to be full of activity and purpose all utterly fascinate me.



One of the most surreal aspects of this place was the things people had chosen to dump there. As well as an odd assortment of childrens toys, there were plant pots, a suitcase and a bath?!



I thought that place was pretty amazing and didn't think I'd be able to top it - I was wrong. A quick bit of research online pointed me in the direction of St Crispin county asylum, a massive complex that was just down the road from me, yet somehow I'd never known it was there. It was opened in 1876 and closed in 1995 after a gradual process of transferring the functions of the hospital to other facilities. It's currently undergoing renovation into what looks to be office units.



Some extra pics are on my Flickr.

Settlements!

In striking contrast to the untamed wilderness of the Outback, Australian cities are modern and sprawling, filled with high rise buildings. The city of Perth (below) is one of the worlds most isolated cities. Everything in Australia looks new (mostly because it is), very few buildings seem to be much older than the 1920s-30s, and they stick out like sore thumbs amid all the glass and steel.

(left) The harbour of Cairns viewed from the cannon at the war memorial, and (right) Sydney Harbour bridge, complete with climbers walking along the top. You get some fantastic views up there but sadly you can't take a camera incase it falls onto the freeway below!

(below) More shots from around the Circular Quay and Rocks areas of Sydney, mainly the Opera House and the Harbour Bridge!

There's a few more odds and ends to see on my Flickr.

Outback!

The middle part of my trip was around the Red Centre - an area that is mind blowingly vast, as well as desolate. I was lucky enough to catch it at quite a mild time - low temperatures and 'high' rainfall meant it was actually a lot greener than you'd normally expect. It truly is amazing that people deliberately come out here to live their lives, miles from anything resembling civilisation.

This leg of the trip wrapped up with the rather beautiful spectacle of watching the sun set over Ayers Rock. Soothing!

Wildlife!

I traveled around Australia last month for two weeks. It wasn't as long as I would've liked, but I was determined to see as much of it as humanly possible. I started in Perth, from there I went on to Ayers Rock and Alice Springs, then Cairns and the Barrier Reef before finishing up in Sydney. I was only in each place for a few days, and everytime I landed at my next stop I was in a new time zone! I somehow managed to take lots of pictures along the way. I was especially fascinated by the wide array of bizarre wildlife Australia has!

Most of these are pretty self-explantory except for the third photo - these are little cat-sized creatures called Quokkas that live on Rottnest Island. The island actually gets its name from these - the first Europeans to sail past the island mistakenly thought they were giant rats, hence 'Rottnest' or 'Rats Nest' in Dutch.

Jamie bits

My most recent packaging related adventure was a range of products for Jamie Oliver. These use the new branding guidelines developed by Pearlfisher and also happen to be one of the first sets of products to use them, so we got to work out all the kinks together.

From left to right you've got large grinders, small grinders, and herb crust (breadcrumbs, basically).



It's great to be working on a project for such a huge brand, even better when you see photos with the man himself handling the stuff you've designed!



Product shots are by me, Jamie Oliver portraits are © Chris Terry 2010

Cakes!

This time last Christmas I was working relentlessly on a huge range of stuff for Disney. The candles were just the first stage, and we ended up doing a whole range of cupcake and cake kits using a range of Disney characters (and for good measure, a Mr Men one too). This project was my baby – I took it from start to finish and while, at times, it was a baby I wanted to drown in a canal, now the end is a safe distance away I can safely say I enjoyed working on it.



It was at times immensely frustrating - mainly due to having to produce several multi-lingual versions of each pack, squeezing on as many different languages as humanly possible. Ultimately, it was worth it. A lot of work went into these, as well as the sticker sets and activity sheets that come with them, so seeing them on the shelves in supermarkets across the land is pretty awesome.



I was also pretty curious about how these worked as a consumer - so I made up a load of cakes! I'm happy to say I can follow my own instructions without any bother.

Wheeler and Porter online

The Wheeler and Porter website is now live! I've been very excited about doing this - my first attempt at designing a website, and for my own studio no less. So not only have I had to juggle learning all the technical stuff, I've also had to contend with the nightmare that is marketing yourself. It seems like any marketing job is fine, until you have to do it for yourself, then it suddenly gets hard to be objective.

I've played with adding in a few little bits I didn't know how to do before now - a slideshow banner, Lightbox (for those lovely pop up picture windows), the Share This button, and of course my good friend Google Maps (and, behind the scenes, Analytics).

Anyways, you can view it at http://www.wheelerandporter.com/

Royal Society Journals

So, recently I did a whole load of journal covers for the Royal Society of New Zealand. I believe I'm now officially responsible for the look of over half the countries academic output. On a more serious note, a very nice project to work on - strong imagery and a simple, bold cover design that relies on a strong colour scheme to differentiate between disciplines. 

On a (slightly) related note, I'll be off to this part of the world very soon - I'm going to Australia! I'm going to be taking a lot of pictures I should imagine (I've already bought a new memory card in preparation) so I'm sure I'll put one or two of the best up when I'm back.