Here’s something fun! KombiCam is a mobile photobooth in a Kombi. It’s the brain child of Nigel Honey and when he said he was doing it I knew that I had to help out! Sometimes a fun idea just sings you know? This is one of them!

I really like how the signwriting came up, and the abbreviated initials version of the logo looks amazing on the old surfboard!

Check it out online KombiCam – from the looks of the photos below the official launch at the Taste of Tasmania was a huge success! Nice work Nigel & Melissa Honey!

Create Digital Music is an online community of music creators and digital creatives. Edited by Peter Kirn, Create Digital Music has spawned Create Digital Motion and most recently, Noisepages. CDM’s previous design was due for a refresh and the integration of the sites into one broader family was top of mind.

The logo is a simple and elegant system – Create Digital comes first and then each of the sites has it’s own colour system and appropriate line. Create Digital Everything is a fun example of the kind of substitution that the logo system lends itself to. This ended up featuring in a series of tee-shirts I screenprinted for the launch.

I’ve been doing design for CDM in one form or another for the last few years. It’s been real success story of international creative collaboration – one of the nicest things about working with Peter on CDM has been chatting and working with all sorts of great people across the globe.

Finally, the job required a set of illustrations and fun little bits – Peter’s never let his websites’ noble aims get in the way of having a little fun and these were just that. I can never resist an invitation to do little doodles for fun!

You can visit Create Digital Music here and thanks to Peter Kirn and special mention must go to Richard Bailey who took my original concept and brought it forth into code.

Oceanplanet is a non-profit organisation which exists to help protect our marine environment for everyone to enjoy. They believe ocean conservation is in the interests of not just conservation groups, but commercial and recreational fishermen as well as everyday users of the ocean.

I’m delighted to have been involved with Oceanplanet over the last couple of years, and later this month Oceanplanet is putting a fundraiser cocktail party and art auction to continue the the Marine conservation work of their sister organisation Environment Tasmania. The poster artwork is above, and you can check out the full catalogue of work online here. Come along! It’s sure to be a great night!

This year I designed the artwork for the Tourism Tasmania Strategic Plan 2010. I’m always impressed when I work with people with a positive vision for their industry, and Tourism Tasmania really do seem to have an excellent internal culture – so refreshing!

This job also called for some infographic illustrations which I don’t often get a chance to do with regular client work. Infographics are really good way to illustrate the underlying information and statistics in an engaging and interesting manner. I’m particularly happy with the guy holding the 25,670, see how his legs form the digits 11 for 11% there?

Good design can be a few things. Sometimes it’s simply polishing up something so it looks good and simply looks professional. That’s totally fine and I’m glad that’s part of my craft. But the real fun begins when you start thinking in terms of ideas. Ideas are fun, vibrant, and they stick with people. So if you choose me to provide design for you, I’ll do what you ask for, because there’s nothing worse than a designer who doesn’t listen to the brief and doesn’t do what the client asks for… BUT! If you’re lucky, I might ring you up or come to a meeting with a glint in my eye and I’ll say I’ve had a little idea.

This means I have something fun I’d like to show you to consider in terms of your brief. This service doesn’t cost you much extra apart from an open mind – in fact sometimes these sorts of ideas cost less than the original brief! So, when I say I like to surprise my clients with little extras, I don’t mean on the bill (I pride myself on estimating as close to the mark as possible and don’t like nasty surprises much either), I mean by finding a way to really make your product or concept shine. If this sounds like you, it sounds like you might like to work with me. I’d like to work with you! Let’s chat!

Okay then. I will. Here’s an example of this kind of thinking: I was asked to design up a simple A-Frame sign for a personal trainer. I designed it. And it was fine – and it answered the brief.

But I looked at it again and I thought, well, that’s what’s been asked for, and I’ll definitely give it to the client. BUT! Is there something else that can be done? The client’s business is based around the idea of balance and symmetry. I had a simple idea. Instead of just having a standard A-Frame sign, I designed a top piece which looked like a see-saw. A simple, point of difference that would be easy enough to manufacture and something that would genuinely stand out in the crowd.

This post about two separate things – one is ideas and how important the right simple idea can be, and secondly the value of thinking twice about things and the huge difference it can make to the end product.

Full disclosure: As it happens, the client did not go with this idea, but you can’t win ‘em all!

I’m absolutely delighted (and more than a little proud to have shared my own little part in) the launch for Meeblip. Meeblip is a hackable digital synth designed James Grahame of Reflex Audio in partnership with Create Digital Music. I’ve been doing bits and pieces for Create Digital Music for several years now and I’m always excited when Peter Kirn drops me an email with a project idea!

This is no different! I’ve wanted design a synth front panel since I started working in design and I was chuffed to be asked.

Meeblip is available in both quick build kit form, a full board kit and barebones board. The quick build kit is $129USD (no soldering required) and is amazing value for the money. I can’t wait to get mine and start playing with it. As it’s open sourced too, you will be able to download heaps of information for those keen to hack and play with it too. CDM has an excellent track record of producing insightful and entertaining music tech coverage, and to see this released is testament to Peter’s dedication to open source hardware.

This is a true indie project and CDM and Reflex Audio deserve every success with this awesome project!

You should buy one.

So. I have a little announcement to make.

I started working for myself full time in February this year I’m excited to say I’m moving office down to 146 Elizabeth Street (first floor above Arts Tasmania). I have a year to make the very best of this amazing opportunity before I take on the big bad world of full commercial rental.

It’s been a very busy year so far, and there’s been a fair few ups and downs, but I don’t regret it for a moment. And today feels like another big step forward for my design business.

A huge thankyou must go to the Tasmanian State Government and Arts Tasmania for making this space (and others) available to small creative businesses.

BUT that’s not all! Yes, there’s more.

I’ve been lucky enough to be granted an Artist in Residency at Collegiate’s senior school as well. This will be the base of my screenprinting and general printmaking adventures over the next year and I look forward to running workshops and speaking with the students about graphic design as well.

So I find myself giving another huge thankyou to Collegiate and the whole team in the Art Department who have already made me feel very welcome.

You want more?! I’ve got more! CAN YOU EVEN HANDLE MORE, YOU MAD FOOLS? You’ll doom us all with your hubris!

I’ve been attending the very fine letterpress course over at the Tasmanian Polytechnic and they obviously got sick of me turning up to do the course, and have very kindly allowed me to come along and help out on the letterpress course. That’s right! I’m officially (completely unofficially) a printer’s apprentice one night a week after work hours (don’t worry your design work is still being done!).

You know what’s coming don’t you? Yes another thank you. This time it goes out to Leonie Oakes who was kind enough to suggest my apprenticeship. And a huge thanks to Gilbert Bancroft for agreeing to teach me and for putting up with me still putting type in backwards (and sometimes upside down).

As the saying goes, “When the student is ready, the teacher will appear”.

Whew! That’s the end of my big pile of news. I’ve been very lucky to have these amazing opportunities, and hopefully pay some of that generosity back wherever I can.

I’m hoping to make the the very best out of the next year, and hopefully do some really nice work for my clients and also have some fun too. Sometimes I need a reminder, I don’t have to do this, but I choose to do it because I enjoy it. Even after one of the most stressful, full-on weeks of my career, I feel like I can look forward and smile about exactly how far I’ve come since I did my first layout for a K-Mart catalogue.

Happy Friday everyone.

To promote the local screening of the Film Typeface (Proudly presented by AGDA Tasmania), I printed a series of very limited edition letterpress posters. Some were put up in cafés and most of the remainder were given out on the night as a little bonus for the folks coming along.

+ Bonus process shots by the lovely & talented Leonie Oakes!

Here’s some cute little illustrations I did for the Little Sweep guide for teachers for the UTAS Conservatorium of Music. My friend and local designer Cathy McAuliffe did the original logo and I was called in to grow her excellent identity for the Little Sweep into a educational guide to give to students. These illustrations featured in the final guide.

Molle Street billboard is a friend’s art project. I did the identity the other bits of promo artwork. They’ve got a billboard, and they want art for it. Think you’re up for it? Visit the Tumblr to find out more!

(Billboard)

(Promo Posters)
Read the rest of this entry »