by Frank | Sep 15, 2011 | graphic design, illustration
Everyone loves a Mardi Gras…
…and I was very happy to be asked to design the brochure for Cardiff’s huge annual event. Unfortunately I wasn’t able to attend this year’s party but have been assured that a fabulous time was had by all.
Peacocktastic
I wanted to create an image for the cover that would scream Mardi Gras without using people. I wanted bright and bold and elegant; I wanted something that would need no translation. Hence this rather dashing bird.
I had the wonderful opportunity to advertise with the brochure, too. Here’s my effort:
by Frank | Mar 24, 2011 | graphic design, illustration, magazine design
I’m on holiday for ten days tomorrow and my brain has given up work already, so instead of some clever-yet-groanworthy dad-pun of a title, you can have a Monty Python quote, as I couldn’t think of anything else. This post was nearly entitled “Romans they go to the house”, but I feared it was too tenuous and only actually funny in my own head, being a grammar nerd who’s attempting to learn Yr Iaith Cymraeg.
Anyhoo, what happened was last summer the National Roman Legion Museum in Caerleon contacted me about a newly-conceived project involving a magazine by young people for young people that would help illustrate parts of Roman history relevant to the lives of teenagers. “We want it to look a bit like Kerrang!,” they said. “No problem,” I said.
The main differences between Kerrang! and this little publication are that a) FYI only has six pages per language (it’s a bilingual flip-and-turn type thing) and b) Kerrang! has an awful lot more information on each page. Luckily we managed to source some interesting photos, and with a little photoshop magic to increase the grunginess I think FYI captures some of the action.
It took a little while for the students to arrange the subjects and copy they wanted including, so the project developed slowly over the months, and finally went to press in March. Many of the images were supplied by the Museum, some I found free on websites like Stock Exchange and some I provided or illustrated myself. Inky and charcoaly lines, lots of textures and halftone patterns and a limited colour palette help roughen the look.
For extra interest, the little mag is 90% of the size of A4 (it’s a good thing to note how much more attractive non-standard-sized publications are to readers) and is beautifully finished on silk stock, thanks to sourcing print via my brilliant independent print sales expert. The Museum emailed me to say that they are really happy with the finished product. Phew!
by Frank | Mar 15, 2011 | graphic design, illustration
I received a very handsome surprise package in the post today. Handsome surprise packages always light up my life, but the contents of this one made me hop up and down with joy. Within, you see, were bundles of printed file copies of a couple of lovely jobs I’d just completed for the National Museum Cardiff. They’re activity books, designed and written for children visiting the museum, and very exciting.
I was asked by staff in the Learning Department to come up with designs that looked a bit like scrap books, while still retaining the Museum’s branding style. The two booklets – one for the Clore Discovery Centre and one for the newly re-opened art galleries – are thus filled with scanned scraps of paper, post-it notes, paper-clips, sellotape, Polaroid photos and blu-tak.
I used three typefaces on each project – Univers, which is the Museum’s standard typeface, to ensure brand consistency, a rough typewriter font (one that works with the ŵs of the Welsh language, too – hooray!) for highlighted text, and crumpled playful grungy fonts for the headers.
The booklets are Welsh one side and English the other, with a united page in the centre spread that works for both.
I did plenty of fun quick little illustrations for each booklet – starred asterisks, inky boxes, felt-pen trophies and hands pulling shapes. 
Click on any pic for bigger.
The challenge for this sort of work is two-fold. Firstly, the booklets were to be interesting and engaging and have this rough, curated feel. I was shown examples of other museums’ efforts and asked if I could produce something that didn’t copy them but had the same hand-finished feel. Yet the booklets still had sit within the Museum’s branding and not feel at odds with the rest of their publications. This is achieved with the band at the top of each cover, and with the Museum’s own typeface as body-copy, as mentioned.
Secondly, when presented with a request to create something that feels hand-made and cobbled together, there’s a real risk of a lack of balance. It’s pretty easy to enter the perilous realm of the dog’s breakfast. The thing to do is to establish some rules. I stuck to a rigid three-column grid with 5mm margins. Overall, colours are fairly limited, margins are always adhered to and there is a consistency of inky line all the way through. The post-its are regular little notes to encourage readers to act, and all the pages are given structure with standard headers.
Hope you like these as much as I do!
by Frank | Mar 4, 2011 | graphic design, illustration, magazine design, slider
I’m always doing a big song-and-dance about CIO Connect magazine, for the simple reason that it’s a dream to work on. The editor is top class (I understand he was recently named as one of twitter’s top 100 journalists to follow – number 91, if you credit that sort of thing) they use a wonderful photographer and professional journalists, it’s beautifully-printed and the end product is always something I’m very proud to have been involved with.
But all that glitter and gloss costs money. What about the companies that don’t want to spend so much, but still desire a handsome regular publication to share with their members, customers, shareholders or what have you?
Never fear, it can be done. There’s a step up from the self-produced mediocrities begat by Microsoft Publisher, Comic Sans and clip-art. It’s possible to get a rather smart-looking result, using a skilled designer, cheap stock images and custom illustration. I design and illustrate such a publication. I’m not entirely sure if you’d call it a newsletter or a magazine. It’s a 16-page quarterly thingumy. The client supplies stories that their members have written along with thumbnail pics of the authors, an editor edits and collates, I illustrate a cover incorporating the arrow of the client’s logo and a reflection of the subject matters covered or the season we’re in. This season being Spring (and as I type, the sky is obediently blue, the daffodils obediently flashing upon that inward eye which is the bliss of solitude, and the sparrows obediently chirpy), I done made a nest of arrows and what-not. I have a thing about cardboard backgrounds (have you noticed? You have?) as they lend texture and earthiness to vector-based illustrations which can often be toe-curlingly clean and false. Here’s the cover (click on the image for a bigger version if you like):
The illustration avoids us having to source what could be a very expensive cover photograph, plus it helps give style and character to the thingumy. Inside, I’ve kept everything very clean and clear, devising a layout which is quick and simple for me to lay out, thus saving money:
Stock imagery is often difficult to use without it being a touch cheesy. I try to circumvent this by the use of interesting cropping and wrapping text around. Where possible I don’t choose the obvious image, but of course I am limited to what the image libraries can supply. Keeping everything clean and aligned to a grid adds needed class.
So, there’s a middle ground. It’s possible to get interesting professional magazine design on a budget. It’s a line of work that can be really enjoyable, too. I think what makes Pulse a success is that I’m pretty much left to get on with it – and I find that when clients have that level of trust, designers can really step up to the mark.
by Frank | Feb 18, 2011 | doodles, illustration, thoughts
I haven’t blogged for a while. I feel bad about that. Therefore, this post is on the subject of discipline.
Judging by how frequently it happens, I can’t be the only person who works from home to hear the words “You must be very disciplined” all of the time. My response is generally that I don’t consider myself to be so. Look at those crazy 9 to 5-ers – getting up at the same time every day, ironing their clothes (pfft! what?), applying makeup, making packed lunches and even removing their dressing gown before starting work. That’s discipline.
I work to a more, ahem, flexible pattern.
Some days I’ll be up with the birdies, watching the sun come up and the lorries deliver bread and milk to the supermarket across the road. I’ll be doodling new illustration ideas, thinking about how to improve my website, cursing myself for not thinking up that awesome design solution before that brochure went to press. Or I’ll use that early-ness to go surfing, or practise yoga.
Other days I’ll wake up about the same time the rest of you are shuffling into your offices. I’ll blearily check my phone for emails and mooch into the next room to start the day. There’ll be a hiatus for a few hours in the evening when I go to my Welsh evening class and then I’ll work again until late upon my return.
What I’m starting to wonder is: is this right? Is this healthy? Is this me at my most productive? I don’t need discipline at all to do my work. None whatsoever. It’s my top priority – there is no other option. Even at my most stressed, I keep on. I may as well have a gun to my head, I’m that dedicated. What I do need discipline for is the other stuff – making time for washing up and riding waves. I’m waking up to the fact that these things are necessary – just as vital as money for the mortgage.
These are the things I need to have in order to be at my most productive/creative:
• clean & tidy environment (housework)
• clean & tidy mind & body (yoga, meditation, surfing, walks in the park, etc)
I’m beginning to appreciate the meaning of that clichéd mantra short-term pain, long-term gain (I’m a slow learner sometimes). Discipline, for me, is regularly doing the things you don’t have to do, because you know they’ll make things better in the long run.
And that is something I don’t have nearly enough of. But I’m working on it…
Anyway, apropos of nothing, here are some little close-ups of stuff I’ve been doing, plus a doodle of a pterodactyl-skull-shaped putty rubber doing a song and dance routine. I’ve got a few projects on the go, so I can only show you selected highlights for now…
by Frank | Jan 10, 2011 | illustration
Here’s a quick post to show you a fun little illustration I did for Sister Raven Lunatic of the Sisters of Perpetual Indulgence. It’s being used on t-shirts and other sorts of caboodle what those feisty Sisters are selling to raise money for their important charitable work.
I drew this work in pencil, over-worked with indian ink and brush, and coloured up in Photoshop.
Creating a caricature/illustration of someone you have never met is a little scary, but Sister Raven’s friends insist I have captured hir perfectly. Yay!
