First Impressions Count

Sometimes the opportunity comes along to be involved in some memorable work – but often it’s not without the benefit of hindsight that you are able to see just how special that work is. Such is the case with the new Virginie Cuvee packaging for No1 Family Estate right here in Marlborough.

Living in New Zealand’s largest wine producing region, it’s hard not be involved to some degree or another in the wine industry or related fields – even for a hardened teetotaller like me. In fact, label design and associated branding and packaging for small to medium sized wineries has become a large portion of the work undertaken here at Lloyds Graphic Design. One recent project was for the new Virginie Cuvee for No1 Family Estate. Like most design projects, the work began with an initial briefing with Adele Le Brun and Heidi Bulfin from No 1 – which, like most projects for No1 was an open creative brief with style, sophistication and quality being the theme. Adele and Heidi are great to work with – they know exactly what they like, but they also appreciate the importance of letting creativity have free reign if the best solution is to be arrived at. From the first meeting a few concepts were presented with a couple of rounds of revisions and tweaks until the final label was settled upon. The final label was expertly printed by Rapid Labels and included an intricate die line, gold foil and a highbuild varnish on textured stock.

From there, the project expanded into the need for a very special presentation box in which to showcase this premium quality vintage. Our ever-obliging packaging contact went about producing a superb single bottle display box from the artwork conceptualised and completed here at LGD to tie in seamlessly with the unique label design. The result was outstanding and has met with much critical acclaim within the industry both here and internationally – as seen on the site http://www.boutiquewines.com.au/  Look under the Excellence in Packaging link.

Below are some images of the new packaging, released late 2010.

So You Think You’re a Designer with Only This Miserable Blog as Your Sole Online Presence?

It may seem more than a little odd for a person who calls himself a visual communicator in this day and age, to have no more than this cursory, non-flash, ultra bargain basement set up as his online shop window. Well, you’d get no argument from me… odd it is. Seems every man and his dog has got their own e-commerce site these days, and many of the dogs make for more interesting subjects than me. Not that I’m trying to make excuses – not at all. In fact, I’m kinda quietly pleased with myself, in a self-effacing way, that I have managed to maintain the last shreds of ludite-ness in this highly digitised life, refusing to bow to the expectation that as a designer you MUST have a website. My clients all have one, their children have them, my elderly relatives have them, even our gold fish have one – but not me. I stand apart, with no ‘www’ to plaster all over the place, no hyperlink to my latest work, no desperate ‘Follow me on Facebook and Twitter’ pleas. Just this bog standard, run-of-the-mill, nothing-to-write-home-about blog.

And that’s just how I like it.

See, for me, I’d rather spend all my creative efforts creating memorable and effective design solutions for my large base of loyal clients – making sure I don’t short change them in order to make sure my website, tweets and microblogs were optimised and getting enough results on Google. My clients deserve way better than that – and they get it. This ho hum website is testament to that.

To put it plainly, my work’s average so yours won’t be.

So now you know the truth. But before you write me off as some lazy half wit, who couldn’t design his way out of a paper bag, take a look around this blog. The effort I’ve put into it’s layout and construction might be average – the work showcased certainly isn’t. At least that’s what the clients tell me.

See for yourself and enjoy the trip.

Poster Bonanza

Over the last couple of years I have been asked to create the marketing material for the Upper Clutha A & P Association (that’s ‘Agricultural and Pastoral’ to the non-kiwis reading). Each year I submit a couple or so ideas for the upcoming event for their flyers, posters and programme cover. Sadly, only one idea can ever go to print each year while the rejected concepts sit forlornly, never to be seen by the public and do what they were intended for. Until now. Below I have posted the two published concepts from the last two shows, along with the other ideas that never went further than the committee meeting. Shame, but that’s how it goes. Hope you like at least a little of what you see.

One of my favourites - but perhaps a little 'art house' for the target market

This one got the nod for the 2010 event - a natural follow up to 2009's design

I loved the old tractor... but this one was a no go

The dramatic cropping, the toy bull, the oversized ear tag... what's not to love here?

Probably still my all time fave... with it's ultra retro, circus poster influences. Would love to get this one published.

And the winner from 2009... the sheep mimicking the shepherd ticked the right boxes that year.

Re-branding the Re-brand

It’s inevitable that if you’re in business long enough, you’ll probably get the chance to be involved in the odd rebranding exercise for the same client. Such was the case when local chartered engineers Davidson Partners decided it was time to rebrand under the name Davidson Group. I had been involved in the creation of their new identity some 15 years ago in around 1995 under the name Davidson Partners. That logo had served them well for all those years without change and would have conceivably continued to do so for many more. But it was felt with the change of focus for the company, it was also time to refresh their public face with a revitalised identity. And so it was that I had the opportunity to revisit the brand and give it somewhat of a makeover with an entirely new icon and updated typography. The resulting design now ready to serve the company for at least another 15 more years.

And interlinked DG inside the confines of the square convey engineering and corporate integrity.

One Mind, Multiple Identities

Logo design would have to be the one thing that gives me the greatest satisfaction in my work. It’s the process of distilling a business name and what that business does down into its simplest graphic form; bringing conceptual clarity to ideas that might be otherwise difficult to visualise or quantify… that’s the beauty of a memorable identity in my mind. Sometimes it can be purely typographic, or it might be the creation of a unique icon – whatever form a new logo takes, it must, by its very nature, be the roving ambassador… the silent salesman…  the perpetual public face for the company it represents. Easily recognised, infinitely scalable, and above all, memorable.

Below are a few identities that I have had the privilege to be involved with.

Aquaculture Direct is a stylised ‘A’ comprised of multiple curved segments that represent ocean waves, open shellfish and fish tails in one simple icon. Companies involved with environmental issues are becoming more common these days, with two such businesses, Sustainable Environmental Engineering (SEE) and Barefoot having had identities created in recent months. Wool marketing association WoolFirst is another recent project – below are shown one of the unused concepts and the final, approved design. Finally, Toybox is an older logo design from some years back, but it makes the cut in this entry to represent another important attribute that any effective brand should have – that being a timeless relevance.

Fishtails, waves and shellfish inspired this multi layered concept.

Showing the proposed logo in context is an important part of the initial presentation.

The human eye and molecular structures were the reference points for the identity for SEE.

A wordmark that incorporates the logo is an opportunity that doesn't come along often.

This was one of the rejected concepts for WooFirst.

The successful WoolFirst logo - fibres that can be seen as a W flowing into an F.

Toybox - an energetic design that has lost none of its fun and immediacy over the years.

Touching the World

Earlier this year I was contacted by French smartphone application developer, Jaydeo. This innovative, young company is at the cutting edge of creating clever, intuitive applications for predominantly the iPhone market. They were wanting to increase their market presence by way of a revitalised brand and website that would help tell their story with a more accurate reflection of their personality. Three concepts were submitted with one clearly meeting their brief and expectations from the outset.

The approved design utilised a finger pointing icon – symbolising both the human and interactive nature of the business. And the hand itself is constructed from a thumb and forefinger that form a simplified ‘J’. The font is a customised version of Eurostile. A tagline was created, ‘Touch the World’ – positioning the company as one with a truly global reach and conveying the idea that global reach is exactly what they realistically offer their clients.

As part of the initial conceptual work, designs for stationery, business cards and a new website template were drafted up for consideration. These were eventually  taken to final artwork stage as part of the project.

This has been a tremendous project to be involved in; the team at Jaydeo have been great people to work with and the resulting identity manages to capture the essence of the company and what they do with minimalist clarity.

Presenting the potential of the brand to be applied across many media was part of the initial concepts.

My First Ambigram

Been a long time between posts – which is about usual for me – but I thought it was about time I put fingers to keyboard. It’s been an incredibly busy first half of the year, in fact the busiest period I have known since starting Lloyd’s Graphic Design in 1992. Anyway, I was recently asked to create a new identity for an established tavern in town that was reverting to the name it used some years ago – ‘Raffles’. Given that the manager  was looking at creating a wordmark similar to its original identity, a typographical approach was logical. But not just any old wordmark would do this time around; this was a chance to do something a little different, something memorable – time for an ambigram. Wikipedia inform us that; “an ambigram is a typographical design or artform that may be read as one or more words not only in its form as presented, but also from another viewpoint, direction, or orientation.”

Simple.

Actually, creating a word that can be read legibly from more than one angle isn’t all that easy especially when the word doesn’t have a natural line of symmetry. But that’s the real trick of a truly memorable ambigram. You can read it then when you discover you can actually read it back to front, or upside down… that’s the ‘a-ha’! moment. The ‘how’d they do that’? moment. So, here’s my first attempt at an ambigram – you be the judge of whether it has that ‘a-ha’ factor.

Ambigrams make for great coasters.

And they work equally well in reverse... isn't that the whole point?

Talking Sustainability

I was commissioned by a local organisation late last year to create an identity for a series of talks promoting sustainability. Below are three of the options submitted – each taking a different spin on the concept. The chosen design was the one with the leaf and water speech bubbles. The bird icon wound up being used in my Brand Spotter promotion – see my related post. A sign of the times – even the logos are getting recycled.

The approved logo design - leaf and water form stylised speech bubbles

The bird in full voice... too good to leave unused.

The tree microphone... might have to recycle this one someday too.

Christmas is Over, So Begins the Pre-Christmas Rush

We all knew the Christmas break would be over all too soon – and, as predicted, those relaxed days are now but a distant memory. And 2010 has begun with a mighty rush – back into the late nights and tight deadlines for another year. And I’m grateful for it. As for me and my crew, we had a fairly low key Christmas holiday, spent largely around home and doing the odd day trip away. One excursion took us to the DOC Reserve of Maud Island in the Pelorus Sound which was a great adventure – visiting a gannet colony and mussel farm along the way and seeing the largest weta you’ve ever seen. A trip to Nelson Lakes where the kids swam with eels in ice cold water filled a day while three days in Nelson had us cycling the great bike paths in that area and watching Toby compete in the Town and Country Swim Meet. Another 5 days were spent in Christchurch largely driving to and from the QEII pool complex as Toby competed in the Canterbury West Coast Swim Champs – qualifying for the Junior Nationals in the 400m Freestyle. The rest of the family spent the time with good friends the Greens, where we were staying for our time in Christchurch. We also managed to get a lot of the gardens tidied up after months of neglect which we must try to keep on top of better this year – yeah right.

This Christmas saw me do the usual computer updates and maintenance stuff that is so often pushed aside – upgrading the OS on numerous machines plus having a bit of fun with my new 17in MacBook Pro… which, together with the iPhone, has now become my office away from the office for the occasional long weekends we spend out of town. It is a real blessing being able to do my work, and earn a living from absolutely anywhere I happen to be and be in touch with clients no matter how far away from home I happen to be. The technology we have at our fingertips now is truly mindblowing – and heaps of fun.

The new year is always a busy time, trying to complete those projects that began before the Christmas break and the usual flurry of jobs preceding the local Wine Marlborough Festival. As for interesting work currently on the go… there’s an identity design for a French-based iPhone app developer, numerous wine label projects, marketing brochure for a high end wine producer, and logo designs for a construction firm, environmental engineer, landscaper and civil engineering firm to name but a few. No wonder I’m back into the late nights.

Just recently I was notified that some of my work was selected from over 5000 entries to be included in Rockport’s latest publication, Letterhead and Logo 11. These are a great series that I have had the privilege to be published in since vol. 8. Truly, to have your work alongside some of the world’s foremost talent in the logo and identity design field is pretty humbling and exciting all at the same time. Looking forward to getting my copy in the post soon.

Must mention my recent mountain bike accident too… which thankfully resulted in no broken bones. But two weeks on, the shoulder is still coming right after spraining the shoulder joint severely. While I know I need to do more to keep fit, I’m getting way to old to wreck my body like a 20′something year old… been there, done that, got that scars to prove it. Might have to take up knitting, or maybe ride a little more carefully. Certainly reminds you how fragile our pitiful lives are and what a thin line we walk between life and disaster. Was a salutory lesson for me not to take anything of this life for granted – the people especially – and be grateful that I know where I’m headed when my time is finally up on this planet.

Well, I better make an effort and get some more work done – this blog thing don’t pay the bills. Will try and be a little more regular in posting my latest work when I can remember. Below are some photos from our holidays. Roll on Christmas 2010 I say!

Toby with another haul of medals along with his closest fans

Heading out to Maud Island for our long day on the water

The weather started out fine - but was pretty choppy by day's end

The gannet colony along the way to Maud Island

Poor photo quality, but check out the massive weta. Enormous!

Swimming with the eels at Lake Rotoiti in arctic waters

Black swan under blue skies at Lake Rotoiti

One of our town's popular walks takes in the Wither Hills Farm Park

Linda seen on one of her favourite walks just a short distance from home

Join the Revolution

Our end-of-year promotion for 2006 was based around the theme of a design revolution with obvious visual references to the people’s revolution of the USSR. The ‘revolution in a tin’ comprised a two colour poster, chocolate cigar, candle and screenprinted tea towel – all calling the masses to reject poor quality design and to not rest until we are rid of this blight on the visual landscape. This design was featured in the excellent Russian design publication KAK as part of their focus on self promotions from around the world. For those design studios wanting to invigorate the troops to new heights of creativity copies of the two colour poster are still available for purchase for just $5 plus postage. For your personally signed copy email me at lloydgraphics@xtra.co.nz

The revolution in a tin - 2006's end of year promotion.