ATTENTION MY NEW WEBSITE AND BLOG ARE UP!!!!

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I have moved my website and blog here are the new addresses:

Website: www.lukesmithdesigns.com

Blog: www.lukesmithdesigns.blogspot.com


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NSWTGDES608A_Develop A Corporate ID

Corporate ID - Paul Bateman Earthmoving

My client based corporate identity project was on a local Earthmoving Company (that just changed their name last week so that was a little frustrating to hear). The business "was" called Paul Bateman Earthmoving and they specialise in Earthmoving Equipment.

The first thing I did before even calling them was just trying to familiarise myself just a little on what companies like this do and it is a pretty straight forward business which made it easy.

The first time I contacted Paul (September 16th, due to mix up with first client) was just to ask him if it was alright to centre my assessment around his business. The current image of the company was basically no existent apart from a very sloppy sign made by a signwriter so I thought they could really use a new look. During this first call I made sure to state he didn't have to use the work so there was no pressure on his end. He sent me an example of their current stationary which also helped me understand what he would not want. Even though Paul was fine with the stationary even he admitted it could be better. The colours were to stay the same though (Dark Blue, Orange/Yellow and White). Some key questions I asked during this first call were:

How do you want your business to be perceived?
Is your current image working?
Who is your target audience?
What do you want to avoid? And what don't you want?
(And also a few other questions I didn't remember to write down!)

After the first call/email I went away to develop a few ideas from what I already knew about the business. Earthmoving equipment is very dull to most people so I thought to keep it along the lines of a "John Deere" approach and just centre everything around the colours and badge. Most of my concepts were really bold and bright which turned out too be too "intense" for Paul in his next email (25th September). So I immediately went away and made the most simple logos possible, almost embarrassingly simple to try out a technique I like using. This technique is just something I like to do after someone wants a simple idea. By making it really boring and simplistic you can really encourage someone to agree with you to add some flare. It may backfire though and could result in losing a client but since he wasn't paying me I thought it was a chance I could afford to take. After he agreed with my opinion (30th September) - it was a great outcome because it let me give the client what I thought was a better option.

Once the logo and basic style was agreed on I asked Paul which marketing materials he would prefer. There was the basic stationary of course and discussion of a poster. I pointed out to Paul that an Ad in the newspaper may be more beneficial due to his target audience who wouldn't really bother with a poster. After we agreed on this he mentioned that he was thinking of getting a website put together so I thought I could do a mock up of that as well.

The website was really simple because Paul had been looking at a rival companies website and really just wanted to follow that structure. I manipulated as much as I could without losing the basic frame of the site. I made sure to keep key elements from the stationary I had designed involved with the website.

The newspaper ad was meant to be very straight forward and to the point. With ads in the newspaper the first few seconds are your only chance to grab attention so I used a heavy dose of colour with bullet points. There is no need for anything else distracting the reader. Again the reason for the newspaper ad would be for somewhere like The Leader - really targeting his audience.

Once I finally got all of the agreed items together I sent Paul an email (23rd October) and waited over the weekend for a response. It was a very successful outcome because Paul thought it all looked "fantastic" which made me happy. Although this changed last week when he changed his business name so he won't be using the material but said if his "new" company needs an ID, he would give me a call. So in the end it worked out alright and I got some more experience dealing with clients.

My client was really good because I kept all phone calls very brief (2-3 minutes if possible) and didn't bother him too much and just listened to his suggestions. I feel you don't need to constantly go back and forth if you listen the first time that really helps make it a lot easier. But I think it was good mostly having to do with the fact I had a good client for this project.

My final items were:

Logo
Business Card
Letterhead
Newspaper Ad
Website

ICPPP324B_Create Pages Using A Page Layout Application

My three items turned out being:

1. Bistro Menu

The Bistro Menu was a straight forward concept that would revolve around creating a family atmosphere. I made sure it was very easy to read but playful as well. By looking at other menus I took what worked and utilized it. It was all illustrated in Photoshop which allowed for a little character, just enough to make the menu worth taking a look at. My type choices were safe and the body copy was kept to 9pt as just a personal preference. Other then that it was rather easy to do.





2. Inspiration Booklet

This was the hardest because of the amount of content I produced. I ended up having to cut half the pages I was hoping to do because it was way too much effort for such a small result. So I had to take my design to the essential elements which was just informing people of creative artists and how to reach them. Much white space was used to really make people read what was going on along side the work.

3. Guide to Fighting Styles

My favorite part of this project because of the style. It was to be gritty and tough but informative. Everything was to fit into the square pages which made it a little easier when modifying the type. Again I kept the body copy at 9-10 pt because I feel that it just looks very appealing.

3 Design Ideas - Typography based.

My three ideas for our current project are:

1. Large Banner - Zombie Movie Convention.

Large banners are something that I have always wanted to make because you don't get the opportunity to design them very often - well with much creative freedom. My banner will be a bold Zombie Movie Convention advertisement that uses the very cliche horror color combination of red, black and white. It will be displaying a fair amount of copy with such details as competitions, giveaways, screenings, guest speakers/stars and dates. I am using a few different sources for inspiration but mostly the look from "The House Of The Dead: Overkill". By using such a universally recognizable look for the genre, I believe it reaches the target audience well.





2. DL Flyer (Save The Environment).

3. Instruction Manual (Step by Step process, etc).

Pendleton University Products (Finished Results)

Pendleton University Products (Print Stage)

Corporate Identity Assessment: Research

My corporate ID was on a University. These establishments usually follow much of the same themes with use of shields, books, strong bold type and being very legible. I drew inspiration from these three logos mostly because of how well done they are because they are the first three I thought of when researching the identities. Making a logo was the first step and it was quite hard because I wanted it to be different to the other logos but still convey the same message. I created about 4 different logos and the one I chose to use is below:


Displayed is both the standard logo and the modified version depending on the application.

T-Shirts, Beer and Anger

The title of this post may have you think of a crazy weekend or something but it's just a few things I am going to rave on about. First of all I am happy with how my submission for "Allmighty's Connected" t shirt design contest went. I wont get into the design but a link is here, all I will say is I'm glad they liked it and maybe one day I might actually come first in a contest haha would be sweet. Second of all if you haven't seen 6 Beers of Separation by now and your a design student check it out ASAP. The guy to look for is Matt who is a graphic design student and his journey to meet Bam Margera so they can do a deck for him. I won't give it all away so you will have to watch it but I loved the journey he took and can only hope I can do that myself one day (if I had to meet someone for something like that I'd say Kanye West no doubt).

Last of all the actual board the guy produced was the last straw for me because I now have something that bugs me more than anything in graphic design. That being the use of that silly looking, ugly, tacky brush in Illustrator. Most people should know what I am referring to - it's the one that is trying to look like a brush but fails miserably. Why do I hate it most? Because it is mostly used by people who are too lazy to learn how to use the pen tool correctly. Now I'm not saying his deck design was bad (it was an awesome idea), it's just that brush makes me uncomfortable when I see it - letting the overall design down. The pen tool looks amazing and is not difficult to learn so I hope to see less of it in the future from everyone haha but the board's concept was quite funky. Congratulations to the guy though doing work for someone with such a high profile would be an amazing buzz. Anyway before I rave on too much I'm off to get creative - Luke.

Hulsbosch

Check out Hulsbosch. This is just a quick post on my favorite corporate identity at the moment: Woolworths. That logo is just perfect, the color, the style, the balance and the typeface - seriously I would hate to have to come up with the next one it's that good. Plus they also created the current Quantus logo which is impressive as well. I won't go on as I have way too much to do - Luke.

Contest/Portfolio

I have been doing everything lately to fire up some creativity and this contest is one of them. Here is a little preview of my entry so far it's only half finished but will be something appreciated by the "deep thinker". I have finally got an outline for my portfolio which is exciting too and as for class work, yeah still rolling along. Not much else to say but feeling very creatively chaotic - Luke.