Business cards

Branding can often be a complicated affair. Not only do you need to take into account the style and product of the client but also the client’s target audience. The ultimate goal of a simple design that is easily understood yet gives the viewer a depth of information at a glance, is notoriously difficult. Finally the icing on the cake, is the brand memorable?

 

For the particular card I wanted to create a sense of history and mystery. This is because the product, although modern, draws from hundreds of years of tradition.

Colouring and font are purposely kept simple and easy to read, the hint of an image should intrigue the viewer into having a closer look. The viewer may flip the card to see if the image is actually on the back. The image however is not on the back but within, only holding the card up to light will reveal the image.

I have blanket out address and contact details on the photos. In the future I hope to create a simple website in a similar style.

What do you do in the train?

On a chockablock train one is likely to see people reading books, playing games, using phones, talking loudly and more often then not, making passes. Rarely however do I see people drawing. Until recently the odd glances I got when drawing made my notepad shy away, yet I have learnt that by focusing on the drawing I am able to shut out the world and speed up the passage of time. Give it a try!

Armed with my empty Muji diary and a long train journey; I started to think about fonts and different ways to represent text. I've found a really cool magazine in Japan called +81 that focuses on graphic design, layout and text, and it has inspired my to experiment.

Some fonts have the ability to slow down the reader making them dwell on key words whilst others, can have the effect of leading the viewer. Layout and font may be limitless however the fine line between tacky and cool is Hazardous. At university I remember everyone being scared to use anything other than Times or Arial. I'm unsure on the effect my diary fonts have, if any. But I'd love some feedback!

Happy 2012

Happy year of the Dragon! Finally after sketch upon sketch the dragon nengajo is complete. I hope that I was able to send you one, if not I still wish you the best of luck in 2012 and if you send me your address you will definitely receive a 2013 nengajo in the post. I’ve been using the second image as my laptop background, so go ahead and use it too; it might bring you some good fortune.

I’ll leave you to contemplate these Chinese proverbs…

The dragon teaches you that if you want to climb high you have to do it against the wind.

To attract good fortune, spend a new coin on an old friend, share an old pleasure with a new friend, and lift up the heart of a true friend by writing his name on the wings of a dragon.

And last but not least

He who wants to be a dragon must eat many little snakes.

Happy snake eating!

Nengajo

As it is coming to the end of the year, and I haven't posted anything for a while. I thought I should post some Nengajo (Japanese New Year Postcards). These cards were made mostly in Illustrator. The rabbit is from this year and the cat is from last year. Seeing as 2012 is the year of the dragon, I have been working on something cool, and this time round I'm having ago at a hand drawn picture. Come back before the years out, to check it out.

Serengeti Bird Visual

Some very old Max work, in fact possibly my first attempt. During the first summer of university, to encourage us to become proficient at max we were asked to design and create a bird. The presentation was made with photos, Photoshop, Illustrator and of course 3DSmax.   

New Jane Packer

Recently I have been working on an old project that never really got finished. You can see some Jane Packer branding work here; http://christopherwilliamcook.blogspot.com/2011/05/jane-packer-branding.html.

As a new project I am attempting an interior design for her flagship store in London. The original brief required the use of Corian; a resign based material that has antibacterial and easy clean properties. The concept just like that of the branding revolves around memories and photography. The window display will have large lenses focused on flowers and outline with circular ornamental frames... you'll have to wait for the 3D visuals, I'm onto it!

 

The paper size is A0 so you will have to zoom in to see the proper resolution.

Miller Harris at Ab Rogers

Miller Harris is a world famous brand of perfume with store all over the word. The website can be found at this address www.millerharris.com. The brand was designed by the wonderful Asuka Kawabata (www.tokyobranch.jp) This model represents a stand that will sell perfume within the cosmetic section of department stores. It was designed at Ab Rogers (www.abrogers.com) and I was asked to make this model out of card and acrylic.