"The best brochure I have ever had designed."

What a successful and enjoyable graphic design project I have just completed for YorkTest Laboratories in York. I was asked to design a guidebook (page samples above) and diary (page samples below) for their DrinkScan programme, which helps to establish whether customers are intolerant to various ingredients in drinks. Obviously they needed to have the same theme running throughout to make it clear they were sister publications and as the subject matter was drinks, I decided to use a nice, clinical image of clear water as an striking cover (which also reflected the tone of the DrinkScan logo nicely).

The turnaround on the job was very fast - just under a week from the initial brief being taken to print ready artwork being delivered for printing. Not bad for one 16 page A5 document, and one 28 page A5 document. But even better was the feedback from Laura Seaton, Senior Project Manager at YorkTest Laboratories...

"I have been working in marketing for 13 years and it is the best looking brochure I have ever had designed."

Praise indeed!

















The graphic design process was helped by virtually faultless copy being supplied by the client, and we selected a nice array of images to work with (although we padded them out with some additional ones from my archives that I thought would work well). I think it's a great example of the quality of design work that can be produced by Howabout Creative Solutions even when time is of the essence.

We now have a little more time to produce a DL size sales brochure to accompany the diary and guidebook, which again will follow the same theme, so the end result will be a really nice suite of publications.

I really hope to get more projects along these lines as I love doing them, and when I get feedback such as this from clients, the buzz is amazing. Check out my website for further work - the link is below.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk

Wales, Led Zeppelin and art.

Good Monday morning all. I'm back in front of the Mac after a weeks camping in mid Wales. It was awesome despite the mostly rainy weather - a nice mix of culture and campfires, beaches and barbeques, nature and nonsense.

I was pleasantly surprised to find we were camping just a stone's throw from Bron Yr Aur - the cottage made famous by Jimmy Page and Robert Plant of Led Zeppelin and where they wrote much of 'Led Zeppelin III' and various other tracks that appeared on 'Houses of the Holy' and 'Physical Graffiti'. Of course I had to play the song 'Bron Yr Aur' on my iPod while standing round the campfire (on more than one occasion actually), in homage to one of the greatest bands of all time.

We made a visit to the Museum of Modern Art in Machynlleth too (http://www.momawales.org.uk/) which is a fab place. As well as featuring a wonderful exhibition of paintings by Matthew Wood, the place was also gearing up for the Machynlleth Festival and our visit coincided with some great folk music from Chile, which my daughter adored and (rightly so) insisted we stop and listen to a while.

The Centre for Alternative Technology (http://www.cat.org.uk/) was another inspiring place to visit. It's one of those places where, as well as the expected green and eco-friendly solutions for sustainable living that are on display, you will stumble on nice, quirky pieces of design such as slabs of slate featuring typography and carved elements of trees; sculptures of hares out-running a fox; and living-willow tunnels for kids to dash through. I would love to return (and I would love it not to be raining when I do!).

Aberdyfi is gorgeous, the mountains amazing, the sandy beaches fun-filled and the wildlife spectacular. For now it's back to designing and creating though...

Visit www.howabout.co.uk