OCS repeat business

Hot on the heels of the last Howabout blog comes the good news that we (and by we, I mean myself, Tim Moat and Richard Spencer) have been asked to work on this coming year's OCS annual report. Last year's report was sufficiently well received for us to be invited to design the 2012 issue without the necessity of going through the pitch process. Great news indeed and a wonderful start to 2012!

By way of a reminder, here are some pages and spreads from the 2011 issue - do feel free to click on the images to get a bigger version of these thumbnails by the way.

Anyway, it's just a reminder of the quality of graphic design work available to the good folk of Harrogate, Yorkshire and beyond, should you choose to use us.

Please click on the link below to see further examples of my work.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk

Or call me on 07811 467336.

Gruff Rhys

Attached is a poster I did (not for commission or anything, just because I wanted to) as a kind of homage to Gruff Rhys (he of Super Furry Animals) and in particular to the great gig he did back in July 2011 at the Harrogate Theatre.

The image of Gruff himself began as an illustration taken from one of his 'Hotel Shampoo' press pictures, although I wanted to change the hairdryer that he originally holds for something that is unequivocally Harrogate. Hence the Betty's teacup. Because of the rather unpredictable and off-the-wall nature of his gig, I wanted a font that was also a bit different and I quite liked the odd, handmade nature of the these ones.

It was a really enjoyable bit of design to work on, and I do love gig posters - I mean proper, artistically driven ones for individual gigs, rather than mass produced, available-anywhere ones. You rarely see them in the UK, certainly not to the extent that some venues in the US do (Fillmore in San Fransisco for instance). There is a Bristol based company called Jacknife that does some great ones http://www.jacknifeposters.co.uk/, in fact I own a limited edition print they did of Blur's Glastonbury gig from 2009. If anyone knows of other UK based artists that create them, I'd be interested to hear more.

Please click on the link below to see further examples of my work.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk

Happy New Year

Hello and happy new year to one and all. I hope everyone had a great break - I know I did, although it was interspersed with work (no bad thing). I really would have preferred last years snow and freezing temperatures to this years mild, wet and windy conditions mind. Ah well...

Shown here is a logo I designed for Acceleris in Harrogate for the Leeds Community Stars Awards 2012 campaign.

Residents across Leeds are being encouraged to nominate individuals and successful community projects for the Leeds Community Stars Awards 2012. The awards run by Aire Valley, West North West and East North East Homes along with Belle Isle Tenant Management Organisation, will acknowledge achievements in categories including Resident of the Year, Best Community Initiative and Most Innovative Project.

I'm really pleased with the end result - it's fairly simple, yet punchy but has a tone that is friendly yet striking. I deliberately reduced the intensity of the black typography to a strong grey, as it makes the font less dense and dead looking. A little bit of bevelling on the star lifts it from the background too and adds an extra dimension to the overall logo.

Here's to a prosperous 2012, with plenty of cheer (and graphic design work) ahead. All the best to everyone.

(Oh, as far as music goes, I'm loving The Leisure Society's 'Into the Murky Water' album. Lovely stuff, I'd recommend it...)

Please click on the link below to see further examples of my work.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk

Cars and Christmas

Clive Sutton postcard for
Top Gear Live 2011 (London)

Morning all.

I can't believe Christmas is almost upon us and 2012 is just around the corner. 2011 has been a really good year and I've worked on some great graphic design projects for clients in Harrogate, York, Leeds, London and Surrey. In fact, as the year has progressed, Howabout Creative Solutions have been getting busier and busier, which is testament to the quality of work produced.

With that in mind, here are a couple of recent projects, the first of which is a postcard designed for Clive Sutton for their stand at the Top Gear Live 2011 show in London. The double sided postcard highlights some of the services offered by Clive Sutton, and is a very image led design (and brand led) design that looks visually appealing.

Item number two is a direct mailer for York Test Laboratories in York. The theme was a festive one, without being to twee and clichéd and while we chose the wrapped-up present concept, I think we did it in such a way as to be different and eye-catching. As ever with these direct mailers, space has to be left at the top left for name and address details to be inserted.

York Test Laboratories December direct mailer

The start of 2012 is already looking quite promising with projects that seem set to go ahead in January and beyond, but with a busy couple of weeks before Christmas it's time for me to knuckle down and get creative, so tunes on (The Jezabels), InDesign launched, and here we go...

Please click on the link below to see further examples of my work.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk

Focus and fruit

Solace Focus, November 2011 issue

Hello from Howabout Towers.

Here are a two recent projects I have been working on. The first one is a quarterly pdf magazine for the 'Society of Local Authority Chief Executives and Senior Managers'. It's quite a nice publication to work on, although the content is fairly dry and there isn't a huge amount of opportunity to be creative with images. It's very much information driven - clean and concise with an easy navigation system and external email and web links. It usually runs to between 45 and 60 pages and has a relatively quick turnaround time. The supplied copy is written to a fairly polished standard, so text amends after design has begun are pretty light, and that obviously helps immensely with the whole process.

YorkTest Laboratories direct mailer

The second project is for YorkTest Laboratories, for who I do a lot of design work. Featured here is the latest direct mailer, aimed at customers who have taken an initial food intolerance test but can now go into more detail with a second test and find out which foods specifically they are reacting to.

As ever with YorkTest design briefs, there is good potential to mix some nice typography with great images of food and drink. It's sometimes tempting to use multiple food images as there is a whole array of ingredients that are tested, but on this occasion I thought it would be good to focus on just one really nice image. I think the interaction between image and copy works well, and the curve of the bubbles leaves the all important space top left to include the recipients address.

Please click on the link below to see further examples of my work.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk

Photography exhibition

This is a recent graphic design project that I did for Acceleris in Harrogate for their client the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society. My brief was to design an invitation (shown below) to a wonderful photography exhibition and also the accompanying exhibition brochure (front and back cover spread, and inside spread shown above).

The Shipwrecked Mariners' Society put on the exhibition called ‘Celebrations of the Sea’ – the world’s first photography exhibition underwater featuring images of individuals whose lives are dominated by the ocean. It opened at the Sea Life Centre in Brighton on 21st October and then travels around several more Sea Life Centres through November and into December.

It was a brilliant project to be part of - not only was there the opportunity to be creative with the design of the brochure and invite, but the images from the exhibition were, of course, amazing.

The brochure briefly featured each of the people represented in the exhibition, as well as highlighting the work of the Shipwrecked Mariners' Society themselves. As they state in the introduction to the brochure...

'Celebrations of the Sea aims to honour the maritime industry’s unsung heroes. From the fishermen who brave the UK’s stormiest seas and traditional lobster pot makers who keep precious traditions alive to our most talented celebrity chefs who transform fish into some of the nations favourite dishes – all are celebrated in this unique and special photography exhibition.

'Born out of a partnership between national maritime charity the Shipwrecked Mariners’ Society and renowned underwater photographer and TV Producer Kate Westaway, the project is a celebration of those hardworking individuals who work in and around the sea.'

Without a doubt, this is my favourite graphic design project that I have worked on this year and I'm very pleased with the end result.

Please click on the link below to see further examples of my work.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk

Further OCS spreads and design banter

I have attached a couple of further spreads from the recent OCS annual report that was recently completed because, well, I'm pretty proud of that particular job so thought it was worth another shameless plug.

It has continued to be a manic few weeks on the graphic design front and I have done plenty of work in both Leeds and Harrogate as well as for clients in York and London. It certainly makes for a varied and unpredictable working week, which is great. The recent work has included collateral for the banking sector, the automotive sector, the healthcare sector and some nice work for a photography exhibition (visuals to be displayed here soon).

The only downside to this hefty workload is that I have let the blog updates slip a little, but hey, that can't be helped. On that note, I'll sign off here and get back to the next design job, as deadlines are looming.

Over and out.

Visit www.howabout.co.uk