Brenton lives in my home town of Newcastle and was considering starting something small and boutique in his field.

Architecture is an industry I find interesting. It somehow fuses the creative and corporate worlds to form something so tangible and physical, despite the creative and corporate spaces being so inherently intangible. With this fusion in mind I worked up a modern monogram using the BP initials and BPA acronym.

First impressions count. The visual identity had to be corporate enough to look professional - not just to Brenton's potential clients, but Government departments and councils - and yet it still needed to be recognisable as creative and as outside-of-the-box as Brenton is. 

I used the green accent because it is suggestive of the natural world, and eco focus of architecture these days. I also wanted to give a sense of authority and professionalism to the design, throwing back to the old days when documents were sealed and sown. 

These elements combine to build an identity that could stand alone,  have application online, and still look great throughout the necessary paperwork of a typical office environment.
 

At OzSale, our Director of Digital Marketing, Jim Lees, is a pretty cool guy. In 2015 he briefed me to develop a label for his IPA home brew, marketed as 'Rutlanshire Brewers Guild'. Jim's English. From Rutland... hence the name. 

The brief was to create something nostalgic, throwing back not only to Jim's English roots, but the English roots of IPA itself. Challenge accepted.

In terms of process, I began with research. I learnt that Jim's hometown has a county flag. The flag contains a golden horseshoe and a varying number of golden acorns set on a solid emerald green background. I moved on to the county motto - "much in little".  smallest county in England.

This motto (in combination with the 'nostalgic' brief) lead me to maintain a more detailed, but still balanced look and feel, conceptualising Rutlanshire in the branding using the horse shoe elements. Funny enough, hops actually look like acorns too, so I worked in the stylised wheat chaffs around the acorn lock up.

I also learnt that, historically, Indian Pale Ale is not actually Indian... IPAs started life as 'tweaked' UK beers designed to survive 6 month's sailing to India for the British colonists there. Using this as a basis I decided to include an illustration of a tall ship, set in a deep maroon colour as a link to the IPA's dark amber tone. I wanted the label to correspond with the logo fluidly, but still retain enough flexibility that if Jim wanted to expand his brewing operations to other beer varieties, we could easily make enough distinction in the future labels. This would simply involve altering key imagery and corresponding colour selections. 

Needless to say, Jim was stoked.

Montana is a gem.

She is a wedding photographer by trade, and her little photography business is really taking off.

I've known Montana for a while, so she had seen a lot of my 'doodles' and illustrations lying around. 

Her brief was as lovely as she is. She asked me to illustrate a stylised picture of her and her camera to use on her website and other pieces of branding... in 'my style'.  

While I adopted my usual strong line work as she had requested, I also wanted to make sure the image captured her energy and natural style. I felt like it was important for brides and grooms to be to get a sense of, not only her skills, but how easy she would be to have there on the day. To achieve this, I played with a varying array of line widths... more than my actual 'style' in the end!

Check it out on: www.montanawilsonphotography.com  

Get it? Bakery... Bake Array... ahh.

Bake Array is a personal project of mine... somewhat of a dream or flight of fantasy.

Bake Array exists as an unusual fusion of multiple business ideas. Bake Array Creâtisserie would embody both the relaxed and casual character of a small bakery and also function as a design business.

...bribing people for work is definitely illegal... but...
...using baked goods instead could work just as well.

Self taught in Photoshop from an early age, It became a valuable resource to express my imagination at the time. An ability to effectively fabricate a reality in a 2D space takes a particular eye for detail and a certain application of techniques. 

In the fast paced world of online retail it's easy to let design fall by the wayside...but I pride myself on hitting the deadline AND filtering the most important details to create a successful, on-brief, brand focused composition.

In my freelance work, I am somehow a wedding invitation magnet. I suspect it has something to do with my darling wife's obsession with all things weddings, mixed with her ability to offer up my services to anyone who will listen.

I hesitated before including these projects in my portfolio - largely because I find every wedding project a true lesson in design compromise.

In terms of client process, I think wedding invitations and related creative collatoral are the most challenging. Every bride I've met has a very specific 'vision' and is very wedded to that vision. That vision is often based on a Pinterest board, bridal magazine or Google image search. Some visions are difficult to realise in a way that stays true to my creative style, or even the basics of good design, but hey - that's our world sometimes. You don't only get to only do what you want to do.

These examples perhaps aren't the most reflective of my creative ability... but I can guarantee you that they are all reflective of my ability to work with a client to give them what they want... 

Despite any personal compromise - nothing really beats a big smile and genuine thank you from a happy bride to be!

Typography isn't for everyone. Taking the time to survey through endless fonts to find the perfect one...meticulously adjusting point size, kerning, spacing and alignment. But, then again, there's nothing like creating and designing new lettering or deconstructing the anatomy of an existing font to suit.

Here is a handful of examples of my most recent lettering and font creation work...

My family has always said I was born with a crayon in my hand... when life gets a bit stressful there's always time to schedule 'drawing time' in my diary... I love illustration.

Here is a snapshot of my most recent personal projects and illustrations.