Myself and the client have come to a decision about the logo design which will represent the company for years to come. We have both decided on a logo which will keep the legacy of Christine Griffin alive once Katie Starbuck carries on, and is a clever blend of the name and imagery. 

I think that the logo design will be very successful in allowing the company to grow in years to come and expand into the online market.

I was given a brief by the NSCG College group to create two simple banner designs for when their students return in the new academic year. The college wanted to create a banner for the student portal and then a banner for the staff and parent portal. They wanted me to create a design which was inkeeping with the promotional material of the college and therefore could be used to run alongside the material in the rest of the college. I drew some initial thumbnail sketches with different layout options before going into Photoshop and making the ideas come to life, find below the banner for the student portal followed by the banner for the parent/staff portal. The student banner is in the lighter orange colour which is reflected throughout the Newcastle campus and the parent/staff banner is in a darker red colour which is consistent with the colours used throughout the Stafford campus. 

I was recently commissioned at short notice to create a logo to portray the identity of "Anomalie", a start-up promotions firm based in Stoke-on-Trent. The idea behind the logo was to lower the o to make it an anomaly in it's own respect, and also showing how the promotions company can help their clients stand out from the crowd, due to it being lower than the rest of the line of text.

I've created a simple mockup for this post to show how the company will use the logo on its signage.

At the moment I'm waiting for feedback from Christine Griffin and her daughter and business partner Katie Starbuck. I presented three identity design ideas to them and they can't come to a decision between two of the designs with regards to which one they want to move forward with. Until they get back to me with their decision, at the moment I'm playing a waiting game.

With regards to my 5 year plan project, I'm currently in the process of creating a timeline of Graphic Design. Due to me wanting to pursue a career in graphic design, specifically the area of identity design, it's important for me to consider it's origins and how the practice has changed over time and the necessary skillsets needed for the job have also changed. From the very beginning with the cave paintings in Southern France to more recent history with the development of Adobe Photoshop, which revolutionised the way Graphic Designers worked. I want to make sure this timeline is very good looking as well as informative, so I'll be spending a lot of time on the design aspect.

I visited Morrisons yesterday, and whilst looking through the aisles something grabbed my attention! I noticed a large white box with nothing but the minimum in terms of text. This packaging done by Morrisons is obviously a way of demonstrating that the product is from the savers' range, with even the ink being saved on! Even though the box features almost no design aspects, it instantly stood out amongst the flashy boxes of Kellogg's and their competitors. The box certainly did it's job in terms of standing out and certainly grabbed my attention, the sans-serif typeface is perfect for this job.

However, the design of the box itself is not actually that great. The "savers" near the Morrisons logo looks crammed in, which is ironic on a box full of white space, with the spacing being very uneven vertically. Also, I don't see why the 'bran flakes' is in bold, surely it should be the other way around?

I think that Morrisons has done a good job of thinking about how they can grab consumers' attentions on a shelf full of almost identical looking products, and this certainly did. However, the little design that they did feature wasn't that great and let the concept down.

As part of one of the last units of my HNC course, I have been tasked with creating a five year plan which outlines where I want to be in five years and stating what I want to do in the time leading up to that point. 
When starting out on this five year plan I jumped right into making my powerpoint, rather than carrying out the necessary research. It seems like I've focussed more on the Christine Griffin project and seemingly forgot that this five year plan project was indeed a college project and therefore needed to be treated as such. 
So for now it's back to the drawing board.

The third concept I have created for Christine Griffin does in fact not involve the two colour scheme like the previous two, instead it involves one colour and negative space which serves a purpose in demonstrating an image. This logo is based around the family values which were highlighted in my meetings with Christine, which I hope will therefore be able to demonstrate the core values of the company through it's identity.

Stay tuned for a post-meeting update.

At the moment I'm in the process of putting together a small PDF document which will outline the corporate identity for Christine Griffin. I want the presentation to be able to show off the identity options in real-life scenarios, similar to the Malt Market presentation. It's stressful compiling the results from my research but I know that it will help put Christine and my own's mind at ease when it comes to providing evidence for the choices I've made.