Design Pinboard

Alice in Wonderland

cornishstar — Tue, 07 Feb 2012 22:48:56 +0000

While researching ideas for an Alice in Wonderland book cover for a new project, I came across these wonderful photographs by Elena Kalis. They have such a magical quality. This treatment allows Elena to recreate the dreamlike fantasy of Alice and the weird and wonderful story that unfolds around her. This shot would be a fantastic book cover.

Free Fonts

cornishstar — Mon, 23 Jan 2012 13:16:54 +0000

For Designers, I’ve found a great website for free fonts. Font squirrel have made a selection of some well cut fonts which you can use for commercial use. http://www.fontsquirrel.com

ThirtyFifty – A web tasting experience

cornishstar — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 13:04:32 +0000

http://www.thirtyfifty.co.uk

ThirtyFifty is a successful, locally based wine tasting company. Way back in January 2011 we started on new concepts for a new visual identity and website which had been developed some years prior to my involvement. Jane and Chris didn’t feel like their old logo or the website were doing them any favours. Neither the logo or the home page design engaged potential clients or revealed a great deal about the company’s character or the vibrance of the wine tasting business.

The success of a wine tasting business is really going to come down to the experience it delivers. This should not only be on the day of the presentation but right from the moment the client sees the website. ThirtyFifty wanted to present themselves as providing fun and informal wine tasting classes and presentations, counter balanced with a solid educational foundation. So the new site has a brochure front end which covers the types of courses available, venues and the process of booking and the second half is all about the wine industry covering news, facts, interviews, book reviews, wine knowledge and podcasts. The free wine knowledge available on the site is extensive. Chris Scott delivers the UK Wine Show Podcast every week, interviewing people involved in the industry. You could say, Chris makes the wine industry his business in every sense.

We went through three stages of development for the ID before we were all happy with the mark, the tag line and the colour palette. A small research panel were involved in the decision to write the name in full as opposed to using numerals. And as far as creating an original and distinguishable mark for the company writing the name in full differentiates ThirtyFifty from competitors in the market place.

Once we had a visual identity we could run it out onto the website, favicon, information sheets, stationery and gift vouchers.

Client Feedback

cornishstar — Fri, 02 Dec 2011 12:26:35 +0000

Danceforce Website comments:
I have received so many compliments from customers on my lovely new website. Stella has designed a beautiful site which is user friendly and inviting to look at. She provided a friendly, efficient service and I am very pleased with the result.

Carol Winter

Danceforce Kingston goes live

cornishstar — Thu, 24 Nov 2011 13:12:49 +0000

The Danceforce Website is live http://www.danceforcekingston.com

Promotional postcards produced to publicise the new site will be given out to new and existing students at the school. Site Designed by Creative Communication, built by Andrew Heaps and Photography by Roger Brown.

Danceforce

cornishstar — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 11:11:13 +0000

Danceforce is a successful dance academy in Kingston. We started talking about the new site early in the year and will soon be ready to launch.

The team
As usual I have had a great team working with me, Andrew Heaps as web developer for the site and Roger Brown Photography, a friend of Principal Carol Winter.

Roger Brown has a background as an editorial photographer working for publications such as The Times, The Telegraph Magazine and Italian Grazia. Roger also offers a fresh and contemporary approach to wedding photography with the emphasis on capturing those spontaneous moments that can be so often missed with more traditional styles of photography.

Andrew Heaps has over ten years of professional experience in new media and has built up an enviable client list. He’s not only a skilled web developer but a designer too. Find out more on Andrew here.

The project
Most other dance websites are often black with bright splashes of colour or pale pink throughout. In contrast Carol and I wanted to go for a calm, light flooded feel reflecting the elegance of ballet and modern dance. Carol’s purple Danceforce logo lead the direction for our colour palette so we used Tiffany blue as a contrast. In contrast to other competitor websites, information is clear to see and easy to navigate to.

The site will be updated using Dreamweaver and Contribute. Contribute CMS will handle the pages which need weekly updates, the rest of the site will remain static but could easily be updated using Contribute later in the day. There is a good overview showing how Dreamweaver and Contribute work together. The client can not only edit but create new pages using Dreamweaver Templates in Contribute. See: Kyle Thompson Adobe: Using Dreamweaver Templates in Adobe Contribute

Elegant social media icons

cornishstar — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 13:18:13 +0000

Needing a quick icon for a Facebook link I did a quick search for free social media icon files. I like this set: click here from ElegantThemes Blog which is a free to download set with no restrictions. Hope you also find it useful.

A Little Tipple

cornishstar — Wed, 08 Jun 2011 15:12:00 +0000

I’ve been working with Thirty Fifty on a new corporate identity and website. We started in January this year and have looked at a variety of options for the logo, branding and website. I think we are close enough to final delivery to show a small preview.

Squidfingers Patterns

cornishstar — Fri, 27 May 2011 12:00:32 +0000

For some really useful website background designs visit http://www.squidfingers.com

Monica Boxley Website

cornishstar — Mon, 14 Mar 2011 16:57:59 +0000

Here are some initial concepts for the Monica Boxley Website. Monica’s pieces are as individual as she is herself and they have a modern contemporary feel but with a nod towards vintage heritage. Her shop is also quite an eclectic mix of jewelery, vintage dresses and accessories – you could spend ages in there just looking at all the lovely stuff. So the look for the branding had to reflect the mix of old and new, old photographs and vintage fabrics with the use of contemporary fashion photographs to bring it right up to date. My concept derives from the idea of a little treasure trove – lots of little photos layered over each other, jewellery layered on that where appropriate, as if part of a secret collection of treasured items. I think it has the right feel so we’ll see where we go from here.

Update: The final website launched in November 2011 reflects my original concepts but was completed by the clients original design agency.

http://www.monicboxley.co.uk