We’ve just finished this logo design that will form part of an overarching brand identity for The Medjool Date Company. We will also be designing their packaging and building an e-commerce website a little later this year.
London I Cars is a taxi firm that wanted to freshen up its image and move towards looking more professional while giving the (accurate) impression that their service is both high quality and affordable. We set to work creating a simple iconic logo that combines the company initials into a form that hints at a passenger sitting in a comfortable seat:
We went on to create various marketing materials, and we should be taking on a re-design and re-build of their current website sometime in the near future.
TAQA Global have a popular mountaineering & walking club which many members of the company belong to. Stephen Salter from TAQA contacted us two weeks ago enquiring about an emblem style logo for the club. The TAQA Mountaineering & Walking Club run all kinds of outdoor activities, so we discussed a traditional shield based emblem depicting the various activities in each of its four corners. Then we set to work and created a design using the TAQA colour scheme that the members of the club are really happy with.
Watch this space for a photo or two of the club’s members wearing their new shirts featuring an embroidered incarnation of the logo.
We are very excited to announce our biggest ongoing project yet: a multilingual (English & Arabic) magazine available in print and online called Education Gateway. We have worked closely with Prime Education Consultancy to create a brand, a magazine and a website with the purpose of helping Libyan students and young professionals further their education and professional careers.
This is one of our most unusual briefs to date, partly due to the challenges of creating a bilingual magazine featuring English and Arabic content side-by-side – it involved a lot of research and a definite step outside of the comfort zone – however, with four issues now under our belts we feel confident dealing with Arabic, and well equipped to work on multilingual projects in future. In the initial stages of research many questions came up, for example:
Through research, development and trial and improvement, we overcame all of these challenges, and are proud to say that the first issue of the magazine was very well received, with an estimated readership of around 6,000 and more online, and those figures look to be increasing in the more recent issues.
The bilingual website has now been officially launched, and we are in the process of developing and optimising it further.
Issue 1 of the magazine is now available on Issuu, Newsstand, in PDF form and in print.
Please take a look, and feel free to comment both here and on the Education Gateway website!
For a long time I found it difficult to set prices for my work. I would struggle with the idea of something like a logo design having a fixed price. How could I go about designing a logo for £95, for example, when some logos would surely take longer than others? Through experience, the answer eventually came, but only after some trial and improvement. I realised that the pricing of my services was a problem, and I could approach it with the same process I had been using for design itself, which at the time was something like this:
So, the first idea I had was to do this:
Looking back, it is clear that this was a needlessly convoluted way of doing things! The model often worked fine, but it definitely put one or two clients off. I asked myself how I would feel knowing that the amount I would have to pay for a service could be anything between say £500 and £1000, and if I had to condense the answer down to one word, it would be “uncomfortable”. So, having identified the pitfalls of my solution, I decided to come up with a better way – a way that would be better both for me and for the client, and I have been happily using the same system for years now, not just for logo designs but for a lot of my work. My new process is much easier for clients to understand, and is easier for me to manage. Here’s how it works, using a logo design as an example:
I am not claiming to have invented this method – it turns out this is a fairly standard way of doing things, but I got there independently through an effort to find a better way. Clients are always happy with this model – they understand the responsibility they have to communicate clearly what they want, and in cases where the client does want further development they are always happy to pay extra. It’s all about having clear parameters agreed at the start. Frustration and discomfort are completely avoided from both sides – I am happy and I end up with very happy clients. In fact since adopting this system I believe I have been able to provide better value for money.
Clients are aware they need to be clear with their brief so that the design time doesn’t run over what is achievable for the agreed price, and they are reminded at the stage when they only have one more chance to give feedback and request amendments. To give you an idea what all this process looks like, here’s a recent example showing the steps I took in creating the Aria Luxury Villas logo for £95:
In this example I actually provided four initial designs, my client then picked one they liked and I developed it on from there until we reached a final design. This is what Chiara, my contact at Aria, said about the work:
Henry is a quick, creative, patient and intuitive professional. Working with him was easy, pleasant and fully satisfactory. I highly recommend him!
So, that’s how I go about designing a logo for £95. It should be noted that a ‘traditional’ logo design process would take much longer, and cost much more than this. I have created logos that cost ten times as much and involve months of research, testing and validation, but for many people that’s just not possible or necessary.
A very quick post today as I’m about to leave to meet with York Associates to demonstrate my concept for an interesting and unusual brochure!
Here’s a vintage style logo I’ve just finished for a niche lighting company, Dowsing & Reynolds:
A classic case of ‘less is more’, I feel! I’ve had feedback from people saying it looks like it belongs on a 1950s tractor or radio, which I’m quite happy about because I think that fits perfectly with the desired image of the company!
Gemma Lancaster is a hugely motivational personal trainer with a proven track record (pun intended) who wanted to give herself a professional, minimalist identity ahead of launching her new business, 100% Physical Training. Of course, I was more than happy to oblige, and Gemma is now the very happy owner of a brand new logo:
Gemma runs boot camps and group sessions, and can offer you one-to-one personal training, circuit training, marathon training and nutritional advice.
100% commitment, 100% motivation, 100% dedication is what every client will get from me, which in turn equals 100% RESULTS!
– Gemma Lancaster
I know Gemma is extremely good at what she does, but don’t just take my word for it, visit her Facebook page and read some of her testimonials from fit and happy customers!
When I’m not busy designing things or making music I am partial to a spot of climbing. It’s always a real pleasure when I’m asked to design something that relates to a passion, so when the Mountaineering Club of Bury asked me if I’d design their new tees I didn’t hesitate for one moment.
This was a really fun tee design, and probably my best yet. The 3D extruded lettering on the front is incorporated into a simple illustration of some of the activities you can get involved in, and on the back there’s a more straightforward ‘flat’ logo and slogan:
Another baker has chosen Instadesign! Here’s the scalable vector logo we created for Coolfin Organic Bakery, and watch out for a website, stationery and social media presence.
What, or who, is a Patchy Warrior, you may ask – or, if you have heroic textile tendencies yourself, you may have guessed it: Patchy Warrior, aka Ursula Christie, is a Glasgow based master seamstress specialising in premium quality, custom made patchwork. And we are the ones proudly stitching together an identity and website to promote her wares. Here’s the logo, website to follow shortly!
