Category: Graphic Design

The art of patience: mastering time for better creative thinking

February 14, 2024

Creative thinking in a Birmingham graphic design studio

Have you ever felt that rush of excitement when you’re handed a new design brief? That sense of eager anticipation mixed with a dash of creative anxiety as you ponder over where to begin? If...

It’s a wrap.

June 24, 2022

JBC-Skills-Banner-stand-design and print

This year we’ve been able to get back to designing for actual ‘live’ events, with exhibitions starting to make a come-back after ‘you know what’. It’s been great...

Joomla 4 – how to get rid of index.php from your URLs

February 22, 2022

Hand pointing to URL that has been rewritten by Joomla

I’ve just started using Joomla 4 for some new websites and it’s just as easy to use as the older versions. Some things are a bit unexpected, but basically it’s the same as before...

What running a Sutton Coldfield design studio & brand consultancy taught me

May 22, 2021

It started with some short cuts… Everybody has different paths to their chosen career. And everyone will have different experiences with self-development professionally and personally. Education...

A Graphic design studio and a brand consultancy – what’s the difference ?

May 13, 2021

Ever wondered what the difference is between working with a studio or a consultancy? You may be looking for a local partner to help you with your new website. Or you are a start-up with a vision, but...

Let’s talk fibres

April 13, 2021

Your brand connects with your customers in many different ways. Some call it touch points, but simply-put it’s all the varied ways someone will come across your brand in the mind, online and...

Your web tech wrapped up

March 19, 2021

It’s geeky time again! Let’s talk web tech… If you have a website, you probably know there’s a lot more to the site itself. My clients won’t notice most of these extra things to think about when...

Tech, branding and ducks

November 22, 2020

I just mentioned a paragraph I have in our brand strategy workbook to my other half, techy Steve, and he taught me yet another new thing. Duck typing! (“Duck typing in computer programming is an application...

Brand Strategy, programming

What is a logo?

November 12, 2020

A brand is not a logo. A logo is not a brand. “A logo is the gateway to the brand.”Milton Glaser Weirdly, in some ways the brand used to be a logo. Going back to the origins of branding, when...

logo

What is an aperture

November 1, 2020

Both in photography and in typography, the aperture describes an opening. In cameras, its size correlates with how much light goes in. In typography, it’s closely related to what’s called a counter. As...

anatomy of type

Serif Typefaces and their lesser-known sub classes

October 25, 2020

A serif is not a serif, so there are sub categories, pointing to the origin of each class. Serifs can be categorised as Venetian, Old Style (Geralde), Transitional, New Transitional, Modern, Slab Serif...

serif fonts

Colours, colours, colours

October 7, 2020

Fast becoming one of my favourite colour palette sites is http://colormind.io (Yes, they should have an ssl certificate, but I don’t think they will steal your date – you can just use it...

SVG files and Joomla – a workaround

June 22, 2020

SVGs are super exciting especially if you are working with platforms that allow animating strokes and controlling the svg file with css. It’s also really convenient to have super sharp logos...

joomla, svg, web development

A little trick when you hit a locked installer in Akeeba

June 10, 2020

If you ever need to restore a backup with Akeeba Kickstart, follow their documentation video from their website and before you click ‘run the installer’, read this: If you have ever...

unlock

Screen caps magic

June 5, 2020

Whether you are trying to put together a presentation or you want to share a bit of news in an email – or you are trying to present some creative work to a client – screen caps are super useful to...

screen cap, shortcuts

First day on the bus

June 2, 2020
1 Comment on First day on the bus

I’ve just received some lovely photos from the school bus’ first trip to Mukwashi Trust School. All the kids are wearing masks because of the covid crisis, but they have a place to go to...

charity, graphic design, signage, vehicle design

A shortcut to building bridges

June 1, 2020

When you are in photoshop and want to just quickly open bridge to look at a bunch of pictures you may want to use, it’s a little shortcut that comes in handy: Command + Shift + O. It’s...

bridge, shortcuts

How to add free apple fonts

May 28, 2020

Apple has released more free fonts as part of Catalina. You can see the complete list of fonts to download here: https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210192 When you get to your FontBook app and...

Apple, Catalina, free fonts

How to lock down documents

March 20, 2020

Amidst the current corona crisis, one of my clients needed a quick fix to communicate some potentially scary documents with their staff without alerting the public, and they didn’t have an intranet. We...

coronacrisis, workarounds

What is a masterpage in PowerPoint?

February 27, 2020

It’s also called a slide master in Microsoft PowerPoint, and it’s basically the slide that sits above all the other slides and as such it controls the visual elements of the theme, such...

master pages, master slide, PowerPoint

How do I create a new blank presentation in PowerPoint

February 27, 2020

Press CTRL + N 😊 This short cut also works in most other adobe and Microsoft software – Word, Excel, Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop etc…

PowerPoint

A new website for Interior Designer James Charles

February 28, 2019

James contacted us with the need for a new website, initially featuring his past successes, soon to be enhanced with his current projects in the world of architecture and design. James has been...

New brand identity for Hemp’s CBD Oils

February 28, 2019

Just finished – a new brand identity for natural food supplement business Hemp’s CBD Oils. This has been a great project to work on, not just because I know the client from other projects...

Stonebridge Talent Branding

October 16, 2018

September has been a really productive and busy month – perhaps businesses are getting their ducks lined up for the winter months or perhaps it’s a general vibe of wanting to get things done after...

Luxury Holidays in the UK – Can I book now please?!

September 10, 2018

We’ve been working with Luxury Vacations for more than 12 years now – rather shocking how time flies! The team have always been amazing in a graphic design sense, appreciating and demanding good...

Brochure Design

Layers of Deception

July 15, 2018

This has been a great project. We’ve been working with Leo James, a UK crime author, to create his latest book cover design for his crime thriller Layers of Deception. We created a ‘layered’...

book design, graphic design