Andy Whitaker

Happy New Year

andywhitaker — Tue, 12 Jan 2010 20:45:13 +0000

Wow! Is it really 2010 already? The studio has become a hive of activity with new logos, brand manuals, marketing campaigns and websites all being produced for some really exciting businesses. It really feels like we’re starting to come out of the recession: people seem to be much more positive and thinking about how they’ll prepare their businesses for the good times as well as how they’ll get through the bad. Perhaps we’re all just bored of the recession, perhaps there’s light at the end of the tunnel!

Are you an unpaid graphic designer?

andywhitaker — Tue, 03 Nov 2009 19:02:16 +0000

Creating a professional looking design isn’t rocket science, so why can’t everyone do it?
Well mostly because people don’t understand what they need to do. And so you see big fonts, too many fonts, oversized logos and misalignments. Most businesses leak their professionalism because they don’t realise the effect that bad design is having on their business.
Are you using Verdana or Arial in your printed literature because it’s “easy to read”?
There are better fonts that you can use that will give a better impression.
Do you use the standard bright blue and bright red because they’re in the Word pallete of colours?
Try using your ‘house colours’. They will give a MUCH better impression and aren’t that difficult to find.
Do you stick a stock photo underneath text in an attempt to ‘liven things up’?
Images and text need to be used with caution.

Use a professional graphic designerto create your sales literature, promotional material and web site, there are too many bad designs around!

This Week in the Studio

andywhitaker — Sun, 01 Nov 2009 21:21:32 +0000

In the studio this week… Illustrations for a instruction book!

Developing my Illustration skills has been one of the most interesting projects this year.
Taking the photos and converting them into line drawings has been a challenge and has helped me understand Illustrator in depth.

The illustration for the toaster took about 4 hours and then after viewing the artwork I was told “we only wanted the control panel” sometimes you feel like jumping off the balcony!
I am now taking these skills further and using them in packaging design work for Morssion’s Supermarkets.

The results are on the illustration page – enjoy! (and do let me know what you think, I always love to hear from you.)