Stylish Brochures on Polished Concrete...

It's been a really rewarding couple of weeks with another big job finished ... a series of 3 brochures for Concrete Resurfacing Systems. Two 4pp and one 6pp folded to A4, all printed on 350gsm with a matt laminate finish. So they look and feel sturdy, and should survive their environment. A huge THANK YOU to Natalie from Eastern Press who's patience from start to finish was endless!

Toby from CRS wanted to try and showcase as many of their photos/jobs as possible and it was quite a challenge organising the photos and placing them in the correct brochures, but we got there in the end. Thanks Toby for your persistence!

I find it funny the diversity this role brings - juggling different projects and clients. In the last month I've worked in a variety of industries including Polished Concrete, Photography, Bridal Wear, Personal Training, Party Theming and Hospitality, to name a few. Yes, never a dull moment! It's very satisifying to see a job printed or a website go live.

Here's a snap shot of the brochures....

Angela Marcuccio website redesign

With Christmas just around the corner and another year coming to an end I've managed to wrap up some exciting projects before chilling out to enjoy a quiet family Christmas.

One project I'd particularly like to mention is a website redesign for Angela Marcuccio Bridal Couture, launched yesterday. Angela had a gorgeous video created by Helm Communications in collaboration with Arterium Creations. Together they produced a beautiful, classic and timeless video. If you're a fan of everything romantic and truley dreamy, I highly recommend a look :-) View video and even if you're not it's still well worth a look!

The campaign also covered a reshoot of Angela's collection photos to reflect the classic, clean look of the video which are included in the new website.

To reflect the "new look and feel" we have toned down the use of burgundy and created more white space. The menu has been moved from the left side of the screen to run horizontally across the top of the page, providing the extra space needed in the body of the website to showcase the beautiful new collection photos and bride photos. A new page for "Media" has also been added to include updates on Angela's latest events, magazine layouts and any other news.

In particular I'm very happy with the new layout of the "Brides" page which features a collage of  each brides photos on the one page making it quick and easy to view.

Personalised Christmas Cards

This year I had the pleasure of creating personalised Christmas Cards for Duet Images. Vanessa had the brilliant idea of offering an exclusive range of Christmas cards that included a family photo on the front and personalised message on the inside.

I was inspired to design a series of cards with different illustrations and colour themes in portrait and landscape. I then provided the layered Photoshop files to Vanessa to she could insert each family photo on the front and send them off to her Lab for printing.... Brilliant!

Here is an image taken by Vanessa of the printed sample cards.

Time to reflect...

It's been a busy couple of months and extremely rewarding working with a number of new clients on their exciting business ventures and designing logos, stationery and websites.

In particular I've enjoyed working with the dynamic and extremely organised owner of Meko Creations. A husband and wife team, who have a strong passion for party theming, entertaining, baking and anything creative. I couldn't ask for a more perfect subject matter really!

Armed with a clear and detailed brief that included examples of likes & dislikes and what the logo should reflect - retro style, definately no pink or too cutesy - I was inspired by photos of beautifully decorated cakes & cookies and eligantly set party tables from their blog.   

The first concept that was clear to me from the start was that the name "Meko" needed to be in an eligant, decorative, script style font. In particular I pictured long curling tails on the "M" and this was the starting point. From there I expanded on one of the examples given that the text could be framed by a stamp like border, and to somehow incorporate stripes, which were on the "like" list. Not quite satisfied with this I decided to work on another idea I had from the begining - to incorporate a cake stand in with the name.

With a number of options the process of elimination and final colour choice was tricky and just when we thought we had it, seeing it placed in a mock-up business card we realised it was just too bland and didn't lend itself to the many senarious it needed to be used in. I've learnt over time that an important step in creating a logo is to actually place it into a business card or letterhead layout with dummy text to see if it works. It might take a bit more time but is well worth the effort.

At that point Edwina had the brilliant suggestion to combine the 2 concepts, cake stand & stripes into the one logo. I often say to my clients to keep in mind that elements from one logo concept can be combined with others and in this case it turned out to be the perfect solution.

So together I am very pleased to say we have created a logo that not only they love and can truly own, but a logo I have the satisfaction of saying I'm 100% happy with and proud of. Thanks guys!

Here's the end result -  Meko Creations - the logo...
   

New Blogger for Mariett's Cakes & Crafts

Since recently setting up my own Blog on my revamped website and experiencing how easy and flexible it is I've started telling my clients all about Blogger.

I'm excited to report that I've now just setup a Blog for a client who creates beautiful artifical cakes, floral arrangements and balloon stands. She was looking for ways to display the numerous photos she'd taken over the years to show interested friends & family members and Blogger has provided the perfect solution. We've been able to upload all the photos and at the same time give her an on-line presence. Blogger has really given us the tools to create a cheap website that she can refer interested parties to.

If you're interested you can take a look for yourself, you may find it's the perfect solution for you too!

http://mariettascakescrafts.blogspot.com/

Inspired by my garden...

Work has been  hectic over recent months and there hasn't been much time to enjoy the outdoors. I find today the warmth of the sun and rich colours of my herb garden have inspired me to bring out the camera and snap a few photos.

I've been working on a number of new projects, 2 of which have involved developing logos and branding for new businesses. This is always an exciting time for both my clients and me as a designer to come up with new concepts.

These logos have now been finalised and I've added them to the portfolio section of my website. The colour "orange" is the predominate colour theme used in both logos. A dynamic colour, it is associated with power, warmth, vitality and endurance... making it a perfect fit for a new business selling solar systems (Solar Smart Solutions) and a vibrant and energetic IT consultant who is both intuitive and  passionate about what she does.

With a couple of other exciting new projects currently taking shape I'm looking forward to my next blog which will hopefully include some photos of a new product range being stocked by a well known store. More on that shortly :-)

New Website LIVE!

Finally after many months of squeezing in time here and there, the "new look" Jaz Effect Design website is LIVE!

Thanks to Google Analytics I've been able to collect data on just what pages people visit on the website and what keywords are being used to find us. So the new website has been somewhat condensed to focus on the pages receiving the most traffic. In particular the portfolio page now has larger thumbnail views of work completed and a slideshow (javascript) that displays even larger images so viewers can easily arrow through the portfolio.

Of course the newest upgrade to the website is the inclusion of this Blog and Twitter - so I will try my hardest to post some interesting articles from time to time.

Food & Photography...

Two of my favourite past times... eating beautiful food and taking photos!
Eating at The Royal Mail Hotel in Dunkeld is a unique and memorable experience and I just happened to have my camera! These are just a few dishes from the Omnivore menu, 10 exciting courses created with fresh produce harvested daily from the restaurant's own kitchen garden. Simply AMAZING!

The Royal Mail Hotel Dunkeld

Jaz Effect Design enters the Blogging world...

If you've landed on the Jaz Effect Design Blog page - Welcome! I'm not expecting many/any visits as it's running independently at the moment and won't be linked to the official website until the latest upgrade is finalised and live.... but if by some miracle you are reading this - well I'm honoured.

I'm using my own business as a bit of a guinea pig to trial this Blogger feature so that I can hopefully recommend and use it for clients wanting a simple way to implement a blog page to their websites.

It's funny when I first started typing up this my very first page, I struggled to think of what to say. Not being a huge user of Facebook or Twitter creating a Blog seemed a little unwarranted - I always felt that I really didn't have anything that important to post - but it seems the best way to trial something is to actually use it!

So just briefly my first impressions of this blogger are that it's pretty neat. The initial setup to create the Blog was pretty simple and even quicker as I already had a Google account running. The most time consuming part is trying to customise the templates… being a web designer it’s important to get the look right and reflect the design of the official Jaz Effect Design website... almost there now!