Many thanks to the clients who recently gave positive recommendations to RAR regarding Kreative Bomb Limited.

In case you are wondering who the Recommended Agency Registry is, here is a bit of insightful copy I lifted off their website:

“Recommendedagencies.com is an online sourcing tool for marketing and procurement professionals. Using an online research process we tap into the power of the marketing community to find out which agencies come recommended.”

Initially, what this means is I can now display their logo on my website/email/letterhead – almost like a badge of honour. The plan then is to become a fully paid-up member of RAR and hopefully capitalise on the great networking and referral functions they offer members.

Recently completed the design work on a series of packaging solutions for UAP Limited.

UAP Limited provide products to door and window manufacturers and the security industry. Primarily operating on a B2B level, UAP wanted to increase there trade presence. Therefore, my task was to improve the appearance of their packaging.

For more information about UAP Limited and the products they produce, click here.

Above – blister pack inlay cards for the Lishi range of lock picks.

Below – blister pack inlay cards for the TradeLocks range of products.

Below – boxes for ZeroLift cylinders.

Recently completed the design work on a new logo and icon for a UK and International Debt Collection agency called Safe Collections.

Safe Collections were previously trading under the name Credit Safe and already had a database of clients in place who were familiar with their existing brand identity. Therefore, we decided to retain but evolve a core element of their previous logo – the golden padlock.

With this logo (and many others in my portfolio), the typographic treatment used within the logo has been created entirely from scratch. In this instance, I started out be designing a series of simple, yet highly graphically padlock motifs. Once I had a motif I was comfortable with, I set about creating the required typographic characters based on the geometric creation of the padlock. Not only does this provide a fundamental connection between the main graphic and the typeface, it also ensures the logo is truly bespoke.

Massive thank you to James at Business Boom Bolton for asking me if I would like Kreative Bomb featured on their website.

Always happy for kind people to spread the word about Kreative Bomb and the work that I do. All publicity is good publicity.

Please take a moment to a) check out my article on the Business Boom Bolton website and b) check out the profiles of the other wonderful creative types featured on the BBB website.

I loved my Isograph pens. As a designer that favoured illustration and marker visuals, my .25mm was my weapon of choice. Nowadays, I favour Faber-Castell PITT pens for doodling but I’m still using my 20+ year old Rotring 500 Rollerball, ballpoint pen and mechanical pencils.

Rotring Rollerball

Rotring 0.5mm Mechanical Pencil

Rotring Leather Pen Case

And a real blast from the past – the Rotring Technical Pen cleaning tub. Fill it with nibs, water and cleaning solution and leave it over night to get those nibs clean.

Recently completed the design work on the latest Creative Calderdale event invite.

The main speaker at the next event is Tony Johnston from the Press Association.

Here’s Creative Calderdale’s blurp about the event:

Tony Johnston, Head of Training at the Press Association, will be delivering a talk entitled; The Future of Newspapers and the Media and will cover areas such as the technological challenges and opportunities, the role of social media in the news cycle, changing consumer habits and the Leveson inquiry into Press Standards.

The Creative Calderdale event is being held at the Elsie Whiteley Innovation Centre, Halifax on Thursday 15th March 2012. The events starts at 6pm. Contact Hannah at Creative Calderdale for more information.

A graphic I created for the January 2012 issue of MarketingDotCom magazine. This image accompanied an article about the potential dangers of celebrities using Twitter. Created using Illustrator and Photoshop.

A graphic I created for the December 2011 issue of MarketingDotCom magazine. This image accompanied an article about common mistakes to avoid when designing your website. Created using Illustrator and Photoshop.

Recently completed the design work on a book cover for Paul Rowson’s Dispatches from a Dilettante.

Here is Paul’s very own description of his book:

‘Dispatches from a Dilettante’ is a rampage through a chaotic career, encompassing rock music, religion, royalty and renegade kids – stretching from the Caribbean to Cambodia. It’s a memoir on the absurdity of endeavour and a restless lifestyle spent working exceptionally hard trying to avoid it. There are close encounters with Jimi Hendrix, the Prince of Wales, ex footballers and the current Head of the Catholic Church in England, together with bar room brawls and board room bitterness. Whether it’s the drugs and desperation of life on a Welsh housing estate or discussions in the Gardens of Highgrove it’s a life lived whimsically, from the higher echelons of business to the gutters of Phonm Penh. It’s about a music-loving meanderer who has never quite got over being at Woodstock.

After reading the book myself, I proposed to Paul that trying to cover all the various major events of his life on the cover was going to be a challenge – and no doubt a visual car crash! My suggestion was to make the book look like a battered journal that had accompanied Paul around the world on his many adventures.

Dispatches from a Dilettante is available for the Amazon Kindle here.

My family know me so well…

Steve Jobs: The Exclusive Biography by Walter Isaacson

Industrial Light & Magic: The Art of Innovation by Pamela Glintenkamp

Banksy Myths & Legends by Marc Leverton

The Book of Skulls by Faye Dowling

Clan Robertson: Your Clan Heritage