HOODIE JACKET ILLUSTRATION

The Stellenbosch BEd 4th students contacted me to create an illustration for their hoodie tops. After enquiring what the most memorable part of their time at Stellies had been, they all mentioned studying under the trees in the heat of summer. So we incorporated a book, trees and a little deconstructed Ivy League inspired imagery.

A few of the options we considered...







And the final choice....


I can’t wait to pass a student wearing one of these tops soon.



www.leolovesdesign.co.za

Animated Web Banner

My very first design job at IOL required that we create animated banners for their website. I’d almost forgotten how much I enjoyed these. I had the opportunity to move away from print design and work on an animated banner for Accountant Finder, a handy directory listing allowing you to find accountants in your area.



View the ad here

Thanks to Accountant Finder!


www.accountantfinder.co.za

www.leolovesdesign.co.za

VIDEO AGENT LOGO DEVELOPMENT

Video Agent approached me to develop their company logo. They sum up their business better than I ever could so here’s what they have to say:

Video Agent makes attention-grabbing, short web videos of your product or service.
Our Videos help you quickly connect with and explain your value proposition to potential clients; reach more people via the video networks; increase your website conversion rates and generate more leads for your business.
Using the power and emotion of cinema we show off your amazingness – using the reach and persistence of the Internet we distribute this video to bring you more qualified buyers.





After exploring as many options as possible, we all agreed on the spiraled V and A – creating an icon synonymous with the uploading sign displayed whilst waiting for a file to upload.

Thank you to Video Agent!
www.videoagent.net

leolovesdesign.co.za

MAGAZINE ADVERT DESIGN

I think it’s high time I added some of my more recent work, so without further delay:
The wonderfully inspiring and motivating Lluwellyn from SA Business Hub required a magazine advert designed. With a tight deadline and a busy schedule I found myself suddenly hit by inspiration in the early hours of the morning...with moments to spare before the actual print deadline.


The magazine advert


Screen capture of the advert as displayed on Innov8t’s online magazine

Thanks Lluwellyn!
www.sabusinesshub.co.za

leolovesdesign.co.za

File for Safe Keeping

What's the most important piece of advice I'd give to my clients? There are so many great ones

- Never settle for less than what you want. Your designer can't tell if you're not happy with the design unless you tell us. Even if it takes a week longer to achieve the perfect result. Rather delay a launch than have a less than perfect image.

- Take the time to understand the processes. Know what it is that you require from your designer and printer before you attempt to brief them. More often than not mistakes are caused by incomplete briefs. If you don't know, ask until you do understand and can visualise the completed project.

- Always protect your company's identity. Take every opportunity to further your brand's excellence. Always make sure that you follow your corporate identity. The correct font in the correct colour at the correct resolution. If your colour is royal blue, make sure that the printed colour is royal blue...not sky blue, darkish blueish blue, in between blue colour. Granted, with the various printing processes it's hard to get the colours spot on every single time. Spot on is always first prize. But 'as close as possible' is sometimes necessary.

Which brings me to the most important piece of advice - keep your files safe. Know the difference between your files. What am I on about? Well. You've commissioned a corporate identity. The full tooty. Logo, business card, letterhead, folder as well as a brochure! You've splashed out! The designs have been approved and your designer has emailed you the final versions of your artwork. They've probably sent you PDF's and JPEGS and GIFS and PNG's....probably more file types than you expected! And then there's the original artwork that you can't open because you don't have the design software installed on your computer. How do you know which file is for what purpose?


PDF'S: I call these the holy files. Hold onto them for dear life. If you own a safe - these are the files you want to burn and store in that safe! PDF is an acronym for Portable Document Format. Let's skip the technical stuff (maybe because I'm not sure I could explain it all!) and move onto the why and what for. PDF's are created from the original vector design files. They are
• the most convenient type of file for exchanging artwork because they are vector based files that retain a high quality for printing,
• able to be opened by a number of different design software programs, but are
• compressed to a convenient file size.

Ergo, PDF's are for printing. If your printer or new designer ever ask you for a logo, you should send these PDF's as they can then work with the highest quality from the get go. Whenever you're requested to send a logo for something to be printed, send the PDF.
As always, life is not always that straight forward. PDF's are not limited to only vector files. So some of your files might be JPEG's that have been saved as PDF's to save space...What I can tell you, is that PDF's are still the better option to send to anyone.


JPEG's: These are the files you'd most commonly use in-house. JPEG stands for Joint Photographic Experts Group....(which I just Googled because I didn't know) What I do know is that JPEG's or JPG's are flattened files. A JPEG is a standardised image compression mechanism. JPEG is designed for compressing either full-colour or grey-scale digital images of "natural" (real-world) scenes.
It works well on photographs, naturalistic artwork, and similar material; not so well on lettering, simple cartoons, or black-and-white line drawings (files come out very large). The awesome thing about JPEG's is that the degree of compression can be adjusted. The greater the compression the lower the quality of the file and the smaller the file. Therefore it's easy to judge the quality of the image by checking the file size....mostly. When you need to send a photographic image, you'll be sending a JPEG more often than not.
Imagine for a second that your logo was 3 overlapping red, pink and blue circles on a white background. When your logo is flattened/compressed as a JPEG there would no longer be 3 overlapping circles. It would be one flat file showing one image of these overlapping circles. Because the file no longer consists of separate components, the file is smaller due to compressing/flattening. This compressing reduces not only the size of the file, but the quality of the file too. Not great for logos.
When your designer asks for your logo, try not to send the jpeg. They'll be limited by the flatness and wouldn't have as much room to work within. Imagine that your flattened tri circle logo appears with a white background. If you only ever wanted the background to be white - no real problem as long as the file is as large as the medium you need it for. However, if you wanted to overlay your tri circles onto a yellow background, you'd be stuck with a logo in a white block on a yellow background. Sure, your designer is smart enough to know how to solve this problem but it'll take them time to fix the problem. Time equals money which you'll receive a bill for.
So what do you use the JPEG logo for? Online files - logos for your web designer, uploading your logo online, electronic letterheads that will only be emailed, electronic files that will only ever be viewed on a screen. Internal files that don't need to be the best quality....though that statement in itself should dissuade you from even considering it. Remember, your brand should always be the very best quality!


GIF's: GIF's are most commonly used online. GIF stands for Graphic Interchange File (I actually do remember this one!). Images can also be saved as GIF's though they are lower resolution. Because they're lower resolution, they are smaller in size which is perfect for websites which need to display quickly. Generally speaking, the fewer colours used in the image, the better the GIF would work. You could then capitalise on the small file size. I find that I usually create email signatures as GIF's.


PNG's: PNG stands for Portable Network Graphic. PNG is superior to GIF in that it has better compression and supports millions of colours. Whenever I want to create a small, flat file with a transparent background I save them as PNG's. Remember that hypothetical tri circle logo....this would be a solution should you want to overlay it onto that yellow background. However, I would only ever use them for electronic and online files.

Quite a mouthful? Yes, indeed....(another excuse to find a knowledgeable designer to help guide you through the uses) so in parting, I can tell you that a JPEG, GIF and PNG can easily be created from a PDF. A PDF and vector file can be created from the others but not quite as easily. Try to always use and send the PDF unless you are sending a photographic image or have specifically been requested to send that file type.

Don't try this at home...

Let's clear this up once and for all. There are many many things that I believe should be tried at home as personal DIY projects. And there are many many reasons why Logo Design and Graphic Design is not one of them...

I can't count the number of times I've been asked to use a poorly designed logo that was created in Word or PowerPoint and create a business card, brochure, website from it...Or have a DIY business card printed....Granted I could make a living out of the number of PowerPoint 'logos' and 'business cards' I've had to fix in a last resort to supply a print ready file to the printers.

But to save you time and the inevitable, here are a list of reasons why not to attempt your own logo or business card using PowerPoint, Word or less than basic Photoshop skills:

72 dpi

1. The image will need to be 300dpi - dots per inch. PowerPoint is primarily a presentation program which is viewed on screen at 72dpi. Word is a (oddly enough) word processing program that focusing on formatting words and letters. So think about it, why would you use a word processing program and a presentation program to create a visual identity? Don't do it.

2. Your image needs to be in CMYK (Cyan, Magenta, Yellow, Black) to be printed at a Litho (Lithographic) printers. Should you need 500 cards or more, Litho is more cost effective and is always the more accurate printing process when compared to instant Digital Printing. When printing on paper, you should stick to CMYK or Spot Colours. Screens are viewed as RGB (Red, Green, Blue). Ergo - a presentation is viewed on a screen and therefore your presentation program (PowerPoint) will use RGB. Word focuses on documents containing many many words...which are usually in black and white...no real concern for images or their colours...RGB. Word and PowerPoint work in RGB. Don't do it.

3. Unless your document has a generous amount of white space all around the edges, your document will need BLEED. After your business card is printed it will need to be cut....by a guillotine....that often doesn't cut completely straight. Imagine trying to cut a stack of 20 sheets with a pair of scissors - your cut pages will not be the same size. Guillotines are a million times better than scissors and reduce the error to a micromillimetres. Which might not seem like much, but when you were wanting a slick, elegant black business card you do not want white outlines to your cards. Word and PowerPoint don't give you the option of bleed. You could think out of the box and fake it but even after 10 years of experience - I don't have that kind of patience.

4. Just because you own a copy of Photoshop does not mean that you have 4 years of training and 10 years of experience in the ins and outs of the programs capabilities. Did you create a document at 300 dpi? Did you include at least 3mm of bleed? Will your text print as crisply as possible when you flatten and save it as a Jpeg? Don't do it.

5. And considering all of the above and quite a few secrets that are only ever learned through trial and error, you'd still like your logo or business card to be well designed with a professional look.

You could settle for a business card that looks like this


So what do you do? Invest in professional design programs at around R10k a pop, a basic 3 month course to learn to use the programs and wait for your printer to reject the design because they didn't cover pre press tricks and tips in your course.

Or you could hire an experienced designer who will put energy, focus, creativity and experience into designing a beautiful and appropriate logo, business card, flyer or brochure using the array of professional design programs at her disposal...and that are accepted by ALL printers around the world.

Save yourself time and money and focus on what you do best - running your business and selling your product.

And be proud to own a logo like this one for Alison Channing Architect




http://www.leolovesdesign.co.za

Design advice for your start up company and new business...

START UP COMPANIES AND NEW BUSINESSES.

So you have a BRILLIANT idea that just HAS to be done....I know that feeling very well. You've bounced the idea off of everyone you know and trust and they all agree that you have a winner? You've written your business plan and it still seems viable even after your marketing projections? You've secured the funding or have funded the idea yourself (it's that good an idea!)? Now what do you do?

WELL, LET'S START WITH A LOGO...

You're product needs a brand. Whether you're baking the best darned brownies Nigella will ever dream of, or built the next great social marketing site that will surpass Facebo..you know who; your product will need a brand. A visual representation of all that your company and product stand for and everything they hope to achieve. An instantly recognisable symbol emblazoned on every possible medium. Don't stop at just your business card. There's the letterhead, the company shirt, the car, the flyer, the back of the envelope, the website, brochure, billboard, aeroplane, cellular network, space travel...perhaps I'm getting ahead of myself.

Hire a professional designer who knows how to take your brief, understand your brief and interpret your brief correctly. A professional designer with tertiary education and years of experience in honing a fitting logo. A designer who has invested time and money on industry standard software that is accepted by all print houses. And lastly, a designer who is as excited about your product as you are.

AND THROW IN A BUSINESS CARD...

Using that logo as inspiration the same designer can create a unique and customised business card design for you. A business card is usually the first physical introduction to a company's corporate identity and brand. You want to be proud of that design. You also want to be able to take the artwork for the card and send it to any printer without any mishaps.

WE'RE GOING TO NEED A WEBSITE...

In this day and age can you afford not to be 'googled'? Websites are the easiest way to distribute your company's information too a large group of potential clients. Having a web presence exposes your company's services to anyone with internet access...and in this day and age that includes almost everone - mobile phones, internet cafes, work and ADSL at home. And the website is usually the first visual introduction to a company's identity. It lends credibility to your business and allows you a cost effective opportunity to update and share information about your company. If you don't already have an email address, the website will give you an opportunity to grab a few professional email addresses linked to your company (info@yourcompany.co.za)

And that's really what you need to get started. You can add on a letterhead, perhaps a flyer...