James Boddington and I have been working on this project for some time now. He is a super-busy photographer, winging his way around (most recently to Vermont) photographing weddings. Though that is only part of the story, he is also an accomplished commercial and editorial photographer as well.

James wanted a new take on his old logo, just to freshen things up. We threw around words like quirky, unexpected, bold and unconventional and after a solid dialogue we arrived at this solution. James has such a clean look and feel to his site and work, the images do really speak for themselves, so the branding had to tie in with the photography discreetly.

Make sure to check out his blog, wedding site and commercial site. Yet ANOTHER amazingly talented photographer I have had the pleasure of working with – I truly do have the best job in the world!

Posted by Netra on Sep 3rd 2010 | card - corporate - design - graphic design - photography - print design
  Hide Comments Leave Comment

This is the second edition of The Chronicle I have designed for William Clarke College. It’s a 28 page, bi-annual magazine and am SO pleased with how its turned out.

Posted by Netra on Aug 20th 2010 | corporate - design - graphic design - magazine - marketing - print design
Show Comments (2) | Leave Comment

Two weeks ago I was asked to design a cool new invite for the team at Marque Lawyers. They are so open to just about anything I throw their way! It’s always such an exciting challenge working with this brand as the briefs are always so wide open. It is actually more difficult to produce something without any rules holding you back, than it is to design a piece that sits within restrictive corporate branding guidelines.

Marque are hosting a evening at a local theatre for their clients to see a production called QUACK. The play has its own identity which is protected under copyright law,  so the invite couldn’t draw on that for inspiration. As a result, we decided on a purely typographic response to the brief.

Printed by the switched-on, colour-conscious folk at Jagar Document Integration in Sydney with their usual attention to all the tiny details in the finishing. It just looks fabulous!

.

Posted by Netra on Aug 17th 2010 | corporate - design - graphic design - invitation - marketing
Show Comments (2) | Leave Comment

It’s not often one gets a brief that simply states “we want our logo to look like an acid trip” and yet that is the brief that Rebecca Hall and Fiona Carson presented me with when we were discussing their new venture.

Bec and Fo are both successful portrait and family photographers in their own right and had joined forces under the banner of CarsonHall to photograph weddings. Initially the brief was to develop a new identity for CarsonHall but as we progressed with the project the realisation dawned that it would be easier to throw the lot in and take the ride together, sharing the same seat.

And so, Bec+Fo was born.

The logo pretty much speaks for itself (ok, well it may YELL it!) The individual elements can all be extracted and used to support their brand throughout the marketing collateral. Ironically it was the last icon I threw in, the two paperdolls, that Bec and Fo had already been using as an interim promo without me knowing. This bit of synchronicity has evolved to be the icon of the brand in some respects and really does represent all the Bec+Fo goodness in one neat package.

Head over to the website to check out more of their work – www.becplusfo.com.au

Posted by Netra on Jul 21st 2010 | corporate - design - graphic design - marketing
Show Comments (5) | Leave Comment

Some time ago I did some design work for the team at Joe’s BBQs in NSW – long before this blog existed. The were after a design for their own BBQ cleaning product, and then the following year came back to revamp the design.  They have recently updated their website, done a TV advert and started a Facebook page as well. When I checked out the site today, I was pleased as punch to see the product listed in the BBQ consumables section!

Below you will find the designs for the first design (red and black option) and the updated can design (with the yummy looking steak). Make sure to check out the store in person or online if you’re in the market for a new BBQ or outdoor furniture.

Posted by Netra on Apr 28th 2010 | commercial - corporate - design - graphic design - marketing
  Hide Comments Leave Comment

Andrea Sproxton contacted me earlier this year to help her revamp her existing brand and identity. There was nothing ‘wrong’ with her existing identity. It was perfectly serviceable, decent colours – only problem was that she didn’t LOVE it.

She wasn’t over-the-moon in love with her brand. In my humble opinion (and not speaking specifically about Andrea, but rather more generally), when you talk to people about you business and your brand - if you don’t love it and aren’t passionate about it – then that creeps into your voice and clients pick up on it.

How can you expect clients to have an emotional connection to your brand, if you are ho-hum about it yourself?

I am sure there are perfectly successful businesses that run very well without this kind of logo-love, but for a small business, trying to do Big Things, surely it must come into the equation. In my ideal world, I want my clients to love their brand so much that they want to slap it on some toast and eat it for breakfast! Or better still, get it printed on a t-shirt and wear it out in public.

I’ll get off the soapbox now and leave you with the final designs for logo, business cards and email footer. Thanks Andrea, I hope this is the start of great things to come.

Posted by Netra on Mar 23rd 2010 | corporate - design - graphic design - marketing - photography
Show Comments (5) | Leave Comment

The amazing, hip, cool team at Marque Lawyers asked me to come up with a graphic for their client page. I had previously captured profile photos for the team which were a heap of fun. At first I thought I could do a nice background image for the client list, or jazz it up with a couple of unusual bullet points… but I should have known better!

They said they wanted a cartoon illustration of a city skyline. So I went away and found some nice, sensible-looking, lawyer-appropriate line drawing illustrations and sent those back to them… I realllly should have known better!

The team at Marque are unlike any other lawyers you’ve ever met. As it turns out, they wanted a cartoon – a real cartoony-looking cartoon – with aiplanes trailing banners, a little man jumping out of a plane, billboards and skywriting to boot!

So after some design dialogue – they have uploaded the final graphic to their website and I can finally share. One of the more fun projects from this year. Make sure to take a look around their website too, it’s witty and entertaining – as I said, they are not like any other lawyers you’ll ever meet. Put simply – they just rock!

Posted by Netra on Mar 9th 2010 | corporate - design - graphic design - marketing
Show Comments (1) | Leave Comment

Bec Hall from Shoot the Family approached me looking for a new logo and identity for her photography business. Bec has a love of all things retro and as she was talking about her vision for the brand the song that popped into my head was Bryan Adam’s “Summer of 69″.

I wanted her look to be about scorching hot days at the beach, ice-creams that melt too fast and scratchy transistor radios. I really got into the retro groove with this project and was just about to don my afro wig and flares, when I came up with this concept. Bec said:

“Love, love, love!  It’s fun, it’s full of sunshine and retro, it’s all about summer… I just wanted to let you know that I am so, so happy with what you’ve done.  Thank you so much!”

  So without futher ado, here it is!

Posted by Netra on Mar 3rd 2010 | corporate - design - family - graphic design - photography
Show Comments (2) | Leave Comment

Phillippa Smoker of Sweet Chilli Philly Photography approached me a couple of months ago to design a logo for her existing photography business. Her photography had evolved over the past year or so and her existing logo was not as relevant as it was when she first developed it.

With a business name like hers, there is a automatic gravitation towards making the most of the ‘chilli’ component, but Philly (as she prefers to be called) wanted to stay away from all things hot and spicy and tone down her brand to match her niche and target market. She wanted to maintain her name as she found it was working well and clients remembered her.

To be honest it was a very challenging brief and we didn’t want to use an icon that was irrelevant or random. So after much brainstorming I decided to focus on the initials of her biz name and develop a seal or crest somewhat like a cameo, that could be used as part of her packaging as well.

One of the very first concepts I did had included the notion of some dubious looking supporting brand elements in the shape of a few animal characters (dubious due to my dubious computer illustration skills). After much refinement, and a few epiphanies to boot, the final range of ’sweet’ animals came to be. They include a puppy, a cat, an elephant, a solemn looking bear, a ladybird and an egg in a nest. If you didn’t notice, each of the faces of the little guys are based on the shape of the logo – in fact the outline of the logo was used to create their little heads. These little characters will support the SCP brand and appear in her marketing and promotional material.

Posted by Netra on Mar 3rd 2010 | corporate - design - graphic design - marketing - photography
Show Comments (4) | Leave Comment

I was recently contacted by a very old and dear friend who wantd me to collaborate with him on an upcoming project.

 Greg B was my very first boss when I got a job right out of University and he offered me my first promotion to come and work with him at the flagship Kinko’s store in Liverpool Street in Sydney.

Those were crazy days doing crazy hours filled with crazy clients and even more crazy colleagues. I have fond memories of an accidental giant gargoyle print in the middle of a window banner, a old lady we nick named Granny Smith and her aversion to Windex and the strange woman who asked me to type up a letter to “The People of the USA” warning them about aliens. She was arranging ‘a plane to fly over the USA’ and drop her 10,000 leaflets as a public service.

Anyway, after I left Kinko’s in Australia in 1998, Greg and I have kept in touch over the years. He has been quite inolved in his local council and when he contacted me asking for a logo I was more than happy to help out.

It was a surprisingly quick and efficient process – and this is the final logo they selected. The idea behind the logo is that its about community and standing together. The houses can also be seen as arrows pointing upwards signifying growth and new things to come. The middle 3 colours are of the aboriginal flag to represent the indigenous people in the area and the wavy bottom represents the proximity to the sea. It’s a lot crammed into a little space – but here it is…

.

Posted by Netra on Feb 8th 2010 | commercial - corporate - design - graphic design - personal - pro bono
Show Comments (3) | Leave Comment