Design Musings

Brand design has moved in new directions in recent years, and with the advent of mobile internet, promises to develop into ever new unexpected formats. Twitter has snowballed in recent months, and continuing our clients' visual identity here is also important. Above is the custom Twitter background that we created for Sean Maher's Twitter feed. It carries his brand for the charity bike ride, Riding Out The Recession, where he will be heading from Cornwall to Cape Town. It carries artwork from the website we are currently putting the finishing touches on, and his new logo. Make sure you keep an eye on his progress, we will put updates on our blogs and Sean will be both twittering and blogging as he travels.

"We are in the process of branding the new company 'Camel Self-Storage' and these are their business cards. We settled on a logo using Cornish colours and applied this to the business card. I wanted to keep one side very simple and impactive, so simply used the golden yellow and the logo. The back is all about communicating their details so it is all very self explanatory. There is a line drawing of a box visually reinforcing the brand. I have applied this same visual language to the website which is now online and we are currently working on the rest of the company stationery. This is a good clear brand, easy to recognise and communicative," Emma Julian.

We sometimes find that smaller businesses will avoid coming to a design studio for web or print design, but the website shown above is a good example of a simple site for a traditional trade. J and R Window Cleaning Services Ltd wanted an online presence, but the owner of the business, Norman Greaves, was concerned that there was not a great deal to say about his business. We created a basic three page website that showed clearly what he does, and why the new pole system is effective and worthwhile. He takes pride in providing a professional service, and felt that his website should reflect that.

Marie Lawley has recently completed a new website for Camel Fish Ltd, she had this to say on the project: "Camel Fish wanted a website to show simply who they are, what they do and how to contact them. I did this by using the existing logo to create a banner at the top of the page to feature the toolbar. The grid structure provided a good way to display their images of the shell fish, taking the viewer on a journey of how they are freshly caught, stored in tanks and distributed in their temperature controlled vans. We wanted the colour scheme and clean lines to reflect a fresh and professional service, the blue and white hints of the sea reflecting their situation in Cornwall," Marie Lawley.