2015 a New Year, New designs

A new year and time for a slight refresh for The Kitesurf Centre.

We decided that many of the customers liked their previous circular stickers so we have continued with these designs with a slight change in terms of the colourways. The majority of their clients prefered the Blue with others opting for the purple and a few the pink, the yellow was the least favoured firstly the colours had not come out quite as planned ,the print quality had been quite low and the company has since closed, but also the yellow did not match up with many of the boards or footstraps colour schemes which is where most of the stickers are placed.
Looking into this I have designed this years stickers by first looking at some of the main Kitesurfing brands that are stocked by the centre, such as North, Liquid Force and Airush and seen which are their colours for this season. Using this info and after speaking with customers over their prefered colour of stickers and boards I then proceeded to produce the new circular stickers.
I do the main basis for the design in illustrator as I find using vectors for the kites and swirl much easier especially at the stage where colours are constantly changing and then do any finishing touches in photoshop.

There were a few slight changed to the text to make it a little easier to read at a glance however nothing noticeable without looking at them back to back.

Green is one of the new colours, this is used on many of the 2015 kiteboards and I went for quite a neutral green so that it works with more of the other colours on a board rather than the clashing style I used on the last batch.

The other design idea I wanted to visit was one where the brand name was more prominent, or even the basis for the design itself. An advantage to this is that it could be used more for marketing on items such as car bumper stickers, on seeing the deisgn The Kitesurf Centre chose to do a large and a small of this so it could still be used on board or other items.

The Snowkite Centre leaflet design

This project was helping out a friend, he already had an idea for the design but just wanted it tweaking and smartening up.
The snowkite school he is starting in Italy plans to work with The Kitesurf Centre by advertising to the Kitesurf students there and to try and bring them across to Aosta near the French border in Winter for some snow kiting.
I first showed him a few other leaflets to help with some ideas and looked at the current website - uk.snowkitingcentre.com

Here is the first design that we came up with:

This looked ok but we decided that the "Lessons and Hire" was the most important text on the page and needed to stand out a little more, we looked into making a curving white line between the text to make it look like a snowboarder had gone down a mountain. However we soon found that this was very difficult and didn't looked good so we took the idea of the Bold white block around the text on the kitesurf centre leaflet and tried with that.
We also thought that the whole document was a little flat and lacked a bit of life and the winter feel that it needed.
Here is what I came up with as a finished product:

The new pin shows the location a little better.

The "lessons and hire" really stand out well and the snowflakes bring a nice sparkle and winter feel to the whole experience. The large snowflake has also given us an idea of where to go with a logo so this should be coming soon.

See more on the subject at the snowkiting centre

Logo Design - Donegal Kitesurf School

So I have been sent a request to create a logo, the rough idea had already been doodled down so this project is more how to turn a doodle into a completed logo rather than any initial conception of ideas.
I was sent this sketch and so based all my work on the notes it gives.

I had a look at the mountains first and looked around online to get a good idea.

This is the coors light mountains he was thinking about.

Using this I created the first idea taking a section of the mountains and drawing a path around on Illustrator.

Although I quite liked these I felt it wasn't quite right so created the mountains myself.

I also added the sea and the kitesurfer as the sketch and notes requested to make these 4 variations.

These were almost completely created using Illustrator (CS4) from paths and solid fill or gradients, there was a little photoshopping at the end to finish this off.

The bottom right is nearest to the design requested however I quite like the design with half or no circle around it.

Van Vinyl Design

I have worked on other designs for vans, however it is always difficult to show how it would look with the designs on 2D drawings of a van, this time only the design will be done by me and not the vinyl cutting or fitting which is the tricky part for a rookie.

First looking online to get some ideas of what the customer needed and the best colours to be easily readable. Here were their top choices:

A key point here is that the vans are either black intially or have a full wrap on them which will be expensive so the aim will be to design something similar but keeping the white.

Here was my initial design that I send off to gain quotes. We expected that the large blend on the blue wave would end up increasing the price quite dramatically but we liked the design and so wanted to keep it. The budget for the van was around £500 including VAT so we would have to keep the design within this limit.

I received a range of quotes from companies from £425+VAT all the way up to £945+VAT

I checked that they would all be using the same material and methods and proceeded accordingly.

Below shows a slight redesign by the vinyl company making it possible to be fitted.

There are a few slight differences, some so that the van can have the vinyl applied a little easier, others are because they simplified the design/missed some of the detail.

One of the differences I notices the most was the blend on the wave and how it was not quite as smooth. I will add the completed picture of the van once it has been fitted.

Oystercatchers Holiday Cottage Camber

So for this latest project I was asked to design an entire range of marketing material for the customers, this included Website, leaflets, Logo and even some stickers for marmalade and Jam pots.

Initial Planning

Logo and colour choice, while this began the customers chose a name for the cottage - Oystercatchers. This we deemed showed that it was good for birdwatchers but without alienating families who were looking for something near the sea but might not know the connection with something less obvious.

From there I had a few ideas but the main one revolved around making a bird in flight look as basic as possible so that it could be used in a vector style design.

Here you can see the type of bird I was using and the variations in flight angle that I could use.

This I decided showed the most shape to the bird and colours however I did like the look of it with both wings up.

Here is my initial ideas

The clients liked this idea of the other designs so I went ahead using this.

Leaflet

The first issue here was getting a decision on how many sides and the size of the leaflet. To make this easier we collected a large number of competitors flyers/leaflets and any that we liked the look of and laid them all out. This was a very simple way to find the clients needs and preferences, size, colour, fonts layouts were all roughly agreed upon, I went back and made a few ideas of fronts and backs, here are the two final ideas:
    Front                                                                           Back

  

These were about the 5th or 6th edit, there weren't really any big changes the key this was the readability, I enlarged some text, removed others and simplified the map. We all liked these and after some editing to the photo's to lighten some up and make the roof look a little tidier it was off to the printers.

Note: Always make sure you image is saved as CMYK for this otherwise it will usually come back looking not quite as bright as it the RGB that you would have been looking at one your screen. Easiest option is to always work in CMYK and when working online use websafe colours so there is no change on different browsers.

Website

With the rough idea on leaflets sorted through seeing others I used the same method to help diagnose their true wishes for the site.
The key parts that we were aiming for was a "light" site in more than one way, firstly keeping it bright with a white background and also something that is simple and not too overwhelming.
For such a simple design I decided a basic wordpress site would be most efficient so with an appropriate theme installed (lenora) I began.
The header

This I found showed not only the name but also what the site was about and roughly where while also covering up some of the wordpress theme's standard header.

I then took a few photo's of the site for use in the galler (gallery) and on each page before creating the front page (Holiday Cottage Home page).

From here the further pages were designed each with an important section just below the menu, such as an image, map on where it is or a booking calender. To complete the booking and gallery NEOgallery and Bookings plugings were both used. The site was created entirely using free plugings and themes keeping costs down while still keeping it simple enough so that the owners can organise bookings without need for technical support.

Check out the site here: Camber Holiday Cottage

All of my designed sites are hosted at JustHost and usually purchased through GoDaddy.

For further detail, a breakdown on any of my work or interested in having me design for you please don't hesitate to contact me or visit my site - www.rupertcawtedesigns.com

Camber Kite Club Logo Design

Camber Kitesurf Club Logo
The club had been running for around 10 years will little happening the head association (BKSA) said that it had to start running or would be disaffiliated (funding removed)
One of the main points in getting it going was a facelift as all it had before was the bksa logo with a slight alteration.
All members were given a week, here are my ideas and thoughts on each.

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When posted online there were many thoughts, number 8 was a recolour of the first as they thought the colours were a little girly so i switched them to match the BKSA colours instead.

T-shirt Designs - Claim boarding

One of the biggest issues I found when coming up with ideas for t-shirts was once having the design, how to show it on a t shirt or hoody and not look like the design is hovering above or a separate article. The image below shows how you would send it for manufacture with the design separate just to show where it is to be placed, however this does not look great for marketing.

I then found an image of an actual tee in both male and female styles and placed the image on this, with slight distortion and fading it looks far more realistic.

This method was then also transferred onto hoodies, for this the drawstrings had to be placed over the top of the design  although being flatter it enabled less image manipulation to take place.

Colour variation is fairly simple, making a quick hue/saturation change via an adjustment layer.

This simple colour alteration means that seeing your design in other ways helps to produce other ideas such as offsetting one colour or a spray style, both shown below.

See more at Claimboarding and check out the latest tees and hoods.

Logo Design - The Kitesurf Centre

In 2008 the Brand "The Kitesurf Centre" was born. The logo at the time was a collaboration of many while putting their own twist on it. The design has used the idea of sights or circle around the side from Liquid force at the time, a kite similar to that used by Rodwe and a well shaped waves used in many surf and kitesurf brands. The finished item was a sketch drawn in an airport but still one of the most effective logo's I have seen whether planned or not, split down there are three parts. The Kite, the wave(surf) and a circle or sights which then place the other items and target in the centre.

Here shows a 3d representation of the logo which I have put together and has been used throughout the website and marketing material for a couple of years.

Each year we have kept the centre looking fresh with a new cite and even upgrading the building and continue to do so therefore we decided that this was also a good plan to do for the logo
I was given the task of looking into a new logo and the creation so new stickers and other such marketting material to go with it.

Following the basic idea of the three parts I did not want to change it too much, it had been a variety of colours throughout the couple of years so colour choice was very open but it had to work in more than just the one or two.
I initially looked at changing the entire design such as the wave and kite or even adding a kitesurfer to it however none of these created the correct effect.
Instead I decided to change the exterior circle or at least the sights. With the whole concept revolving around  wind and the weather that is what stuck in my head, in this design I try to put across the idea of sun and the rays produced while also giving the effect of wind with the rotation of these giving a slight eye of a tornado feel to it.

This design worked well and we were pleased with the outcome as it also allowed the use of the name in the logo if needed or absent when not.

The design was then used for much of the marketing material and even placed onto clothing. One of the key changes we had made in the centre was hiring a large number of instructors so to show us as a team we had staff hoodies and t-shirts made to be worn. Here is some of the intial designs for the hoodies however we eventually went for this initial design on the front and the surfer riding along on the back with brands running down the arm in a cub badge style.

Here you can also see how the design also works well with other colour and without the brand name written on.

Next on the list..Stickers

Star Luxe Cosmetics

Star Luxe was a short project that I took on as a favour.
A family friend was starting a new brand and needed some 3d renderings and presentational material.
This is the type of information I was given so you can see the design process.

From the few slides I was sent I then extracted as much information as possible to develop the range, throughout the process I continually emailed the client to keep her up to date and used Dropbox to keep her clear on the alterations made to the designs and the renders produced. I found this was much quicker than emailing and allowed far larger files to be transmitted which meant a clear understanding of size and colour rather than a compressed low res pic.
Here are a few examples of how I developed this.

Purple Mascara.

Lip gloss packaging.

Lip gloss.

Powder box.

The designs were pretty near to how she asked however the changes are all ones which I recommended and although not initially liking the idea once seeing it all together they were sold. This was most apparent with the powder box where I first sent them an image I had created for the powder, they had asked for gold with a slight spiral of purple to give a galaxy and stars feel to it. I had a quick play with the gold, realised I was not a fan and that the gold would look better as the centre and the purple replacing what would be good as the black of a galaxy. Seeing the jpeg they asked if I could redo it but before I fulfilled their request I placed it into the solidworkds designed box with the reflection and waited for the reply..They loved it.

Real Beauty health spa (MR Design)

A project created for a friends family member, they needed a very simple website created for their beauty salon/ spa.
As a designer this was simple enough for me to come up with the concepts and then my flatmate would create the coding and put the pieces together.
We thought this could be a good practice and if it worked possibly go into webdesign together, I put our first names together to form MR and then added design at the end, simple...company name done - MR Design.

Initially I send them a few colour schemes as without going to the shop and speaking to them it was difficult to obtain information about them as their emails were not very specific.
Here are some of the colour schemes I sent:

I was hoping they would use one of three colour choices, for this reason I places it at the top of each box. I also mentioned that if there were any colours in one and not in the other then to let me know and we could mix and match a little. They decided to go for colours in the earth box (top left) however the 3rd strip down which was not one I would have chosen myself however I followed their brief and created a home page.

The design was just a quick concept so that they might see how it would look before I created the other pages. The font I used was Helvetica however this may have been changed depending on if they already employed a specific font for their other items, leaflets, banners, shop front etc.

As it may be apparent I didn't completely to the colours chosen, when working with this I found that it needed something to lighten it  and clean it up so added the light blue but still with the earthy feel to keep it in the correct area. The company had a few issues and so the whole website plan fell through leaving us with nothing, first lesson of design take some type of deposit or just be lucky.

Water splash

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I have often seen photo's where items have been dropped into water and not known if it is real or photoshopped. One way to find this out and also learn a new skill was to try myself. I found a blog that showed about water and how to manipulate a page to show a flow going in and splashing back.
These three pictures show a quick explanation of how I reached the final image.

1) The water itself, background white blending with a circular gradient to grey/blue. The impact area should be where the gradient is white so make a horizontal blue box here and then manipulate the top with warp, smudge or anything else you like to soften the edge.

2) This image is a layer created using filter and then fibres, pull this into the splash shape, add a slight Gaussian and motion blue with it splaying out at the edges.

3) Final image, use fibers but with dark blue rather than black, twist this around using distort and warp. I also used an overlay for this to darken it slightly, remember to place this later behind. The top of the water must also be edited with a similar method, add a couple of light spots and blur/blend with the blue and fiber layer. make sure to delete the centre where the splash has hit.

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The Final Image

I hope this is a quick rough guide to see how to manipulate water.