Fine Jewellery, Photoshop retouching

The commission:
Good friend, client and family jeweler; Anthony Sanders, asked me to make some changes and up-grades to his website. One of the those changes was to replace the huge hero-shot of a beautiful bracelet that Tony had designed and made by hand, with another huge hero-shot of a new piece recently commissioned. I have always enjoy PhotoShop work, especially if the photography and the subject are great and this project was a great case-in-point.

Zoom-in and see the ferocity!
For use and placement within the website, the bracelet had to be cut out from the photographic background and saved with as a transparent.png. This piece was nr perfectly produced so not much airbrushing of imperfections was required, however there are always little markers of ferocity, if you really zoom-in and given the calibre of Tony's clients this needed to be perfect. Hue and saturation were adjusted, colours were corrected and little flourishes such as the little glints add. Two version were produced. The one you see here and another that was finally chosen for the site.
To see it, visit Related links below.

Related links
http://www.anthonysandersfinejewellery.com 

Creative warm-up, lets play with logos

I have to be honest, sometimes, on Monday morning I can find it quite hard to get up to speed, you know creatively. So to warm up, I start off with a couple of easy little jobs for Deshok. I play around with marketing ideas, new lay-ups for websites and recently I have been having fun with the Deshok logo. I think I have it mind, to product some give away items, that I can leave with you the client, when I come-"A"-knockin. hopefully something a little more interesting, than a calendar or a coffee mug coaster?

The Snowball A5, 4/4, 2pp

Its off the page:
Over the past year, we have seen a steady growth in graphic design to print or OTP (Off The Page). Projects ranging from brochures to business cards and direct mail.

The Snowball commission:
Even the mighty Google are getting into it but that is another story, for another post but today, the Christmas rush has started with this flyer, that existing client, friend and all round dance guru; Daniel Murrell has commissioned for his up-coming Christmas dance party, "The Snowball". Marketing has taken the shape of, word-of-mouth and Facebook but is being reinforced and backed-up with, this A5, double sided flyer. Daniel is one our best loved and established clients but discerning is his middle name and knowing him like we do, the usual Christmas iconography was not going to cut the mustard so here we have created from scratch and hand-drawn tis Snowball motif as the identity for this very special evening event.

How was it created?
The motif started life as sketch and then was scanned and taken into Adobe Illustrator, where is was re-created as a vector based artwork. The scroll work was time consuming and for the most part, drawn by hand. Once this stage was complete, the motif was taken into Photoshop, where special effects were applied. The finished artwork was put together in InDesign and made ready for litho printing.

Related links:
http://www.adobe.com/creativesuite
http://facebook.com/events/TheSnowball

New Deshok business cards 2012/13

We love getting parcels:
A parcel arrived at offices offices this week, containing the new Deshok business cards for 2012/13. I am really pleased with how they have turned out. The business cards are printed full colour, front and back, they are gloss laminated. The idea being, that they stay fresh in my clients wallets once I have presented them.

Custom QR code:
I found last year that, utilising the white space on the back of the card for a custom printed QR code, was really useful. I see QR codes as a really convenient way for my clients to access my website, without having to thumbling around, keying in a web address. Especially on a smart phone.

Get your own QR code:
If you want to try this for your business cards, my friends over at: Free QR CodeTracker can provide you with a custom QR code, along with on-line tracking and analytics so you can see how many people are using it etc. Its a great service and absolutely free!.

£100? cheep @ half the price:
I still can't get used to how cheap it is to have items like this printed now. Around the £100 mark from RCS the printers. I remember when cards like this could cost £500, you just wouldn’t have entertained the notion.

The best time:
I don’t’ think there has ever been a better time to be setting-up a small business. However small your business, you can now afford to have marketing materials that are every-bit as professional as bigger companies.

I guess the only problem is... Now your customers and clients kind of expect it. : )

Related links:
http://www.rcs.plc.uk
http://www.freeqrcodetracker.com