blog, blag, flagย – the mag ‘muse’
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Logo design elements
your logo does a lot of work to say something about you at first glance #1: colour Before you see a logo, its shape or name, you see its colourโฆ red: energy /love/urgency red โsellsโ โ you knew that already See project > orange:/creative /brave /confident good...
Logo design essentials
what is a logo? Before people could read, a pictorial mark would be used to identify say a fishmonger from a baker or who owned that particular cow (brand-ing). So, a logo is simply a unique graphic mark, emblem, or symbol that is used to quickly identify and remember...
Colour and your branding
Colour is one of the strongest elements of your visual branding It's probably the first thing you see, closely followed by shape. So, not only does your colour palette have to โtalkโ to your clients and customers โ helping them to decide how you make them feel about...
Rubbish in, Rubbish out: using ChatGPT
Create role play scenarios that suit your writing to get the best out of using AI (ChatGPT). โYouโre (an) x in a company like (x) and your audience are x in x market. Your tone of voice is x (and add some humour)โ. I need a heading, bullet points and 500 words. Add some urgency perhaps โ โmy job depends on thisโ. Or โhave some fun with thisโ. Hone down the responses by asking for rewrites where it needs it.
Me, Copyright & Donald โ a cautionary tale
Don’t trust a Creative Commons Licence unless the original image is fully cited and released. News photo libraries in particular charge high fees anyway, and a fine could be exponentially worse as the infringement company that found you will want a cut too.
3 ways to weed out your fake news
Ok, not Trump'd up (โI invented โฆ fakeโ) news, but fake Twitter or X followers, who are no good for your brand โฆ you heard it here first! Hands up โ have you ever analysed your Twitter/ X followers? Some fake Tweeters (eX'ers) are easy to spot โ the โeggheadโ who...
Gong Xi Fa Cai
Happy New Lunar Year of the Dragon! The Dragon swishes his tail and brings a year of change โ and change can also bring new opportunities sparking creativity and innovation. I am a rat and in the Year of the Dragon, rats โwill experience growth and energy and will...
“There is Always Hope” – Banksy exhibition review
Thoughts on Banksy Before going to 'The [unauthorised] Art of Banksy' exhibition in London last week (totally worth a visit), I took the time to listen to a podcast series on BBC Sounds to give me a bit of back story and help me understand him better (we have no...
Advent-type calendar
This year I have made an advent image calendar of my favourite typefaces. These are coupled with a colour flow, picking the second colour to go into the next frame. I’ve also picked up words beginning ‘Advent’. I love words, especially when you pick at them – there weren’t quite enough for the 24 days, but, despite their same beginnings, they mean so many different things.
Happy Independence Day!
Happy Independence Day to all my American friends here and over there.I askedย Bing to make me a '4th July celebrations image, in the style of Jasper Johns' and it came up with this in about 30 seconds.It's pretty good. Looks very AI.Saved me a ton of time. Is that...
Apples and Kings
The coronation, a major event in 2023, but did you know Sir Jony Ive designed the emblem? Sir Jony Ive, the legendary designer at Apple who helped shape the iconic look and feel of some of the world's most popular tech, used his minimalist, elegant design aesthetic,...
Gong hei fat choy!
This is the year of Rabbit, a symbol of longevity, peace, and prosperity in Chinese culture. 2023 is predicted to be a year of hope.
Each of the 12 lunar year animals has it’s own story.
Stories are one of the most important elements in your branding, because they connect your humanity to your audience and help you become their first choice.
The story of the rabbit is a bit like the hare and the tortoise. Funny how moral tales cross cultures, I guess it means we all share similar values…
ChatGPT – I didn’t write this
AI copywriting, it's been bubbling around on the horizon and all of a sudden it's front and centre. There has been a lot of rumbling โ is it a tool or the future for copy? To test it out I created an account (it's FREE!) at chat.openai.com and asked it to 'write me a...
Rule 1: own your domain and hosting
Iโm not always working on big projects โ I am also found coming to the rescue on small ones. In this case Gary from Sublime Installations had fallen out with a big Yell-ow company who were hosting his website. This is roughly how our first conversation went. Hi Angie,...
Semiotics, what is it and why you should be bothered
Image includes screen representation ofย Universal Pictures 'They Live' When you're researching for a new logo or re-branding, you will naturally flex into the art of semiotics. What means what to who and why. What makes them bothered to choose. How do you 'fit' in...
From here to Epiphany…
The thing I love about Christmas time is that it is a time for bunkering down and feeling thankful for my family. From Christmas day to Epiphany. This year is special as we have mum here again for the duration. Last year, as for most, was a quick Turkey dinner in a...
Conscious brands
โ what are they, who are they and how to find out if you are one We had the acid test this last year on brands. Brands who stepped up during the pandemic, who looked after their people and helped us all ride the wave. They lifted us up and helped make our lives...
๐Clubhouse โ what is it, should you be bothered?
A redrawn Apple emoji, originally designed by Raymond Sepulveda, Angela Guzman and Ollie Wagner Read time span:ย flash Clubhouse โ a quick overview First off โย you need to have an Apple Phoneย as it's an App and only on IOS right now (Android soon!). Itโs an emerging...
Gung Hay Fat Choy!
HELLO to a new Chinese year โ the year of the Ox. Marketing & horoscopes โ Chinese or otherwise, archetypes, avatars, personas,ย tribes… When you are in business โpigeon-holingโ โ grouping and naming potential customers โ is a big deal. To try and find a way to talk to someone that; you donโt know, havenโt met yet (interacting on social platforms counts) โ to give them the thing that you have, that they want โ is a big deal. ‘Knowing’ your customer is the cornerstone of marketing. You need to be playing to the right crowd. And if you know, or can predict, which gig they want to go to next โ you have sight of the Holy Grail.
welcome to the 21st year of the 21st century
welcome to the 21st year of the 21st century! 21 + 21 โ that adds up to 42, my favourite number… …the meaning of life and everything (Hitchhikers Guide to the Galaxy), and in I Ching the hexagram means โincreaseโ. It’s a time to expand, develop, be strong, be generous, to replenish, and use wealth and resources wisely for the greater good. If only.
Colour goes… back to the futureโฆ
Colour predictions are a big event, and Pantone is a major influencer. Fashion brands, makers and interior designers will be gearing up to be on-trend, because colour is such an important part of how we express ourselves. Colour can make us feel more comfortable, more assured, more attuned. And these two colours will be woven into our lives next year, hoping to change the mood of us all.
Happy Thanksgiving!
Simply this… I am giving thanks this week for four โoven readyโ (to quote Boris & a nod to ‘Turkey’) vaccines that are being readied to roll out.I am especially excited by the Oxford University/ Astra Zeneca vaccine that seems to be the most portable.I am full of new hope for 2021
Go get ’em tiger!
Being in the business of branding, like most designers โ the most difficult brand to create is your own. Even though you know your own clients, and the work you like to do, itโs still difficult to be objective about yourself. When you are working for a client, you are working towards a goal, usually a deadline for a brand, re-brand, or campaign. Youโve worked out and agreed a budget, youโre part of a team. So the only way you can effectively brand for yourself, is to become your own client, or hire another designer… which does work in large agencies, but not for any self-respecting consultant designer I know. Tantamount to cheating in an exam?!
Let me entertain you!
The attention economy and our infinite appetite for distractions is the subject of a lovely RSA short and thought it was worth a share, and a rant! The talk is by James Williams from 2017 (the animation is new). The more I listened, the more I nodded.
Howโs your mojo?
We have had months of mojo mangling. Our boundaries between home and work have mingled. Is your mojo all fired up and ready for the rest of the year? … probably not. Iโve worked from my home studio for a long time, here are my tips to get your mojo on track ๐
Inspiration and where to find it
Solving design problems is my thing. I like to research by reading the brief, having a chat, sometimes seeing how others have solved the problemโฆ but the one thing I have to do isโฆ sleep on it. By my bed you will find a sketchbook where I work through ideas before going to sleep, or to capture them as I fall into, or wake from, sleeping. If you can hold onto a question that you want to solve โ your lovely brain has a whole night to try and figure out the answer for you.
Excuse me …a LinkedIn top tip
If you’ve invested in your brand, or just have an unusual name, it’s good for you to hear it properly, and whoever is saying it, not to find out later that they’ve just spent an hour mis-pronouncing it and feel a bit foolish. Here is a LinkedIn top tip…
Every day is my independence day!
THANK YOU! I am incredibly grateful to all my clients, and people who recommend me to new clients, or who โlikeโ my posts, or tweets. I feel blessed that some clients have kept me going during the Covid-19 lockdown, and throughout the year give me projects of all sizes, keeping the wolves from my door.
Be a good egg + go to work
I made this picture a few weeks ago. It was my response to how I feel about the 'return' to work. Unsteady, like balancing on an egg. But we need to go back to work, and juggle with the virus, and still conqueror the spread. That we are on an island, isolated until we...
Every Mind Matters: Grief & Covid-19
I was awake at 5.30 this morning , despite having had a late bed time. (OK, I did fall asleep on and off watching a documentary on Vimeo about new ways of designing office space at Norman Foster architects and had to keep rewinding!). After realising I was so awake...
This time next year…
We’ll meet again, don’t know where, don’t know when โ sorry โ are you now singing that in your head? ;D
Happy Birthday! (April Fool!)
Itโs my birthday today, well one of them. I have a few on the internet. Sites that we sign up to quite often want us to give up our birthday. It comes in handy sometimes, restaurants, clothing retailers, perfume and skincare, anywhere that you might treat yourself...
How to take a creative leap
We are all creative creatures, artists are compelled to be consistently creative. The rest of us will have an epiphany about something in our lives, thatโs one reason why we go into business, to do something different, differently, better, or smarter. Whatโs not creative about that?
Romance your brand
Commitment, intimacy, dependability โ thatโs all we want in a relationship with a person, or a brand. Because, we donโt just consume or interact with a brand, we engage in a relationship, because itโs something that can define us, as well as them.
Seeing around corners
Who doesnโt want to know whatโs in the future? What we should we be avoiding or embracing. My thinking is that divination in all its forms, are all tools we use to help us confirm our โgutโ feelings, our intuition. Because, try as we might, we cannot see around corners, and luck over time, is inevitable.
Fall back!
Fall, yeah, I know โ itโs an American term for Autumn, but โfall back, spring forwardโ makes it easy to remember whether your day will start earlier or later -- itโs later, because the clocks go/fall back (in the โfallโ) โ so you get a pretend extra hour, itโs not a...
I donโt have a D-Day story – do you?
In the picture: the dog from next door, my gran, my mum, my 'pop' I donโt have a D-Day story to pass on, my parents were too young to fight My dads' dad would have been the right age, but he died in an accident at St Catherineโs Dock in the East End of London when my...
Yes, you can make a silk purse out of a sowsโ ear!
Goฬng Xiฬ Faฬ Caฬi Wishing you happiness and prosperity in the year of the Pig They say that you canโt make a silk purse out of a sowsโ ear. But they are wrong. In 1921 Arthur D. Little, Inc., of Cambridge, Massachusetts (of its time,one of the largest and most...
Resolution – or re-solution – shake it up!
As a graphic designer, I am a great lover of words. Iโm working with them all day, moving them, resizing them, changing their emphasis with colour, or italics, or bold, or capitalisation, or kerning them, punctuating around them to change their meaning. So, my โword...
Whatโs Thanksgiving got to do with entrepreneurs and brandingโฆ
I say, letโs have a day off and Turkey too, because if it werenโt for usโฆ ;D
Speed vs. velocity
A great project outcome needs focus, it needs a brief. It needs velocity. Are you hiring a designer to realise your vision, or to work with you to create something bigger than both of you?
There be dragons…
Dragons โ they were good for marketing comms,ย an example of viral marketing from the ancient world perhaps?!
Perspective, perception, context
I couldnโt resist this lovely shiny rabbit this Easter. It reminded me of the work of the artist Jeff Koons, who takes something small, and by making it massive, and changing the material, he challenges our perception of that thing by taking it out of context. How...
Woof! What a week!
Pancakes, passion, promises and new beginnings, brought to us with, Lent, Valentines, and now the Chinese New Year. Goฬng Xiฬ Faฬ Caฬi Wishing you happiness and prosperity in the year of the Dog If you know me, you know I love my dogs, I have three. And here are my...
Epiphany!
I am a great lover of words. As a graphic designer, Iโm working with them all day, moving them, resizing them, changing their emphasis with colour, or italics, or bold, or capitalisation, or kerning them, punctuating around them like a gardener tending and weeding....
Are you ready?
Are you ready? Do you have your on-brand Christmas festive image yet? The holidays are comingโฆ the holidays are comingโฆ
Colour psychology
A handy infographic for reference from iconicfox.auย - love their logo too! Joe Hallock Colour assignment
Can graphic design save your life?
This is the title of a rather good little exhibition exploring the relationship between graphic design and health at theย Wellcome Institute. For your next project consider how your information is being communicated, is it well signpostedย โย is the copy broken down with sensible levels of heading, are your paragraphs short. Do you have plenty of white space, are you using colour and images to both reinforce your brand and convey a message, or feeling?ย
Zello, and a summer of lucky escapes
Zello โ a walkie-talkie or free push-to-talk App free for personal use to the 110 million users who have downloaded it so far was the #1 download the week Irma hit.
Domain names for sale
Domain names for sale dontchuckthat.co.uk dontchuckthat.com imagigame.co.uk imagigame.com sme-sos.co.uk sme-sos.uk beatrixellen.uk beatrixellen.co.uk jamescharles.co.uk jamescharles.uk reduxa.co.uk hedgesandlawns.co.uk lelo.uk statu.co.uk statu.uk wazup.co.uk baebea.co.uk baebea.uk leloo.co.uk leloo.uk lenu.co.uk lenu.uk leze.co.uk leze.uk monkeysandchainsaws.co.uk monkeysandchainsaws.uk motes.me.uk motes.uk uni-corn.co.uk uni-corn.uk xeran.co.uk xeran.uk zinz.co.uk zinz.uk
The new New Year starts here!
Make a cuppa, and pick up that January list whose urgency had evaporated away way back in February. A fresh look in September of business-focused goal-setting has the benefit of eight months of insight from the current year.
Why you should #hashtag
Hashtags are not just for Twitter, or Instagram, or even Facebook and LinkedIn. Hashtags categorise content and make that content more discoverable in searches both in your social media channels and on Google. You should think of hashtags as part of your branding kit โ to engage your audience around an event you are holding, or for instance, an ad campaign.
Design by an Agile Designer
Agile software, Agile marketing, now … Agile designer … I am coining a new job title, because that’s exactly how I work as a designer, iteratively, and in sprints with my clients, so we are able to change tack when the wind changes and starts to blow from the west…
May the 4th be with you…
With your website as a communication tool, and Social Media as an ever-increasingly important marketing tool, storytelling is indicated as one of the key business skills that you need. Iโm a designer, not a writer, I work with writers to tell compelling business stories, and I know when I hear a good one. How is your story telling? Are your marketing communications telling the story you need told?
Will your โHappy Easterโ message be from a Bot?
Messaging Apps are taking over the Social Media landscape. You just need to look at the popularity of Apps like Messenger, WeChat, SnapChat and WhatsApp. Cross-platform instant messaging applications allow smartphone users to exchange text, image, video and audio...
Daffodils / Mother’s Day / Daffodils
For me, nothing says โMotherโs Dayโ, like Daffodils What is the first thing that your customers and clients think of, when they think of you? I hope that when you think of me, you think of the word โDesignerโ, along with logo, brochure, information, website, journal...
Whatโs green, has three leaves and is a good craic?
St Patrickโs Day is a great example of brilliant branding. I like to think of branding as your avatar. Because branding works 24/7 at all touch points with customers and clients โ via stationery, business cards, brochures, PowerPoint presentations, website and social media, itโs important that branding โ as your avatar โ reflects your company โ who you are, what you do, and what you stand for.
Itโs just evolution โ why you need an XX designer
As itโs International Womenโs Day, here are a few thoughts on why you need a female (XX) designer in your business lifeโฆ We are designed for survival. Men hunted, so needed to be able to distinguish between predators and prey at distance. Women as mothers and foragers...
Shrove Tuesday, Pancake Day or Mardi Gras?
Itโs all about branding. In the same way that you may be offering a similar service, or make the same widget as your competitors, what resonates with your customers or clients is that your passion, proposition and purpose or core brand is different, along with your visual branding, itโs what makes you special and stand out from the crowd.
Let’s fall in love …
New projects are like a love affair. First comes the passion for a new project, curiosity to find out all you can about the project, enlightenment on completing it, and finally commitment to an on-going relationship. I love my job!
Pantone colour of the year โ Greenery
Colour is a powerful marketing tool, reflecting the message and meaning of your brand. Because first impressions count,ย and colour is the first thing you notice in a logo or visual footprint (80% of visual information is related to colour), your colour palette works...
2017 โ Chinese New Year of the Rooster!
Goฬng Xiฬ Faฬ Caฬi, Hoฬng Baฬo Naฬ Laฬi?! Best wishes for the New Year, may I have my Red Envelope please?"! OK โ I wonโt get any red envelopes โ the customary Chinese New Year gift of โlucky moneyโ -- as I am neither young nor unmarried. In recent years, the physical...
Is it time yet?
There are high pressure times like the New Year; or the start of Spring, when we realised we glossed over the New Year panic; or after a holiday; where there is an urgency to set goals. To get something done. To start something new. As a Graphic Designer, I live by...
Brands are like snowflakes…
Snowflakes form or nucleate around a particle โ just as a company or brand is formed around an entrepreneur. In the right conditions something beautiful happens, a snowflake is formed, a brand is born.
You don’t know what you don’t know
You don’t know what you don’t know – its a weird, but true saying. There will be things you didn’t even know that you knew, that someone else would love to know. And with YouTube being second only to Google as a search engine, to increase your ranking, why not try sharing something you know?
Refresh, or reframe?
Style guidelines neednโt be a straitjacket. Instead they can be a living document, providing a framework that allows your team to be constructively creative. By having at least basic principles in place, you can ensure that there is a consistency to your branding, and the image and ethos you want to convey to the world accurately represents your vision.
hokey-cokey!
Hokey-cokey – does your branding need a refresh, do you need to shake it up?! The Tate just has, and it’s looking great!
Be like Will…
An imaginary conversation with Angie and William Shakespeare on branding, in Will’s own words…
Devolution
Devolution – a shake-up or shake down for Cambridgeshire?
Ideas are like chocolate…
Ideas are like chocolate… they can be moulded and re-moulded, be plain or made extraordinary
logos I like…
Appreciation for logos I like! Starting with… Rio 2016 Olympics
The rise and rise of Snapchat
Snapchat is no longer the app anyone past puberty couldn’t work out how to use, or if you did, couldn’t see the point of. How do I know this is true? Forbes has changed its Twitter profile image to its Snapchat avatar
Take a leap!
It takes a leap of faith to go into business for yourself. And a growing business has to leap regularly to seize new opportunities. Design is not a luxury – it is proven to make an impact on business growth … โ for every ยฃ1 businesses invest in design, they can expect over ยฃ20 in increased revenues …” [Design Council]
Monkey magic – Gong Hay Fat Choy!
Gong Hay Fat Choy! The year of the Monkey comes around every twelve years, and this year is a Fire Monkey year which won’t happen again until 2076. Lets work together to create some Monkey magic for your business in 2016 ๐
Designed toโฆ attract graduates
Is your company looking to attract graduates? If so, now is the time of year to think about how you are going to go about it. Remember, a graduate is looking to start their career โ not get a job! And you are most likely looking for someone who can grow with your company. You both need to make the right choice. Itโs a long-term commitment for both sides โ employer and employee.
2016 in colour!
First impressions count, and colour is the first thing you notice in a logo or visual footprint – 80% of visual information is related to colour. Pantone announced its colours for 2016, a pastel pink and blue. As a business purpose changes over time – this should be reflected in your visual footprint, you logo, your ‘look and feel’. Is your colour palette working for you? Does it need a seasonal tweak? Have a think, and then contact me to discuss!
Happy Christmas – quick!
The older I get, the quicker Christmas seems to come around each year โ is that the same for you? If in all your quickness, you donโt have a nice Christmas image to send out โ I have three up for grabs. If none of these take your fancy โ get in touch PD Quick and Iโll quickly make one for you!
Talking Turkey
Donโt be a jive Turkey! Are you Going Cold Turkey on your current visual brand? Do you have a new project that you donโt want to be a Turkey? Lets Talk Turkey!
IFTTT โ your free personal assistant
If This Then That – it does this and that so you don’t have to
Trick or treat!
Festive Halloween muse-ings. Your treat – how to make Twitter summaries from your Wordpress site
20 x 20 PowerPoint
Death by PowerPoint is under threat by the advent of PechaKucha!
Give yourself an apple
Give yourself an apple | Read a new book? Got a new phone? Installed new apps? Upgraded to Windows 10? Been on a course? Visited a new place? Met new people? We are always learning something new, it’s great, I love it!
7 tips to taking your own profile photo …and looking good!
Here are a few guidelines to help you take a decent photo. It could be a selfie, or better still a friend or colleague can help โ a new photo is a great way to keep your profile looking fresh (how old is your profile photo?!). So here are a few tips for sharing!
Monkeys and chainsaws
My first boss and mentor - Frank Schofield ย would often mutter 'monkeys and chainsaws' - as he tackled clients given access to DTP - desktop publishing - for the benefit of aย younger audience. Prior to 'DTP' clients would never go near design, they had a pen, or a...
social media images cheat sheet
How to get the perfect image size for you social media posts. Social media cheat sheet for Facebook, Twitter, Google Plus and You Tube, plus two catch-all sizes
5 website design tips
A website – like any other project, needs planning. It needs to have a goal. You need to know who will be looking at it, and why. You need to plan those user ‘journeys’, anticipate expectations, and deliver appropriate feedback – that’s as simple as a link taking you where you are expecting it to!
2015 – officially the year of LIGHT!
2015 – the International year of Light. Light and colour and space are important in all aspects of our lives. Itโs a mood- changer and can say so much without words. So when you look at your corporate colours, how do they make you โfeelโ, or more importantly, how do they make your customers feel? How about your website, is it full of light, or dank and dreary?
Happy Easter!
Easter is different. Every year it moves, not fixed by dates, but by the moon โ the nearest full moon after the Spring Equinox. It’s a time of hope and renewal. Just look in the garden if religion isn’t your thing; new life is inspiring.
Happy Mother’s day!
There are two things we should give our children: one is roots, the other is wings. OK, so what’s that got to do with business? We are currently commemorating the centennial years of the suffragette movement, yet board level appointments for women are still lacking, so I consider myself lucky enough in my career to have worked with two female CEOs โ Julie Baddeley and Rosemary Mc Conkey.
Happy Valentines!
Happy Valentines! A muse on the meaning of the day, and free Valentine cards to download (PDF)
recent projects
