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 ‘talk’ to your clients and customers – helping them to decide how you make them feel...
Rubbish in, Rubbish out: using ChatGPT
Create role play scenarios that suit your writing to get the best out of using AI (ChatGPT). ‘You’re (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)’. I need a heading, bullet points and 500 words. Add some urgency perhaps – ‘my job depends on this’. Or ‘have some fun with this’. Hone down the responses by asking for rewrites where it needs it.
Me, Copyright & Donald – 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 (‘I invented … fake’) news, but fake Twitter or X followers, who are no good for your brand … you heard it here first! Hands up – have you ever analysed your Twitter/ X followers? Some fake Tweeters (eX’ers) are easy to spot – the...
Gong Xi Fa Cai
Happy New Lunar Year of the Dragon! The Dragon swishes his tail and brings a year of change – and change can also bring new opportunities sparking creativity and innovation. I am a rat and in the Year of the Dragon, rats ‘will 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...
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.
