Character Design: Tech Detective

I was approached by a design agency in Manchester to illustrate robot characters for their client, a tech company who were looking for something quite specific.

I had the free rein to come up with suggestions of robots that would best suit their brand. Out of the ideas I suggested they opted for the detective and their dog.

Character design - pixels

Character design - vectors

Character design

In early sketches, I used a rough and ready style, and also provided a vector version. Vector art can be helpful in reproduction as it can scale to any size, from a pin badge to the side of a van.

In design apps, vector brushes can create very good clean line work, but I still find that they can't quite match the variation and liveliness of line work in pixel form, due to how software needs to process the data. Even converting pixels into vectors with the very best industry tools will smooth off lines and simplify them. I'm sure it won't be long before line work and speed of drawing is captured perfectly in pixels or vectors with no discernible difference, we're very nearly there. Saying that the software doesn't really matter, as long as the end product looks great.

This work was created in clip studio and the vectors in affinity designer. Affinity designer is super fast, but also Clip studio has the ability to export pixels in 4K and 600dpi resolution, which makes bigger files but keeps the aesthetic intact. Whatever gets the job done.

Links:

Illustration

Illustration update, Easter 2022

Festival mascots, illustrations of folks doing live shows and live drawing at events. Just a sample of the last few months of output...

Edinburgh Festival Publicity

Heading off to the Edinburgh festival this year? Need posters, flyers and a social media pack for all your online stuff? I've got you covered.

How about some illustration to really make your idea pop out? Edinburgh is a tough space to promote in at festival time (I should know), publicity needs to be super targeted so potential punters can see what you're about in the 2 seconds it takes to walk by your poster. Get in touch for a quote.

Toby Foster's Disco

Poster illustration design

Comedy at the Kings

Branding and logo design - Wentworth Music Festival

Branding & Graphic Design: Making Presentations

Making Presentations is a training company that specialises in presenting skills, online and face to face.

The design work, logo, icons and deck slides are all bespoke. This is communication design, where the artwork has a very specific job to. The icons are more detailed illustrations, to keep online attendees engaged longer. The series of deck slides also are illustrations, in a simple neutral style to connect with as broad a demographic as possible and guide the attendees through their training journey.

Making Presentations founder Richard Pascoe put a lot of thought into what he needed for his artwork slide deck, and it shows.

Manchester Open Exhibition 2022, list of artists and work

Here's a list of all the artists and work at the Manchester Open Exhibition 2022, at Home.

NO.	ARTIST NAME	ARTWORK NAME	PRICE
1	Amy Mizrahi	The Great Escape	£4,200.00
2	Emma Reynolds	Community Action - Peaceful Protest is a Human Right	£35.00
3	Natasha Klutch	Visit Britain	£300.00
4	Mike Thorpe	Got a ticket to my destination	£525.00
5	Mary Monk	Perspectives on Rochdale	£180.00
6	Jude Wainwright	Insignificant
7	David Lowe	Alpine Bar
8	Stephen Snoddy	'Untitled 183'	£300.00
9	Tanith Mab	Waiting for The Singularity like .. :0 :I :3	£300.00
10	Jen Orpin	Stand Your Ground	£4,995.00
11	Paul Buckley	Meltdown in Granadaland	£225.00
12	Chloe Watts	I'd like a new brain
13	Lee Crocker	Cornerhouse Cinema 2020	£300.00
14	Steve Sutton	Uprising	£300.00
15	Leon Buzz Baldry	Spring Blue	£150.00
16	Paulette Bansal	THAT WAY TO PANJIM	£375.00
17	Sarah Gardner	Juicy II	£120.00
18	Heather Alderson	A Funny Old Conversation	£295.00
19	Helen Heery	Blue Funk 1	£60.00
20	Sibylle Faulkner-Gohner	There's "Still Life" in my Kitchen	£250.00
21	VooDoo Imaging	Stay Dirty	£150.00
22	VooDoo Imaging	Hands	£150.00
23	Jane Fraser	Bins, Back Piccadilly	£150.00
24	Malcolm Slate	Search Party
25	Ngozi Ugochukwu	Let's take a Moment	£540.00
26	Lee Crocker	Art Thug	£250.00
27	Anthony Bebro	Reunited under a crusade of tears before the sun goes down	£7,500.00
28	Dave W Smith	Jewel of the Himalaya	£580.00
29	Marian Jazmik	Cacti
30	Lee Hardman	Making Faces I	£275.00
31	Lee Hardman	Making Faces II	£275.00
32	Gareth Cairns	WALTER	£250.00
33	David Lunt	Singularity	£800.00
34	Ashleigh Lewis	A little bit lost
35	Ashleigh Lewis	The parts of himself left behind
36	Leslie Thompson	Brown Bear	£300.00
37	Creative City England CIC's Manchester Women's Groups	Connected Jewels
38	John Lawanson	The Peacock
39	Sarah Connell	The Twilight Cone	£950.00
40	RYUJI GOTO	Hope for the Future - Faith in Young Torch Bearers
41	28 Or Not 28	Sundae Funday	£500.00
42	Jack McConnell	Easy to quit when you're not at the pub	£250.00
43	Susy Robson	Silverdale	£265.00
44	Jerusha Green	Still	£250.00
45	Katie McGuire	Pipeline	£65.00
46	Jasmir Creed	Other Home	£6,000.00
47	Scott Sadler	Manchester Skyline
51	Elle Brotherhood	Pixeled Rose	£250.00
52	Michael McGinley	Shapfell	£195.00
53	Lee Baxter	Investors Only	£495.00
54	Mario Popham	Bickershaw, Leigh from Strange Eden	£950.00
55	Stuart York	Ribblehead	£70.00
56	Fawn Parker	Sinner	£50.00
57	Rory Chisholm	Manchester Courtyards; a proposal for Ancoats
58	Rick Roberts	Portrait of a Cheese and Onion Pie.	£495.00
59	Izzy Lezcano	Hanging out with Nature
60	Christopher Lundie	Magnolia Walls
61	Sarah Connell	Perennial, Image 319	£250.00
62	Nan Collantine	Oceans Apart no.20 (thin ice skating)	£1,200.00
63	Helen Davies	Waiting on the World	£550.00
64	Amanda Hancock	Printers Pair
65	Morgan Jayne Edwards	Quietly reminiscing
66	Michelle Topping	Evade	£1,500.00
67	Bill Usher	Manchester Central Library January Rain	£350.00
68	Kay Shah	Self Isolated/Isolated Self	£1,400.00
69	Ellie Kennedy	Samuel Alexander Southern Extension
70	Nia Moore	Lucid Daydream	£500.00
71	Scottee	The Legacy of Poverty	£500.00
72	Javed Siddiqui	The night of the moon	£250.00
73	John Carney	Symbolic Retribution #1	£1,200.00
74	Mancsy	Pankhurst 2021	£250.00
75	Kamran Ali & Martha Jean	Barber Shops of Levenshulme
76	Christopher J Wood	Brian Plays The Trumpet
77	Izzy McGarry	City limits	£50.00
78	Martha Duncan-Zaleski	Frank	£350.00
79	Caz Latham	Oxford Road from Grosvenor Square Gate
80	Olga Fedechko Bennett	Inside the Earth	£600.00
81	Jane Tonge	Liquid Stone	£325.00
82	Mick Timpson	Exhaust	£175.00
83	Sarah-Clare Conlon	Saturnine Night	£150.00
84	Julia Keenan	Youngling	£195.00
85	Mary Lou Smith	Memory Maps - Age 7 & 13	£200.00
86	Gill Moore	Filaments- 1	£195.00
87	David Hoyle	Funnily Enough!!	£500.00
88	Hugo da Silva	Never the same	£1,500.00
89	Patrick Hollis	Ena Sharples
90	Ian McKay	Achtung 74 - "Hang On In There Baby" Series	£620.00
91	Georgia Noble	Moving Castle	£3,350.00
92	Anya Shilton	A caterpillar, snake, fish, turtle and octopus
93	Claire Leonard	The Park	£60.00
94	Victoria Flood	Awakening	£250.00
95	Janette Byrne Artist Jb	Picasso and Friends at the Gallery	£180.00
96	cal	sonder	£170.00
97	Ailsa Johnson	Mystical Black Cat	£295.00
98	Helen Redmond	Rob
99	Frobi	Piccadilly Beach, Costa del Mancunia
100	Daniel Waggett	Neolithic human with Mitch a budgerigar
101	Jermaine Williams	TRON	£50.00
102	Horace Lindezey	GM Bus	£250.00
103	Honor McGregor	The Burley Girls	£120.00
104	Tim Seniuk	Heart of Glass
105	Joel Slater	Fighty
106	Cyward	Manchester's unseen 11	£65.00
107	Laura Nathan	Busy Hands	£1,800.00
108	Maria Sinkinson	The Boy
109	Georgia Noble	Fire in the Sky	£3,650.00
110	Vanessa Cuthbert	Still Life in Blue	£2,700.00

111	Carlos Ferg	Isolation	£1,500.00
112	Chris Alton	What Mortals Henceforth Shall Our Power Adore
113	Andrew Desmier	Halle St Peter's	£295.00
114	Sweeten To Taste	1000 days	£2,000.00
115	Sabina Simner	The Thinker
116	Jamie Kirk	It's not what you said, it's the way you said it	£780.00
117	Zoe Winston	Faces of the Pandemic	£1,000.00
118	Marc Provins	Nine Walks	£750.00
119	Philip Westcott	Zoom Meeting	£125.00
120	Janet Brady	Surfacing	£200.00
121	Tracey Hollis Rowe	Walk In Silence	£345.00
122	Aidan Doyle	Salford Shopping City Red	£120.00
123	Emma Pannell	The last Nightingale	£1,150.00
124	Steve Forrest	Quantitative Easing - 'whatever floats your boat'	£750.00
125	James Unsworth	Jake	£400.00
126	Bill Ayres	This is a Storm Warning #2	£125.00
127	Mirko Lazzarin and Tito Ghiglione	Uninhabited	£120.00
128	Pam Ward-Speers	Life	£170.00
129	AUDRINKA.ART	Fantastic Susie	£160.00
130	Phillip Breadney	In The Garden
131	Andrew Orton	Szent lstviin	£2,500.00
132	Burcu Urgut	Dr. Price	£300.00
133	Hassani Sara	Blue Sight
134	Maddy Venus	Wensley Garden Straw Bags	£90.00
135	Arnold Pollock	Kam
136	Robert Hiley	Will	£200.00
137	Sophie Newell	Everett	£150.00
138	Nicky Wilson	Farfisa at Night and Day Cafe: Artist Proof
139	Lucie Forest	Mermaid 1	£350.00
140	Mark Carey	todmordensun	£220.00
141	Simon Garner	After Lowry	£45.00
142	Gregory Fenwick	Salvador Danny	£200.00
143	Gregory Fenwick	Ruby	£200.00
144	Ciara Leeming	Eco heroes #2 - Nazar and Ash
145	tabx110	Slip through the cracks
146	Bob Dent	Court of ions, Alhambra, Spain.
147	Amy Eckersley	Pen Portrait 1
148	Nicole Mullan	Futile Boundaries	£350.00
149	Ruth Fildes	Cogitation	£185.00
150	Pauline Bowling	Facemask for the lady of Shalott
151	Hannah Mclennan - Jones	The Spice Girls made me gay: Kits Out
152	Holly Staniforth	I fall back asleep when I dream of you	£75.00
153	Mariel Osborn	The Sparkle Wave	£280.00
154	Elsie Miller	Me	£50.00
155	Daniel Glenister	SENSE OF ORDER	£110.00
156	Xhi Ndubisi	Our Son	£1,000.00
157	Richard Bennett	The Manchester Tiles
158	Emily Davies	Fragments of Manchester - Manchester Airport	£100.00
159	House of J by Jodie Reynolds	XL Wavy Rug Mirror	£450.00
160	Paul Pickford	Kapow!	£325.00
161	Leoma Bere	Samurai Frog
162	Maria Beswick	Untitled	£100.00
163	Jack Bean	Vegan For The Animals	£25.00
164	Victoria Hart	Deforestation of the Sea
165	Tina Finch	Echo Beach	£860.00
166	Jonathan Traynor	19:S6	£350.00
167	Nick Jordan	Spore, Parasol #01, 2021 (Edition of 6)	£280.00
168	Joshua (Joshi) Williams	Leatherman down by the docks	£60.00
169	Huw Martin	AGATHA	£450.00
170	Chantel Barbour	Changing Frames	£100.00
171	J11mes Pyle (Le Chat Blanc Design)	Beetham Brush	£165.00
172	Nathan Clapham	City Railway Bridge
173	Julie Cassels	'We View Things Differently Now' - Tintype - Victory Adjusting Her Sandal 410 BC	£155.00
174	Mo von Kleist	Do ya think I'm sexy?	£60.00
175	Renee Green	Close Knit	£100.00
176	Robert Coyle	Standedge, Marsden	£350.00
177	laura Maxon-Groves	Her Death Dance	£195.00
178	Rebecca Dodd	Portrait of my Parents
179	Vivian Lally	Ian Curtis	£450.00
180	William Dobbs	Plastic Armageddon	£300.00
181	Bronte Melling	Amber Cloud
182	Sandy Rushton	Onlooker	£180.00
113	Alistair Woods	Midwife on Emergency Call	£750.00
114	Mark Hobbs	Portraits from "You Caught Us At A Strange Time "
115	Lilina Butler	cake and frog
116	Amelia Welbourne	Morning Routine	£248.00
117	Maria Jackson	l tried and failed to collect up all your tears (cont.)
118	Alena Ruth Donely	Eat the Frog	£350.00
189	Emily Simpson	I need more than memes to save me	£390.00
190	Sophie Knapper	Manchester Mandala
191	Felix Pereira	Restricted Access to the Winter Garden.
192	Fritz Fitton	Out of the caverns of rain	£225.00
193	Mike Chavez-Dawson	Refined Pareidolic Drawing,(Hokusai, Beardsley, Picasso and Matisse), 2020	£475.00
194	Stuart Mollison	Home	£250.00
195	Kay Mcintosh	Through the Hills of Holmfirth	£460.00
196	John Merrill	Bm
197	MikeSian Studio	Woke Kids
198	Jayne Pellington	Merchants Bridge	£195.00
199	June Newton	Sunset Dairy House Lane	£140.00
200	Claire Groves	Mare and Foal in Rochdale	£170.00
201	John Cooper	1. Distance - A comic strip diary about life during Covid	£100.00
202	John Cooper	2. Distance - A comic strip diary about life during Covid	£100.00
203	Len Grant	Summer in the City: Miles Platting	£395.00
204	Nazma Noor	Self Portrait
205	Shy Bairns	Things We Liked This Month, 2020 - 2022
206	Simon Rogerson	Mourning Mother	£175.00
207	Gillian Smithson	Map	£485.00
208	Andre Hora	Faith	£400.00
209	Anne Goldberg	Senetti Reds	£2,200.00
210	Julia Preston	Moldovan Pumpkins	£275.00
211	Anne Bardsley	Very Foxy	£550.00
212	Oscar Barton	Poo Pao man strikes again
213	Darren Nisbet	Run Around or The Grind	£500.00
214	Joshua Sowa	On the Line	£850.00
215	Diana Terry	Hill Farm above Quarry	£180.00
216	Dave McCorry	Obstacle IV	£300.00
217	Holly Gome	Saint JLD
218	Sophie McBriarty	Stay Alert	£666.00
219	Minor Works Depot/Ian Parkin	Anna Neagle & Washing Machine	£650.00
220	Sally Cartwright	Ted the Tortoise.	£895.00
221	Martin Orme	Magenta	£150.00
222	tara n. leach	It's time!

223	Punked Monk	Grandelion	£250.00
224	Rhian Bolton	Hold Me	£150.00
225	lain Andrews	Golem II	£3,500.00
226	lain Andrews	The Eat Me
227	Ged King	Walking	£250.00
228	Colin Batchelor	At The Seaside
229	ANGELA FOX	GEORGE
230	So Ping Law	Lotus Pond in Summer	£180.00
231	Stanley Harland	Blackfriar's Bridge, Manchester	£200.00
232	mr pleasing	Travel lnterdimensionally	£55.00
233	Jayne Pellington	Potteries Way	£195.00
234	Sally Cartwright	Birds have no Borders.
235	Hilary Pendlebury	What Next?
236	abbey lam	I am ocean
237	Cait Gilfellon	A Body Of Work
238	Maria Jackson	I tried and failed to collect up all your tears
239	Freeform Design	All At Sea	£450.00
240	Tara Collette	Skinner Series #1
241	Robin Broad!ey	Loading	£2,650.00
242	Petronio da Costa	Engenho Falcao
243	Mike Wolfe	Household Shrine
244	Jane Chavez-Dawson	MEDUSSA (AVEDON) 2019 to 2021	£795.00
245	Faye Cooke	Touch.
246	Tricia Ashworth	No Space Between Us	£150.00
247	Brigid Brind	Self-Portrait, lockdown 2
248	Andree Adley	lcon-2
249	Yolanda Perez Sanchez	My Countryside	£450.00
250	Collette Costello	All The Single Ladies	£275.00
251	Paul Anthony	Nights of Melancholia	£350.00
252	Andy Maher	Keepsake	£3,000.00
253	Matthew Button	Manchester in Lockdown	£50.00
254	Michelle Hickman AKA 8bitnorthxstitch	The Myth, the Mistakes and the Mangling of the Truth
255	TITUS AG8ARA	Built on Cotton and Coal	£11.00
256	Nigel Kimber	Pendulum	£150.00
257	Nigel Kimber	Balance	£150.00
258	Alan Timpson	Arachnophobia
259	Ruby Owen Hull	Another Place
260	James Goodchild	All of the Light Whilst Walking	£100.00
261	Stephen Marland	Llandudno	£175.00
262	Ramon Omolaja Adeyemi	Water Thrill	£5,500.00
263	Harrison Hinde	A Modern Ophelia	£5,000.00
264	Thatgirlhas_knits	Duvet Dress	£40.00
265	8ANKSIE	Isolated Canvas
266	Pete Marsh	Ash Wilson Band	£1,560.00
267	Art with Heart and Joe Smith	Charity Shop Hot-Shots, Janet and Cindy
268	Sue Hodnett	Estuary
269	Catherine Thorpe	Voyeurism
270	Matt Thompson	Shadows, Oxford Road Station	£595.00
271	Jason Carr	Freedom in the Falling	£2,950.00
272	Tracey Turner, Birdie & Blossom	Just Nipping Out	£450.00
273	Paul Mellor	Serayah, from Oldham	£2,000.00
274	Jay Clarke	Photographic Collage of 144 Dogs and Cats in Ryebank Fields	£70.00
275	Danielle Dalton	Untitled (Three Dogs)	£300.00
276	Vivien Ashton	Gardens Uppermill Viaduct
277	Becky McGillivray	What Are You Dain?!	£150.00
278	Sally Broadbent	"Why won't you help me"?
279	Lee Page Hanson	Heart for Arts Sake {Coeur Pour L'Art)	£70.00
280	Lorraine Rudyard	Fun and Frolics at the Seaside	£750.00
281	/\liqa Mrozowska	Rybeczko (R6Za & Dylan)	£900.00
282	ItMol Roberts	The labours of Sisyphus	£275.00
283	Andrew Johnstone	untitled {shell)	£300.00
284	Lola Murphy Wood	Manchester Bee
285	Jonathan Wiltshire	Sea overs Beyond the Sunset Sea	£300.00
286	Terry Williams	Trees and Squares and The Sun as well	£350.00
287	Ilifumi Ogasahara	Night on Earth: Manchester I New Cathedral Street	£190.00
288	Fawn Staszko-Forde	Allis love
289	Amy Ellison	Kylie Platt	£250.00
290	Alison Scott	She's giving him her phone number!	£240.00
291	Kirsty Gbasai	Home
292	Jon Biddulph	Microbe Muybridge
293	Andy Smith	Boarder Patrol.	£450.00
294	Toss Parkinson	The Room	£150.00
295	The Marquetry Shack	Stevenson Square Going Nowhere	£900.00
296	fox Murphy Wood	Tiger Tiger
297	Nicky Jones	Kind face wall pot {orange)	£48.00
298	Jacqueline Taylor	Chippy Tea	£2,000.00
299	Kevin Brennan	Crocodiles at the seaside
300	Beverley Coleclough	Still Waters 9 Broome Town Beach	£1,200.00
301	Claire Buckley	No Name 2
302	Famzo Faraz	High Hopes	£300.00
303	Dorota Nutter	Sailing boats 11	£160.00
304	Graham Lambert	Tea, cakes and prosecco on a rainy afternoon	£275.00
305	Glasgow Unicom	Glasgow Skyline, Winter Sunrise.
306	Andee Collard	Toilet Roll	£350.00
307	Lynne Edwards	Hotspur Press	£100.00
308	Lynne Edwards	Castle Hotel	£120.00
309	Anthony Edwards	Nobody's Coming Anyway
310	Michael Clayton	Can you see me...l'm here (2)	£160.00
311	Michael Clayton	Can you see me...l'm here. (1)	£160.00
312	Jo Wright	Cuckoo Stones	£335.00
313	Nicola Smith	CHAIR DANCING Fitness TAKE 2
314	Gymnast (Cathy Wilcock and Chris Lyon)	Ghost
315	Ellie Nicholls	(untitled)	£360.00
316	Dave Tynan	Bowie on Black
317	Lowri Evans	Children's Drawings into Toys (Crocodile)
318	Abi Piper	Sky Rat	£110.00
319	Judy Mylrea	Fenrir Breaks from his Chains
320	Felia Lim	larung Gar
321	Alan Begg	Untitled (red II)	£625.00
322	Chris Bardsley	St Peter's Square	£150.00
323	Kat Wood	Eggs & Plums	£180.00
324	Neil Wheatley	delta 1010000	£100.00
325	Neil Wheatley	delta 1001111	£100.00
326	Jive Prints	Bounce	£180.00
327	Laurence Bell	Uprising	£125.00
328	Thomas Larkin	Substation, Chlorophyll Print using an Ivy Leaf	£400.00
329	Yan Tee	Non Specific Dread.	£80.00
330	Daniel Parker	Brown Sauce Buttys	£500.00
331	Katie O'Neill	Pain
332	Victoria Udeh	Summer Breeze	£50.00
333	Ink Flo Store	Greenhouse	£80.00

334	Anthony Ogden	Portrait of Dave
335	TracieMarsha ll	Meeeee (with lippy on)	£160.00
336	Alison Scott	Rush Hour	£240.00
337	lepoopski	Portrait of Lim Se-jun	£225.00
338	UlaFung	Moonshadow	£500.00
339	Andy Jamieson	Transmission	£375.00
340	Michelle Leigh	Hens	£195.00
341	Martin Fitzpatrick	Dovestones Reservoir	£200.00
342	Rounaq Potiwal	Sacred Audience	£135.00
343	Alicja Mroiawska	R6ia&Phantom	£900.00
344	Neil Smith	lmbolc002	£225.00
345	James Dyson	The Stockport Planner
346	FatRoland	Daft Punk At Home With R2-D2	£195.00
347	LucyHeer	Cat
348	Sarah-Joy Ford	A Scribble in the Margin	£750.00
349	Mary Burke	Cheetham Hill Road
350	Matthew Wood	Freedom Fighters	£275.00
351	Matthew Wood	Freedom Fighters	£275.00
352	Linda Edwards	The Jockey' Morris Man
353	PoonamPatil	Serene Reflection - Sale Bridgewater Canal	£250.00
354	TAG6Workshop	learning to fly	£99.00
355	PatridaMckenzie	Breaking out of lockdown
356	ChristopherRainham	Pied wagtail and Stones	£200.00
357	Sam Andrew	Corners Terracotta Slab	£102.00
358	Barbara Biddulph	Summer Textures	£330.00
359	Jackie Wagg	How We Live	£180.00
360	Jackie Wagg	Terrace	£180.00
361	lqra Tariq	Self-portrait	£300.00
362	Dennis Markuss	Bluefacedleicesters	£270.00
363	Clifford Saffer	Sarah on Holiday	£450.00
364	Olivia Leake	Guiding Light
365	Eloise Power	By The Roses Of The Spring	£100.00
366	Nicola Lucy	BePatientWith M.E	£50.00
367	I.Baron	Digital Swirls	£50.00
368	Michael Tierney	Playboy of the western world	£450.00
369	Calum McTidyup	2020
370	Jill Moore	Paul- Masters at Work
371	Eve Bennett	life Blood of the North Bridgwater Canal
372	Nicola.Jayne Seddon	The City I See	£120.00
373	Natalie Haycock Art	Manchester Flowers	£650.00
374	Andrew Eden Bell	FuturePlan.2	£300.00
375	JaysonGylen	Aperture	£250.00
376	himHallows	Police Actions - Authoritarian Policy	£500.00
377	Gavin Meredith	Newton Street, after a deluge.
378	Survivors Manchester: Art by Glasgow Unicorn and Poetry by Chris Egan	The Memorial Bench	£100.00
379	MilaRaczkowska	Catch and Release	£420.00
380	Dan Whitehead	Pucker	£50.00
381	Drew Wilby	Religion VS Consumerism	£70.00
382	DamarisKatona	Self Portrait (incolour)
383	Martin Nash & Mick Timpson	Tuesdays with Mick and Martin	£1,800.00
384	ShahrokhNael	Crows of Tehran
385	DonnaBerwick	The Cleaners	£250.00
386	ChenXi	Sweet Child of Mine
387	KyleScott Lawson	Miami Serieslll, S/5 22	£850.00
387	KyleScottLawson	Miami Series Ill, S/522	£850.00
388	SmartBarnett	Fun?	£200.00
389	Asma Jadakara Desai	Masjid Nasir Al - Mulk
390	Jessica Wheeler	Jaybirds
391	Jodie Teal	Sea Witch	£120.00
392	JoBeggs	Toast Rack	£185.00
393	James Campbell	Visitors
394	Drew Wilby	St Marys Church, Prestwich	£70.00
395	Samir Salim	Tony's Flytrap [The World is Yours]
396	Lorna Lucas	Gary Nubian	£180.00
397	David Hancock	Leonor(The Sphinx)
398	Julie Harper	Hydrangea Deconstruction Panel	£400.00
399	MartinMurrey	In bed, gold bed	£250.00
400	Tim Rushton	Tectonic Red	£1,500.00
401	Emma Horton	Untitled{Fireworks1)	£150.00
402	Dan Whitehead	Glimpse	£50.00
401	Eliza Gregory	Northern Lights	£40.00
404	Finch Murphy aka PHOBIA	sometimes i talk too much	£100.00
405	ErnestAstin	The Sea and Sky Patrol
406	Jon Joseph	Light Display	£275.00
407	Iona Schwalowsky-Monks	Some Were Born As Blood	£300.00
408	MikeHarte	Happy New Year
409	Gherdai Hassell	Solar	£800.00
410	Susan Gunn	Fractured Ground	£2.00
411	Eliza Gregory	Kaguya	£60.00
412	Cathy Duggan	Hotspur Press	£150.00
413	Roxana Allison	Pecan pie, from the series Solace	£400.00
414	NeilShearerPhotography	Impossible To Ignore - Laurie Williams
415	MatthewBell	The Weather Forecast
416	Winifred Greenhalgh	Untitled
417	Drew Forsyth	Kate II	£400.00
418	AndiCallen	The Hard Stare	£200.00
419	Michael Gutteridge	St. Ann's Square East, No.4	£230.00
420	Rahima lmtiaz	Covid During lockdown	£300.00
421	Swapna Gavaskar	The rush hour	£500.00
422	Ciaran Woolcombe	Couldn't pot a plant	£400.00
423	Sue Mann	Tony Wilson Place	£120.00
424	Lou Nicole	Tommie the Clown	£300.00
425	Deborah Makinde	Men In Black	£150.00
426	Alina Latypova	Earthing	£350.00
427	Gabi Komar-Dixon	Biophilia	£150.00
428	Neelam Mahmood	low Battery	£50.00
429	Simon Scott	Captain Sir Tom Moore	£700.00
430	Richard Massey	Hollywood Rd, Hong Kong	£175.00
431	Philip Wroe	Childhood Stories: Pocket Money	£150.00
432	Janet Brady	Jack's Making Trades Around his Allotment
433	AshleighBeattie	Life Jackets
434	Shalibak	Boar Man
435	Gwen Evans	Portrait of a Woman
436	Danie!Parker	GrandadTom'sKitchen
437	Kieran Healy	HAPPINESS WORKS
438	RobHall	What's going on	£6,000.00
439	Thomas Antell	Froskr	£1,100.00
440	Steve Williams	In the flames
441	MegWoods	Accidental Self Portrait	£295.00
442	Jasmine Gardner	"I am not a racist, my brother's friend is Chinese"
443	Phoebe Price	Cartilage
444	George Fell	Pangolin (2020)	£1,500.00
445	Robin Broadley	Princess Diana	£1,500.00
446	Philip Wharton	Bread and butter heroes	£920.00
447	Jo Scorah & Manchester Jewish Museum's Women's Textile Group	In the Hands of Women
448	Hathaikan Kongaunruan	Born to Run	£270.00
449	Calum Bayne	Grapes	£60.00
450	Bhaggie Patel	Pit Fired Teapot	£300.00
451	Helena Worthington	Baby Oil	£150.00
452	AnnieTortora	BIRD BOX
453	MonixaMistry	Hindu Mythology 1	£190.00
454	Monixa Mistry	Hindu Mythology 2	£190.00
455	BilalKhan	Wonderful Candle Stand	£150.00
456	Bilal Khan	Bright Candle Stand	£150.00
457	Gordon Cooke	Ceramic Form with Dolomite Glaze	£320.00
458	LUKE ARMSTRONG	Paper Samurai	£500.00
459	Sharon Howarth	The Three Sisters	£450.00
460	Thomas Bloor	Three Times	£123.00
461	LucyFollon	Leave room for Malcolm
462	Emily Seville	Granny's Garden #01
463	Emma Blackburn	Daddy Doi!
464	Helen Beaumont	Trio of glass bowls	£450.00
465	Gordon Cooke	Ceramic Form with Oxide Decoration
466	Ally Davies	Autumnal Bouquet
467	Clare Townley	HauntedRocXeryll
468	Teresa Wilson	The New Hat	£380.00
469	Annabelle Richmond-Wright	Alexa	£1,500.00
470	David Warrington	iconstruction5(kinetic}
Performance	SensSagna	FreeDrum - West African cultural performance
Performance	Matrafisc Dance	October
Performance	Cookie Love	FEVER COAT
Performance	MagdalenaKij	HardcoreCracovianka

Branding the Kings Arms, Salford

Back in 2018, I did the logo and rebranding on the Kings Arms Theatre pub in Salford, but I never did a blog, so here it is.

As a regular there they knew me well as my graphic design work for other productions had already graced their walls. When it came to their rebrand, they just had to ask.

Rebranding of the King.

The venue is pretty unique, being a great real ale pub, and also a theatre. Many times I've sat in the bar, watching it fill up in seconds as the sold-out show upstairs has its halftime break. It's a grand old place bursting with fresh new talent (The sitcom Fresh Meat was filmed there).

Above the bar is a stained glass window of a king. Not sure which one, but it was a starting point. For the rebrand, I took what was already there and gave it a bit of modern pop.

I got a lot of great feedback from Lisa, who commissioned the work and suggested the tattoos of local legends.

Using the same forms from the window; beard, robes and crown I created sketches, simplifying the stained glass into line art and turning the king to face and embrace his subjects. A new king with a broad smile who likes to put on a performance. (in my mind he sounds like Brian Blessed!).

Since the rebranding, the pub has launched its own ale, the Queen's Legs. Does the queen have hairy legs or is it the King in drag? I'm afraid even I can't reveal that.

Recent design work for the Kings Arms Salford.

Flat style graphic design

Contact: hey@johncooperdesign.co.uk

Branding for Shore Thing Theater

'Theater'? That's not a typo. My annual visit to the USA allows me to meet a lot of new creative folks with business plans. This month I've been helping Ria Toricelli with the branding of her new theatre space 'Shore Thing Theater' in New Jersey.

Simliar to a previous branding project for The Fresnel Theater in Portland, and Comedysportz Las Vegas, the brief for Shore Thing Theater was to create a brand logo reflecting the ethos of this venue. An entertainment space near the New Jersey shoreline, Shore Thing hosts live comedy, arts and education in a safe environment for the diverse surrounding community.

Working with Ria, we discussed a few different approaches, eventually settling on a logo where waves and a shoreline met with a stage and spotlights, blending the two aspects together into a memorable brand image.

Here's the final design, together with some earlier iterations, showing how the brand design evolved.

Get in touch for a design quote

Performer Publicity

Poster and flyer design for performers and theatre productions.

Branding Design - Fresnel Theater (USA)

A brand design is more than just a logo. It's a representation of what the product or service is – what it stand for. With a good brand should tell you what what it's selling at a glance. A good brand tells a story.

Matt and Krista were looking for a designer for their new community theater space, the Fresnel Theater, opening in Portland, Maine. I met Matt through Comedysportz, a comedy improv show.

He’s a really enthusiastic smart guy, and it came as no surprise that he already had a mission statement, which is a great starting point for a designer.

It answered the questions that I'd initially ask - designer to client. What are the goals of the business, what makes your company different? Descriptive words. So that I can read and listen to the language they use and tune into their frequency and start creating visuals

Branding design - The Fresnel Theater (USA)

So in designing the logo it was important to look for something that was welcoming and incorporated The keywords of playfulness community and compassion.

From a practical point of view It needed to be bright and chunky so that when transferred into signage on the building, it's seen clearly from a distance.

Matt was keen for the logo to reflect the lighthouses that portland is known for. The name fresnal comes from bevels in the lens of a lighthouse main lamp that helps focus the beam. As a designer, I love that kind of creative thinking.

Once the colours and typeface were finalised I created and branding guide. This is a reference document for printers. Most large commercial brands have very detailed branding guides, but really every business should have something like this. It’s helpful to printers and is a reliable way to future proof the consistency of your brand over time.

Here’s the final logo that Matt and Krista approved.

Face the music! Branding, web and print design for Wentworth Music Festival

A logo, a poster and a quick loading responsive website that sells tickets, for a new music festival. I love it when I get a project that covers all design disciplines for great cross branding experience.

One such recent project was Wentworth Music Festival. Working with a client I've had for many years they said 'this is what we want, and this is the deadline. It needed to be bright and punchy, but also put on show the spectacular venue itself, Wentworth Woodhouse. A large privately owned stately home outside of Rotherham.

Choice of font and colour scheme was a delicate process of finding something loud and energetic enough to capture the identity and vibrance of a music festival, while also being respectful of the venue. Chatting with the clients while knee deep in organising big name bands , I put forward a big splash illustration. Working up detailed sketch of the venue would show it off with a lot more vibrancy than a photo alone could achieve. There was also a tight deadline and go live date. Four bold colour silhouettes of non specific singers and musicians meant the pre-publicity for the event could being while waiting for the confirmation of the big names to come. After sign off the graphics were reformatted for social media covers and the project was- quite literally - read to rock!

With over 18 years of industry and design studio experience and a dedication to researching the latest design trends and web technology, it's not just about creating a look and feel , but solving design problems. JCU is more than just the final product, it's a design service.

Design is everywhere. Everywhere we look on an increasing number of screens and on signs of all sizes, each one seeking attention and engagement. We understand the DNA of design communication and how to get you noticed. We do it with efficiency and impact for clients throughout the UK and overseas.

Logo Design for Venues and Festivals

Who's a good boy? Well I suppose I am, with this recent logo design for Noddy, the mascot for Nodding Dog's outdoor socially distanced comedy gigs.

This was done on a super quick turnaround of one day. The client and comedy promoter Kev knew exactly what he wanted. I'd have liked to spend more time on the linework in the logo to be honest, but the clock was ticking, and in comedy timing is everything.

The purple works great as a primary colour for a comedy brand and the complementary teal in Noddy the Dog's collar can be used more for social media marketing.

For an example of something a little more in-depth, here are some other logo design projects.;

See more or logos and brand design work here.

Over the years I've worked in top design studios in both the North East and North West, dealing with brands for some leading dotcom companies. I'd like to think I understand the importance of a good logo and the brand image it presents.

A new company looking for an image is like sitting an exam. Can you describe what you do in fifty words? How about How condensing it into ten words? Or one sentence? Effective branding is tough to get right. It’s the hook upon which successful recognition hangs. Let us help with your next project.