Claire's Gifts and Bobs is a small start-up making bespoke presents for all occasions such as Mother's Day, Birthdays, Christmas and baby showers. All the items are hand-crafted with personal customisation. My task was to brand this start-up to reflect the nature of the business.

I first started off looking at hand drawn fonts that were a bit 'rough around the edges' that give that look and feel. Once I had settled on a logotype, I thought some gift-like icons along with some floral images would suit the branding but keeping them in a handcrafted style so everything was seamless and could be applied to a range of different packaging media, labels and cards. I wanted the colours to be bright and used a complimentary pastel palette.

I started off using good old pen and paper. I start a lot of projects off this way by doodling in sketchbook to get the ideas on my head into some form. This helped with layout and composition when creating elements in Adobe Illustrator.

After sharing a teaser on social media, I had a good response from other designers and creatives which is always nice, but the client is the main person and she was absolutely delighted with the out come. Claire said it gave her business that friendly but professional look which gave her customers confidence in her brand.

Kevin Bishop

FREELANCE GRAPHIC DESIGNER

Jack of all trades. Master of a few. Graphic and web designer with a fetish for beautiful typography.

Robust conceptual thinking and skilful execution blend to help me create and develop strong ideas whilst keeping them relevant to the brief. Taking the consumers needs with the importance of brand purpose and positioning can be a tricky balancing act to avoid design becoming simply decoration. This is where effective communication is key.

After graduating from Norwich School of Art and Design, I have clocked-up over 9 years working in-house for creative agencies designing and artworking before gaining my freelance wings just over a year ago. I sometimes collaborate with a collective of other talented creatives depending on the clients brief. Staying in-touch with web developers, photographers, copywriters and illustrators has helped me keep an open-mind and given me an eclectic pool of inspiration I can draw upon.

Whilst working direct for my own clients I also contract for creative agencies when they need the extra support. This continuously pushes me to expand on my own skill-set, as I believe if you are not learning, you are just standing still.

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