Category: Blog

Blog of Steve Crooks, Freelance Graphic Designer based in Suffolk UK. News and Views about design, freelance working and related issues.

Suffolk View Magazine

Suffolk View Magazine is the publication of the Suffolk Preservation Society. The charity work to sustain the beauty and distinctive character of Suffolk. Based in Lavenham, the SPS are dedicated campaigners scrutinising planning and development policy. They ensure new development is sustainable, proportionate, well designed and respectful to Suffolk’s vernacular. If you want to read more about the SPS click here >

Suffolk View Magazine has been an important way to communicate to the SPS membership. However, as with many organisations, the SPS needed to review their spending after the COVID crisis. An extensive survey proved the magazine was valued by the membership and was a vital campaigning tool. A subsequent reflection of the magazine and its contents highlighted how the magazine could be improved. Now was in ideal time to make changes. SPS approached me to format and design a new Suffolk View.

As a Suffolk based business this was a great opportunity. We discussed the structure of the magazine and the SPS had a clear idea of the new contents. I produced a number of designs to help the SPS make an informed decision. We experimented with different colours and styles. We used these designed to canvas members of the SPS to determine the direction of the magazine design. It also proves to be an important part of the design process as it provides ‘buy-in’ from the stakeholders.

The design uses a three column grid with an additional area to provide space to caption each image correctly. The cover includes thumbnails to provide a hint as to the content. Inside, the magazine is separated into sections, each with their own design within the main structure. Additional touches help to give the design a professional feel, such as the pin-line which represents time, with the markers pointing to images and headlines reflect those points in the counties history.

Initial designs for Suffolk View exploring different layouts and styles.

As well as the printed magazine, Suffolk View is available as a download from the website. Rather than just a simple PDF, this download as had additional functionality added to allow readers to navigate the PDF by clicking links. All the advertisers have links to their websites providing added value and helping them increase leads.

You can download a digital copy of the magazine design from the Suffolk Preservation Society here >

It is always a worry to make changes to a well loved membership institution. The new Suffolk View however we have had ‘exclusively positive’ feedback from the editorial team.

Print is not dead! Magazines can be a great way to reach your audience. If you would like to know more about magazine design or this Suffolk View project, please get in touch.

November 5, 2020
Cafe Logo Designs for new Food Outlets at Suffolk Attraction

These cafe logo designs are part of a wider project for the Zoological Society of East Anglia. Banham Zoo and Africa Alive are much loved local attractions and a vital part of the conservation efforts to help many endangered animals. As they prepared to open their doors after a lengthy spell, they needed to convert a number of underused building to new food outlets. This would enable them to spread visitors out across the park by increasing their catering options. This would help lessen the queues for the main food outlets. The main food outlets were all converted to takeaway cafes. As well as limiting the queues, the new outlets would also help increase the average spend of each visitor. It would also increase the choices available and allow for future seasonal food offers.

Examples of Cafe Logo Designs for Banham Zoo and Africa Alive

I was tasked to design a number of cafe logo designs to each of the new outlets their own identity. With time and money in limited supply, the designs need to be quick, simple and effective.

Snack Shack and Ice Cream Hut logos for Banham Zoo and Africa Alive

As part of the design process we needed to consider how the outlets would be used in the future. With any attraction, seasonality is key. The ability to quickly change a food offer would be an important step. This would allow the zoos to be flexible when opening during the winter. To enable this I designed a system of empty belly signage. This is where we have the main branding as permanent signs with temporary menu boards. The menu will then swap depending on the offer.

The Keepers Hut and Old Forge at Banham Zoo. Plus example of Menu Board

Giving each outlet its own identity has additional benefits. Signage can be used over the two locations providing cost effective printing. We can build on these brands and introduce offers which can be redeemed in each zoo. This will introduce familiarity with the outlets and help encourage visits to the sister zoo.

These cafe logo designs were part of a larger project to enable the zoos to reopen. Get in touch if you would like to know more about this project. If you would like to see other logo design projects, click here.

July 2, 2020
Fundraising Event Design – The Big Rugby Run

As a graphic designer it is good to be part of fundraising event design projects. We often get caught up in everyday issues, so to break away from and produce graphic design for good causes is beneficial for everyone. I was fortunate to be involved in the Big Rugby Run. This was a wonderful initiative from PSA Academies. This event invited rugby teams in Ireland to run a virtual relay and raise money for Feed the Heroes. Feed the Heroes provides essential meals to the frontline medical staff fighting the COVID-19 pandemic.

In 5 weeks, the Big Rugby Run managed to get 115 teams registered and hundreds of rugby players involved. To date, the fundraising event has raised a staggering €30,000.

High Profile Partners

As part of the event, the Big Rugby Run team attracted some big named partners. StatSports, McDonalds, The Curragh Racecourse and the Aviva Stadium all donated prizes. The prizes were used for a draw to provide an extra incentive to the rugby clubs. The draw also offered an opportunity for many other organisations, including PSA Academies to get their name in front of the clubs and their players.

Fundraising Event Pack and Logo Design

The first task was to design a simple logo. The Big Rugby Run logo uses a clear sans serif font with some added texture to imply movement. As this is aimed at a rugby audience, the typography puts emphasis on the BIG and Run to put the task beyond doubt. The rugby ball provides a little touch to help soften the overall impact. We added the hashtag below the logo as a way to bring the content together across all platforms.

The design style used a textured background as a visual tool to bring all the elements together. This too helped to provide movement in the design. We used real rugby players from the PSA Academies, giving them a simple monotone feel. Utilising a limited colour pallet helped focus attention on the content and not overwhelm the reader. It also helps imply a disposability to the design as this is a one-off event. It also allows us the opportunity to in the future to change the colour scheme to help differentiate the event from year to year.

Social Media Support

In order to promote the event in such a short timescale, they relied heavily on social media. In order to give confidence to those considering participating we made sure all social media elements reflected the design style. Using the background as a template, the Big Rugby Run team were able to produce their own social media graphics on the fly, but keep them consistent with the main elements.

Facebook cover and Twitter header for the Big Rugby Run

Fundraising Event Design Icons

In order help the visual communication of the fundraising event design, we designed some simple icons. These were used as a way to highlight the process and break up the explanatory text. Icons such as these are a great way to distill important information helping the overall communication.

If you have a similar project for a charity or non-profit organisation, then please do get in touch. These projects are always welcome and discounts will be given to those wanting to promote a worthy cause. Recent projects include helping the Zoological Society of East Anglia fund-raising, helping Stowmarket ASD Saturday Clubs with a website and supporting the John Peel Centre with their graphics.

May 15, 2020
Zoological Society of East Anglia ‘Be Amazing’ Campaign

The Zoological Society of East Anglia runs both Banham Zoo and Africa Alive. As part of a major fundraising drive following the COVID-19 lockdown, the ZSEA approached me to help with their ‘Be Amazing’ campaign. This campaign was designed to bring donors, ticket holders and fundraisers together to maximise their support.

As part of the campaign, supporters were encouraged to raise money for the zoo and ‘Be Amazing’. The funds would be used for the welfare and food for the animals while the zoos were closed to the public.

We used Givergy as the fundraising platform. This allowed ZSEA to run both donation pages and a competition pages. The competitions were all administered by the Givergy system giving the ZSEA the knowledge these were all covered by UK gambling laws and the winners chosen at random. For my part, I helped provide engaging graphics to support the competitions. These included some amazing people, such as people singing songs, ballet schools and local businesses donating prizes.

Support graphics for the Zoological Society of East Anglia Givergy fundraising site

With so many organisations fundraising during this time it was important to the Zoological Society of East Anglia to look as engaging as possible. In order to achieve this, and to help with the overall delivery of the items we split each project into two options. The first was general support for those fundraising on the zoo’s behalf. For these we used a framework based around the ‘Be Amazing’ message. For more complex projects, we designed an individual treatment to reflect the target audience.

One example of the bespoke project design was the material targeting the schools in the local area. While in lockdown, pupils were invited to draw an ‘Amazing’ picture. Using the frames provided, the pictures would be entered into a prize draw to win a trip to the zoo for their whole class. We also printed the winning picture onto T-Shirts for the entire class. Not only does this help to raise funds, it also provides a great good news story to promote with the winning class. To support the campaign, we produced social media graphics and a downloadable entry pack.

Be Amazing School Art Competition social media graphics for Banham Zoo and Africa Alive, plus the downloadable entry pack with instructions and sample frames for the pupils to colour in.

If you have a fundraising project which needs professional graphics to help maximise its impact, then get in touch. I have plenty of experience in not only designing the graphics for events, but also running them so understand the pressures involved.

May 5, 2020
Poster Designs for the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts

Examples of some poster designs completed for the John Peel Centre for Creative Arts in Suffolk. I regularly help out the Centre with new promotions and event material. As part of that relationship I also provide some marketing support and advice.

Current posters include some exciting gigs including Peter Buck (REM) and Luke Haines (The Auteurs) promoting their collaboration Beat Poetry for Survivalists and Ian McNabb from the Icicle Works. There are also poster designs for legendary comedian Mark Thomas and cult folk songwriter Beans on Toast.

We also designed posters for an event which included four local bands, Pink Lemonade, Bag of Cans, Killatrix and For the Hornets. One of the reasons I get involved in these projects is they can throw up and interesting challenge. In this case, it was how to design a poster which promotes all the acts equally, and without eluding to a specific musical genre. We also wanted to use elements of the poster to promote each band separately. In order to achieve this, the poster is designed into four quarters, giving each band equal weighting. Simple, ambitious imagery and texture gives the background an interesting style. Using this style, we then produced a series of social media graphics to target the individual band’s fans and extend the centre’s overall reach.

As well as supporting the Centre promote their events, we also designed a new ‘Centre Champions’ campaign designed at recruiting volunteers from the villages and towns in Suffolk. With their help, the posters and social media graphics will be promoted in these areas for raise the profile of the centre. The Centre Champions campaign was given its own visual style to help engage new volunteers and promote the scheme with a sense of professionalism. Giving these sort of campaigns their own visual style also allows the centre to have some differentiation between their messages. Having communication from the Centre that all looks the same will result in certain messages being lost, so using this tactical approach enables us to target the audience more effectively.

All poster designs are able to be rolled out quickly over various social media sizes. This keeps my commitment to manageable level and allows the centre to get the information out as swiftly as possible. It also provides the artists with material they can post and promote.

March 24, 2020
Working from home – Start as you mean to go on

As a freelancer who has worked from home for 17 years, here are a few tips for the new wave of homeworkers. Working from home has many advantages but it’s best to start with some basic ground rules. It’s a lot easier to begin with a healthy structure than to retrospectively try and fix things.

Get Dressed

A simple rule, but I’ve recently spoken to a few new homeworkers who see staying pyjamas as some kind of perk. Fine, do it for a few days if you want to feel like a kid getting away with something, but then start dressing for work. I’m not suggesting a suit and tie or a power suit, just something comfortable, but respectable. Remember, it was a part of your working day routine and the more of this you can retain, the happier you will be. It will also help you unwind at the end of the day when you shed your work garb.

Commute

I think this is the single most important thing I introduced to my working day. I started freelancing by just getting up and getting on with it. It wasn’t until I started building in a morning routine of going for a bike ride or a walk I realised how much we need that little bit of head space between home and work. Get up, get out and when you come back from your ‘commute’ get on with work. Try not to plug yourself into podcasts etc, give your head time to process. You’ll find you will begin to switch from thoughts of home, family, shopping etc to work related tasks. When you come back, don’t empty the dishwasher, don’t do anything home related, just get to work and you’ll be much more productive.

Have a Starting Trigger

The first thing I do everyday is write down my ‘To Do’ list. I use it as the trigger to start my day and find the physical act of writing what I have to do very therapeutic. It helps me process the day, but more importantly, it’s what I always do first and helps me build my routine. Using this as your trigger might help replace whatever you did either consciously or subconsciously when working in an office.

Have a ‘Reset’ Procedure

The silence and solitude of working from home can be difficult. I often find my procrastination and prevarication the biggest challenges to the day. If I find my mind wandering then I get up and make a hot drink. I’m lucky in that I have an office at the bottom of the garden to the act of walking to the kitchen, making the drink and sitting back down enough to help me start again.

Take Some Time

Don’t be worried if you have some downtime. Offices are (or should be…) vibrant places where people are making noises and different interactions are taking place. I do freelance work in various offices and it can be fun. However, it’s noticeable I get less work done when working onsite for someone. This is because there are conversations going on, people dropping by at your workstation to ask a favour, etc. I get more work done while in my own office with no distractions, so if you’re new to working from home, you can reasonably expect to get your 7 hours done in about 6.

Use that extra time for yourself. Don’t feel guilty about connecting on social media or on forums. Don’t underestimate the importance of other people in your working day. We’re a sociable species and need that interaction. This is especially important at the moment as we isolate and quarantine.

Take Control of Your Availability

Use your working day effectively and work flexible hours if it suits you (and assuming your considerate employer allows). If you’re better at 7:30am, then start working then. Just make sure your work colleagues/clients know what hours you’ll be available. Again, especially important when we need to factor in taking time to support family and neighbours during this difficult time.

Impose some standards when using platforms such as WhatsApp, Slack or Skype. Make people aware you might be muting these while you work and definitely don’t answer work related conversations after you’ve finished for the day. You’re not on call.

Stay safe and I’ll see you on the other side…..

March 17, 2020