Uncategorized Archives - Page 2 of 7 - The Work Of Neil Martin

A massive hard drive failure

Unfortunately, my hard drive decided to temporarily die last night and as a result, I’ve lost a serious amount of work. This includes over 20,000 MP3s, countless numbers of photos from years past and most importantly, a lot of my work for University and clients.

It is perhaps my own fault for not backing the work up to DVD more often, but it does mean that I’m now trying to piece together what little I have left. It’s awfully frustrating and perhaps even a little saddening to know that you have spent so long working on building up a collection of memories and hard work only to see it be deleted.

Included in the lost files is the work that I’ve recently completed for the University of Chester. This is perhaps the most important thing that I’ve lost as there was a lot of work put into it. There are now no PSD and AI files to fall back on, should anything need to be further edited. On the plus side, there exists three copies of the final artefacts on DVD that were given to the University and I’ll be asking for a copy of one of them so I can at least file it away and upload some images to my portfolio.

It goes without saying, but if you do happen to be a graphic designer or work in any sort of profession where you create vast numbers of files on a daily basis, make sure you back up regularly. I didn’t and now I’ve paid for it.

Small project: Vital Accessories

As well as logo design, branding, publicity and unique solutions to a problem, I also do some run of the mill work including promotional flyers, which I think is worth mentioning here. I worked with Vital Accessories to produce an A5, colour, double sided flyer that promotes their mobile phone repair workshop.

The flyer attempts to break out of the trap that many of these type of flyers fall into, with oversized type and far too much information to the point where it’s overwhelming for the viewer. Instead, this flyer strips the information down to a few bulletpoints with some relevant images to go with it. A simple project, but one which will hopefully help Vital Accessories to gain more business than its rivals.

If you’d like to work together to produce something similar, just get in touch and I can help you promote your business too.

When is spam not spam?

Two days ago, I received a spam email except upon reading it, it appeared to be a poem by James Whitcomb Riley. While this isn’t particularly related to design, I thought I’d share the poem with you for its lyrical, rather than visual beauty.

THE BLOSSOMS ON THE TREES by James Whitcomb Riley

Blossoms crimson, white, or blue,
Purple, pink, and every hue,
From sunny skies, to tintings drowned
In dusky drops of dew,
I praise you all, wherever found,
And love you through and through;–
But, Blossoms on the Trees,
With your breath upon the breeze,
There’s nothing all the world around
As half as sweet as you!

Could the rhymer only wring
All the sweetness to the lees
Of all the kisses clustering
In juicy Used-to-bes,
To dip his rhymes therein and sing
The blossoms on the trees,–
“O Blossoms on the Trees,”
He would twitter, trill, and coo,
“However sweet, such songs as these
Are not as sweet as you:–
For you are blooming melodies The eyes may listen to!”

A visit by the Archbishop of York

Two weeks ago, I began working for the University of Chester, along with three other past students to develop a campaign that will promote awareness of Swine Flu to its new students in September. The project is only four weeks long, but in that time, we are to produce a full poster campaign, website, viral videos and anything else we deem necessary. It’s been given the support of the Vice Chancellor, along with many other departmental staff and is essentially completely up to us on how we go about delivering the campaign. It’s fantastic to be working on something that will potentially be seen by up to 15,000 students spanning Chester campus and Warrington campus. More information on this when the project is completed.

As part of my responsibilities, I, along with the others that I’m working with were asked to set up a small exhibition for the Archbishop of York, John Sentamu. On Thursday, he opened a new building at Warrington campus and I got to meet him.

miniexhibition1 — A small exhibition of advertising and graphic design.

The Archbishop is certainly not what I expected. He’s quite down to earth and, well, normal. He spent time speaking with everyone who had taken the time to set up their relevant department’s exhibition and seemed interested in everyone. and everything he was shown. It was nice meeting him.

miniexhibition2 — Speaking with the Archbishop, John Sentamu

I’ve been featured: 100 Brands of Interest

As part of David Pache’s efforts to create awareness for the many graphic designers in the world, he presents part two of his 100 Brands of Interest series and in it, you’ll find my logo. David contacted me a few months ago, out of the blue about adding my logo to the list and I was very flattered. You can find the article here.

There’s so many excellent logos on the list from simple logos to the more complex and beautiful. I feel honoured to be included in the list.

Pache is an excellent logo designer and one which I’ve followed for many years from my time at LogoPond. His logos are always well thought out and reflect the company they’re designed for accurately. I thank him for the time he’s spent compiling this list and for featuring me in it.