A while back the National Trust asked me to put the public in the picture of the proposed development for the Windsor Hotel in Melbourne. I was given a photo of the Windsor hotel as it stands today and then asked to create a photoshop image of what it would look like if the proposed development were to be completed.
I had to base my artistic rendition on the developers own plans, as they had only published very tiny images to the public. The National Trust wanted to see a larger and clearer representation. But it had to be as accurate as possible based on the actual plans – well what we could see of them.
It was a very challenging job to do and required many many layers in Photoshop. I started by finding a photo of a high rise taken on a similar angle and used some of that as background colouring in layers. I filled in the side of the building with the cream colours and drew the squares down the side, filling those in with some transparency. The lines across and down the building were quite time consuming and were of different thicknesses and angles so only some could be copied and pasted. Of course critical to the effect was to create a path around the top of the Windsor hotel and all its little intricacies, so that I could cut that out from the image of the new high rise development and place it in front. I also found it essential to start with a high resolution photo with the original, so that it could be used in either print or web later on.
The image is still being utilized in the save the windsor campaign today:
The site of the Windsor hotel was historically owned by a great great grandfather of mine, so it is close to my heart that they save this landmark historic building of such grace and beauty. I wish the National Trust all the best with the campaign.
Lisa is a graphical and pre-press designer with more than 15 years experience. She runs her own agency Twilight Emerald from Ballarat, Victoria Australia.
I found an interesting article written recently suggesting that with the future on the internet with the digital age, that good old fashioned hard copy business cards may become obsolete. Click here for more.
So they suggest that google is the new business card, but is it? If you’ve just met a potential client for the first time, will they remember your name in order to google you? Would they go to the trouble even if they did?
I don’t deny for a second that the internet is a powerful way to advertise you and your business, but it has its place. There are still plenty of other relevant media. And a business card in the hand can say so much about your business, it’s traits and your personality. Not to mention reminding the potential client you just met of who you are, when they pull it our of their wallet or pocket again.
Most google listings will consist of a few lines of basic arial font, blue and black text. A hard copy business card, with its stock texture and quality, its colours, its images, its logo and stylised fonts says so much more about you and gives you the chance to portray exactly the customized image and level of quality that you want to portray. I can’t think of a single business who would do without their business cards. Even small start-up businesses who can’t afford anything else will have a basic business card to give out to people they meet.
Can a website replace a business card? Again I would say, they have to remember your url first, and having your website address printed on a business card to hand out is invaluable in this respect.
Lisa is a graphical and pre-press designer with more than 15 years experience. She runs her own agency Twilight Emerald from Ballarat, Victoria Australia.
Looks like Yarra Trams will have a new logo design to coincide with the new takeover of Melbourne’s public transport systems. Personally I really liked the old logo, it symbolized the tram network with the tracks forming the ‘y’ I always thought it was quite clever and easily recognized.
The new logo is clear and well defined and bright, but conveys little meaning. It’s just words and colours. I notice they kept the green and blue and they way they meet together in the middle, but whilst that may convey a little continuity, it still looks quite pedestrian by comparison. Could be a logo for almost anything, says nothing about trams or transport. What do you think?
Lisa is a graphical and pre-press designer with more than 15 years experience. She runs her own agency Twilight Emerald from Ballarat, Victoria Australia.
Traditionally the one colour business card has been the cheapest and simplest option for business card printing. These days however with such cheap prices available for cmyk full colour print it is not always the most popular option for a cheap card.
A lot of smaller offset print shops may still only have a single colour printing press though, so they would still suggest that is their cheapest option for a business card print.
In my opinion you can still get a great look with a single colour card. And as you can pick out a particular pantone ink, you can always rely on your colour printing the same with each different print run – which is not often the case with cmyk. Another advantage of spot colour printing is seen with large solid areas of colour. You will get a much cleaner and more professional finish when using a pantone or ‘spot’ colour.
If you have a logo in a particular colour and you want to reinforce you brand with a particular defining colour, you will definitely want to use a spot colour to achieve this.
In my business if I want someone to do spot colour printing, most often being one or two colour print, I use Jamek Printing (I also designed their website). They are a small but very reliable printing business that achieve a great result, and I set up a lot of their artwork as well.
The ‘chooko’ business card as shown above is an example of a car printed single sided, single colour (pantone 485) red. This utilizes a lot of solid area so certainly best suited for a pantone spot colour.
Lisa is a graphical and pre-press designer with more than 15 years experience. She runs her own agency Twilight Emerald from Ballarat, Victoria Australia.
The new crystal inspired logo features and abstract design in the shape of an overly wide M containing what looks like a fractured crystal or an optical illusion.
They’ve thrown away a logo which showed off the city’s heritage and environmental credentials for one that is futuristic, representing modernism and progressiveness. It looks a little like the architecture of Federation Square.
The council has already retrofitted their website with the new logo.
The logo is trying to be too clever and at the same time looks a little clumsy and too simple. My thought is that it may date quicker than the previous one and it won’t lend itself to every format.
In any case I feel I could have designed a better logo for a small fraction of the cost.
Lisa is a graphical and pre-press designer with more than 15 years experience. She runs her own agency Twilight Emerald from Ballarat, Victoria Australia.
