niktronix

Case Study : K-tee Artist Portfolio (small to mid sized website)

British artist Katie Lodge, works primarily in small and medium sized sculptures. She contacted me to redesign her website in order to showcase her work for her first solo exhibition at the CNB gallery in London opening late March 2016. This post is a case study which will show you my scoping process and give you a granular look at the early stages up to starting the design. The Questionnaire In order to properly estimate and outline a scope, I needed to uncover the main goals and objectives of the redesign. I sent her a questionnaire (a version of which I send all my clients before starting any project), and asked her several questions about her business and goals for the future. Here’s a sample of a few questions that were included : Describe your business? How do people currently find out about you? Do you have any close competitors […]

An Extra Hour : Hand Lettering Design

The British clocks go back one hour this weekend. Inspired by this and a book I’m reading at the moment called ‘Early One Morning‘ by Virginia Baily, this design was created using hand lettering & illustration. Once I had the general composition in place, I worked up the letters and graphics using layers of tracing paper with a fine point pencil and pen. Then moved to Photoshop for the final tweaks to the layout, colour and texture.

I hope you type the wrong URL

I’ve really been getting into hand lettering and typography lately. Enjoyed making this one for a 404 error page. Started with a pencil sketch on tracing paper and refined by adding layers of paper and filling it in with a fine tip pen. Scanned, vectorised and added colour and texture in photoshop. Let’s hope my client likes it 🙂 If you’re interested in typography, I recommend the following classes to get you started: Free YouTube intro tutorial by Christian Robinson Communicate Effectively Through the Power of Type on Skillshare

Gumroad’s Small Product Lab

On the 15th of June, I signed up to a challenge created by Gumroad to create and launch a product in 10 days. The criteria was: · Your product should be small and simple · It should be complete (not a pre-order or subscription) · It should launch on time · It should make some sales · You should post your progress daily on the Facebook group, and participate in the Twitter chats I have been aware of Gumroad for a while now and wanted to launch a small product to test out the platform. This was the perfect opportunity. There was a connected Facebook group where the participates could interact to discuss problems, solutions and motivate each other. Each day, an email was sent out with a task to help keep on track with your launch date. I found the experience motivating, definitely challenging, but most of all productive and I launched my Photoshop Design […]

New Old Stock

I recently discovered this great collection of copyright free images. Beautiful old fashioned photos to do with what your hear desires. Take a look!

It’s in the details – Design Details Podcast

As a freelancer, working from my home office (or cafes or hot desking) can feel a bit isolating at times. I love the freedom and independence, but just in terms of connecting with peers in the industry and keeping on top of the latest app / workflow improvements / prototyping tool! My Cast subscription list is a mix of true story podcasts (This American Life, Invisibilia, The Moth etc), a dash of science-y chatter (RadioLab, The Long Now Foundation etc), and of course industry related wisdom (Bootstrapped Web, Design Matters with Debbie Millman, UX Podcast). A recent addition to the work category is Design Details. It’s hosted by Brian Lovin (Product Designer at Buffer) and Bryn Jackson. Unlike Invisibilia, their voices are quite different so it doesn’t matter so much they have the same name – you can still tell them apart. A recent episode (#7) featured Cap Watkins – ex Design Manager at Etsy […]

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Great Image Resource Sites for Personal and Commercial Use

I’ve been looking for some good images to use in my work for a while now and most come with restrictions that make things a bit tricky (or expensive). Have discovered a few great sources from generous folk over the last couple of days and wanted to share the links with you. Gratisography Quirky, unexpected images by Ryan McGuire of Bells Designs. http://www.gratisography.com Unsplash A mix of beautiful images ranging from landscapes to office shots. By Crew from Canada. http://unsplash.com

New Exhibition at the Sir John Soane Museum

I went along to the first in a series of three talks titled ‘Visualising Design Ideas‘ at The Royal College of Surgeons. The discussion was about how architects and designers approach their work and what these different disciplines might tell us about architectural and design practice in the past and how it has evolved today. With a focus on work by Piranesi, who was an Italian artist from the 1700’s famous for his etchings featuring Rome and eerie looking prison grounds. Speakers were : Michele de Lucchi, Ross Lovegrove and Adam Lowe (director of Factum arte). The lectures coincide with the current exhibition at the Sir John Soane Museum – Diverse Maniere: Piranesi, Fantasy and Excess which runs until the 31st of May You can find in-depth information about Piranesi on Artsy’s website Lectures » Visualising Design Ideas: 10 March 2014, 6–8pm » Using Objects as Evidence of Themselves: […]

Digital Magazine Design and Publication

For anyone who might be considering launching a digital magazine or if you’re an established print publication looking to increase your circulation and move into the digital world – get in touch. I can set you up with bespoke designed article templates and show you how to easily update the content yourself through an online console so you can maintain full control and release issues as often or as infrequently as you choose.

Bootstrap V3 Responsive Grid Guide

I’m currently working on the redesign of our startup for technology professionals, Savvy. We made the decision to use the Bootstrap framework and I wanted to easily view the responsive grid changes across devices without opening them up or resizing every time, so I put together a handy little pdf. It was helpful for me, maybe it’ll help you too. Please feel free to download the pdf here.

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