New updated Fletcher Ward Design Website!

NEW WEBSITE CONTENT...

We've recently updated our website to include some new work and samples, as well as completely new sections focusing on our MAPS and CARICATURE work.  During your coffee break have a quick browse, hopefully you'll find something that will spark a new project idea!

The new MAPS & GUIDES section focuses on our beautifully created custom made maps which bring your area to life.  Combining fine detail with fascinating and practical information, bristling with life and the perfect way to get people moving in the right direction!  Our map Artist, can create bespoke maps and plans that highlight main attractions and buildings. Easily indicating where main points of interest are, tourist highlights, hotels, shops, all ready to explore the local area!
Beautifully Illustrated City, Business Park, Theme Park, Airport, Retail and large industrial site maps.

LOCATION & CITY MAPS - Clear and simple location maps help everyone find where they are and where they need to be.
HOTELS & RESORTS - Bring your Hotel to life using detailed site maps and location advice. BUSINESS PARKS - Beautifully Illustrated Business Park, Airport, Retail and large industrial site maps.
MALLS & SHOPPING CENTRES - Everyone needs to know where their going!  With our detailed Shopping Centre maps visitors can easily locate key stores and destinations with ease.
THEME PARKS - Easily followed Park layouts created to help your customers find that ride or attraction that they simply must try!
http://www.fletcherwarddesign.co.uk/maps_and_guides.html

The new CARICATURES section highlights our cartoon and character illustration work for corporate, editorial and personal clients.
With over 25 years experience, our published cartoonist and caricaturist can provide the perfect humorous solution. Professionally drawn cartoons or caricatures can make a fabulously fun and quirky gift. Perfect for Corporate Events, Newspapers, Magazines, Websites and personal GIFTS!  Cartoons for companies, appeal to the fun side of your target audience, ideal for child/family related projects, add fun to brochures/guides, brighten up your business, liven up your newsletters!

http://www.fletcherwarddesign.co.uk/caricatures.html

Design with infinite possibilities...

Cartoons, Caricatures and a Birthday Bash!

Fletcher Ward Design was recently invited to attend a long standing client & friend's 60th Birthday bash at Epsom Downs Racecourse!  A tremendous time was had by all, great company, wonderful food and plenty of loud music.  Thanks Richard, and HAPPY BIRTHDAY!

We were commissioned to produce the invitations and a customised Birthday Card to be signed by all the attendees.  Below is what we came up with…

We are often commissioned to produce caricatures and cartoons for events and personal use, so if you need a special corporate illustration or event card drop us a line.

Design to be different

In days past people were less able to be picky about how design and advertising was presented to them. 

Today’s consumers are much more tech savvy and media conscious than any market has been before, so how can firms hope to compete in a landscape where clicking skip or hitting fast forward is easier than it’s ever been? 

A recent research paper, commissioned by adobe, suggests the only way for advertising to thrive is by bringing the focus back onto solid design. 

What exactly is a design led practice? 

The report defines it in the following way: An organisation should view design as a differentiator, something to set their brand apart from others. 

Formal design processes should be established for marketing, product, and customer experience and, ultimately, design plays an integral role in shaping customer experience and should be at the forefront of every company strategy. 

Lets address the phrase ‘customer experience’ for a second. 

What does that mean? 

The modern customer is more able to make the kinds of choices that, metaphorically, sort the advertising wheat from the chaff, to combat a fickle, easily turned off audience, as designers, it is now even more important to create designs which offer the observer an experience which lasts with them and relates to them. 

For over 35 years, at Fletcher Ward Design we have helped to define a creative route in establishing brand’s with their target consumer, from large corporate companies to small independent groups, using good design and solid creative concepts and helping the client’s take that leap into the ‘differentiator’ realm, standing apart from their competition. 

USE GOOD DESIGN TO BE DIFFERENT!

Some of our latest work…

We've just recently finished design and artwork for the latest VIVUS PROPERTY, this involved taking the clients initial layout and thoughts and moulding them into shape, all on budget, all on time and all satisfied!  Another grateful client!  Take a look at the finished product below.

Cool designers

Creative Design, Great Artwork… and Pokemon?

At Fletcher Ward Design great design isn’t the only thing you’ll be catching, yes we are located near Soho but it’s nothing contagious we swear! It’s Pokemon.
Yes, Pokemon GO that great linker of the social and the antisocial has made it’s way to our little area of W1. It started innocuously enough, a few more people outside glued to the tiny glowing screens of their mobile phones. Nothing new there I thought until one loudly exclaimed they had captured a Muk. Now many things have been caught on the streets of London... but a Muk!

Over the last few weeks we've noticed that more and more people have been hanging around our office front door, to the point where we have to squeeze past!  I tentatively asked a small spotty schoolkid (Nigel from Chiswick) what's going on and he excitedly replied he'd just caught a 'JigglyPuff' and a 'Wild Gastly'!  Not wishing to catch anything contagious I hurried inside.  I later discovered that we have inadvertently got caught up in the latest Pokemon Go craze with a stop positioned right outside our office!

So if you’re striving to be the very best then you need design services to match! No matter the size of your project we aim to supply design that works best for you.
Stay for creative design in your quest to be the best, and grab a 'Gastly' while your at it!

Brightening up your back-end.

Have you created your basic website layout using an on-line web creation tool template like WIX, GoDaddy, 1&1 or Moonfruit etc?  Are you now in control through a content management backend system, but need striking images and graphics to personalise and brand your sites look? - we can add personality to your pages?

Have you got a blog and want to create a quick info-graphic? Or maybe you’re looking to design a call-to-arms promotional image or e-poster for use on your homepage, Instagram feed, or Facebook account?

We've recently created eye-catching graphic content for our clients that enhance and add brand emphasis to their websites.  Take a look here at some of our recent work, ranging from large international companies like Big Bus Tours, homegrown diary publishers MUM's Office and charity organisations such as The School of Meditation.

Let us know what you require, any brand constraints and sizes/formats needed and we'll zip over a bespoke graphic that will liven up your site and take your web template to the next level.

Give us a call on 020 7637 0940 or visit our website at fletcherwarddesign.co.uk
Give your business a design boost and stand out from the crowd!

Top 50 UK Design Blogs… we made it!

Here's a neat infographic of the Top 50 UK Design Blogs as posted by www.rebateszone.com. Makes interesting browsing and has a lot of useful titbits for designers and creatives to flick through during that well earned coffee break. Fletcher Ward Design has made it to number 40! Not too bad, must be doing something right!

Thanks for the mention.  http://www.rebateszone.com/top-design-blogs



Source:rebateszone.com

What makes a good Designer?

Fletcher Ward Design has been producing high quality, fast, Design & Artwork for over 40 years now, and those years of experience, contemplative meditation and gallons of coffee all help for sure, but we soon came to realise that good design comes packaged with some universal truths.

So here we expose some core beliefs that all great designers share.


1. It’s not just about pretty pictures.

Design concepts must start with a close understanding of the client, their products and the people they are trying to reach. The marketing puzzle that needs to be solved must first be understood.

The information, details and insights discovered in this process of understanding then add fuel and creative direction to the project.






2. Start with thoughts and words and end with graphic impact.

Strong ideas come before execution. Avoid the temptation to put together a design solution straight away.

Thinking about attributes, associations, strategies and creative metaphors can reveal the truth about a product's direction - ask questions, “does this feel more like Steamboat Willie or Toy Story”

Strategy comes before layout.





3. Swimming against the tide.

Every designer is into fads and fashions, ‘flat’ design is everywhere at the moment, but try and remember that a design solution must be driven by the client's project.  Don’t be afraid to rock the boat when there is a marketing reason to do so.

Embrace the trends, and reject the trends as needed. Trends should be approached as a tool not the tool box.





4. Honest hard work will drive ideas, honestly.

Dozens of ideas will be thrown out, reasonable solutions will be ditched, but until the right one is discovered there is no substitute for hard work.  Occasionally you hit the target early, but be prepared to down the caffeine.

An honest work ethic drives great ideas.








5. Perfection is your obsession

OK, so most people aren’t this OCD. But this is what makes us Designers. A designer knows how much details make or break a design project.

The client often doesn’t realise or even notice but proper attention to the finesse of layout, typographic perfection and graphic rules will make your work stand out.







6. Telling and selling.

You never bought anything without being sold the idea first - even if you didn’t realise it.

The truth is that ultimately you need to sell your client's product.

Your skill is in the art of making the client's consumer see your ideas as the driving force for their desires. As a designer this is part of your daily routine.





7.  Design smart

A good designer knows his or her creative tool box.  Software, Typography, graphic rules, layout, inspiration, ideas and personality will help drive a project to success.

An honest message that is spoken through a smart and clean design is what the market will respond to best.

A major faux pas of the average designer is the over use of graphic content, whether it is font, imagery or colour and effects. A smart designer does not cram their design with confusing content that oversells a message, leaving no room for the product to breath.  A great design usually involves as little ‘design’ as possible. Remember, white space is one of the most important design elements!


Above all, a good designer knows DESIGN MATTERS.

Design & Artwork - design matters, art works

Big Bus Night Tour project

One of our clients, Big Bus Tours London, needed a brochure to launch their exciting new London Night Tour.  The project involved extensive Photoshop montage illustration work to create an atmospheric, visually appealing cover and the design and production of a 'map' brochure which would help to promote the tour on-board the current Day Tour buses and at point-of-sale. The launch was a great success and the Night Tour is now an important part of the Big Bus portfolio of tours and destinations throughout the world. 

Click this link if you'd like to find out more:  http://eng.bigbustours.com/london/night-tour.html 

What am I looking for?

OK, I'm after a designer.  What am I looking for?

Passion, drive and a focused vision - someone who thinks objectively and can cleanly solve problems, without fuss or over emphasis.  Someone who creates solutions that are meaningful and deliberate and who is aware of the larger picture.

They know that your brand is not so much about you as your target audience so they will progress your brand image with the aim of communicating to your target market.

Good design is about a state of mind, honesty and an approach to problem solving - it's realising the function and purpose of the aim. And it’s how you will beat your competition.

Design can be executed in many ways, but the final goal is always the same - to solve a visual or physical problem. 

So how can I spot the right designer for me?

Good design is not easy to define because the best designs seem not to be designed at all but to exist and work silently solving the marketing problem. It’s easier if we break things down. If you know what to look for, it’s simple to spot good design when you see it; or perhaps more importantly, when you can’t see it at all!

Design principles to look out for are:

• innovative 

• makes a product useful

• aesthetic

• makes a product understandable

• unobtrusive

• honest

• long-lasting

• thorough

• as little design as possible

Take a look at your current product – is design contributing in an innovative way? Does it make the product useful to the target market - is it understandable, aesthetic? Is it long-lasting, or will it look outdated in the future?

A good designer will manipulate all the constraints to produce a product that people will fall in love with. Love is a really strong emotion - it's a proven method - and as we said previously, it’s how you’ll beat the competition.

Fletcher Ward Design supports the David Rundle Trust

The David Rundle Trust - a charity set up by Deri Rundle in memory of her husband to help the people of Rwanda following the horrific genocide in 1994.  They are active in 3 main areas: supplying potable water to remote areas, family planning and the education of children.  Because there are no expenses - all monies received by the Trust actually go to help the Rwandans - the leaflet we’ve just re-designed had to look basic to reflect the simplicity of the Trust’s organisation.  Go to davidrundletrust.co.uk and you’ll see what we mean.  This is a small but extremely effective charity so do help if you can.  

'Faux' HDR Photoshop manipulation

High Dynamic Range Photography.


Recently we've used a 'faux' HDR Photoshop technique and we thought it might be of interest. For those of you not aware, HDR (High Dynamic Range Photography) is basically the process of taking multiple exposures and merging them into a single 32 bit image.

A camera is capable of capturing a limited amount of tones in a single shot (the dynamic Range). Typically, elements are sacrificed when the photographer sets the camera's exposure.

An answer is to take more than one photograph and bracket the shot. Shoot at normal exposure, then under-expose to capture the highlights and over-expose to capture shadow detail. Finally, merge the shots to produce a single image with a larger range of tones that shows all the details contained in the shadows and highlights.

In Photoshop there is a technique to mimic this effect that uses combinations of layers and filters.

The examples below show the difference!

Graphic Digits: New Typographic Approach to Numerals

Whilst browsing the web this week we came across this interesting project from Viction:ary.

'Graphic Digits' is an intriguing collection of leading edge numeral designs created as graphic elements within products. From hand crafted to vector configurations, this book examines the design possibilities of customising numeral combinations in graphic identities, packaging and marketing campaigns to create stunning visual impact. See what you think.

Psychology of good design

FWD Works - Big Bus tours

We've recently completed working on collateral material for Big Bus Tours, London’s premier open-top sightseeing tour operator.  The work included press advertisements, point of sale posters, Gatwick Airport trolley signage and kiosk wraps. These projects helped reinforce the company’s new brand profile.  We also produce material on a world wide basis for Big Bus, including New York, Miami, San Francisco, Vienna, Paris and Dubai - so the next time you're on one of their buses look out for our design work!

Davies & Son

We have recently produced design concepts for a series of press advertisements for Savile Row tailors Davies & Son

We were asked for a set of clean, eye-catching designs to promote various accessories for their gentleman clients including tie-pins and cufflinks featuring precious stones and pearls
Aimed at the luxury designer market these unique pieces offer high-end chic as well as complementing their bespoke Savile Row tailoring service.

Typography 101

In an attempt to improve your typographic knowledge we present Typography 101 in a nutshell…

Click here to download pdf