Derby!

A friend of mine is a derby dame and was asked to take a whack at redrawing/tidying up their logo. She was tearing her hair out about it so I offered to help. I don't know if  they're even going to use it (I think they're a bit uncertain about the direction they'd like their "brand" to head in and I gave it to them about a month and a half ago) but it was pretty fun to make so I thought I'd put it up on here.

Cellists of Otago

 
Months ago a lovely lady called Judy came into our store to ask if she could hang a poster up,  I said sure, and she handed me the poster. It was... ok. I had some time on my hands and told her that I was a designer and that if she'd like me to put together a new poster for them, then I could do it in an afternoon for them for free (not my usual approach but she was so nice and the poster was so... ok). She agreed delightedly and I gave her my email address.

Later I went round to her house and photographed her lovely old cello, sparred with her ferocious kitty on the couch, (there is nothing I like more than teasing and then trying to sooth a ferocious cat - live life dangerously) chatted with her husband George, then headed home to put it together.

I made it simple so that they could reuse it again and again by just changing the text on the left hand side. Judy was delighted. They had very positive feedback on the poster and swore that the audience was larger than usual. They gave me a cute little card with a wee dog on it and a lovely thank you note and a cheque (which was not at all neccessary but nonetheless very kind).

I'm glad I offered my services to them on a whim - it felt good helping them out with a new poster and in a month I'm going to photograph the whole group of cellists which should be some good experience (I don't think I've ever tried to photograph more than 5 people together at a time...).

Matt Langley + Darren Watson

Made a tour poster for Matt Langley and Darren Watson. Sweet deal! The one above is the one they went with. Ah the lonesome road! I liked a couple of the other versions of this I whammied together (I think the deer were my fave):

Below is an even earlier idea that I made for them that fell through - might end up using it again later for someone else... watch this space and all that jazz! This was the first time in a long time that my initial concept was rejected by a band - something I'm putting down to the fact that I tend to make posters for bands who I know both personally and musically, and in this instance I didn't know them well enough to begin with (not that they're not nice guys, they are - I just didn't "get" the vibe/aesthetic/genre bang on first try).

You live you learn.