Counting down… 12 graphic design projects for 12 days

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Counting down… 12 graphic design projects for 12 days

It’s that time of the year again when we’re already thinking about the next. But as we countdown to Christmas day, we thought we’d join in and share 12 things that we do here at Designworld. Although we do a lot more, (there are only 12 days to take advantage of after all), the projects we’ve chosen show a wide range of graphic design and communications that our clients have asked us to design and create for them. These include magazine and newsletter design and management, marketing and sales packs, exhibition and event materials, logotypes and identity, infographics, book design and typesetting, bilingual reports, catalogues and websites.

If you think we could help with any of your up and coming projects, please get in touch – we’d love to have a chat in 2018!

New Infographics for FSB Cymru

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New Infographics for FSB Cymru

We’ve been busy this month working on the new FSB Wales report ‘Going Solo: understanding self-employment in Wales’ and we were delighted to be invited along to its launch at the National Assembly of Wales this week.

The 36 page piece of research written by Professor Andrew Henley and Dr Mark Lang required us to design and produce a series of infographics, created to convey complex data into accessible information.

The report was well received by our client FSB Wales, as well as AMs, academics and local business leaders. Commenting on our work the client said:

“Again, thank you so much for all of your work on the report. I’m really excited about it and can’t wait to start showing it off next week; we all agree that it’s one of our strongest reports in a while and a very large part of that is the way that you have so brilliantly displayed the work that went into it.”

5 Reasons to Use a Graphic Designer

5 Reasons to Use a Graphic Designer

First of all, a graphic designer is a creative professional. They are an expert with 3-5 years training – generally to degree level – to develop their unique set of skills. If they have been running their own business for a few years you can add to all of that the fact that they will have a wealth of knowledge and experience across a range of fields and disciplines to draw on.

As a business owner, you’ve probably got your own computer. So you could design a logo and marketing material yourself, in the same way that buying bricks and mortar means you could build a house. But skimping on either process could cost your business dearly.

Yes, you could buy a logo online for a few pounds, but think of the benefits that your business gets from a custom-designed identity, with all of your wishes and preferences incorporated.

So a good graphic designer will understand how to communicate your product or service, and importantly, they will engage in a process rather than a transaction. Hence a variety of creative suggestions can be developed into your final ideal solution which meet your individual business requirements.

So here are our top five reasons for using a professional graphic designer… More

Mobile-first index: how Google’s changes impact your website

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Mobile-first index: how Google’s changes impact your website

Interested in search engine ranking? Then you ignore Google’s latest mobile-first index at your peril

In 2015 the company revealed “more Google searches take place on mobile devices than on computers in 10 countries including the US and Japan”. You can be sure that Google is thinking mobile, even if your stats show that your actual website users are not – yet.

We live in an increasingly mobile world. Internet usage by mobile and tablet devices exceeded desktop worldwide for the first time in October 2016 1.

Internet usage importance of mobile-first index
Internet usage worldwide October 2009 – October 2016 (www.statcounter.com)

Google is constantly working to keep its search engine up-to-date and in line with its users’ needs. Now that means giving over more time to thinking about the needs of mobile users. Hence the launch of Google’s mobile-first index. Whereas Google previously crawled web pages the same way as a desktop user, things have now switched around. Now the web crawler treats the mobile version of each web page as the primary page to index. More

Cardiff back to square one

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Cardiff back to square one

23 April 2017

A very interesting Sunday morning spent at the Cardiff Story Museum on the 90th anniversary of Cardiff City FC winning the FA Cup. This was the first cup final broadcast on BBC radio, club historian Richard Shepherd revealed in his talk. To help commentators describe – and listeners picture – the action, this diagram was published in the Radio Times.

What a great example of an early infographic. It was so simple to understand and really useful to both “client” and “customer”. It was also possibly the origin of the phrase “back to square one”.

Print’s Not Dead

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Print’s Not Dead

People still have a desire to own tangible things and print is part of that. Even in this increasingly digital world, just look at the resurgence in sales of vinyl records as proof of this. Sales hit a 25-year high in 2016 with LP sales up by 53% on the previous year [1]. Though it seems everyone has an electronic device glued to their hand, when it comes to reading people still want to curl up with a printed book.

A Nielsen survey this week reveals that in the UK while ebook sales are falling, sales of paper books grew 7% in 2016. The most popular reason given was “I like to hold the product.” [2]

So is print too old-fashioned for businesses? Does it have a damaging environmental impact? Can businesses just assume that they just don’t need printed brochures, leaflets or catalogues any more?

No, there is still a massive role for print to play when it comes to business-to-business communications and as a business owner you ignore print at your peril. As one of our clients said last week “print is far from dead”. More

Talking to the FSB about design

Talking to the FSB about design

8 March 2017

Lou was absolutely thrilled to be able to talk at the south Wales Federation of Small Businesses FSB Connect lunch at Bridgend College today. Hopefully her 10 minutes on the importance of good design will have inspired a few business owners.

It was another great FSB event and it was a delight for both of us to meet, share stories and enjoy lunch with so many enthusiastic business people. Many thanks to the FSB for putting on the event.

Happy St David’s Day

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Happy St David’s Day

1 March 2017

Feeling a little analogue in the studio as we celebrate St David’s Day. Anyone else remember ruby lith tape?

Everyone’s a critic

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Everyone’s a critic

Confirming the old adage about taking a horse to water, a trip to Barcelona proved that you also can’t make a 12-year-old boy look up from his phone for a moment even when you’re in the beautiful galleries of  the Fundació Joan Miró in front of one of the great artist’s masterpieces!

Luckily, more attention was paid to those other great artists – Messi and Neymar – later on in the weekend.

Photography shoot for Headway Cardiff

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Photography shoot for Headway Cardiff

14 February 2017

We’re delighted to be working with Headway Cardiff this year and recently directed a photoshoot with our favourite photographer. We’ve worked with David at Photodrome for many years and he’s shot a huge range of material for us from geotextiles to national recycling depots.

Headway is the national charity set up to help and support individuals affected by brain injury and we’re looking forward to seeing the images printed on the display materials we are producing for the organisation.

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