Graphic Design
As with website design, I cannot say I'm any sort of a graphic designer, but I do dabble with Adobe Photoshop, Illustrator and In Design, having produced some leaflets and advertisements that have been published (examples below). Although I have attended night-school courses in Photoshop & Illustrator, this by no means makes anyone an expert. I often wonder what might have happened if I'd stayed at Art college instead of pursuing the music industry......File this one under "if I could turn back the clock!" and if "I knew then what I know now." Yes, regrets, I've had a few, but there is a fantastic quote I refer to that helps keep me sane in times of doubt:
"The past is a great teacher, but makes for a lousy Master"
With that in mind and keeping my sights firmly on the road ahead, here's some of the work I've been asked to do on a professional basis. The following examples can be viewed with Adobe Acrobat Reader and are high quality resolution resulting in large file sizes.
Ian Paice Drum Clinic Flyer, 2007
Legendary 'Deep Purple' drummer Ian Paice came to Liverpool in 2007 to do a very rare drum clinic in association with 'Not So Modern Drummer' magazine. I was given the job of producing a flyer/poster for the event which was printed in A3 and A5 sizes. Fans liked the poster version so much that they snapped up any that were left on the walls after the show was over!
ADC Mail-Shot Flyer No.1, 2008
This was the first mail-shot flyer I was asked to produce for ADC Drums, taking the form of a double-sided three-fold layout. At the time I was asked to produce this, I had no experience using desktop publishing software. Some web research led me to an open source desktop publishing package called 'Scribus' with which, I managed to produce the flyer to the exacting specifications of the printing house. This proved to be an excellent crash course in 'bleeds', 'quiet areas' and other publishing terminology.
ADC Mail-Shot Flyer No.2, 2008
This was the second mail-shot flyer I was asked to produce for ADC Drums. Repeating the double-sided three-fold layout, this cover idea was based on the 'Wonka Bar Golden Ticket' from the Roald Dahl story, 'Charlie & The Chocolate Factory'. It was the first flyer I produced using Adobe InDesign.
'Forty 4' Promo, 2008
These are an A3 poster and an A4 flyer that I produced for Blues/American Roots music band, 'Forty 4'. There were a few design ideas I went through before the band settled on the final New Orleans Voodoo doll theme.
Koby Drums 'Rhythm' Magazine Campaign, 2008
This was a half-page advert that ran in popular UK drumming magazine, 'Rhythm' promoting the various Koby drums products available.
Joey Jordison Promark Drumstick 'Kerrang' Magazine Campaign, 2009
In May 2009, legendary 'Slipknot' drummer\icon, Joey Jordison switched drumstick brand to a new company. To capitalise on the massive buzz this created within the UK's Metal-drumming fraternity, I was asked to put an advert together to appear in the small-ads section of 'Kerrang' magazine - and this is it!
ADC Mail-Shot 'Clubcard' Promotion, 2009
Working under the direction of "produce a Clubcard style flyer Nick!" in the style of a well known supermarket, I set to work. With a twist on an associated catch phrase the front cover was pretty easy to create. However, I did have some trouble on the inside pages due to one of the images black backgounds not being true CMYK black; and despite mixing my other blacks to match. However, thanks to the wonders of modern pre-printing production, this was 'fixed in the mix' to my satisfaction. Lessons learnt - watch you blacks! (By the way, the PDF download of this flyer comes as a two-pages-in-one document so it weighs in at a hefty 5Mb!)
