AeroInfo – A Boeing Company

Custom wedding website based on existing invitation’s patterns and colours.

New Work with Circle: Sunshine Coast Regional District Posted: March 13th, 2010 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Uncategorized | No Comments »

Site design created through Circle for the Sunshine Coast Regional District. The simple layout and navigation allows for quick and easy browsing throughout the site, and clear information presentation.

www.scrd.ca

New Work: Sonlight Equestrian Centre Posted: February 8th, 2010 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Identity, New Work, typography | No Comments »

I have created a brand new identity for an Abbotsford-based equestrian centre named Sonlight. The previous logo incorporated more of a cartoon-looking horse and a very obvious sun. I challenged myself to come up with a design that incorporated both the horse and sun element in an attractive, understated and sophisticated way. The end result is a more regal horse with “flares” incorporated into it’s flowing mane to represent the sun. Coupled with a simple sans-serif, I believe the updated branding is quite successful.

New Work with Circle: 2010 Harrison Visitor’s Guide Posted: February 8th, 2010 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

I once again had the great pleasure of updating Harrison Hot Spring’s Visitor’s Guide (which I created in 2009) for 2010. The new design is close to the design of 2009′s, but incorporates some new dynamic and fun design elements that I used in the 2009 Tourism Harrison Website Redesign.

You can see an online version of the Visitor’s Guide Here, or pick it up at your local library or visitor’s centre (In BC, of course)!

Sonlight Equestrian Centre Posted: February 8th, 2010 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Identity | No Comments »

Identity created for an Abbotsford equestrian centre. The dynamic shapes and colours of the horses mane are used to subtly bring in elements of the sun.

New Work with Circle: Tourism Harrison Website Redesign Posted: October 5th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work, websites | No Comments »

I have redesigned the Tourism Harrison website for Circle in order to realign the look and feel to the more recent branding work we have done. The goal was to reposition the site as more of a designation for information on Harrison itself, rather than information on the Tourism Harrison group itself. The site also includes an expanded tagline & seasonal strategy for the brand.

Check it out at www.tourismharrison.com

Martha, what the… Posted: September 22nd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: branding, Martha Stewart | No Comments »

My admiration for Martha Stewart is no secret, but I must say this new lockup they have come up with for her Home Depot line makes absolutely no sense. What order am I supposed to read this? Why is there text on four different angles? Why does it say Martha Stewart twice? Is it “The Home Depot Martha Living” or “The Home Depot Martha Stewart Living” or “The Home Depot Martha Stewart Martha Stewart Living”?

I think simplicity is always the key in design, especially for a brand like Martha Stewart’s, and unfortunately this fails at simplicity to quite an extreme.

New Work with Circle: Healthy Abbotsford Posted: July 30th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: branding, Circle New Work, websites | No Comments »

The City of Abbotsford approached us at Circle to establish their new Healthy Abbotsford campaign. Supplied with the logo, I fleshed out the rest of the of the campaign by applying and establishing new brand standards that included bright, dynamic colours and angles and exciting, energetic imagery.

Check it out at www.healthyabbotsford.ca and in multiple print pieces throughout the city.

New Work: Jaime Carlson Posted: May 23rd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | No Comments »

I had the pleasure of designing new business cards for my friend Jaime Carlson (she will say we are actual arch enemies but I know it’s not true). Being a backstage worker, I designed her card to resemble a backstage pass and created a light pattern that gives it a bit of a “star” factor.

Jaime Carlson Posted: May 23rd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Print | No Comments »

Cards designed for Jaime Carlson — Stage Manager, Technical Director and Lighting Technician. I designed an abstract “light” pattern that gives the card a bit of a “rock-star show” factor, as well as designed the entire card to resemble a backstage pass.

New Work with Circle: City of Abbotsford Posted: March 24th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

At Circle we do extensive work with the City of Abbotsford, so when it came to redesign their website (which Circle had created before my time) I was given the task.

My general idea was to give the website an upscale/city feel while bringing in country elements through imagery and some text elements — all to correspond with their tagline “City in the Country”.

Check it out at www.abbotsford.ca

New Work with Circle: Fraser Valley AHL Posted: March 23rd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

I had a lot of fun working on this project for Circle, and since it is a pretty big deal for Abbotsford, I also thought it was also a pretty cool project to do.

I tried to give this website a bit of an attitude with it’s aggressive design and it’s “voice” in headings, buttons and even the footer.

You can check the live site out at www.fraservalleyahl.com.

Damiens Posted: March 21st, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Print | No Comments »

This “Size and Style Guide” was created as part of the Damiens rebranding to enforce the new brand and the store’s tagline “Designed for your life.”

See Also: Damiens Rebranding

Damiens Posted: March 21st, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Identity | No Comments »

This experimental rebranding project was for a national woman’s clothing retailer. The retailer focused on designing clothes for the “everyday” woman with it’s affordable, regular-sized clothing. Faced with slumping sales, the company needed to refresh it’s old image with a new, modern and fun feeling.

I designed the main identity around the company’s existing tagline “designed for your life”. The logo features a stylized stitch, which was conceived in order to reflect the generality of the clothing offered in the store. Injecting a bright magenta colour made the identity undoubtedly womanly, and added to it’s fresh new image.

See Also: Damiens Brochure

New Work with Circle: One Day Paint Posted: March 14th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

Here’s a project I have been working on at Circle for a local painting company. We just got back pictures of the van wrap, and I think it turned out quite well.

I also developed their logo, website design and am currently developing other print collateral. Check it all out in the Circle Portfolio.

Why Good Design Costs Money Posted: March 10th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | No Comments »

I’ve been doing some thinking lately about why horrible designs exist. Obviously, one of the main reasons is the result of people who think they are designers but aren’t, and have no idea what they are doing. People hire their 14-year-old nephew to design them a logo— and even though they may have the technical know-how, there is no way they have the experience or creative background that is required to create a sucessful identity.

Another main factor— probably the main factor— is money. In order to understand the factor of money, one has to have an understanding of the creative process. The fact is all designers come up with designs that are terrible. It happens to all designers no matter how good they are, how much training they have, or how much experience they have accumulated. As part of the creative process, a good designer works past these not-so-good designs and eventually arrives at something that is a successful solution for their client.

The problem lies with the clients that are not willing to pay their designers properly. If you underpay a designer, it becomes not worth it for the them to work past these earlier— sometimes terrible— design stages. This means, you end up with a half-rate product. If the frugal client had made it worth the designer’s time to work past these initial stages, the half-rate product has the potential to become a successful solution.

A good example of the creative process is a builder and the process of constructing a table. If you give a builder an hour to build a table, there is a distinct possibility your result will be a rickety table that is missing a leg or two. On the other hand, give the builder ten hours and you will probably end up with a decent product.

That is not to say good design cannot be created in a short period of time. Sometimes a creative spark of genius is ignited and can jump from a designers mind into a full-fledged product in a very short period of time. But in usual situations, the creative process is just that— a process— which requires time, and as Benjamin Franklin said: Time is Money.

Jamie & Keynan Eddy Posted: March 10th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Wedding | No Comments »

A pocketed invite with a beachy feel.

New Work: Jamie & Keynan Posted: March 10th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: New Work | No Comments »

Created for my friends Jamie & Keynan. Since it is a beach wedding, it required a beachy theme, but still had to stay a bit traditional. A mix of raffia and ribbon along the side adds to the beachy and traditional feel. Check out the full job here.

Oh, those Brits Posted: March 6th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: branding, tv, websites | No Comments »

Alright so I am in love with this show on E4 called Skins (don’t watch it if you are under 18 though, probably not a good idea). Anyways, living in Canada, I obviously don’t actually get E4… but being interested in the show I took a trip to the show’s site on E4′s site, which I have found I really like.

E4 is Channel 4′s sister network which is aimed more towards the younger crowd. That being said, it’s quite possible the reason I really like their branding is because it is directed at me. Upon my sleuthing which occurred last night of many TV channels, I have found I very much like the design of the UK channel’s sites. Channel 4‘s site is also pretty sweet (at least the front page, the interior pages are a bit dated). Pretty cool use of Flash.

The BBC’s sites for their domestic stations are a bit boring but nicely simple, I suppose. Five‘s is also pretty nice.

In general, all of them are pretty simple, and to the point. They have a good use of Flash which isn’t too overly Flashy (unlike many US stations, and let’s not even talk about Canadian network sites, that’s a whole other post).

And as a bonus, one of my favorite American network sites, FOX, beautifully done by Trokia (although I’m not totally convinced on the usability of that top carousel).

New Work with Circle: Tourism Harrison Visitor’s Guide Posted: March 1st, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

Following our multiple other branding and collateral efforts between Circle and Tourism Harrison, I had the pleasure of creating their 2009 Visitor’s Guide. The task included also creating many of the ads that were in the book, as well as extending the brand that we had previously created in all aspects of the book.

The full guide can be viewed in the online viewer here.

Sarah & Josh Panagiotou Posted: February 24th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Wedding | No Comments » Amy & Alex Denham Posted: February 24th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Wedding | No Comments » New Work with Circle: Sevenoaks Journey Booklet & Website Posted: February 15th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

We were approached at Circle to create a booklet to accompany Sevenoaks’ new mantra “Journey with God”. Requesting a “travel book” theme, I went overboard scanning bits of paper, pens, pencils, scribbles, circles and more to add every last detail to the book.

The effort paid off, the ministers liked the book so we carried on to giving their website a complete overhaul with the same look.

Click here to download a PDF of the Journey booklet, or visit the redesigned website at www.sevenoaks.org.

New Work with Circle: Tourism White Rock Posted: January 28th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

Even though this isn’t a full site and only a coming soon page, I really like it and I will be doing the full site eventually. Check it out www.tourismwhiterock.com.

New Work with Circle: Wardell Posted: January 28th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: Circle New Work | No Comments »

This ones from quite awhile ago, but I think it works quite well. Wardell is a business coaching company. Check out the full site at www.wardell.biz.

The Cola Wars: Revisited Posted: January 23rd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: branding, coke, pepsi, rebrand | No Comments »

A few years ago I wrote a post about the differences between the brandings of Coke and Pepsi. Unfortunately, due to events beyond my control (ok, maybe they were under my control) the database containing that blog was deleted. But, I will give you the gyst:

Coke has much better branding than Pepsi.

Why? Basically it comes down to consistancy. Coke has had the same brand since almost their inception. They have kept the scripty font, the red colour, the “contour bottle” (as they call it), and almost every other asset to their brand. Any ad campaigns that Coke releases only builds upon this already created brand, thus making it stronger.

In contrast, Pepsi keeps rebuilding their brand. Instead of keeping the same foundation, they continually jackhammer it up to start anew. This can sometimes work, but for Pepsi it fails.

And this is what we come to today: Pepsi’s latest rebranding.

I’m not one to gloat (most of the time) but this just proves my previous post even moreso (if only it still existed). Pepsi’s new “brand” is a redrawn and reshaped version of their “globe logo”. This new logo is now supposed to represent a smiling face. Now, I’m a pretty visual person, but this looks nothing like a smiling face to me. No matter how much, or at which angle, I look at it.

And get this: the “smiling mouth” has different sizes. That is, for some products, the white area in the middle (which is supposedly the mouth) is wider or smaller. How about that for brand consistency?

Ah Pepsi, you taste so good, why do you have to look so wrong?

Trends Posted: January 22nd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Print | No Comments »

As part of my experimental Trends branding project (see branding materials here), I created three spreads and a cover for Trends’ annual report. The theme for the report was “Grow With Us”, highlighting the fact that the company was expanding into the retail sector by opening three stores across Canada. The spreads feature vellum overlays, where “thought bubbles” were printed over the images of Trends customers, who were growing in their life (reflecting the growth of the company). Each spread also features a graphical map of each of the locations bleeding off the right hand side of the page, creating a common element throughout the book. The three spreads included are the Presidents Message, Financial Highlights and Theme Spread.

I also created a fictitious furniture company, highlighting the opening of the three stores with a large main spread detailing each location.

See also: Trends Identity

Come on, MTV Posted: January 10th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: pop culture, the city, the hills, tv, typography | No Comments »

Sometimes I really wonder who designs these things and gets away with them. The titles and L3′s for The City, MTV’s new Hills spin-off starring Whitney (my personal favourite from The Hills) have these terrible oversized first letters which are far too big and cumbersome to be placed beside the rest of the letters. I personally think they changed just for the sake of changing and not matching The Hill’s more dapper presentation of all capitals.

Brezza Posted: January 4th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Interactive | No Comments »

The goal of the Brezza GUI was to create a simple, easy to understand interface for people to manage their websites. The interface is clean and very user friendly, framing your site while getting out of the way of what you are there to concentrate on: your own website.

See also: Brezza Identity

Brezza Posted: January 4th, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Identity | Comments Off

Computers can be a frightening concept for some people, let alone the internet. Now combine that with actually creating content for the internet, and you will quickly have people saying it’s an impossibility.

Enter the Content Management System (CMS). These programs allow users to edit their own content on their website as easily as they would in any text editor.

Bright, colourful and friendly, the Brezza identity portrays the CMS program as simple and easy to use.

I was approached to create an identity for the simple, easy-to-use CMS: Brezza. In Latin, the word Brezza means breeze. I created a logo that incorporated an abstract windmill as well as lowercase “B”s to fit with the Brezza name. The logo also represents the intersection of your content with your website, which Brezza simplifies.

The logo translates well into colourful patterning for backgrounds and other secondary branding pieces.
I drew a custom lettering for the Brezza identity, incorporating the rounded look in the logo in order to create a friendly look.

See also: Brezza GUI

Vancouver View Posted: January 3rd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Print | No Comments »

The goal of this experimental redesign was to reposition Vancouver View as a magazine that was not only available for free from newspaper boxes, but also through paid subscriptions, which would bring in extra revenue for the magazine. This involved upgrading the market position to a more upscale audience—clean lines, modern typefaces, plenty of whitespace and artistic photography all add to this new, more upscale aura of the magazine. An interesting cover flap was also added to the front of the magazine to highlight the reader’s ability to now subscribe to the magazine.

Altered Effect Posted: January 3rd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Identity | No Comments »

Identity created for a local design & web development studio.

Chris Elander Photography Posted: January 3rd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Interactive | No Comments » Trends Posted: January 2nd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Identity | No Comments »

For this experimental project, we were required to create a logo and collateral for a fictitious furniture company named Trends. The company, already famous for their contemporary furniture which was being sold in other stores, was opening three retail stores of their own across the country, and wanted a new identity to reflect this change in the company.

My solution was a logo that not only captured the trendy nature of the company’s furniture with an abstract and three-dimensional symbol of an armchair, but also an element of warmth and approachability with it’s warm and rounded typeface.

See also: Trends Print Materials

Sheldon Rennie Remote Posted: January 2nd, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Print | No Comments »

This self-promotion project was created to introduce myself to prospective employers as a budding designer in a fun, interesting and interactive way.

Based around the idea of a multifunctional remote, which are used to control multiple devices in your home, the “Sheldon Rennie Designer Remote” controls me as a designer. It features buttons that correspond to my design skills, as well as funny other skills and tasks that I am willing to do as a budding designer (like take out the garbage and brew coffee).

The remote is printed on magnetic stock, which gives the firm something to (hopefully) keep and (hopefully) be reminded of me. Accompanying the remote is a “Users Manual”, which outlines the “features” of the remote (which, in turn, outline the “features” of me as an employee).

The remote and User’s Manual are all packaged in a custom envelope which carries my branding.

Swiss Army Watch Posted: January 1st, 2009 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Print | No Comments »

Experimental illustration constructed in Adobe Illustrator.

London 2012: Trust the Designers Posted: September 7th, 2007 | Author: Sheldon | Filed under: Blog | Tags: branding, olympics | No Comments »

This week London launched their logo for the 2012 Olympics.

It has met, as Vancouver’s Olympic logo was, with an insane amount of critisism: the London logo is being forced to be reviewed by the Government, and the motion graphics accompanying the logo has been blamed for causing epileptic siezures.

My initial reaction was also disgust. It does look like a mash of shapes with the Olympic Rings and “London” text slapped on it. But after thinking about it, what exactly is this? Or this? The two reasons why these marks are sucessful is the same reason why the London mark is going to be as well. Exposure, and the fact that a logo does not make a brand.

In terms of exposure, let’s remind ourselves: this logo is for the Olympics. An Olympic logo is going to be plastered all over everything. It could be anything! A circle, a square. Anything. No matter what it is it’s going to get more exposure than Britney Spears’… ahem. Point being it’s going to be emblazoned in your brain. It doesn’t have to remind you of a product. It doesn’t have to sell you a product. It is a symbol to represent an event. An event that will take place weather or not the logo is a success. The way I look at it is you might as well have some fun with it, add a little culture to your city. Also on the exposure level, the mark has to be flexible, and I think that with the multiple colours, shapes and patterns I have seen so far, this mark fits the bill.

What I am most impressed with is the brand’s supporting collateral. It really hits home the entire idea of the logo, movement, energy and Olympics (although maybe a sound change is in order— a wee bit too reminiscent of electrocution). The graphics are interesting, dynamic, and bright (although possibly a bit too flashy as has been proven). Seeing the brand come together in the video gives us the entire picture, and on that account, I truly do think that it will be a success.

I think that this kind of leap of faith in a logo is really what the Olympics need. We don’t need another logo of a city landmark, a running man, a torch, a clever integration of letters and the Olympic rings, it’s all been done. I am impressed (and surprised) with the designer’s and planning comittee’s amazing courageousness, as I am sure they knew there was going to be some sort of backlash.

And to the people of Britain: give the logo a chance. Don’t vote it out in Parliament. Let the designers do what they do best. Trust them. They know what they’re doing.