I recently made the overdue conversion to a mechanical keyboard, the Filco Majestouch 2 Tenkeyless (with Cherry Brown switches). It’s an absolutely superb keyboard but I fancied customising it a little so went for some blank white custom keycaps.

Anybody who has used a Filco or similar keyboard on a mac knows that you need to do some tweaking to get it to behave like a mac-native keyboard. Namely, switching the CMD and OPTION keys, and configuring the function keys as you prefer for controlling media, volume, etc. All of that is made fairly easy with this incredible little bit of software called Karabiner (previously KeyRemap4Macbook).

All was working perfectly, however it was bugging me that I had an entirely useless key – the PC’s Application Menu key – sitting on my bottom row getting no use, so I decided to map it to a key combination I use fairly regularly – minimise. I could have mapped it to expose, launchpad, dashboard, or any number of useful things, but they were already mapped to function keys and I’ve gotten quite used to where they are.

If you’re interested in doing the same, open your private.xml file (tutorial here) and paste the following code:

  
    Change Menu Key to Minimize
    private.menu_to_minimize
    
    	__KeyToKey__ 
    	KeyCode::PC_APPLICATION, 
    	KeyCode::M, ModifierFlag::COMMAND_R
  

If you can think of anything better to use that key for, let me know. I’m tempted to try mapping it to Hash, as that’s quite a pain on macs, but I’ve already re-mapped the Back Tick to Hash and that works pretty well.

• Branding
• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Photography
• SEO

Brief

The Thing Is is a cultural commentary magazine run by myself, Alastaire Allday and Jimmy Tidey. Please note that this new design is still under development.

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• Branding
• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

Brief

A simple, minimal re-design for local web design agency YouLoveUs.

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• Branding
• Domain Brokering
• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Photography
• SEO

Brief

DJW & Associates are a construction management consultancy.

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• Branding
• Domain Brokering
• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

Brief

Badger Fitness is the home of personal trainer Carl Hermans.

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• Branding

Brief

Roar Material is a new venture aimed at placing post graduate students.

• Branding
• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Photography
• SEO

Brief

Spencer+Allday is a joint venture between myself and copywriter Alastaire Allday aiming to fill the gap in between PR and Social Media. The site is still under development.

• Branding
• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

Brief

Ford Training provide health and food safety training on location around the country.

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• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

Brief

The AppVenture is a new event from the creator of Phonica Magazine, aimed at showcasing youth talent in the gaming industry.

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• Website Design

Agency

247 Creative

I was driving back from a meeting in London when I found myself behind a Plumbase-branded transit van. Aside from the usual annoyance of not being able to see past a hi-top van on a windy country road, I was hit with the sudden urge to smack myself in the forehead. Ladies and gentleman I present to you the Plumbase strapline:

“Plumbase: You’ll keep coming back…”

How did the designer not notice this? How did the chap wrapping the van in vinyl not notice? How did the guy who picked up the vans not notice? How did the driver not notice? A quick google shows that I’m not the only other person that noticed!

Really? You don’t see what’s so bad about it? Let me break it down; if you sell parts or services that fix something, the last thing you want to tell your customers is that they’ll be back again! It stirs all sorts of mixed emotions like “Oh maybe what they sell me won’t fix it the first time” or “Maybe the part I buy there will break and I’ll need another” because honestly, why else would anyone need to keep coming back?

I’m going to type the first five ideas for straplines that pop into my head and I bet not one of them is that awful:

• Supplying the industry since 1994
• UK’s largest heating and plumbing merchants
• The no. 1 choice for plumbers
• Over 180 branches nationwide
• We’re here when you need us

And I’m not a copywriter! So it got me thinking, why don’t small companies seem to hire copywriters? It seems to be thought of as an option for higher budgets, but in reality it’s a fundamental requirement of every piece of advertising you ever do. Just like design. You wouldn’t try to build your office by yourself, and you wouldn’t get your plumber to do it either. I’m a designer with a good grasp of what works and what doesn’t in copy but even I hire a copywriter (usually the superb Allday) whenever my client allows it.

Other funny straplines

Got any others you’ve found? Share them in the comments and I’ll add the best ones to this post. I feel a little unfair picking on Plumbase alone, there’s got to be more!

• Branding
• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• Tumblr Theme CMS
• Packaging
• Photography
• SEO

Brief

Experimental branding for up and coming jewellery designer. Target audience is 15-25 year old girls who use Tumblr. The pieces Rina makes are all hand-made, quite rare and very sought after so am featuring them in the designs as much as possible. Typography is a highly customised version of a font from my ‘free’ archives. All photos and patterns used are taken/made by me, main image features macro shots of amethyst. Included are some logo experiments and a customised Tumblr theme I created.

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Note: main site is still being built.

Launch Tumblr
Launch Etsy

I’m fortunate enough to be living in the heart of Lace Market, a one minute stroll from the Nottingham Contemporary, the Galleries of Justice, the Lace Market Theatre and the Capital FM Arena, there really is no shortage of things to do or culture to take in. I also seem to be surrounded by design agencies, arts colleges and some awesome independent businesses, so it’s perfect for me to continue my career as a freelance designer and meet some new creative folk.

How long I’ll stay remains to be seen

I’m charmed by the attitude of everyone I meet, a complete contrast to London, and equally contrasting is the cost of living. I’m currently shelling out less than 25% living expenses compared to an identical apartment in the center of London. However, I do feel disconnected already. Be it because I’m yet to form a network here or yet to discover my new local, I find myself contemplating the two hour drive down to a friends’ in London most weekends, and much more than I’d anticipated.

Working from home

One of the things I love about being a freelance designer is being able to work from anywhere. I’m one of those people that can sit with a laptop and an internet connection on a busy train and still manage to focus completely on my work, but equally I appreciate the benefits of my office space in Chichester and am glad to have been able to set up a decently-sized home office in Nottingham as well.

I always find that clients tend to prefer working with people from the same local area, but more and more I’m struggling to understand why. I have a client 200 miles away that I see more often than most of my clients who were located less than a mile away, and with mobile phones, Skype, Twitter, email, Dropbox, BaseCamp, etc. There simply isn’t any need to be in the same town these days. I won’t usually even contemplate taking on a job until I’ve met the client in person, but that doesn’t mean we need to be from the same area at all, I regularly drive across the country to meet people and in all honesty I welcome it, I don’t get to see enough of this country outside of work.

I’m happy I’m here. That doesn’t mean I’ll be here forever, but in this day and age, why should it?

• Website Design

Agency

tonicbox

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• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Tumblr Theme

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• Branding
• Domain Brokering
• Interface Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Photography
• SEO

Brief

We began by working on a suitable re-brand with the requirement that the domain must be available. We also provided domain search and broker services and managed to find them the fantastic appleclean.co.uk domain for sale and negotiated a great price for them.

We then adjusted their existing branding to be in line with the name domain/name and completed an on location photoshoot of their new van livery and their operatives in action. With everything in place we set our designers to work on the look and our copywriter to work in SEO-mode, with strict instruction from the client to keep the copy low-key and the focus on search engines.

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• Website Design
• IA Consultation

Brief

NewBrandGuru contracted me to improve on another web site design seen below, provided by the design agency that undertook the branding. The visual style and aesthetic of the previous design was superb so it was simply my job to translate this into a well-functioning and usable website, highlighting clear calls to action and key sectors whilst applying a touch of pixel polish.

Client

NewBrandGuru

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Please note that the design has been altered further since my part in the project.

• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Hosting

Client

Hooli

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• Branding
• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Hosting

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• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Hosting

Brief

This was a complete website redesign and overhaul project that I worked on with the excellent copywriter Alastaire Allday. Together we simplified their existing website considerably and introduced the new Case Studies section in order to promote previously buried areas of expertise.

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• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

Client

NewBrandGuru

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• Email Design
• HTML / CSS
• Campaign Monitor

Brief

Based on the previously completed NewBrandGuru website and collateral, Network Extreme is a sub-brand of NBG and I was contracted to design and code an enticing email invitaton and teaser.

Client

NewBrandGuru

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• Branding
• Domain Brokering
• Website Design

Brief

On first meeting the then-named Folding Software Ltd, at the height of a recession it seemed glaringly obvious to me that the name needed to change. Although they initially approached us for a website, I spent a great deal of time learning and understanding what the company does before presenting the new identity and domain as part of the website design process. Working with the brilliant copywriter Alastaire Allday we nailed the creative direction and visuals and I then passed the project back to Hayden Digital for coding and bespoke CMS services.

Client

Hayden Digital

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Please note that I don’t manage this site or the client, I was only involved with the client at the creative stage.

• Branding
• Website Design

Brief

I was contracted by Chris at Hayden Digital to re-imagine the highly successful Marketing Teacher online brand and web site. I wanted to keep the visual style simple and clear, working with their existing brand colours of black and yellow I implemented subtle elements of the classroom amongst an extremely simplified and easier to navigate layout and site structure.

Client

Hayden Digital

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Please note that I don’t manage this site or the client, I was only involved with the client at the creative stage.

• Branding
• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

Client

NewBrandGuru

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Please note that I don’t manage this site or the client, I was only involved with the client at the creative and build stage.

• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• Photography
• SEO

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• Branding
• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

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Please note that I no longer manage this site or the client.

• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• WordPress CMS
• SEO

Client

NewBrandGuru

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Please note that this company is no longer trading and as such the site linked is an archive.

• Website Design
• HTML / CSS
• Bespoke CMS
• Email Design
• SEO

Client

YouLoveUs

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