It was great to see Canva showcasing the design I put together for Southbank Centre's Facebook cover picture back in 2014. Southbank Centre puts a huge range of events and festivals which go across genre, art form and appeal to many different audiences. It is always tricky to bring all of this together in one image and something we have yet to nail. We're still working on it!
Read the full article here: https://designschool.canva.com/blog/50-creative-facebook-covers-to-inspire-you/
Post from http://digital.southbankcentre.co.uk/release-1-design/
We released the first version of our new website nearly two weeks ago. It's out there, in the public domain and its a long way from being perfect – but it feels great!
We have had a fair few immediate issues with our new site, mainly to do with server complications - if you have visited you may have seen it go down. But we are now running smoothly and people are using it. Most importantly we have started to gain realistic analysis and invaluable user insight to help us iterate and improve in the right way.
We have designed this first iteration around one of our most complex and content rich festivals - Women of the World (WOW). We used this platform to focus this initial piece of work as it allowed us to look at certain problems such as 'how to explain 7 different types of tickets for one festival', 'what's on listings' and 'other content'. It also brought up challenges such as brand hierarchy, how to we make it clear that Southbank Centre is not only hosting the WOW festival but also producing it. We still think we've not quite got this quite right, but are looking into ways to improve this experience and communicate this clearer to our users.
The design of the new WOW site is noticeably cleaner/minimal than our current/old site. We have kept it stripped back to retain focus on the art and events. We are also in the process of creating new digital guidelines which bring the content to the fore with the graphics taking a step back. We hope this will give our users a better experience and allow us to communicate multiple messaging across a consistent platform.
We know there are issues and lot of tightening up to be done from a design point of view. I have been creating a design backlog of improvements we are looking to implement. We will be pulling the typography back even more, going through the responsive rigorously, looking at how we use the grid and many many other things.
For us getting the design out there at this stage and it not being pixel perfect has been a slight mind set change, but we think for the better. To have something to be able to reflect on which is live and being used is, for us much more valuable than presenting flat designs and talking about it in house without real live feedback. We will of course be iterating as we go, change as we need – but we hope this will create a more useful and engaging experience for both our users and the organisation.
If you are a designer and have worked like this or are about to let us know how you get on.
I founded Soupa Creative Network in 2005 to bring together fellow creatives and initiate collaborative working and projects. It organically developed from platform to platform. I now view this as an Agile approach I did not know about at the time...
We presented a variety of creative portfolios from illustrators to photographers, alongside the main blog which features book reviews, interviews, events, news and anything Soupa related.
Unfortunately after 8 years I decided to take the site offline, mainly due to other work commitments and life taking over but maybe I will bring it back to life at some point in the future. It was a fantastic project to be a part of and thank you to everyone who got involved, helped out and encouraged me to keep it going for so long.
Some behind the scenes shots from a photo shoot I directed in Germany for the up coming 'Timber!' show at Southbank Centre. Go see it if you can, these guys are incredible!
New project im working on right now! Character design by Jon Burgerman
I designed this neon for Southbank Centre which has been installed today – keep an eye out for it in front of the Royal Festival Hall (its quite bright....) Seeon the Southbank Centre facebook page here.
Garment tags just arrived...designed by the amazing Jo Spencer, thanks Jo! Can't wait to sew them in and see what they look like.
Don't forget to enter the competition to win any BTW item - just tweet about it, include shop link & #blesstheweather
Sneak preview of something I'm working on for the Southbank Centre's Winter Festival. Photography by Mike Reed
New project update on my website - first project for Southbank Centre
Pointe Blank launched at the Birmingham Royal Ballet on Monday night with a fabulous selection of artworks by 27 different designers/illustrators. This is the second collection for this project, (read about last year's project Coppelia here) this time for the ballet Hobson's Choice. Check out the collection online at http://www.pointeblank.co.uk/ and if you are in the Birmingham area pop along to the 6/8 Kafe 6/8 Temple Row, Birmingham, B2 from 5 March for six weeks, with nine images shown for a fortnight at a time. Form fifty five coverage | Design week coverage
On Monday, Pointe Blank Part 2 launched at Birmingham Royal Ballet, unfortunately I couldn't make it but I've been told the pink from my design really 'popped'. I'm looking forward to seeing the exhibition in person at 6/8 Kafe in Birmingham.
Read more about the project here: http://soupa.co.uk/2012/02/22/pointe-blank-part-2/ and here http://www.pointeblank.co.uk/
