The Games People Play

I really enjoy the challenge of being a graphic designer. Every client is so different and I often have to research to get a feel for the business. My aim is always to make my designs as appropriate and relevant as possible.

In this case no research was required at all. As soon as I was given the brief I had an idea in my head. You may or may not know that I'm a bit of a board game fan.

That's why, I just knew that for advertising a board games event photographs of board game pieces or meeples would appeal to the target audience as well as be bright and colourful to stand out.

So I had a fun little afternoon in my studio photographing all sorts of board games and their meeples. The meeples from Carcassone, a popular euro game, stood out as clear winners. They gave me all the classic board game colours then I added in some hex shapes from board games like Settlers of Catan et voila!

So if you're around Stirling on the 9th of November pop into Common Ground Games, play some games and learn about social sciences. (http://www.stir.ac.uk/social-science/news/games/)

more academia

You may remember the academic poster I did a few years ago and you may be interested to know it's my most searched for post. It's a skill in itself representing large quantities of information in a visually appealing way.

After receiving many compliments about my hot air balloon poster I stuck to the same format when I was asked to design another one. This time the subject was volunteering and looked at urban and rural differences in participation.

The image of a plant poking through concrete represents both the urban and rural localities referenced in the paper.

If you're an academic or know any academics looking for a poster for a conference please get in touch to see if I can help.

It's academic!

An academic poster is very different from an advertising poster. Not only for the vast quantities of text that are required to go on it but also for the graphs and diagrams that are an integral part.

When designing this poster for an academic conference, I approached it more from the point of view of laying out a double page spread for a magazine.

I think the result is eye catching but still maintains all the information required to get the point across. I was told that one conference delegate got the reference to the "one with the hot air balloon" and picked up a copy because it looked good. Hopefully, she will have time at a later date to actually read the content!