15 Jan 2024
ELISHA PICKLES PHOTOGRAPHY
“. . . collect moments, not things . . .”
Elisha approached me after we’d completed the Me & Orla The InstaRetreat course together. She really loved my work and after the initial Zoom call, she decided that I was the perfect designer to create a beautiful brand identity for her new photography business. Elisha’s main interest is in people – she loves to create images with a human element – ones which tell a real story. Having gained a reputation amongst her photographer friends of being able to capture intimate details particularly well. Elisha’s light, clean images have a clear narrative – joy, connection and story – she manages to beautifully capture those emotive moments, allowing the viewer to feel as if they’ve borne witness to a particular moment in time. Her photography style is very timeless, evocative and beautiful, which is reflected throughout her image gallery. Her natural, candid images have an air of authenticity about them. As a fledgling business, Elisha wanted her branding to come across as professional, yet approachable, something she wants to carry through her entire client experience from her website to the photo shoot to the delivery of the final images. She also needed a brand identity which would not only attract her ideal clients, but could grow with her business over the coming years. 
For Elisha’s brand I took inspiration from her beautiful images and her love of being near the coast. The soft, muted colours are evocative of a late English summer: the gentle soft dove greys of water-worn beach pebbles, the whispery blues of early morning skies, the dusty greens found in the myriad of dune grasses and the deep teal, reminiscent of the dark depths of the sea. The traditional serif font nods to heritage and adds an air of elegance and aspiration, while the sans serif font adds a touch of modern luxury. 
In order to give Elisha maximum flexibility with her new brand identity, I also created some alternatives which could be used through a variety of different physical and virtual publications and platforms. 
Elisha was delighted with the final results and her business is currently going from strength to strength! If you’re thinking of branding or rebranding your business I’d love to hear from you! Please get in touch here
5 May 2023
Today, I would design these on a computer in InDesign, but when I started out in design things were very, very different. Let me explain the process . . .
Before I could get started on the artwork I’d create a pencil thumbnail (also known as a scamp) with the rough layout of the piece I was to be working on. In this case, a standard UK Business Card is 85mm x 55mm (although this does vary from printer to printer and country) – this gives a rough idea of what sizes the logos and text will need to be.
Type had to be sourced from a typesetting house, so I had to learn to spec type in a way that a typesetter could supply me exactly what I needed – getting this wrong could be expensive, so you had to check, and check again, that you’d supplied the correct information. It could take a couple of days before you got the typeset piece back from the setting house.
Logos and any decorative elements would need to be resized on a reprographic camera. Again this could be an expensive process, so first I would create a “dummy” using photocopies, just to be sure my sizes worked. (To work out the percentages for reducing or enlarging I use this simple equation “Divide what you want by what you’ve got”.) Then I’d head off to the dark room to do the camera work, including the processing and drying, this could take around an hour.
Photos required the area to be used to be masked. I already knew the size of the Business Cards (85mm x 55mm) and the width of the photo (184mm), so I needed to work out how deep (x) the mask needed to be. This is where a wee bit of mathematics comes in handy! Here’s the equation I used: x = (184 x 50) ÷ 85. So x = 108mm.
That complete, I would go back to my drawing board. I’d draw up the layout on an artboard using a non-reproducing pencil (blue), marking on the crop marks in black ink and, using a scalpel and metal ruler, I’d cut out my text and my logos before pasting them with SprayMount into position on the artwork. When the artwork was completed, a colleague (with a fresh pair of eyes) would double-check that everything was straight and correct before proceeding to the next stage. This process could take around an hour, to an hour and a half.
Full colour work (generally things which include photos) went to a repro house in order to produce colour separated films for the printer. An overlay (tracing paper) would be added to the artwork with everything hand coloured, and CMYK values added, along with any further instructions. The artwork would then be sent off to the repro house – the one we used was in Singapore – so it could take around three weeks to get the final films and Cromalin proof back! After those had been checked, and only then, could the artwork finally go to the printer to be printed.
After a week to ten days, you’d finally have your beautiful Business Cards in your hands.
So, do you still think they’re effortlessly simple?
Yes, the production method may have changed beyond all recognition, but the design fundamentals and principles that I learned all of those years ago still remain the exactly the same.
1 Sep 2022
My lovely husband David, surprised me for my birthday last week with a couple of days away in the Tramontana Mountains of Mallorca – we stayed at the stunningly beautiful @can_beneit, near Caimari in the north of the island.
As soon as we arrived, I knew I was going to absolutely love it there. It was oh so peaceful – the only sounds we could hear were birdsong, sheep bleating and the breeze rippling through the leaves of the olive and fruit trees surrounding the ancient stone house.
As well as a Rural Hotel, the Finca is still a working olive estate, and each year the original steam-driven olive press is fired up to press the olives from the 200 acre Estate. Owner, Toni Duran, who gave us a guided tour, explained that the family (who originally came from Soller) pick their olives slightly later in the season than most other estates. Waiting until the olives are mostly black, gives the finished oil a more velvety smoothness. The entire harvest takes approximately 10 days, and produces around 600 litres of oil – not enough to sell, but enough to supply their @mirabona_restaurant. Being the daughter of a farmer, this kind of information totally geeks me out!
As well as olives, there are various fruit trees including orange, lemon and fig – Toni told us we were welcome to pick and eat any ripe fruit. The raised-bed vegetable garden supplies the restaurant too – at the time we visited there were melons, aubergines, Mallorcan peppers, cherry tomatoes, pink tomatoes and the healthiest, most abundant looking Basil I have ever seen in my life!
We’d gone there intending to find somewhere in the nearby villages to eat, but as soon as we’d parked the car, we just knew that we wouldn’t be leaving this little piece of paradise until we checked out! So we ate some of the tastiest, freshest food in the hotel restaurant, which also had a fantastic selection of local Mallorcan wines. I even received a “birthday” gato (Mallorcan almond cake) with a candle on it for my birthday! The staff were so kind and attentive – nothing was too much trouble.
We really had the most tranquil couple of days – we walked along country lanes, cycled into Caimari on the hotels’ eBikes and had a fabulous Pindas massage at the spa. We were so sad when the time came to leave. Even the weather conspired to keep us there – a storm began, just as we were about to leave – meaning we had to stay a little bit longer enjoying a coffee in the cosy dining room, watching as the neighbouring hills disappeared into the dark storm clouds.
We left with heavy hearts that day, but one thing is certain, we will definitely be visiting Finca Ca’n Beneït again sometime in the future.
Music: @freebeats.io
28 Jul 2021
As the mercury continues to rise here on Mallorca, I thought I would share my top five tips for keeping cool when it’s hot, hot, hot outside!
1. Wear light, loose, linen clothing – the loose weave of linen allows body heat (and sweat!) to escape from your body. Linen absorbs a lot of moisture and will dry quickly, keeping you both cool and dry.
2. Keep shutters (if you have them), and curtains closed during the day to keep the heat out. Now, if you come from the north east of Scotland like me, this one will go against everything you were ever taught growing up (open all the windows, let the sun / day light in, let fresh air in – and yes, even if it is absolutely freeeeeezing outside!)
3. Placing a bowl of ice cubes in front of a fan creates a similar air cooling effect to air conditioning.
4. Running cold water over your wrists – the blood vessels there are closer to the surface of your skin – will help to bring your body temperature down much quicker. Very important for those of us of a certain age!
5. (And my personal favourite!) Eat your own body weight in watermelon! Personally, I love my watermelon in a salad, mixed with cucumber, feta and fresh mint, with a dressing of olive oil, lime juice and honey, and sprinkled with a touch of sea salt flakes.
These are just some of things that I have found that work for me, but I’m curious, how do you like to keep cool?
26 Feb 2021
I’ve been thinking a lot about what happened recently in Australia (February 2021), with Facebook banning all news content on their platform. This effectively meant that you couldn’t use Facebook to post, see or share anything which could be seen as media news! Yikes, imagine that?
This is clearly a wakeup call to each and every one of us small business owners. Why? Because these days, most of us (and I include myself in there too) use social media as a huge part of connecting with our audiences. And, if the big companies decided to do something which affected your account, all of that hard work, growing and maintaining your audience, would be gone. Just. Like. That.
How does that loss of control feel? Scary, right? Now, I’m not saying that you should give up on social media altogether, but more than ever we need to begin to find other ways in which to build our communities by using methods which we have more control over.
For example, by keeping your website content up-to-date and blog posts current highlights that your website is alive and offering fresh content. It also gives search engine algorithms a reason to index your website more often, keeping it on their radar over time.
Another good way is to put some focus into using your email list to connect to and grow your audience – especially those who may not be so prolific on social media. This allows you to showcase your expertise in what it is that you do, and allows your community to get to know the real person behind your brand.
It would seem that now is as good a time as any to begin to develop a multichannel approach . . .
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