Showcase of MTC Equipment online catalogue website. The three pages portrayed are the homepage, a catalogue overview page and the Ejector Trailer catalogue item page. The three key elements to the responsive online catalogue’s ease of use.

MTC Equipment website

July 16, 2018 / / No Comments

The MTC Equipment’s rename and rebrand project included designing their new logo and identity system, the design and populating of their catalogue website , and creating a direct mail brand launch and product catalogue.

It was a great opportunity to work with an established family company, formerly Murray Tractor Company, to implement a rename, rebrand, and repositioning their new business as import agents of Chieftain Trailers of Ireland in the New Zealand, and Australasian regional  markets.
Keep on reading!

Design a beautiful logo & website for KittyCat Rehoming

July 14, 2018 / / No Comments

Design eye appeal is only one factor in the logo design equation. A useful logo for KittyCat Rehoming Wairarapa requires concept, great execution, and most of all, clear thinking.

How do I increase the eye appeal of my KittyCat Rehoming logo?

Use a picture, especially of a cat, or use more pictures, say an icon that is immediately recognised as a home. People relate to pictures of familiar things like cats instantly.
Keep on reading!

Attractive & useful website for Doctors on Luckens

July 12, 2018 / / No Comments

This quality family doctor’s website for his brand new general practice in multi-cultural West Auckland features the key selections of the practice’s specialities. The website content is in complete alignment with local District Health Board and nationwide Health department public health programmes and initiatives.

The content of the site is structured with the underlying principle in mind to better help Dr Fred’s patients. That public service goal is absolutely number one, with user friendly features like online new patient registration, the ability to initiate the setting of appointments, and multilingual translation one click away across all internet portals.
Keep on reading!

Waitui Single Malt Manuka Honey Golden Bay Whiskey full packaging label system, front, back and top. Waitui is a small batch Whiskey, barrel aged 4 years. Hand crafted in Takaka, New Zealand.

Waitui single malt: name, logo & packaging

July 8, 2018 / / No Comments

Waitui logoWaitui, a Small Batch, Single Malt, Manuka Honey, Golden Bay Whiskey, a unique New Zealand made prestige product, one of the few true ‘Honey whiskies’ made in the world today—in Takaka, Golden Bay.

Waitui, previously named ‘Bush Whiskey’ required renaming, rebranding and packaging to a standard that properly reflects the product. The result of the rebrand and repackaging has been outstanding at achieving the client’s goals; greatly increasing sales volume, profitability, and enabling the product to be distributed to prestige Whisky specialist retailers such as Whiskey Galore in Christchurch.
Keep on reading!

Silver Cloud, 100% Blue Agave Spirit, Terry Knight

Silver Cloud 100% agave spirit launch event

July 7, 2018 / / No Comments
Silver Cloud product launch even invitation.

Silver Cloud product launch even invitation.

A documentary photo essay that I shot of the fabulous Silver Cloud 100% Pure Agave liquor launch event at Nicola’s Cantina in Nelson New Zealand.

The feature of the launch event was the auction by Terry Knight of only the first two of the thirty bottle limited release, bottles number 30 and 29, which sold on the night for a tidy NZD$400 and $450 respectively, a fitting testament to the quality of the pure agave liquor, the packaging, the branding and the success of the well promoted and event managed launch of event.
Keep on reading!

A logo for a website mapping all of Christchurch’s post earthquake recovery street art

Top Marks: top 40 logos

July 7, 2018 / / No Comments

Waitui Single Malt Manuka Honey Golden Bay Whiskey packaging label
The power of visual communication is the ability to…

Talk less.

Although I’ve worked on many high-profile projects, I strive to give equal attention to the more commonplace assignments and small business clients. This is the small things that need to be precise—the directional signs, capabilities brochures, websites, product packaging, corporate collateral, After almost 40 years of practice, I am still excited by that challenge and the possibilities each new project presents.
Keep on reading!

Hydro-excavation methodology short film

July 6, 2018 / / No Comments

The two minute hydro-excavation methodology video

In support of the Trenchless Technologies print documents and the Case Studies section of the TruLine Civil website I was also commissioned to shoot and edit a two minute video clip of the resources and methods used for Hydo-Excavation in Christchurch city when installing the ultra-fast fibre network to businesses downtown.

Credits

Shooting: MagentaDot Brands
Director / editor: Thomas Rands

©magentadot brands

Supergraphic MTC Volvo FH12 makeover

July 6, 2018 / / No Comments

MTC’s import Volvo FH12 had a makeover and now she’s sweet, in fact she’s a cherry!

The air is thick with ideas in the MagentaDot Brands studio, design is a classic discipline of endless potential and this brief from MTC Equipment was generously thrown wide open. The new livery design brief for the Volvo was given to me in a meeting concurrent with TruLine Civil’s in-house truck painter Andrew Gill, a true master of his trade. This kicked off a fruitful, illustrious collaboration with him and Darren Leeds of Leeding signs. It included the discussion of details like the quality of new alloy boilerplate and wheel arches, the exhaust stacks makeover, and the bold selection of the AA premium cherry red metallic lustre paint to boot! Metallic paint being an exceeding rare choice for long haul trucks to be finished in.
Keep on reading!

‘Tuatara - Sphenodon Punctatus’ portrait T-shirt front

Fuss, fuss, fuss: How this Tuatara drawing evolves

July 3, 2018 / / No Comments

This terrific Tuatara illustrative design work evolves by focussing on the details, this is quite common

Surface Active made in Aotearoa, T-shirts main neck label.

Surface Active Wildlife art – making waves in a sea of sameness.

To make digital art of New Zealand’s Tuatara, that has the look and feel of a natural line drawing, the editing, fussing process can take hours and while it isn’t easy it is a great deal of fun. I take pleasure in design and I enjoy using the computer to draw with the stylus, inking over the scan just as easily as I would with traditional pen and ink. The production of design work is an incredible drill when you are doing your utmost to make it terrific. I do my utmost to make sure that every design project I work on is mega.
Keep on reading!

portrait with the fetching Stronger Chrischurch ballerina backdrop in Armagh Street, May 2015.

The rise & rise of Christchurch street art

August 17, 2017 / / No Comments

Watch This Space logo design contest entry

Popular Urban Art or vandalism of private property? That thorny contention was settled unequivocally in post-quake Christchurch 2011. What now is considered pro-social and broadly popular urban art has morphed out of counter culture to become one of the totems of the fine art world. The gallery showcases my comp entry and a selection from my Stronger Christchurch, and Rise street art photo libraries.

Front cover Watch This Space logo presentation document

The front cover of my Watch This Space logo presentation document depicts the logo visualised screenprinted onto the back of a woman’s red hoodie garment.

Since the 2011 earthquakes Street Art is emerging all over the central city of Christchurch, like life it finds a way to vitalize empty sections and animate the bare walls that dominate the landscape with vibrant colour and youthful design.
Keep on reading!