The Spirit of Papua New Guinea escorted tour launch brochure. One of three “Hidden Gems” brochures forming a 2009 direct mail campaign to Pionair’s past traveller database and affluent travel agents in the U.S. and the rest of the world. Spirit of PNG was one of three tour packages promoted in this 2009 Pionair Group Travel / Escorted Tours direct mail campaign.

This set of brochures was also a component of the Affluent Travel toolkit of material supplied to Pionair’s leading affluent travel agents in the U.S., and around the world. The agents’ kit also included the “Unparalleled Journeys” affluent travel booklet.

Defining and evolving Pionair’s corporate identity.

Within the realm of Neolithic Art, Papua New Guinea is unparalleled. The basis for this vibrant, organic art form is religious. Carved masks such as this one from the Sepik River region are created to be inhabited by spirits.

One part private air charter firm, owning aircraft, employing pilots and aircrew, the other part an affluent travel firm, inbound travel wholesaler and tourism operator, my job of corporate identity designer, art director and founder of Pionair’s in-house “Propellor Studio” was the best of design jobs.The initiation of the design process for client departments within the firm; air charter, escorted group travel, free inboard travel, the designer-client relationship, project research and analysis, cost estimation, formal presentations were followed up by either in-house colour digital printing and binding, out-sourced offset litho print design and print production, signage, environmental or web design.

The design development phase with in-house clients was collegial, design strategies were expertly discussed and explored, draft design solutions were evaluated by the presentation of preliminary design visuals or comps. By a process of client designer consensus building we developed the rationale for the final selection. Once the rationale was settled for projects I was able to implement the design, artwork and copywriting (as required) with single-minded creative direction. The application and implementation of the identity system was planned and followed coherent guidelines. Custom Word document templates were developed, the house set of typefaces installed on colleague’s computers, a library of digital assets was developed and curated containing images, maps and infographics.

The five years of being in-house creative designer for Pionair was preceded by two years of their brand management; design, art direction, artwork and print production of their marketing collateral in an independent creative studio. Out of this evolved considerable knowledge and experience and as this “Hidden Gems” exposition demonstrates, a Corporate I.D. System of clarity and conciseness that yielded measurable sales and marketing results.

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If you think a well planned corporate identity system design with well developed manuals and guidelines might be a good strategy for your firm contact me here.

Credits

Printer: Croft Print Limited
Design studio: Pionair Propellor in house studio
Copywriter: Rae Wakefield Jones / Tim Scott
Photographers: Pionair travelers, Papua New Guinea Tourism, Christopher Michael  
Type Credit: Avant Garde, Avant Garde Condensed

Software brochures makeover for Da Vinci Communications

Desktop publishing is a path of discovery. Why is making something look better worthy toil? There are benefits to clarity, ease of understanding for busy people justifies hours in production.

Pleasing design needs no apology, even in technical publications. Artistic expression can be placed on the same level as informational expressional.
Keep on reading!

Surface Active art-to-wear: T-shirts in the spirit of fun.

‘Paua Aotearoa’, adults and kids T-shirt, four colour print on navy and black fabric. Adult garment a four colour print. Placement; four colour front, one complementary small one colour print on back. Piecework kowhaiwhai print on sleeves.

‘Adelie Penguins, Antarctica’ adult’s and children’s two colour print.

As an illustrative graphic designer, writer, desktop publisher; once before I was a design pARTner in an in-house craft garment screenprinting studio, the medium of the workingman’s artist.

By the mid 1980s T-shirts had become hot promotional items, garments on the outskirts of fashion, and a relatively new medium for the Graphic Designer’s art. What had for a long time been considered a poor medium for Graphic Design grew to an almost essential one. All you have to do is walk down the street anywhere in the world since the early 80s to see what a ubiquitous promotional vehicle they have become. If you mail out 100 potential clients a direct mail brochure perhaps 200 people will see it. But mail out, or better yet, sell 100 T-shirts, and assuming they’re at all decent looking, you launch 100 walking billboards.

The trend over the past several decades has been to embrace more casual clothing, to the point of stone-washed and distressed, though this has in no way meant this sort of clothing has become less expensive or stylish. Brand awareness, including personal brand awareness has been part of this trend—to such an extent that people want, or are at least willing to flaunt, the name of the brand or designer of their shoes, jeans, and bags on the items in question. In short clothing manufacturers made their products promotional vehicles for themselves.

Surface Active | The New Zealand Nature T-shirt Company.

‘Ocean – New Zealand’ one colour children’s T-shirt print on navy blue and jade green fabric. Placement; One colour front and back. ‘Puff’ printed emboss effect ink.

‘Ocean – New Zealand’ and ‘Seashore – New Zealand’ one colour children’s T-shirt prints on navy blue and jade green fabric. Placement; One colour front and back. ‘Puff’ printed emboss effect ink.

Saltwater crayfish – koura. Charcoal and ink on coquille board drawing.

‘Forest floor – New Zealand’ one colour children’s T-shirt print on unbleached cotton and dark green fabric. Placement; One colour front and back. ‘Puff’ printed emboss effect ink.

Chrissie models ‘Kiwi – New Zealand’ the first of our mixed digital and drawing board graphics. ‘Puff’ printed emboss effect ink.

‘Sandy shore’ one colour garment print on grey marle fabric. Placement; front and back, with a smaller complimentary designalong the hemline on the back.

‘Sandy shore’ one colour garment print on unbleached cotton fabric. Placement: front and back, with a smaller complimentary design along the hemline on the back.

‘Taniwha Aotearoa – Maori rock art New Zealand. One colour T-shirt print on black fabric. Placement; larger graphic on front complementary smaller graphic back. Front print metallic gold manual colour blend.

‘Taniwha Aotearoa – Maori rock art New Zealand. One colour long sleeve T-shirt print on black fabric. Placement; larger graphic on front complementary smaller graphic back. Front print metallic gold manual colour blend.

‘Treefern New Zealand’ T-shirt, two colour print on dark green fabric. Printed front and sleeve of garment.

‘Tapa NZ’ children’s T-shirt on unbleached cotton fabric. 2 colours placed front, back and sleeves.

‘Tapa NZ’ two colour T-shirt on unbleached cotton fabric. Placement; 2 colours placed front, back and sleeves.

‘Light of the Pacific – Nuclear-free New Zealand’ T-Shirt. Two colour print on navy and unbleached cotton fabric. Placement; Two colour front, small complementary one colour back, ssleeves printed one colour ‘sharkstooth’ woodcut as piecework.

‘Light of the Pacific – Nuclear-free New Zealand’ T-Shirt. Two colour print on navy and unbleached cotton fabric. Placement; Two colour front, small complementary one colour back, sleeves printed one colour ‘sharkstooth’ woodcut as piecework.

‘Light of the Pacific – Nuclear-free New Zealand’ T-Shirt. Two colour print on unbleached cotton fabric. Placement; Two colour front, small complementary one colour back, sleeves printed one colour ‘sharkstooth’ woodcut as piecework.

Surface Active catalogue of graphic T-shirt designs, 1994–95. Concertina fold “paper dolls” presentation concept. Vivid Rod Morris kea plumage detail cover graphic.

‘Adelie Penguins, Antarctica’ adult’s and children’s two colour T-shirt print on white fabric. Placement; Complementary graphics, two colours front and back.

‘Pukeko New Zealand’ four colour T-shirt print on navy blue fabric. Placement; 4 colours front with small complementary 3 colour print on the back.

‘Pukeko New Zealand’ four colour children’s T-shirt print on navy blue fabric. Placement; 4 colours front with small complementary 3 colour print on the back.

‘Adelie Penguins, Antarctica’ adult’s and children’s two colour T-shirt print on white fabric. Placement; Complementary graphics. two colours front and back.

Beautiful type makes a statement of its own; it adds elegance and attitude to my words; The tuatara is a two colour “pen & ink” wildlife art design printed using three dimensional “puff” inks.

‘Tuatara – Living fossil map’ two colour T-shirt print on black fabric using opaque and three dimensional puff inks.

Surface Active art-to-wear: making waves in a sea of sameness.

‘Paua Aotearoa’ T-shirt, four colour print on black fabric. Placement; four colour front, complementary small one colour graphic on back. Piecework kowhaiwhai print on sleeves.

‘Paua Aotearoa’, adults and kids T-shirt, four colour print on navy and black fabric. Adult garment a four colour print. Placement; four colour front, one complementary small one colour print on back. Piecework kowhaiwhai print on sleeves.

‘Paua Aotearoa’ T-shirt, four colour print on black fabric. Placement; four colour front, complementary small one colour graphic on back. Piecework kowhaiwhai print on sleeves. Model: Shaun.

‘Paua Aotearoa’, adults and kids T-shirt, four colour print on navy and black fabric. Adult garment a four colour print. Placement; four colour front, one complementary small one colour print on back. Piecework kowhaiwhai print on sleeves.

Weta long sleeve T-shirt on oatmeal marle fabric. Six colour print. Placement; piecework, front, back and sleeve.

‘Weta – New Zealand’ T-shirt, adults and kids, on oatmeal and grey marle fabric. Adult garment a six colour print. Placement; piecework, front, back and sleeve.

‘Weta – New Zealand’ six colour print T-shirt on light brown marle fabric. Placement; Six colour print as piecework, front, back and sleeve.

‘Weta – New Zealand’ T-shirt, adults and kids, on oatmeal and grey marle fabric. Adult garment a six colour print. Placement; piecework, front, back and sleeve.

Surface Active T-shirt swingtag front.

Surface Active T-shirt swingtag back.

Surface Active ‘Kiwi Space Shuttle’ T-shirt, mixed media, digital illustration.

‘Kiwi Space Shuttle’ print detail.

‘Sperm Whale – Kaikoura New Zealand’ T-shirt, five colour print on white or dark blue-green fabric. Placement; five colour print back, complementary small one colour graphic on front.

Some screen printed art began as woodcuts.

‘Spotted Shags – New Zealand’ T-shirt, seven colour print on grey marle fabric. Placement; seven colour front, one colour woodcut around hem front and back.

‘Spotted Shags – New Zealand’ T-shirt, seven colour print on navy blue fabric. Placement; seven colour front, one colour woodcut around hem front and back.

‘Jewelled Gecko – New Zealand’ eight colour T-shirt print on dark green fabric. Placement; Eight colour front print, one colour kowhaiwhai print front and back around hem.

‘Jewelled Gecko – New Zealand’ eight colour T-shirt print on dark green fabric. Placement; Eight colour front print, oone colour kowhaiwhai print front and back around hem.

Surface Active | Making waves in a sea of sameness

‘Kea – New Zealand’ T-shirt, eight colour print on white fabric. Placement; eight colour front.

‘Harlequin Gecko – New Zealand’ eight colour T-shirt print on charcoal marle fabric. Placement; Eight colour front print, one colour woodcut print front and back around hem. 

‘Harlequin Gecko – New Zealand’ eight colour T-shirt print on light-brown marle fabric. Placement; Eight colour front print, one colour woodcut print front and back around hem.

‘Harlequin Gecko – New Zealand’ eight colour T-shirt print on charcoal marle fabric. Placement; Eight colour front print, one colour woodcut print front and back around hem.

‘Hoiho – New Zealand’ T-shirt, eight colour print on deep violet fabric. Placement; eight colour front, one colour woodcut around hem front and back.

‘Common dolphin – New Zealand’ T-shirt, eight colour print on white fabric. Placement; eight colour front, one colour kowhaiwhai around the hem front and back.

Surface Active wildlife collage design, step and repeat one colour fabric print on custom bedding set.

Surface Active wildlife collage design fabric print as wallpaper.

Surface Active art-to-wear

Promotional teeshirts take this walking billboard concept one step further by being clothing that promotes products, services, cultural and ideological views in such a way that the wearer is willing to be identified—whether through a sense of aesthetics, humour, social responsibility, or irreverence, or loyalty to a watering hole, cultural institution, environmental organisation or charity. People are willing to wear someone else’s message because they feel it says something about themselves—which is the essence of fashion.

‘Kiwi Space Shuttle’ T-shirt, six colour print on grey marle fabric. Placement; six colour front, one colour woodcut around hem front and back.

Initially our Surface Active art-to-wear T-shirts were designed to be retailed by us at our stall at the Christchurch Arts Centre Market, by direct mail to the list of supporters we collected, and at Great New Zealand Craftshow events nationwide.  We grew to be wholesalers to environmental organisations such as Greenpeace and the Maruia Society, for inclusion particularly in their annual pre-Xmas direct mail catalogue campaigns and sold in their retail stores.

As design pARTners in the visual arts Chrissie Terpstra and I applied our teeshirt design skills to everything from promoting small businesses and one-time events, to our Surface Active wildlife art, Kiwiana and nuclear free collections. We wholesaled our handscreenprinted T-shirts to the likes of Wild Places and The Epicentre, Christchurch’s two ecostores, and to Greenpeace and the Maruia Society. Our market developed to include DoC visitor centres and similar conservation themed retail outlets in National Parks and the prestigious Te Papa store in Wellington. As our business and reputation grew we were commissioned by tourist attractions like the International Antarctic Centre, Orana Park and certain Doc conservancies to design and produce custom ranges of adult and children’s shirts.

‘Adelie Penguins, Antarctica’ adult’s and children’s two colour T-shirt print on white fabric. Placement; Complementary graphics, two colours front and back.

This delightful collection is from our SurfaceActive Art-to-Wear range 1996–2000.

In terms of our T-shirt design itself, it evolved from straightforward application of a symbol or logo, screenprinted on the kitchen table in our flat in 1986, sometimes hand painted to finish, to approaches that treat the shirt as a canvas, involving printing the garments as piecework prior to being stitched up by local seamstresses. Whereas our early designs simply applied graphics to the front of the shirt, our designs developed into appearing on the front and back, wrap around, and encircling the hems and sleeves. Treating the T-shirt we were printing on as the design of a piece of clothing in the round. We also developed from printing initially printing white and light coloured shirts to having our locally made pure cotton garments custom dyed in vivid dark hues in small batches prior to their speciality “dark shirt” printing.

The mechanics of hand-screen printing fabric

When you are printing on cotton fabric with seams you cannot get the kind of fine detail you can printing on paper. The fabric absorbs the inks or dyes and the colour spreads through the fibres—the fabric equivalent of dot gain.

Surface Active print shop, Jewelled gecko hand pulled eight colour Teeshirt printing in progress.

With our layered or hand-separated multicolour designs the colour is laid down in areas with the hand-pulled silk-screening process, with “flash-curing” of the print between colour passes, in some cases up to 10 passes to print one garment, front, back, hem and sleeves, one colour at a time.

Fabric colour and the issue of “hand” or feel of the fabric printing inks

‘Jewel Gecko – New Zealand’ eight colour T-shirt print on dark green fabric. Placement; Eight colour front print, one colour kowhaiwhai print front and back around hem.

The other reason other than avoiding toxic (and highly hazardous) solvents that are used for printing “Plastisol” inks, and for selecting water based inks and dyes as the better option is that of the “hand” or feel of the ink. Water-based inks have a nicer feel to them but they are more difficult to work with as they easily cure, “dry in” or clog the stencil especially in peak demand hot summer weather, rendering it useless and in need of remaking. Waterbased dyes have no “hand” to them as such as the screenprint literally dyes the light coloured fabric.

Custom designed and built in-line printing workshop

We developed a custom in-line sequential printing methodology, rather than rotary print methodology in our back-shed “sheltered workshop” to successfully overcome the drying-in drawback of waterbased printing dyes and Supercover inks. It was achieved by way of additional manual labour and an innovative use of my own design of screen holding humidifier boxes for keeping the ink and screens moist between print runs.

‘Harlequin Gecko – New Zealand’ eight colour T-shirt print on charcoal marle fabric. Placement; Eight colour front print, one colour woodcut print front and back around hem.

If you want to lay down a light colour on a dark shirt you have to use acrylic Super-cover inks, in some cases laying down two light coats to best build opacity while preserving detail. Flash curing in between is the only way ensure print quality is maintained throughout the print run

If your dark shirt design has a lot of solid light ink coverage you end up making something that has the feel of a bullet-proof vest when you’re wearing it. We avoided this by planning our designs to combine both ink and dye passes, colours darker than the fabric colour are dyes, lighter ones are super-opaque acrylics, all required flash curing between.

The other huge benefit with water-based inks, aside from wash-up with water, and their “thinners” being water, is that the finished garment once flashed off to the point of being touch dry is given a final cure in just 20 minutes in a domestic tumble dryer rather than a 6m long high-tech curing oven.

Surface Active wildlife collage design, step and repeat one colour fabric print on custom bedding set.

Optimising the illustration workflow for easy printing and graphic quality

‘Ocean – New Zealand’ one colour children’s T-shirt print on navy blue and jade green fabric. Placement; One colour front and back. ‘Puff’ printed emboss effect ink.

One of our specialities is one colour “puff printed” designs, the so called puff inks contract when cured and so draw up the fabric surface. This has a tremendous tactile and visual effect on single colour dark shirt prints such as the Tuatara and children’s Ocean and Forest floor designs.

I developed a variation of drawing wildlife art for reproduction from classic zoology methods, using mixed media, charcoal pencil with pen and ink on coquille board to achieve a crisp “line and tone” effect from one colour “line” images.

Garment prices scaled with print cost

With hand-pulled screen printing the cost of printing a batch of shirts scales with the number being produced up to a certain point, set-up and clean-up time being equal regardless of quantity. The number of graphic “placements” (a graphic on the front is one placement, front and back, two placements, etc.), and the number of colours, type of ink used,. per graphic also determines the printing cost.

Regarding the gallery and our T-shirt models

As with other some portfolios on the site Archive the over 40 designs included here are collected from the period between 1988–2002 of our Surface Active printed garment editions. I have made no effort to force the shirts into defined categories; rather, I present them in a manner intended to inspire and entertain—an approach appropriate to the spirit of fun that T-shirts represent.

‘Weta – New Zealand’ T-shirt, adults and kids, on oatmeal and grey marle fabric. Adult garment a six colour print. Placement; piecework, front, back and sleeve.

In that light-hearted vein a shout-out must go to our T-shirt models from back-in-the-day, the kids are all 20-or-30-something now at time of writing. Our compliments and lasting gratitude are also due to their T-shirt modelling parents, our friends. SurfaceActive employed most of them as our highly-trusted sales crew selling from our stall at the weekend Christchurch Arts Centre Market, come rain or shine, year-round 1988–2002.

Credits

Design and Art Direction: Design pARTners, Chrissie Terpstra and Shaun Waugh
Illustrator: Shaun Waugh
Hand-pulled screen printing: Surface Active: Chrissie Terpstra and crew

The MyoPace EMG product capabilities brochure presents the utility of a high tech piece of medical equipment beautifully and inexpensively. The brief was for a product brochure makeover. A plain sheet of paper is transformed into an engaging, easy-to-read A5 three-panel brochure with full bleed printing and two rollover folds.

By combining well thought out and carefully art directed studio photography, a large format pastel illustration and clear typography the new brochure tells a user-friendly story in words and pictures.

MyoPace EMG Equipment for Physiotherapy carton.

MyoPace Software CD and jewel case.

MyoPace flexographic printed outer-shipping carton. Printed one colour, black, onto recycled corrugated Kraft board. Due to rough irregular surface of board medium to coarse halftones are required at no more than 65 line screen. The 27.5 line screen used for the EMG device creates an “organic” recycled look.

Myopace EMG brochure for Rob Glassehy of Niche Technology. “Hardware Rob” was one of the founding members of the Christchurch “technology barbecue” incubator group in the late 90s.

MyoPace: EMG equipment for Physiotherapy and Occupational Health Professionals

The Niche technology EMG (Electro Myograph) brochure was direct mailed to physiotherapists in New Zealand and abroad, given out by hand, displayed at trade shows for customers to take and distributed to their wholesale customers. This capable feature-packed device represented high performance and great value for money and was successfully retailed and wholesaled by Niche technologies at trade shows domestically and internationally.

Though the specialist audience is familiar with the sales literature for medical devices, telling the clear story of the Myopace EMG in words and pictures is as demanding for this device as it is anywhere.

The brochure core is the inside spread, with well thought out studio photography presenting the device as the hero, the brochure succeeds with focussed, flowing, nicely paced compositions and photos.

The “before” lacks interest and impact

The “before” lacks impact due to unappealing colours and a beige generic case housing the device. With the introduction of basic identity elements and well thought out art directed studio photography presenting the device as the hero, the “after” succeeds with focussed compositions and photos in a flowing and nicely paced rollover fold brochure.

The message is part verbal, part visual and clearly expressed.

The 6 panel well organised layout has variety and a clear design goal. Where appropriate, on the cover and page two, the material conforms to fitting into individual panels. For the three panel inside spread the folds are ignored and the design is the entire page.

Good looking images working together as storytellers

People see before they read so to attract customers images have prominence in the design concept. The photos were all visualised up front prior to the studio shoot. The images convey the utility and benefits of the EMG and it’s bundled software and some were clear-cut, without backgrounds or edges.

MyoPace EMG Equipment for Physiotherapy carton.

Easily read typefaces

Type was chose for its clarity and power. I chose two highly legible modern sans-serifs, Frutiger and the humanist sans Syntax for headings, and for the text, up-to-date yet classic Cheltenham, as with its larger x-height it is a Roman face that works as well on screen in smaller sizes as it does in print.

Wide screen interior layout

The interior layout ignores the folds and treats the entire page as a single canvas. The layout can conform to the information that is necessary to convey, from the information out. The layout makes use of curved graphics and photos with and without edges to show the Myopace EMG “in the round”. Along with that is a composite illustrating the bundled software and a shot of the EMG device modelled in therapeutic use in the workplace.

Front cover design sets the stage

Strongly focussed full bleed image, the photo presents the device in such a way that it is both framed, clearly named, and by the means of an oblique view, shallow depth of field and a one light lighting setup the EMG device appears to pop-up forward, almost leaping clean off the page. To the audience the anatomical life drawing of musculature tells the story in one picture of what the Myopace device is and what it is used for.

Product name, positioning statement, selling message and branding elements are well organised in a size and colour coded visual hierarchy.

Dual purpose back cover

One of the first things read, yet it must also work as the conclusion. It is the best place for the dry product specifications data sheet, guarantee, contact details and an empty space for the dealer stamp. Cinema credit style typography for the specification list keeps the list typography well anchored in the layout and is optimal for reading quickly in a single bite.

The chief product benefits are simply put with poster-like clarity and emphasis on this standalone page, the reader is encouraged to take the plunge and read on.

Fold in panel, a welcome message that compliments the cover and the inside spread

Sequence matters, message and brochure format present the story, best foot forward. The chief product benefits are simply put using image, colour and type with poster-like clarity and emphasis on this standalone page, the reader is encouraged to take the plunge and read on.

Inside: the brochure core

The inside is taken in all at once so the layout has been designed to best fit and express the capabilities of the feature packed EMG device. The client assisted the design goals by providing concise, pragmatic copy, just the facts. The text is extremely clear with wide line-spacing, black in colour and set in columns of optimal width which can be read easily and quickly. Readers are pulled into the story by eye catching callouts that set the design theme. Generous white borders around the non-bleed elements give the layout a fresh, organised look. Multiple captions on the product images have tremendous value because every image has several stories to tell.

Credits

Printer: Colour Digital Printing (CDP)
Design firm: Surface Active Graphic Design
Copywriter: Client, including product naming
Creative director / designer / illustrator / print production: Shaun Waugh
Font credits: Cheltenham, Frutiger, Sytnax