International Paper Sizes

© Clare Waterfall

Much needed greetings card range for the Slummy Mummy

A recent trip to the Trafford Centre highlighted the need for a certain niche within the greetings card market.

I have messy children. Scrap that, I have children, I am slovenly and inadequately prepared, despite having a superbly designed changing bag and my time served in the Brownies.

On the rare occasion that I summon the courage to leave the house with the babes, it will undoubtedly result in a spillage of some variety, in some nice establishment. Often drinks, usually vomit.

Different places have differing responses, generally I am met with a polite friendly pair of hands that offer a roll of blue paper towel. 

Some venues are oblivious to the chaotic scene unfurling, a frazzled slightly panicky Moi, juggling baby, toddler, plates, pools of liquid. Trying to stop further excretions going over surfaces or up noses, attempting to sooth sick child, preventing other child from getting in the mess and warning others in close proximity to not slip. 

Other places are absolute havens with staff who are ultra responsive, understanding, helpful and kind. Of the many lovely places that have looked after me and my wee ones in a spill/vomit crisis, a recent shopping excursion to Mamas & Papas was perhaps the pinnacle of excellence.

Dear little Heidi, my (then) 7 month old daughter was sick, ala The Exorcist at the Cashier’s Desk. It was spectacular comedy timing as I had just been recounting a number of public child vomit stories to the heavily pregnant Sales Assistant, as justification for my permanent scruffy look. “What is the point of wearing nice clothes, dresses, heels etc? they only get covered in squashed rusks and milk, this month I’ll mainly be wearing baby sick.” Cue huge projectile tube of sick; all over the desk, floor, myself, herself and my shell-shocked 13 year old niece Jessica. (This was nothing but preparation for what poor Jessica would witness later in the week from little Heidi. That however, is another story).

The staff couldn’t be more wonderful if they had perhaps sang or danced through their swift handling of the affair. Bucket and Mop with steaming hot water and Dettol, sympathy, kindness, towels and bags sprung forth and spared me much tears and embarrassment. So lovely.

So, obviously I needed to thank them properly. In the restaurants and Cafes I would leave a whopping tip for such treatment, but I don’t think this would be appropriate, what is customary in a shop? Chocolates and cards I thought. Neighbouring shop John Lewis has a great range of cards and chocolate I might add, but non that said “thank you for helping me when I needed it most. Thank you for getting us all clean, safe and settled’.

This and a number of other events has inspired me to create my Human Nature range of cards.

I have used the font LetsGo by Des Gomez on Dafont, see a selection of her great handwritten fonts here.

Full list of credits for vomit soldiers coming soon....

Huge thank you to:

Ramsbottom's Chocolate Cafe, The Lounge, The Mousetrap, 

Marple Bridge's The Midland 

Mothering Sunday

I am back in the studio, OK so I am back in my front room that has my mac, books, paper and paints in. After 4 years of study, designing to spec and meeting briefs and targets, it is rather enjoyable to be practicing and learning at my own pace.

This month's task that I have beset myself is to use Illustrator with confidence.  I have used it since I was 19 but have never mastered it, simply using the tools I felt comfortable with and fudging around with the pen tool.

So I am currently practicing my bezier curves and getting to grips with the pathfinder options, knocking out paths, making compound paths, clipping masks etc.

I have been practicing these methods on a design for a Mothers Day card. Terribly basic, but by applying the theory from Ted Alspach's Illustrator CS4 for Dummies (I know! I bought it a long time ago and can't bring myself to by a newer version having never read it) with the hands on practice, I hope to get to grips with the paths and all that they will allow me to do.

Design Portfolio

Final Assignment - Group Project 2013

This is our final project and I worked with the most wonderful people, Famida, Rebecca and Judith.

The blog at finproductions.co.uk shows all the work that was created but I just wanted to post some of the highlights here to showcase my contributions.

We produced a web resource for an imaginary client Wedding Proposal.  This was a website created in Flash with advice, tutorials and supplier databases for the novice wedding planner, Brides and Grooms to be.

I had taken on the role of Production Manager, so was responsible for the planning and ensuring all aspects of the brief were covered and on schedule.  I wrote much of the body of the presentation and it's supporting material.  I also took on graphic design work, wedding photography including photo editing, video production/post production motion graphics, blogging and social networking.

Rebecca was our Web Developer, Famida Lead Graphic Designer and Judith Marketing Manager.  As we were a small team we took on other roles too helping produce all the research material and visible content for the site.

The site is no longer live due to hosting costs, something I may seek to address as I think it would be worth keeping up for the near future.

Here are some examples of the work I did.

Click for link to Pitch Document

Click for link to Working Product Presentation Handout

Click for link to Final Presentation Handout and Video

Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography

Stationery Design

Advertisment Design

Advertisment Design

Advertisment Design

Wedding Photography

Initial design for the itunes profile

Wedding Photography

Producing the company blog/ production diary.  Customised with own designs and HTML/CSS

Stationery Design

Wedding Photography

Finding and shortlisting colour schemes for the corporate branding

Design the corporate branding for our production team

Created full suite for the corporate branding

Creating the motion graphics titles and straps in After Effects

Creating the handouts in InDesign

Initial designs for the appearance of the thumbnails in thw website/ app

Wedding Photography

Forecast and managed the project scheduke, taking details from the brief and setting manageable deadlines

Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography

Created icons for social network sites

Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography

Designed assets for itunes submission

Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography

I filmed and edited a video tutorial

Mock up of how app would look in mobile device

Wedding Photography

Research for Supplier Database

Mood Boards

Wedding Photography

Wedding Photography

I supplied full access to my wedding photography

For my research paper I chose to answer the question "Why Blog?"


Overall grades: Project evaluation - 77, Project Implementation - 72, Project Research and Plan - 75