Five most popular blog posts from 2018

As 2018 draws to a close I’m taking a look back through the five most popular blog posts from the last twelve months.

Pass the phrasebook

‘Passport, tickets, money’. This familiar checklist seems to cover all the holiday essentials. But once you’ve arrived at your destination you might begin to feel you’ve forgotten something – your international pictogram phrasebook.

Pictograms seem like an ideal way to communicate succinctly, while transcending language barriers. But is it really as simple as that? Read more…

The uncomfortable world of forms

Forms are a fact of modern life, yet they can make your clients feel uncomfortable, unsure about how to fill them in, and even put them off completely – even when they are for their benefit.

If your business forms are unclear, difficult to fill in or ask questions which seem irrelevant, then they will cost you money – either in lost income or in additional costs incurred in dealing with the wrongly completed form.

Read my blog post from September for ten quick tips for improving the design of your business’s forms. Read more…

Thermography

This summer fine wine investment experts Amphora Portfolio Management commissioned me to design luxurious invitations to their exclusive wine tastings.

In June I wrote about how and why I used thermography in addition to paper choice to help communicate the exclusivity of these very special events. Read more…

Is traditional marketing dead?

Anyone who is familiar with my work will know that I am a great believer in the continued power of print. So when I saw an advert for a qualification in digital marketing proclaiming that ‘traditional marketing is dead’ my interest was piqued. I signed up and completed the course. But what did I learn? And importantly – is traditional marketing really dead? Read more…

Comic Sans

Comic Sans has attracted more than its fair share of derision and dislike from designers and non-designers alike. But is Comic Sans itself at fault – or is it simply the inappropriate way in which it has been used?

In May I chatted to Alison Watson of Borders Literacy Tuition about her particular viewpoint on this most contentious of typefaces. Read more…