Hop House Design

The Creative Industries Council has launched a charter designed to drive greater diversity across the UK’s creative industries.

Amazingly, the sun is beating down on Glastonbury with not a rain cloud in sight! According to Malcolm Morley, who played at the very first 'Glastonbury Fair' festival with his band Help Yourself, the same wasn't quite true back in 1971. Although it isn't the weather that Malcolm and his bandmates recall the most, their abiding memory is of a 12 year old Indian guru named Maharj Ji who spoke 'words of wisdom' from the rather rudimentary pyramid stage. And in case you're wonde...ring, they don't remember a thing about David Bowie's fledgling performance.
In an act of pure synergy, Malcom's latest release is out today, resplendent in a cover we designed after listening to his lyrics and soaking up the song's slightly sinister and cynical overtones. The source imagery was purloined from various old engravings and a graphically manipulated scan of an old Thomas Gainsborough painting. All good fun!
You can download the song here: https://malcolmmorley.bandcamp.com/…/mu st-be-the-devil-in-me
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It's always great to see something a bit different, especially when it is done so well. London Cyclist magazine, published by the London Cycling Campaign, is a case in point. Small format, uncoated paper, designed and written to a high standard, it really is a breath of fresh air. It was therefore a no-brainer to be included in our advertising schedule for Optilabs, the UK's leading manufacturer for prescription sports eyewear.
We create all of the Optilabs advertising here ...in house ~ including the art direction, photography, copywriting and design, as well as planning and booking the media schedules.
The cyclist featured in the ad is Gary Mason, one of Optilabs' sports ambassadors. A year or so ago we created a campaign to find the 'face of Optilabs', in order to reach out to grassroots enthusiasts across the wide range of sports that Optilabs supplies eyewear for. The initiative was an unqualified success and we now have a number of sports men and women from all over the UK who feature in our digital and traditional media campaigns.
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A day of getting involved with the local community here in Bronllys and Talgarth. We’re always more than willing to help out with initiatives such as Grow for Talgarth, who this year are part of Wales in Bloom. Thanks to The Bakers Table at Talgarth Mill for the excellent coffee!

Is it just us? Logos and brand identities seem to be getting increasingly complex. Whatever happened to the beauty and simplicity of a pared back design?
World Rugby have just announced their new logo ~ seen on the left here. It's not too shabby to be honest, a nicely stylised rugby ball, placed as if about to be kicked, and sliced to create a 'W'. All fair enough. What we don't like is the clumsy white outline and the over-fussy gradations. We're guessing that the white outl...ine is so the ball/W shows up on a black background (which is poor design... its an afterthought). As for the gradations, how on earth will this design be reproduced effectively on merchandise or when used small?
As for the design on the right, that took us five minutes in Photoshop. This keeps the integrity of the logo (the ball and the W) but makes it easier, cheaper and more effect to produce. It also creates a stronger colour set in terms of branding. It'd be interesting to see the alternatives the designer presented to the client... and hear the reasons why this 'fussy' version was chosen. Maybe because 'flashier' design are 'in' any the moment?
Anyway, gentle rant over. And we must stress that this isn't in any way criticising the designer of the new logo... that'd be poor form, especially without knowing the circumstances it was created under.
All that said, the moral of this tale is to keep your designs simple... and that the devil is in the detail.
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Not often these days we get to design a vinyl album sleeve. Needless to say, creating this was great fun, although slightly challenging because the original album’s ‘Wrench Boy' painting (it was previously released only on CD) got lost in 2018’s California forest fires & the only scan simply #design wasn’t good enough to be enlarged. The eagle-eyed psychedelic art cognoscenti among you will already have spotted that Wrench Boy's artist is none other than the legendary Rick Gr...iffin. It therefore goes without saying it was a huge honour for us to work on this project and was immensely satisfying.
The added bonus is that Help Yourself have long been a favourite in the Hop House Design studio (check them out!). We just need a record deck now to do it justice. That'll therefore be fully-allowable on expenses... right?
#graphicdesign #rickgriffin #psychedelic #vinyl #musicindustry #albumcover
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One of the benefits of moving to rural Wales is how much closer you are to the great outdoors. For one of our clients, the sports glasses manufacturer Optilabs, this has been invaluable in creating imagery for their advertising and social media. As you'd expect for a January day, today it has been mostly grey and overcast. Then, an hour or so ago, the sun unexpectedly came out and the sky lit up. With iPhone in hand*, I quickly drove up to a viewpoint above the house. Using t...he car's roof as a mirror I quickly snapped a couple of frames in the dying light. 20 minutes later, this image was gracing Optilabs' social media channels ~ with enough other images 'in the bank' for future posts. Job done! #socialmedia #iphone #outdoors #prescriptionglasses #sportsglass #photography
*Sometimes, getting the full photography kit just isn't possible = the iPhone proving its worth as a creative tool.
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The move to Wales prompted a clear out of old files and print samples ~ evidence of the fast-moving creative world we've been fortunate to have been a part of these last 20+ years. It isn't until you start thumbing through the archive, as we've been doing today, that you begin to realise how lucky we've been to work on so many fantastic projects for some truly iconic brands.
Branston Pickle is a typical example ~ a brand that was always a pleasure to work on. The image here ...is an early snapshot of the days when the Branston team were seeking to extend the brand after its acquisition from Nestlé by Premier Foods. We were always involved at a very early stage, not only in helping to come up with the extension ideas, but also devising the packaging. Note the last design... an inspired last minute thought to turn the bottle upside down.
The visuals here would have eventually been whittled down to a few designs and used for market research. Branston Crunchy sadly never made it to market but several other ideas did, the studio favourite being Branston Spicy! We had a box of early factory samples which were amazing... tangy and zesty with a really hot bite. Perhaps inevitably these early recipes never made it past market research, the eventual winner being far less fiery. Shame!
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Here's an interesting peek behind the curtain. This is a stage in a branding exercise where the client was yet to decide on which of two routes to take. Not all of these were presented, but it gives an idea of the work that goes into honing a design concept. Often, as a designer, you have to work through ideas, self-rejecting them. It rarely pays to bombard a client with so many options!
Can anyone guess which of these designs was finally chosen?

One from the archive. This display unit was part of a B2B campaign we created for McCormicks to educate & inspire caterers, helping them to increase margins by using Schwartz spice mixes.

A short while back, we created a logo for a chef who was pitching his business idea for a new restaurant. It was a rush job as the entire concept, complete with ideas for branding, had to be submitted within a couple of days. By the time a brief had been sent to us, we had less than a day to come up with some designs ~ one of which was chosen and included as part of the pitch.
Job done.
Or was it?
... The attached were two of the ideas NOT submitted because at the time they were felt to be too 'Joe 90'*. There's been a lot of bad press in the last couple of years aimed at designers who have come up with ideas that are reminiscent of the work of others. The last thing any client needs is to be told their shiny new logo is a rip-off of someone else's work. We obviously don't want that either ~ professional integrity, pride and all that ~ so we put these ideas to one side.
Yesterday, after a quick tidy of our archive, we came across the designs again. Looking at them afresh, not only do we really like them, but after checking, they're not as 'Joe 90' as we originally thought. Dammit... we should have submitted them! Seems such a shame they will never be used.
*A comment that probably only makes sense to those of a certain age!
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A sneaky preview of the logo for this year's GroceryAid President's Carol Concert. We've been doing the graphics and print for this prestigious London event for around 18 years now. It is always a fabulous occasion in a beautiful church (St Luke's, Chelsea), helping to raise money for a worthy food & drink industry cause.

This is, quite possibly, the last Dinky we'll work on ~ but boy, what a whopper! Unusually, as far as we're aware, this is the only one we've done that isn't a 100% accurate replica of the original issue. Can anyone guess what the differences are? (there are two).

Oi oi! We're working on a fresh set of Dinkys. This time around some rather exotic European cars. This'll take the current collection up to 41 models.
Anyone know what this one is? Gotta love those removable roof sections!

Dull-witted thinking typifies graphic design today ~ that's what we keep hearing. All kudos then to Barry Town football club for their programme designs for the new football season. Who cares if the link between music and football is tenuous at best... these are great fun!

Mexico '70 is the one for us. Maybe it's a nostalgia thing... but to us, the graphics for the Mexico tournament are the benchmark by which the others are measured.
What do you think?

Who can resist a post with a title like this? I know which ball I like best...

Our long-standing client, Optilabs, are looking for their 'face of 2018' to feature in advertising. If you're a cyclist or runner who wears prescription glasses, then this could be for you. Optilabs are offering free glasses, plus a £250 thank you, to anyone chosen to take part in the campaign.
We'll be designing the ads and taking the photos so rest assured you'll look your best should you be chosen!
More info here: www.optilabs.com/newface2018
... Feel free to pass this on to anyone you think may be interested.
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