the-affair is a brand that creates beautiful conceptual t-shirts for the intelligent consumer tired of the cute-sy threadless aesthetic. Its the love child of myself and Dangerous Dave Black.

With no physical presence on the high-street, we began with the simple insight that fitting rooms have full length mirrors for a reason. The website was thus created to mimic the actual experience of trying the shirts on.

Awarded the FWA Site of the Day 29.03.2008

To list my responsibilities would simply take too long, but ‘absolutely everything involved in starting and marketing a business’ would be pretty close.

Applying what I do everyday for other people into my own concept/business has been nothing short of exhilarating. Every day I am learning first-hand what we sell to clients on a daily basis – and this is very valuable information.By far the most interesting part is the blog marketing. Obviously as a start-up brand we have nought but our wits and instincts to get our message out there. So how do you get an unknown brand known? And how do you sell t-shirts that aren’t expensive in your home market but are pretty expensive everywhere else? If you’re interested, check our press-to-date here.

Launch the-affair

Boredom Is Your Fault isn’t just another blog – its a lens through which you see the world. Think of it as a personal ethos, a manifesto for living if you will.

Begun in January 2006, its an uncompromising filter of the best creativity that our little globe has to offer – be it art, design, advertising, music or fashion. In other words, its an archive of all the coolest stuff I come across over the countless hours I spend scouring the web. Its the space where I can say what I think about other people’s work whilst shameless promoting my own.

The logo was intentionally created to mimic the magnets you get as a child to play with on the fridge. And in many ways that is part of the manifesto – to look at the world as with the eyes of a child. To constantly be in awe of everything around you.

It was the first wordpress theme I designed and coded. It was always my intention to release it into the wild, but my coding leaves a lot to be desired ;-p. Many thanks to Chris Blackburn for his help in this department.

Launch boredom is your fault

Volkswagen UK partnered with 4 illustrators across Europe to create a series of de-cals for the New Beetle. Apart from a microsite, it was decided that VW actually needed a new brand to best communicate the concept behind the project. After many proposals, ‘Art’ was (unfortunately) chosen. From this point it was a small, logical step to use the gallery metaphor for the microsite.

Launch Beetle Art

Article published in Computer Arts magazine about branding in the digital world.

My position was – and still is – that brands can and must interact individually with the online consumer. It is no longer enough to design a logo with only the printer in mind because a rigid set of guidelines cannot effectively communicate with an increasingly fragmented audience. Online, flexibility is key, and the most successful brands respond to their audience, give them feedback, and grow and change over time. In terms of creating marques that embracing this flux yet retain a consistent message, the only way is to create systems as opposed to static logos.

Read the full article

Ascot Botannica is a boutique bric-a-brac shop cum nursery in Brisbane, Australia. The simple concept behind the brand is that the shop acts like a filter – leaving only the four-leaf clovers for you to come and find. Final production involved business cards, street signage and printed carry bags.

Brand identity for a Virtual Reality system developed in Australia. Within the marque the negative space represents the projection screens of the system, and also symbolises the real/virtual interplay that defines VR itself. This interplay also manifests in the dialogue between the rounded exterior of each letter its geometric interior.