Brown Ink Design - Graphic & Website Design Geelong, Torquay and Ballarat Victoria Australia

Christmas Tips for the Silly Season

rod — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:07:55 +0000

Ahh Christmas!

A wonderful time of the year where good intentions are replaced with harsh realities. Who ever thought getting the extended family together, feeding the children lollies and red cordial, the adults alcohol and copious amounts of food would end with a big old hug-in. Our research tells us it was from these very occasions the term Civil War was coined. If you happen to be part of the 1.5% that doesn't experience any debilitating stress around Christmas, what drug are you on and can we please have some?

Survival Chocolate Gift Stuff Up - The full story

rod — Fri, 14 Dec 2012 00:03:40 +0000

2012 Brown Ink Design christmas gift ends in tears.

For those of you that received a chocolate gift from Brown Ink Design and have visited this blog because you are interested in seeing what we wrote on the Milk Chocolate packaging, here it is.

Survival Chocolate – Milk Chocolate

Senior Web Designer/Developer

rod — Sun, 16 Sep 2012 23:55:24 +0000

If you love the world of web, enjoy the surf, you’ll love this role…

Bloopers Reel from the Christmas Video shoot

rod — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 22:00:54 +0000

So what is the etiquette? how long after you release a video is it appropriate to release the bloopers reel? Is a day too soon? Well it's too late now, because here it is, enjoy!

Watch us make fools of ourselves. The Brown Ink Christmas video.

rod — Wed, 21 Dec 2011 04:37:35 +0000

Every year we create a gift for our clients and suppliers. This year we tried something different, it is still a gift of sorts. Enjoy!

Rod becomes a mo-bro for Movember

rod — Thu, 10 Nov 2011 00:37:04 +0000

Long time watcher, first time participator and for good reason too. My ability to grow whiskers is lacking in some vital areas.

Lacking Areas:

Above the top lip, I have managed to grow some wispy blond whiskers with a touch of ranga, not a great start. To the left and right of my lips I need to add some seeds and fertiliser, not a lot of action in these areas.

Richmond Football Club launches new logo

rod — Tue, 18 Oct 2011 23:10:15 +0000

I must declare my allegiance up front, I am a passionate tigers supported and have been since I spoke my first words, I think they were something like "mum, carn the tiges". I find myself some 38 years later instilling the same passion into my children. After seeing the tigers have a stirring win over the swans at the MCG this year, Cooper my 5 year old son, sat through all 10 renditions of the tigers theme song with a grin from ear to ear singing at the top of his lungs. My mission it would seem was complete, one more passionate tigers supporter added to the fold.

Not Just a Pretty Face

megan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 23:14:54 +0000

Ever been into a liquor retailer and not known where to start when it comes to buying a nice bottle of wine? With all the classic, colourful and interesting package offerings whispering (or shouting) to you as you browse the aisles, it’s easy to be swept away by the visual appeal of a wine label and totally overlook the quality of the product sealed within. I’m the first to admit I’ve been a victim.

This visual tug of war doesn’t happen by chance. It’s the result of hours of hard work by the creative team responsible for bringing the branding and label to life, after careful consideration to the client’s needs, the wine’s price point and the intended consumer market.

Get Real and Get Outside - Stihl Advertising Campaign

megan — Thu, 06 Oct 2011 22:35:05 +0000

Now here’s a good dose of reality for most of us. The latest advertising TVC for Stihl power tools cleverly illustrates how modern life has been all too consumed by the digital age, with the average family spending more and more time in front of the TV or computer.

Brick racing Cadel Evans

andrew — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 06:57:40 +0000

The scene was set Cadel Evans looked to be a shoe in to win the 2011 Le Tour de France, then the phone call came Austral Bricks, needed a detailed design for a 10 metre square mosaic brick wall. Starting with a grid of some five thousand bricks I begin the mammoth task of colouring the bricks one by one using only reference material and my illustrative brain as tools. The image builds up gradually like pixels on a screen one colour at a time.

Banking on a Brighter Future - AMP AXA Merger Advertising Campaign

megan — Mon, 15 Aug 2011 05:46:03 +0000

Not often do you find yourself in a room of people who stop mid-sentence to give their undivided attention to a TV commercial, let alone one associated with the world of finance. But that’s exactly what happened when this refreshing advert for the AMP AXA merger graced the box. The clever piece of motion graphics engages the viewer to ensure the intended message gains full attention from it’s audience. The past, the present and future possibilities are packaged up nicely in a sequence of engaging words and visual representations of the advert’s intended message. It’s a feel good advertising offering, making the audience believe that anything really is possible with some guided planning, commitment and teamwork. An engaging and thought provoking example of good advertising. Inspiring.

Two reasons why businesses don't get a decent website

rod — Mon, 18 Jul 2011 06:36:16 +0000

There are two main reasons for why businesses don’t spend money on getting a decent website built.

They don’t see the value.
They are afraid of spending money and being taken for a ride by cowboys that take advantage of the unsuspecting. In short they are scared of blowing all their hard earned cash.

I understand both of these concerns, so I decided to write this blog to provide you with some simply valuable information to help put your mind at ease when choosing an agency to design and build your website.

The new Old Spice advertisement

rod — Thu, 09 Jun 2011 03:18:12 +0000

Here is the latest offering from Old Spice, must admit I laughed out loud, for gen y purists that's LOL. This advert hasn't been received as well online (as a viral success) as the original. But it is still worth a watch... what, you've got something better to do with your next 32 seconds.

Megan recollects her first week as a Brown Inker

rod — Tue, 08 Mar 2011 06:57:33 +0000

It’s hard to believe how quickly my first week at the Brown Ink Ballarat studio has come and gone! One word that comes to mind to describe my first week would be ‘busy’, but as Mum always said, busy is good. I’ve learnt a lot in my first few days as a ‘Brown Inker’. I’ve been shown the studio procedures and had a crash course in the new project management software affectionately known as Ink Central. My design projects have included stationery layouts and assisting with the compilation of a rather large corporate Style Guide. I’ve also asked my fair share of questions...so a huge thanks goes out to Fiona and Andrew for their assistance.

As a newcomer to Ballarat, I’m still getting used to the interesting weather (I’ve given up trying to predict it!) and I’m certainly enjoying the fact Ballarat doesn’t have a peak hour so my daily 10 minute commute to work is exactly that, 10 minutes. My next mission is to find a good coffee shop to swing by on the way to the studio of a morning.

I have certainly been made to feel welcome by the Brown Ink team and I’m excited about the opportunity to work alongside such a strong and talented team of creative professionals.

Need cheering up, we have the remedy.

rod — Tue, 11 Jan 2011 22:37:12 +0000

Here is a little TV commercial that is more about intertainment than selling. Put a smile on my face, hope it does the same for you. Amazingly done and without the use of any instruments. This is an advert for Tmobile UK, there are some talented people in this world.

Oprah Time Lapse Video

rod — Fri, 10 Dec 2010 04:58:10 +0000

For Oprah's first Australian visit Austral Bricks asked us to create a Brick Art wall to commemorate her arrival. Andrew Deutscher our Ballarat studio manager put his extensive artistic skills to work and created the "Oprah Wall".

Graphic Design Vacancy Ballarat Studio

rod — Thu, 28 Oct 2010 02:30:58 +0000

An opportunity exists for a talented designer to join Brown Ink Design in Ballarat on a full time basis to work with our national & local clients. You will be working on a multitude of projects from corporate branding, packaging, event displays to advertising campaigns. You will need to be enthusiastic and have a willingness to take on project ownership, time management skills are essential. Applicants will need expert skills in Adobe print applications, it is a bonus if you have experienced with Final Cut Pro, After Effects or Flash.

Spell binding Spam

rod — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 11:11:05 +0000

During the course of a day I can receive up to 150 spam emails. These are deposited directly into my spam filter. One a week I have a quick look at the spam emails just before I delete them. Today I noticed a piece of spam with the subject heading. "Your EFTPS Tax Payment has been reejcted. Report ID: 01037687" Note the spelling mistake, this was to be the start of things to come. Being curious I clicked to see what the email contained.

Designing with type: Mind your Ps and Qs

fiona — Tue, 19 Oct 2010 00:35:11 +0000

Typography can be found all around us, in logos, brochures, magazines, books, advertising, signage, packaging, you’re looking at it on your screen right now! Typography can be decorative, but essentially its purpose is to be functional and communicate a message to an intended audience.

Art is in the house

rod — Thu, 30 Sep 2010 12:14:40 +0000

Trolling the internet recently I came across this amazing structure / sculpture created by artists Dan Havel and Dean Ruck. The two weather board buildings were to be replaced by a new building so the few months before the demolition, they made this into an architectonic installation.

Selling the unsell-able

rod — Fri, 24 Sep 2010 06:00:16 +0000

How do you sell the unsell-able? Like for instance how would you have gone trying to sell water back in the 1970's. I have found two really interesting ideas that from the outside seemed destined to fail. But of course they were roaring successes.

New Vodafone advert titled "New"

rod — Tue, 14 Sep 2010 23:33:58 +0000

Every now and then you come across an advert that leaves you thinking, "how did they do that?". This advert had that effect on me, while I quickly had some thoughts as to how this was achieved I was amazed at the amount of time and effort put into this concept. Maybe being a designer I could appreciate the finer elements. To really see what is going on in this advert you'll need to view it a few times.

5 Social Media Case Studies for Small and Large Business

chris@brownink.com.au — Wed, 18 Aug 2010 01:48:57 +0000

A frequently asked question at the moment is “How can social media benefit my business”. One of the best ways to answer this is to look at case studies of businesses that have used Social Media strategies as part of their marketing.

"social media adoption by small businesses has doubled from
12% to 24% in the last year(US)" University of Maryland

Carnivale's beautiful opening title sequence

rod — Sun, 15 Aug 2010 02:39:48 +0000

This piece of cinematic magic was shown to me back in 2006 by one of my staff. I had not seen the show, but fell in love with the visual beauty and horror of these images. At that point it made my realise I wanted to devote more time doing motion graphics.

Brown Ink Website & Social Media Seminar for BNI Geelong Members

rod — Fri, 13 Aug 2010 04:58:28 +0000

Last night Brown Ink Design held a website and social media seminar for BNI Geelong members. The event was hosted by Michael Urquhart (Multimedia Developer / Programmer) from Brown Ink. Attended by nine enthusiastic members, the seminar covered three main areas:

Does advertising work? Old Spice thinks so.

rod — Thu, 12 Aug 2010 02:02:54 +0000

Quite often we get asked if advertising really works, well the short answer is yes it does. The long answer is yes it does but not all the time. There are many factors which go into making an advert work. There are a lot of reasons for making adverts, one of these is to change the viewers perception of your brand. This in my mind is one of the more difficult hurdles. If an advert or campaign can achieve this objective then it must be well thought out well executed. A great example of this is the "Old Spice" advertisement.

Is it time to update your logo?

rod — Mon, 09 Aug 2010 07:55:10 +0000

This might not sound like great business, but I have talked clients out of updating their logo when it simply was not necessary. My decision was not based simply on aesthetics, the decision was based more on the answers I received when I performed my regular process of asking 10 to 15 questions about their business and why they wanted to change their logo.

My first week @ Brown Ink (well actually my third first week)

brendon — Fri, 23 Jul 2010 03:52:24 +0000

I have just completed my first week at the Brown Ink Torquay studio, and everything has gone smoothly. It is not the first time I have met or worked with the team, whilst studying graphic design at the University of Ballarat, I contacted the Torquay studio to see if they would let me do my work experience with them. Rod was kind enough to let me spend a week at the studio, during which helped out on a few projects, but also took in a lot of information about the “real” industry.

After completing University I had a second chance to work with the team, but this time as a freelance designer. During this time I got to know the current team, and got to sink my teeth into various multimedia projects, as well as some print projects.

After returning from a three-month trek around South America, I joined the Brown Ink team full time. For a first week at a studio, it has been a comfortable transition, as I already knew the Torquay team, and already knew where to get the best coffee. During the week I have been taken through the procedures of the studio, then worked on projects including magazine adverts, corporate identities, stationary and brochures.

Don't "Click Here"

michael — Mon, 12 Jul 2010 05:34:54 +0000

Often as I sift thought the series of tubes on the internet I come across tell tale signs of amateurs at play. Be it an unoptimised jpeg here or some <font> tags there. One of the more subtle ones is the use of “click here”. This term is used quite widely by the uneducated, but in reality has no place in web copy. Let me explain why.

Firstly its redundant. The Internet has been around for long enough for people to figure out what you can click on. They don’t need to be told where they can click. The copy should be written and the links should be styled in such a way that it's obvious where the user can click.

Does your business need a logo?

rod — Wed, 30 Jun 2010 02:47:23 +0000

The short answer is yes every business needs a logo. To qualify this more, for some businesses a logo is more important than others. Now before I continue, I can hear the pessimists suggesting. “Well of course he’ll say every business needs a logo, that’s what he does he has a vested interest in business owners spending money developing their logo”. I can understand this point of view, but stick with and I will explain the virtues of having a logo. I should probably add a good logo, as far as I know a business will not suffer from having a good logo. But I have seen businesses suffer from having a bad logo. So it is not simply enough to have a logo, you must have a logo that has been put through the rigours of a design development process. More on that later.

Over the years I have devised a number of ways of explaining the importance of a logo. I’ve discovered the best way is to show potential clients some very well known logos. As I present these logos I ask them to tell me the name of the company. Years of repeat exposure to these logos has meant they become more in tuned with colour and shape association and can instantly recogise a company based on these elements. While many realise I’ve have changed the names of the companies they still know which company the logo represents. In some cases people don’t even pick up on the word change. This proves just how powerful colour, shape and images are to a consumer remembering the look and feel of your business.

Here are some examples of these logos.

Many businesses can be recognised simply by their icons Mercedes, BP, McDonalds, Nike, Shell are a few examples of these.

A site for sore eyes

rod — Wed, 19 May 2010 04:43:08 +0000

As designers we are constantly looking for inspiration. Inspiration can be found in many ways, some of these are not as obvious as you might think. Architecture is obvious, the sky is not. I view the sky as an ever changing canvas, where I live I can see the sunrise over the water. On the morning of a beautiful sunrise the urgency to start the day is greater, the colours the shapes and the dramatic nature of mother nature is awe inspiring.

Strange then that I divert this blog to a more obvious place for inspiration, the internet and in particular the website siteinspire.net. This website has been a recent inclusion to my resources, discovered through a forum I was participating in. What sets this site apart from others is the search categories. You can search via style, type or theme. Within these categories they have the keywords listed. So if you want to search for organic websites, you can. This makes the process so much easier, because if you search through google for a 'historical' themed website, the search will give you not exactly what you are looking for. What you want is quality 'historical' look and feel websites, what you get is 'history of anything' or 'theme parks'.

It is always helpful when someone does the hard work for you.

Magpies and Bombers ANZAC Day Tribute

rod — Wed, 12 May 2010 23:55:16 +0000

The latest installment of Austral Bricks BrickArt was launched on Thursday April 22, 2010. The wall is a tribute to the AFL ANZAC Day clash between Essendon and Collingwood held on ANZAC day every year. The 10 x 10m wall was designed by Andrew Deutscher from Brown Ink Design and like the previous Michael Jackson and Barack Obama walls used glazed bricks as the medium. The unveiling was all set to be filmed by channel 9 to be shown on The Footy Show, then the Storm salary cap story broke, which understandably was a massive story.

The new mural is located at the Craigieburn/Wollert site overlooking the Hume Freeway, so if you are driving past have a look. The unveiling was launched by Peter Caughey, General Manager Austral Bricks Victoria, pictured with Terry Daniher ex Essendon Premiership player.

Mister Mista - Limited Edition t-shirts for young masters

rod — Wed, 12 May 2010 02:53:59 +0000

Mister Mista is the brain child of creative couple Travis and Renee Price. A perfect synergy with Renee's background in marketing and Travis's in illustration/design. Travis worked at Brown Ink as a web and multimedia designer for 3-4 years, he finished with us in 2007. We were all very sorry to see him leave, he was an extraordinarily creative talent, I particulary miss the advertising creative brain storming sessions. Trav liked humour and nearly every idea had a humorous element. We always managed to blend my more literal commercial ideas with Trav's funny as hell sense of humour. Always a talented illustrator, he left to pursue his dream of illustration. Since leaving Brown Ink he has worked on some outstanding projects, many of these can be seen at www.travisprice.com.au.

Mister Mista is a fine example of Trav mixing two of his loves, illustration and t-shirts. Trav had been commissioned over the past 10 years by numerous clothing labels and design agencies working on many exciting and high profile projects. (Mambo, Sony, Fed Ex, Vodafone, Intel, Milo, Worlds Apart, Don't Tell Blaze). Mister Mista is an exceptional range of illustrations aimed at boys, I tend to think like most men we never let the inner boy completely leave our system. These illustrations are the epitome of cool. Why wasn't this kind of kids stuff available when I was a boy. My childhood photos endorse a complete lack of originality in kids clothes, or maybe this is more a reflection on my parents.

Mister Mista also produce wall decals, height charts, signed prints for framing and greeting cards. Visit www.mistermista.com

Tarrawarra Museum of Art

rod — Thu, 08 Apr 2010 02:20:42 +0000

During our recent Easter break my family stayed at Healesville in the Yarra Valley, Victoria. Healesville fortunately was spared during the 2009 fires, which we can all be extremely thankful for. Our stay, which was supposed to be a relaxing holiday turned into an adventure packed four days. Of course this is all Healesvilles' fault, they had far too many attractions which we couldn't ignore.

One of these was the amazing Tarrawarra Museum of Art. Now, venturing into an art gallery with a 4 and 2 year old in tow is not recommended (it's amazing how loud your children talk when you're in a room of deafening silence). Currently they are exhibiting Bushfire Australia, which examines bushfires through the eyes of Australian artists. The exhibition runs until 25 July 2010 and is well worth a visit.

Barack Obama Brick Art

rod — Wed, 24 Mar 2010 06:59:46 +0000

The launch of the latest piece of Brick Art from Austral Bricks was a rewarding day. Andrew Deutscher our Ballarat Studio Manager created the Barack Obama portrait which was featured in this 10m x 10m wall. The launch was attended by media from Channel 7, Channel 9 and ABC. The launch was seen later that night on the Channel 7 news in Sydney, a story and photo was even published by the Washington Post in the USA. Andrew was interviewed by ABC for TV and the radio, the ABC was interested in the artistic side of the process.

The "Where the bloody hell are ya?" created a little stir with a number of news reporters asking if this was a dig at Lara Bingle. Brett Ward Austral Bricks National Marketing Manager responded with "No it isn't a dig at Lara, we decided to finish the construction of the wall and the sign with our tongues firmly in our cheeks ... we hope our humour is taken the right way by our friends in the US and we will take down the sign as soon as the president steps foot on our shores mid-year".

An afternoon with grunt and beauty

rod — Mon, 22 Mar 2010 06:19:00 +0000

During the weeks leading up to the Torquay Car Show, I saw only one sign advertising the event, this was at the site of the car show. It said, "Show your car here on November 2". Since I am a car lover and not wanting to waste a great opportunity to ogle some impressive cars, I penciled the date into my brains memory. When the day arrived the weather was less than ideal, heavily overcast not great for the sun tan but perfect for photographing cars. My three year old son Cooper responded with enthusiasm at the prospect of checking out some cars. You see he is a car show veteran, having visited his first Melbourne Motor Show at two months of age.

When we arrived at the car show the collection of cars was truly impressive, I started taking some photos which initially had Cooper appearing front and centre of each (he is not all that shy). After the novelty of appearing in every photo wore off Cooper let me take car photos, the type I really love, up close with a shallow depth of field. The image below shows a collection of these photos which I had framed and now sits proudly above my desk.

The great secret to this day was the amazing lighting it was so evenly defused the reflections on the cars were minimal which allowed me to just click away.

The slow and painful demise of IE6

michael — Thu, 18 Mar 2010 06:18:33 +0000

For those of you who don’t know IE6 Stands for Internet Explorer 6. It’s an Internet Browser that was released by Microsoft in 2001 (almost 10 years ago!). Back in its day it was OK, it even archieved a market share of almost 90% at one point (not that there was much browser choice when it achieved that). This comic by Brad Colbow sums the life of IE6 pretty well.

As a web developer IE6 is the bane of my existence. See to develop a site properly you need to conform to all the standards as well as make sure the site renders acceptably on the major bowsers (Firefox, Safari, Chrome, Opera, IE6, IE7, IE8 ect) . Most browsers render HTML (the language of the internet) reasonably predictability. There is even a test to check how well the browser you are using renders pages. IE6 on the other hand does not and as a web developer you find you spend half your life trying to get websites to work properly in IE6. To put it mildly it’s an absolute pain in the fesses (pardon the french).

To be honest it’s not really the fault of IE6. When it was developed a lot of the current web standards were not even around. Internet Explorer is currently up to version 8 and Microsoft is working on version 9. The problem is a lot of people still use it (it currently has around 10% market share) and I suspect there are two main reasons for this. A) The not so web savvy thinking ‘internet explorer is the internet’ and sticking with what they know. B) From Internet Exporer 7 onwards Microsoft included Windows Genuine Advantage which meant people with a not-so-legitimate copy would be unable to update.

Welcome to our new website

rod — Mon, 15 Mar 2010 06:18:07 +0000

Welcome to the brand spankin new Brown Ink Design website. Three years in the making this website is the combination of hundreds of hours of work. Not complaining though, the only reason it has taken so long is because our clients have been keeping us so busy.