Me, my man and our music

February 15, 2014October 2, 2022 | Anna Cull

Festival of Flowers event banner, Christchurch, 2014

As I mentioned in last week’s post, we’ve finally decided on a name for our duo. We’re now performing as Pavlova Paradise (more of a ‘dessert island’ than a ‘desert island’). I’m chief graphic designer, art director and publicist… I also sing and play egg ― oh and I’m now learning to play a Novation Bass Station II (a very cool synth). James is the rest of the band: vocals, guitars, drums, backing tracks, sound engineer and roadie. We both write songs and we LOVE harmonies. Most of our songs are covers but we do throw in an original from time to time.

Creating our logo was not the easiest project I’ve ever worked on (I place the blame entirely on the clients) but I got there in the end. The circle design is a stylised compass that also looks a bit like a pavlova (at least we think it does), and who doesn’t love pavlova!

Thanks for reading : D

Amazing you!

October 16, 2013June 24, 2020 | Anna Cull

Sally’s logo and business card were a joy to design. The brief was to incorporate a blossoming flower (a lotus or a dahlia) and a dark-to-light-blue gradient (symbolising transformation) to give a sense of the personality and coaching style of the client ― who has a very positive, playful kind of energy. Several sketches, watercolour paintings and brainstorming sessions later, we had the Amazing You blue lotus logo ― and an entire blue lotus forest!

Dear diary, part eight

August 2, 2013September 16, 2014 | Anna Cull

Chef logo, labels and rebranding campaign – concept development and final logo design
Visual diary, two-page spread (student project, 2011)

A full-on design challenge, this student project was all about the relaunch of one of New Zealand’s favourite pet foods: Chef. The secret life of the domestic cat was my inspiration — house cats are predators who, although wild at heart, always come home for Chef. I used a simple line drawing for the logo/body and Photoshopped the eyes (in detail below).

My Chef logo, labels and magazine advertising campaign. The background images used in the ads are courtesy of the Internet.

The diary pages are from a journal I designed for my Design & Arts College exhibition in 2012. Two years of research, ideas, word maps and sketches had to be reduced to a mere 72 pages. It was no easy task but I now have a beautiful, professionally bound diary that I’ll always treasure.

Dear diary, part six

July 19, 2013September 16, 2014 | Anna Cull

Boutique brewery logo, packaging and advertising campagin – word map and logo sketches
Visual diary, two-page spread (student project, 2011)

The design aesthetic for this student project owes much to the textiles of William Morris. My campaign evolved from the idea that the Old Mill could have been a converted textile mill. You can see the individual logo designs in my previous post.

Old Mill Brewers tee shirts and bottles (digital mock-ups).

I had ever such a lot of fun writing the menu too.

The Old Mill Brewers

July 17, 2013September 16, 2014 | Anna Cull

Boutique brewery logos (student project, 2011)

Here is a sneak peek at the project I’ll be featuring in Friday’s Dear diary post. Oh how I wish these really existed. Sadly, the beers and the brewery are just figments of my imagination. After exhaustive research ( ! ) I discovered that some beers taste of chocolate, coffee, cherries and honey (although usually not all at the same). Yum!

Dear diary, part five

July 5, 2013September 16, 2014 | Anna Cull

ABN logo – sketches and final design
Visual diary, two-page spread (student project, 2011)

I worked on this logo while I was at design school and so I included it in my exhibition but, really, it was a freelance project that I did in my ‘spare’ time. Access Broadcast News is a media-monitoring company based in Wellington. They wanted their logo to be vibrant, dynamic and creative. I liked the idea of putting a new spin on the more traditional images of news communication such as radio waves and old television sets (which is why they appear in the sketches). My final solution is a cheeky nod to the RKO radio tower. I brought it into the 21st Century by adding multi-coloured dots to represent modern fibre-optic cables.