Rob Cursons blog featuring news and project updates
Blooming Green brand refresh
18 March 2023
A brand refresh for Kentish organic florist and flower growers, Blooming Green. They offer pick-your-own and wedding flowers, and supply to several sellers, including Planet Organic and Columbia Road Flower Market in London. They approached me to subtly update their branding, including the logo, to bring it away from a standard font to something more customised. Firstly, a lino-cut was created by artist Wendy Rainthorpe of Cranbrook Iron. I took a high resolution scan and cleaned it up, keeping some of the rustic detail and chatter, making adjustments to ensure good visibility on screen and in print. The new logo has so far been used on rebranded algae-based care cards, sustainable recycled paper labels, print ads, signage, gift vouchers, stationery and more.
Heidi & Bea Shopify jewellery website and branding
19 October 2021
A new sister brand of Bill Skinner Studio, launched in October 2021. I designed the branding and built the ecommerce website on the Shopify platform for heidiandbea.com. The product is costume jewellery in an art deco style, so clean and subtle design was requested to showcase the pieces. Client stylist, Elen Renfrew, worked on the photography and assisted with the look of the branding.
Anno Magic Gin for LIDL
27 May 2021
Blueberry & Strawberry Colour Changing Magic Gin. This limited edition flavour was popular at Anno's Bluewater pop-up shop before being pitched to LIDL GB. The product was selected for sale on shelves in England & Wales for the LIDL British Gin Festival 2021. I designed the branding and created label artwork, drawing on a retro feel with bubblegum colours, representing the sweetness and flavours of the gin. The magic comes from the gradual change in colour from an attractive blue/purple to soft pink when the pH changes with the addition of tonic water or lemonade. Available while stocks last.
Otties Store branding
20 February 2021
Logo and branding design for a startup lifestyle store and website based in Rochester, UK. The brief was for an elegant approach to suit their sustainable, parent and child supplies business. I worked with Elen Renfrew to interpret the colours and balance of the design elements, creating a wordmark and logo suitable for all uses. A high contrast version was also created for single colour applications.
Anno Extreme 95 Gin
1 January 2021
Anno Distillers launched the world's strongest gin in November 2020. I designed the branding, packaging and all marketing materials, including a press pack, web and social banners, video, animated GIFs for Instagram stories and more. The launch was met with a huge response and international interest driving immediate traffic to the ecommerce website. I set up collaborations with vloggers, ran a competition and placed adverts and editorial in magazines (Pictured: 'cene magazine) to further promote the launch. My product photography appears on several news and blog websites, including LADbible, all generating increases of 400% in site referrals and 360% in conversions, year on year. I developed a marketing plan to promote the fact that less product (equalling 75% less alcohol) can be used for a full-flavoured G&T, helping to place the brand in the low-alcohol space and continue sales through the traditionally quiet new year period.
Anno hand rub sanitiser
20 April 2020
At the beginning of the COVID-19 pandemic, Anno faced the same difficulties as many other businesses but were in a strong position to help, while maintaining a source of revenue. After short discussions, a decision was made that hand sanitiser would quickly be in short supply and that the distillery should do everything possible to start producing. I wrote several social posts and created a blog post, to be updated regularly. This included a form for people to request the product and created a list of direct leads for the team to follow up. After several donations were made to the emergency services and NHS, I designed branding, packaging and marketing materials to begin sale of the product to the public. My concept of a 'family pack', containing a large refill bottle and five pocket-sized spray bottles immediately brought in sales. I also arranged for a free 50ml spray to be given away with every purchase from the ecommerce website, to encourage spirits sales and cement the brand name with customers.
Anno B3rry Pink Gin
9 May 2019
The first pink gin from Anno. I developed the name, using leetspeak (B3rry) to signify the three berries found in the spirit and continued the naming conventions of the brand. For the launch, I arranged for the gin to be used at a charity event by a prominent blogger. I also worked with The Telegraph Stella Live team to showcase the spirit at their 2019 event in London. LIDL UK took on the product as part of their British Craft Spirits Festival and it was sold in branches across the country. Fenwick stores also listed the spirit across the UK and set up attractive window displays as a part of their artisan producers event. After establishing the product, it went on to be listed by Shepherd Neame and the Elite pub group, among others, soon becoming a firm favourite with many fans of the brand.
Ashford Custom Tattoo Studio signwriting
12 February 2013
I worked with Tim Andrews, Kent based graphic designer, on this hand crafted tattoo studio sign. The client, Ashford Custom Tattoos, is a long established Kentish family business and a cornerstone of the body art scene in the area. The brief was to create a unique and vibrant identity for the shop front and we chose bright paint colours and hand drawn lettering to customise it further. After approving Tim's lettering and my tattoo gun illustration, we set to work and had a local carpenter make the base from marine plywood. Loose stencils were laser cut from oil board and the rest was hand drawn in pencil before brush application of the one-coat metallic enamel paints. The resulting sign remains in place today and has given the shop the finishing touch is needed.
Sick Puppies illustrations
1 November 1999
A series of textural, textual hand-made illustrations which served as a style guide for a set of collectable toys. The collage method pulled together everyday items; fabric, paper, news cuttings, cork and others as backgrounds, with highly stylised, hand-painted cartoon animals as the basis for the toys. The dog character became reality, with further work on development leading to a cloth pattern, and fully realised toy with packaging. Thanks to Campbell Orme for naming the project.
Content copyright © 2023 Rob Cursons unless otherwise stated.