I recently designed a Large Format Exhibition Stand (display) for ChurchEdit, a company I have written about before regarding their logo design process.

The Image above shows the file for the design. A shows a closeup of the top edge of the file. Unlike a standard setup for say, a letterhead, the printer only required some marker guides coloured in magenta. This is because the design is cut-out by a person with a guillotine after being printed via large-format inkjet. In all, the design was split into six panels.

B shows the actual design that I compiled in Adobe Illustrator. All logos and texts were in vector, with the whole background image originally designed in illustrator, then rasterised and tweaked in Photoshop before being placed back into an illustrator file. C shows the outlines of the vector and bitmap elements.

This image above is both the Churchedit logo and accompanying icons I designed for the Christian based service, Edit Websites.

The image above is a photo taken by Kyle Cottington, the man behind the company. It shows how the exhibition display stand incorporates an LCD screen (on the top-right). The whole display is made of six sections which interconnect. They’re also interchangeable, so sections can be either omitted to save space, or rearranged for varied configurations.

This is another shot of the left-hand side of the display. As can be seen in the above image, the outer edge wraps around at the side (on both ends). If you take another look at the file setup image (B), you’ll notice how the design extends around the back.

Overall, this was a great project to work on. I’ve done plenty of large format works before, but never a display like this one (although the principle is the same). I had some issues getting the colour blue right on the proofs, although colour matching isn’t a strong-point with large-format inkjets.

If you have any questions about this design or file setups, please leave your questions and comments below…

This post is Copyright Andrew Kelsall, author of the Andrew Kelsall Graphic Design Blog.Andrew Kelsall | Creative Designer - Graphic Design Blog of Andrew Kelsall

The Health and Safety Sign reads: The Person Looking in this Mirror is Responsible for their Health & Safety.

I have designed these signs, which are for sale with only a handful produced. The sign has been professionally designed with a stunning design not found anywhere else online!

• Health and Safety Sign comes complete with a square plastic mirror with rounded edges.

• There are 2 A5 sized plastic wallets attached to insert your own company logo and Health & Safety guidelines or any other relevant information.

• The signs are made from highly durable 5mm-thick Black Foamex® (which is a special plastic-foam hybrid material). The sign can be attached to a wall with screws, as the material handles like sheet-wood, with no pre-drilling required.

• The signs are full-colour, with a special anti-scratch & anti-glare Sandtex-style coating laminate applied.

• Size is 91cm x 63cm approx. / 35″ x 25″ approx.

PRICE IS £135 + £15 P+P
*VAT will be added for customers from the UK & EUROPE

International Buyers: Payment goes through PayPal, so currency conversion should take place in the order process.

If you have any questions about this sign, or would like a custom design producing, please contact me.

This post is Copyright Andrew Kelsall, author of the Andrew Kelsall Graphic Design Blog.Andrew Kelsall | Creative Designer - Graphic Design Blog of Andrew Kelsall

The image above is an example of a pallet wrapper. It isn’t my design, but an example of how they look. Image source/copyright here

Custom Printed Pallet Wrapper Design

Do you Need a Custom Pallet Wrapper Designing? My name is Andrew Kelsall — and I offer Custom large-format print services. I can design custom pallet wrappers for your company and get them printed and delivered, too.

What are Pallet Wrappers? These three dimensional merchandisers are designed to fit onto a pallet of stock or merchandise. This allows for direct selling (such as in supermarkets) without unwrapping products from their boxes (this product could also be known as a pallet surround, pallet design or cardboard pallet wrap).

There are many opportunities in using this new printed product. Many designs can be produced that will aid in the sale of palleted items. They look great and will give customers a good impression.

If you would like a quotation, please use the form below.

I aim to answer all enquiries within 24-48 hours. I will respond with an accurate quotation which is customised to your requirements.

You can contact me here.

I am also available to visit you in and around the Wakefield and Leeds area ― and even across the UK if required. If I work on a project for you, I will provide my address at this stage, as I’d rather not have this information available online for security reasons.

This post is Copyright Andrew Kelsall, author of the Andrew Kelsall Graphic Design Blog.Andrew Kelsall | Creative Designer - Graphic Design Blog of Andrew Kelsall

This sign reads: The Person Looking in this Mirror is Responsible for their Health & Safety.

This sign is unique with only a few produced. The sign has been professionally designed this year with a stunning design not found anywhere else online!

• The sign comes complete with a 15″ square plastic mirror with rounded edges.

• There are 2 A5 sized plastic wallets attached to insert your own company logo and Health & Safety guidelines, etc.

• The signs are made from highly durable 5mm-thick Black Foamex® (which is a special plastic-foam hybrid material). The sign can be attached to a wall with screws, as the material handles like sheet-wood, with no pre-drilling required.

• The signs are full-colour, with a special anti-scratch & anti-glare coating laminate applied.

• Size is 91cm x 63cm approx. / 35″ x 25″ approx.

I am selling these signs on my site here.

This post is Copyright Andrew Kelsall, author of the Andrew Kelsall Graphic Design Blog.Andrew Kelsall | Creative Designer - Graphic Design Blog of Andrew Kelsall

Back in November ’08, I wrote an article about a 2 metre high Foamex® PitWheel I designed for a Next, Plc Distribution warehouse. Well, this time I was contracted to design a ‘mockup pallet racking system‘ to fill 3 walls of a new room, built inside another one of their new warehouses in Manvers Way, Wath, UK.

Why?

As part of a new multi-million-pound venture, a new warehouse was constructed to pick larger, non clothing items for Next Stores nationwide, as well as the Next Directory. Picking is carried out using mechanical ‘lollops’, but the Next training department wanted to train new employees away from the health & safety dangers of these machines. They needed to train people on how to pick items using various barcode systems before using any machinery, in short.

What I my task was…

The solution to training new employees away from the warehouse hazards (in the early stages of training) was to re-create a life-like working environment. So, I was tasked with the great challenge of designing a 2.4m high x 15m wide set of racking for a room that was only just being built. Oh yes.

How I rose to the Challenge

I shall now outline how the project proceeded, from initially visiting the site—right the way to actually constructing the mockup pallet racking in the allocated room. Here goes…

◥ This is a typical aisle in the warehouse on the second floor. The left-hand side shows one type of pallet racking—with the right showing another type (with ‘yellow bars’) that required replicating in Foamex®.

◥ After taking many photos, here came the most important aspect of the project—measuring-up. I whipped out my Moleskine® notebook at various stages of being escorted around the warehouse to jot-down exact—yes, exact measurements of everything I required to start conceptualising the racking structure.

If I got this part wrong, the whole project would go awry. Seriously, I advise you that if you are ever asked to do something like this, only settle for rough handwriting, not rough measurements.

Photography

◥ Now, second in importance to the measurements were accurate photographs. By ‘accurate’, I mean precise in relation to my goals for this project. I had already conceptualised in my mind how I would start producing the designs on my Mac, so I required certain, detailed and well-angled shots to accomplish the task in hand.

◥ Back at the desk, I imported all my images into iPhoto® from a 10MP digital Cannon SLR (which, admittedly, I borrowed from my Dad for this project). I then just dragged the required snaps from this application straight into PhotoShop®.

◥ This photo sums up my first real challenges this project brief threw at me. As can be seen, the racking wasn’t just perfectly straight. The main steel orange and blue bars were, but underlying racking was skewed, distorted, covered in tie-wraps and shrouded in protecting black foam. Replicating how the racking actually looked with ‘worts-and-all‘ wasn’t on my agenda.

Yeah, it had to be real, but it had to function as a working-design; out of the ‘natural environment’ and into a projected notion of itself. In short, the racking, as I saw it, had to represent the racking positively, without its negatives—just like a model who is airbrushed for a glossy magazine.

Working in Photoshop®

◥ To create a coherent design that retained the authenticity of the photography, yet was scalable and replicable, I decided after some experimentation, to map certain photographic features of the racking onto solid blocks of colour.

◥ In this example, I took the detail of a weld from the end of an orange racking support; “mapping” it onto a very generic-looking Photoshop® mockup using gradients and basic shading features.

◥ The top of this image shows some elements I extracted from a photo, which I over-laid (mapped) onto the generic-mockup. I then used similar methods for the grey shelving elements.

◥ I used one art-board in Photoshop® to start sizing-up elements, assessing how they would relate to each other. The sponge texture was taken straight from the photography and seamlessly repeated.

◥ This image shows how I began to map some shelving “fixing” elements over a proportioned blue racking bar. As always, the most crucial aspect of this project was correct measurements, proportions and unity.

◥ After completion of the “fixing” elements and background, I started to look at how well it integrated with the rest of the pallet racking design.

◥ This is how some of the racking was starting to look. Every-so-often, I would zoom-out to ensure all was well with the design work. Keeping my “eye on the ball” was crucial.

◥ When everything was in proportion, I started work on smaller details that added a 3D feel to the designs. Here, I have started work on a shadow, which is situated behind an orange racking-support.

◥ In-all, I had to design three separate sets of racking design, as shown above. I have set layer transparencies in Photoshop® at varied levels so they can be shown against each other clearly.

◥ This pallet racking was higher than the others, so I had to be careful when matching the “holes” (in the blue vertical bars) to the smaller pallet racking design.

◥ This was the room that was being constructed for the Foamex® design. It was made from plasterboard and aluminium supports, with a wooden door.

◥ Because of the fact that plasterboard was used in the construction, it meant that I could use nails or screws to attach the designs if needed. However, this wasn’t how I was to attach them (more on this later).

As can been seen, the building contractors used a 4″ high skirting board around the base of the wall. This meant that the foam board style design couldn’t rest on the floor, which was a pity, but sometimes compromises have to be made.

◥ When I designed some pallets (in two separate sizes) to be used in the design, I simply used my own measurements to design a flat-pallet shape, and map the pallet-wooden-texture onto this shape I created.

◥ Each pallet was coded either A,B or C, depending on where it would be situated doing construction. In fact, all the racking was coded, too, making it easier identify the varied sections of the designs. Note: It always pays to think ahead.

◥ This is an example of the type of boxes that were located on the shelving racking at Next DVP (when I took the photographs).

◥ To make a mockup box in Photoshop®, I simply transformed it into the size required, and used layer masks to hide elements of it (mostly the edges) that I didn’t require.

◥ After this was done, I created a mockup-box shape, filled it with brown—and overlaid the original masked-image. This method, like the racking, created a very realistic yet very generic/unified look and feel to the designs.

Printing onto Foamex®

◥ When all the elements of the design were nearing completion, I set up a document which was exactly one-quarter size of the intended output print-size @ 400dpi. The designs were to be printed onto two 5mm Black Foamex® sheets measuring 2.5 metres wide x 1.5 metres high. Setting up the resolution at 400dpi meant that the whole design was printed at 100dpi, which is adequate for large format printing.

◥ Here is another example of the types of boxes I reconstructed digitally. These bore the warning “FRAGILE”, so I saw it quite fitting to include messages such as this in the designs. I also used “HEAVY” messages and varied symbols and arrow warnings.

I also made sure I erased the information and barcodes included on the white box labels. I did this so that when the boxes were printed, the trainers at Next could place their own  scannable-labels onto the designs, as requested.

◥ This image shows the file to be used for large format printing for the second Foamex® board. As shown, the whole design is like a giant jigsaw puzzle, with all the elements required squeezed into place; to fit-in as many extra boxes as possible.

◥ In between the boxes, racking shelving and pallet designs, I left some white space so when they were printed, the folks at the printers could cut them out individually—”knowing which bit was what”.

I also indicated which parts were to be cut-out using “Trim” text, as well as phone discussions and instructions by email.

◥ Built-in contingency: In some of the “spare spaces” in the files, I created some extra few inches of racking shelving, just in case. If I had measured the wall wrong, for example, I would have extra lengths of racking to lengthen it when it was assembled. However, if the racking was too long, I could simply cut some off with a scalpel and metal ruler.

Design Proofs

◥ When the designs were ready to be sent to the printers, I printed off the proofs with an A4 colour laser-printer (Magicolor® 2530) ready for both review and approval by the client. The first page was formulated of a description of the designs and detail.

Design mockups

◥ I thought it prudent to print another set of designs and cut the main individual pieces out with a scalpel and ruler. I then used my kitchen table to lay-out the paper pieces to make sure of the following:

• That I had the right amount of racking posts and shelving.
• To ensure the pieces were in proportion to each other
• To gage how the pallets would look under the racking sections.
• To ensure, simply put, that the design truly “worked as a whole”.

After I laid the pieces out on the table, I was satisfied with how it all fit-together and looked. After preparing the artwork, I emailed them to the printers, along with the corresponding quotation number.

Foamex® Delivery & Assembly

◥ The people at the print-house printed the designs onto a special paper, and bonded it onto two large sheets of Black 5mm Foamex®, sealing it with an anti-scratch coating. Then, they used special cutting equipment to cut-out the individual pieces.

They then wrapped the Foamex® segments in bubble-wrap, placed then in a large wooden box, along with some industrial velcro (hooks and loops) and posted them to the client.

◥ After a couple of email exchanges about when I would construct the racking design, I visited the Next Dearne Valley Palletised site to assemble the Foamex® pieces.

◥ This is Industrial Velcro, which is very strong and is more-than-capable in holding Foamex®, Foam Board, MDF and Correx® to a flat surface. After fixing about 25 separate large-format Foamex® designs to walls and notice boards in the past, I have seen the benefits of using velcro to assemble these designs.

My own method is to attach lengths of the hooks and loops of the industrial velcro first, stick the strips together, peel off the backing from the “loops” length of the velcro and stick this side to the underside of the Foamex® (obviously, this would work for MDF board, foam board, etc, too).

◥ Constructing the design wasn’t easy—as the shelving elements of the pallet racking had to line-up exactly to the vertical bars. Moreover, once the velcro hooks side was attached to the wall, it was a permanent action, as removing it would take the paint off the new plasterboard walls.

It was therefore a rather tricky task attaching the Foamex® board to walls in the exact places required. I used a tape measure and spirit-level to aid me during this process.

The Finished Foamex® Pallet Racking Design

◥ Once I assembled the pallet racking elements, I evenly distributed the various boxes and pallets in between the pallet racking and shelving.

◥ The large foam design stands out clearly from new new white-painted walls of the training room.

◥ In this view, the 5mm thickness of the Black Foamex® can be seen, giving the racking design a very prominent 3D appearance.

◥ The final step in the completion of the design will be for the Next training staff to attach what barcodes they need on the racking edges and boxes in their own time.

I will be doing some more foam designs for Next soon, which will have some “spare” space available in some of the Foamex® boards, where there can be some extra boxes printed to fill-out the design. It would look fuller with more boxes included, but the budget only allowed for printing onto two 2.5 metre x 1.5metre foam boards.

Conclusion

This was a fantastic and inspiring project to work on. It’s great to work on projects where what you’re doing is a really custom job, with nothing else out-there to match it. I’ve worked with Foamex® now plenty of times, and although I also love to design posters, logos and other printed matter, producing customised solutions is my true nature as a graphic designer.

I’ve yet to work with MDF board or standard Foam Board, but I’ve produced Correx® signs before. Bar far, however, Foamex® has the durable capacity to produce large-format designs out of. It’s bendable, pliable, cuttable and very strong (being made of a plastic/foam composite). The use of Foamex® and Industrial Velco worked perfectly for this task—but the other material mentioned would have lacked the durability required.

I can’t really think of anything I would have done differently in this job (or “challenge”, I may call it). I made accurate mathematical calculations, analysed the racking and photography properly—and applied them to a creative agenda.

I don’t believe I’ve done something special personally, as any good graphic designer is capable of producing this kind of work. If you’re a designer and have never produced work like this before, why not give it a try? Please ask me any questions about the design in the comments section below.

Finally, a bit of self-promotion…

If you would like me to work on a custom project like this for you, please contact me or use my Hire Me online form. If the project requires assembling, like this example, I’m a very ‘hands-on’ designer and can qive you a quotation inclusive of this. Generally, I will travel up to 50 miles away from the Leeds area, but costing for longer distances is not ruled out.

This post is Copyright Andrew Kelsall, author of the Andrew Kelsall Graphic Design Blog.Andrew Kelsall | Creative Designer - Graphic Design Blog of Andrew Kelsall

I was approached by Mr R. Moody, ASM for the Dearne Valley Boxed Distribution Warehouse near where I live in West Yorkshire, to design a custom ‘pit-wheel’ for the inside top floor. This building is part of a 100m pound investment by Next, plc (which also comprises of the well-known Next Directory).

Richard wanted me to design a large, two metre-high structure that was based on a Pit-Wheel design. My last article about the Pit Stop logo (which was also done for Next) explains the relevance of this symbol. I was also tasked to design a smaller version as well, but this article focus’s on the larger one I made.

Throughout this article, I will explain what exactly this ‘Pit Wheel’ is, what it is for and how I designed and constructed it.

The image above shows my original design proposal after I presented it to Richard on our first meeting. The first thing you may notice is how this project wasn’t a standard graphic design job. The task I was presented with was a challenge in itself — and bordered more on industrial design…but I do like custom work and enjoy a challenge.

I suggested that the design should be printed onto 10mm Foamex. This is a very strong material that is a cross between foam and plastic, and ideal material for large-format displays and custom work.

The image above shows a sample of the 10mm white Foamex used. This sample is one of the pieces I used to construct the upper section of the pit-wheel, explained later on in this article.

As can be seen in the above illustration, the Pit Wheel was to be comprised of three layers of 10mm Foamex. The round colored section was to be a wheel that would spin left or right. It was to be ‘housed’ in between two layers of Foamex to protect it from fraying after prolonged use.

As previously mentioned, I recently designed a logo for the same Next warehouse based on a pit-wheel design, with the words ‘Manvers Colliery’ included as part of it. I used the same vector image in this design, excluding these words.

The logo above shows how the original pit-wheel was implemented in the previous ‘Pit Stop’ logo design (again, the corresponding article on this can be found here)

As can be seen in the design above, I got to work designing the look of the pit-wheel. Richard wanted it to be functional and very clear. Well, a great way to convey clarity is with both form and colour, so I designed the wheel with four colours that were very bright, in four clearly-marked sections.

…And, oh, I think I’ve reached a point in this article where I better explain what this design is for. Staff who work at Dearne Valley Boxed (or DVB) are separated into four teams: Manvers, Wath, Frickley and Cortonwood. These are named after surrounding towns that once had Coal Mines. There are also fours areas that staff can work in (numbered 1-4), so the idea of this wheel is that every week, the wheel is turned, communicating to staff which area they will be working in — genius don’t you think?

For any of you who are either just interested or familiar with vectors, I have included a snippet of the wire-frame created in Adobe Illustrator (above). As can be seen, I experimented along the way to create a design that did its job properly — to effectively communicate to staff.

This is a closeup of the detail of the pit-wheel design. After importing the vector imagery into Photoshop, I layered-in some coal imagery for added affect. The green section displayed above shows how the coal fades into the green in a subtle manner.

When all the designs were complete and approved by the client, I set about preparing the artwork for print. This was quite a labourious task, as I had to separate the varied components into different files, name the files and mark where they needed to be trimmed by the printer.

Another consideration was the actual file setup. Obviously, I needed to convert the RGB imagery into CMYK, but I also needed to ensure all files were 400dpi at exactly one-quarter print size. If I were to get any dimensions wrong, the whole design wouldn’t work or fit together.

I also typed an extensive ‘Printers’ Note’ explaining further the exact final dimensions and where the cuts should be made.

The image above shows the final composition of the pit-wheel (on the left) and an example of two of the back supports on the right (not at scale/ratio to each other). These were printed on separate boards of Foamex — which were arranged for maximum cost effectiveness for the client, Richard Moody at Next DVB.

Finally, once the designs were printed by JustDisplays.co.uk, I constructed the two metre-high unit using 3M SprayMount and brass screws. Foamex has the density of a soft wood, so screws can hold these Foamex boards together quite well.

I attached handles made of Aluminium and Acrylic to the wheel so it could easily be rotated. After constructing the pit-wheel, I liaised with a local construction firm on-site, who constructed a black wooden frame, as Next wanted the structure to be free-standing next to a notice board (shown above).

Overall, I was pleased with the results, with everything going to plan. The Foamex shapes were the correct size, the print-work came out great — and the client was impressed.

Do you like this large-format design? Have you done anything similar? If you have completed a job like this, what did you do?

Finally, a bit of self-promotion…

If you would like me to work on a custom project like this for you, please contact me or use my Hire Me online form. If the project requires constructing, like this example, I’m a very ‘hands-on’ designer and can give you a quotation inclusive of this. Generally, I will travel up to 50 miles away from the Leeds area, but costing for longer distances is not ruled out.

This post is Copyright Andrew Kelsall, author of the Andrew Kelsall Graphic Design Blog.Andrew Kelsall | Creative Designer - Graphic Design Blog of Andrew Kelsall

This sign reads: The Person Looking in this Mirror is Responsible for their Health & Safety.

This sign is unique with only a few produced. The sign has been professionally designed this year with a stunning design not found anywhere else online!

• The sign comes complete with a 15″ square plastic mirror with rounded edges.

• There are 2 A5 sized plastic wallets attached to insert your own company logo and Health & Safety guidelines, etc.

• The signs are made from highly durable 5mm-thick Black Foamex® (which is a special plastic-foam hybrid material). The sign can be attached to a wall with screws, as the material handles like sheet-wood, with no pre-drilling required.

• The signs are full-colour, with a special  anti-scratch & anti-glare coating laminate applied.

• Size is 91cm x 63cm approx.  /  35″ x 25″ approx.

PRICE IS £135 + £15 P+P
*VAT will be added for customers from the UK

International Buyers: Payment goes through PayPal, so currency conversion should take place in the order process.

If you have any questions about this sign, or would like a custom design producing, please contact me.

This post is Copyright Andrew Kelsall, author of the Andrew Kelsall Graphic Design Blog.Andrew Kelsall | Creative Designer - Graphic Design Blog of Andrew Kelsall