Brand design for Salford Child-Friendly City

Updated Sept 2025

Wonderful to see a project I've invested a lot in come to life. Hot off the press, the brand guide for Child Friendly Salford. Massive thanks to Salford City Council for all their support. The guidebooks are being sent out to communities around Salford later in the year.

This weekend saw the opening of Salford Youth Zone, a venue dedicated to kids' activities. It was also the launch of the Salford child-friendly City initiative that I've been collaborating on for the last 2 months, to come up with the brand, design and illustrations that capture the voice of children of Salford.

We've run workshops and art sessions, and with the help of Salford Council and the Youth Council Steering Group, developed the style and identity for the brand. I'm really proud of what we've achieved.

We pitched back in March, and I was pretty sure the combination of illustration skills and performing family-friendly comedy made me the right guy for the gig. I showed my stuff to the children, and they seemed to agree. Caroline Boyd took charge of logo, colour and typography while Pauline Johnson was on child engagement for the workshops. I project managed and did the illustration work.

Going forward, community groups wanting two run events as part of the child-friendly will get the brand guide book which includes artwork by the children, design instructions (brand guide) written from a children's viewpoint making them easy to read and understand, as well as a whole library of illustrations (seen here) to use however they want.

Some of the images here are very loosely based on children I met during the project, and my eight years living in Salford. Others are made completely up :)

Salford has a unique personality and feels very much like the North East, where I'm originally from. It's been an amazing experience and I've thoroughly enjoyed finding the voice of a Child Friendly Salford.

June 2025

Over the last couple of months, I've been working in a team, listening to children, finding out what they want to make their city safer, to create the brand design, assets, and illustrations for Child Friendly Salford.

The 'Child Friendly City' is a UNICEF global initiative to make cities….well…. child-friendly. Many cities in the UK have begun this process and this was Salford's opportunity as part of a wider 'Greener Healthier Salford' incentive.

These photos are taken from last week's children's workshop. The venue is Salford GRIT, the new art studio in Salford shopping centre that's only been open a few weeks and is already bursting with creative folks. Handier still is that it's a 5-minute walk from the equally new and impressive Salford Youth Zone.

Who's we? Well, that's the freelancer's day connection. Myself, Caroline Boyd (from Boy oh Boy Design) and Pauline Johnson (Civic and Social) pitched ourselves to Salford as a collaboration. Three folks, experienced independent creatives, coming together with the just the right set of skills to make this project pop. A few agencies pitched, and we got the commission.

It's been a long time since I project managed or art directed, as I'm very hands-on, and the division of work has been split between design, illustration and workshops.

In the interview, we were grilled by the Salford Youth Council, and one child asked, "What makes you different from the other people we're talking to?". I think my answer was the right one.

Here's also a sneak peek of the illustration sketches, and all will be revealed next month. I'm really proud of what we've achieved so far; it's been an amazing project to take on.

Links

Salford Council
Unicef Child Friendly Cities
Salford Youth Zone
Onside Youth Zones
Illustration
Brand Design

2025 Showreel, motion graphics, illustration and more.

New showreel time! 15 Project squeezed into 36 seconds. I didn't update it last year, so there are plenty of highlights to stuff in.

Motion graphics, live scribing, illustration, branding and WordPress development. Often, but not always, served with a side order of light-hearted humour.

That's a few different things for one person to do, isn't it? Well, not really. I started my business back in 2010 after ten years in agencies, and the backbone of my approach was to go where the work is, explore niches and always be learning new things.

"Jack of all trades and a master of none?" eh?

I did hear this when I first started, however, the full qoute is "Jack of all trades, master of none, though oftentimes better than a master of one."

It can take years to build up a diverse skill set; it doesn't happen overnight, but I think it's important to cultivate right now in the creative space. I believe it's important to experiment and take risks to discover new skills adjacent to those you already have.

And it's not just me. While working on the new showreel, this article dropped on Creative Boom from Tom May about the 'creative generalist'. I couldn't agree more.

Start your new project

Rocket Steps is a 'one stop shop' for design, motion graphics and illustration.
Established in 2010 by John Cooper.

Links:

Creative Boom

Graphic Design for the Greater Manchester Fringe Festival

Just a couple of month until the next Greater Manchester Fringe Festival and it looks set to be a great one.

I've been helping the team with graphic design since the festival came back in 2020, listening and tweaking, iterating the design every year to improve on what went before, and they now have a really strong recognisable identity.

Here's a sample from the design guide;

I try to be as helpful as I can. As a graphic designer I'm told I'm quite 'sympathetic', I'm not going to say 'You need these colours' or 'it has to look like that'. I've been around enough to know that a good designer is just a guide, leading folks up the mountain, helping them visualise their own idea, not the designer's own whims.

One of the main advantages I have is that I'm multi-disciplined. I can do graphic, web and illustration, to cover all the bases that a project might need. Also motion graphics when needed. Certainly with this one, the character of 'Liza Beenelli' had be revised and re-designed a few times over the years.

Manchester Graphic Design

There are some amazing apps out there that really help speed things along in terms of getting works done. I'm now offering canva for slide decks and some other design services.

If you've heard of it, Canva is a way to let a designer do wth design work, while giving a client access to make changes without breaking the overall design of a piece - similar to how websites work, but for offline media like slide decks and print.

Links:
Greater Manchester Fringe
More branding samples

The Art of Scamps

Updated March 2025

Need scamps? You're in the right place.

Good quality scamps help win pitches.

Rough and ready quick drawings getting ideas down on paper. A lot of my output involves making scamp artwork. For production companies and collaborations with other creative agencies who need to generate visuals quickly.

Scamps are very similar to storyboards or mock-ups. They help frame an idea, giving an art director or advertiser something to see that can help 'proof' a good idea, pushing it to the next stage, or decide if they aren't quite working, to help find the right direction.

They're an important early part of the creative process where speed and clarity are more important than the quality of the image.

Note: I often work under NDA's (non-disclosure agreements). That means the work is not for public display, on websites or social media. Scamps are often only for private use and owned by the company they are created for. The examples on this page are from real projects, and I've been permitted to share them. Just in case you're production company looking for a scamps artist and are worried about privacy.

Start your new project

Scamp artwork examples

These examples are from various projects I've worked on with leading production houses around the UK. From TV adverts to product design, it's often about facilitation, taking other people's ideas and converting them into images without being precious.

As you'll see in these examples, even at the early stage colour can be introduced a little, which often helps align with branding when presenting to clients. I've worked under direction with an art director to help achieve their vision, and I can offer ideas too.

Scamps happen at the very beginning of the process, and can on occasion stressful when they are created alongside conversations - that can go in different directions, but they don't have to be.

I have a background in comic art and improv comedy, and studied sequential art and communication design as a student. Learning the shorthand for storytelling and attention-grabbing that comics use so often really helps when it comes to composing images. Scamps can get messy quickly, and less is often more when it comes to choosing images for a presentation.

Get in touch for more info and rates.

Links:

Refresh, not rebrand.

In late 2024 my local running club, Manchester Road Runners, were looking for a new shirt design to celebrate 12 years of being a lovely active community. What they didn't ask for is a rebrand on the logo, but I'm always looking for opportunities and took the liberty of suggesting a very, very small refresh on their very established logo.

This is not a rebrand.

I think 'rebrand' gets overused in design and not always for the right reasons. There's no need to change something if it works, and with over 100 runners every week and growing, Manchester Road Runners don't really need an image change.

Sans serif?

I was reminded of the 'design trauma' stories of large brands going around the houses on wild varieties of different ideas to refresh a logo, then settling on something resembling what they already had.

With the 'MRR' logo, this is all I suggested. Remove the seriphs. Those are the little cross bars on the ends of letters that define a serif font, often used to define the difference between classical or contemporary style.
I rounded corners a little here, and added a bit more leading (space between rows) so the whole thing fits into a square easier for social media. Other than that this is still the original logo as designed by Chris ryder one of the founding members of my Manchester orderers and a good pal.

Just like the community at Manchester Road Runners who offer support new the runners who rock up every week, this logo refresh is just a gentle nudge of positive progress.

Links

Full-service design for WentFest

'Full-service design' covers everything you need for a marketing campaign. From logo, branding and website, to social media, graphics, illustration and print - everything. It's a bit broad and not always a great description, as clients can differ.

Wentfest, formerly Wentworth Festival has built its brand since 2017 and each year's look is fresh and vibrant while being consistent across print and web, so it always looks professional. As with all the work I do, nothing is outsourced.

Start your new project

A logo, a poster and a quick-loading responsive website that sells tickets, for a new music festival. I love it when I get a project that covers all design disciplines for great cross branding experience.

One such recent project was Wentworth Music Festival. Working with a client I've had for many years they said 'this is what we want, and this is the deadline. It needed to be bright and punchy, but also put on show the spectacular venue itself, Wentworth Woodhouse. A large privately owned stately home outside of Rotherham.

2017

The choice of font and colours were a delicate process of finding something loud and energetic enough to capture the identity and vibrance of a music festival, while also being respectful of the venue. Chatting with the clients while knee-deep in organising big name bands , I put forward a big-splash illustration. Working up a detailed sketch of the venue would show it off with a lot more vibrancy than a photo alone could achieve. There was also a tight deadline and go-live date. Four bold colour silhouettes of non-specific singers and musicians meant the pre-publicity for the event could be while waiting for the confirmation of the big names to come. After sign off the graphics were reformatted for social media covers and the project was- quite literally - ready to rock!

With over 18 years of industry and design studio experience and a dedication to researching the latest design trends and web technology, it's not just about creating a look and feel , but solving design problems. JCU is more than just the final product, it's a design service.

Design is everywhere. John understands the DNA of great design communication and how to get you noticed. Rocket Steps has clients throughout the UK and overseas.

Branding for Shore Thing Theater

'Theater'? That's not a typo. My annual visit to the USA allows me to meet a lot of new creative folks with business plans. This month I've been helping Ria Toricelli with the branding of her new theatre space 'Shore Thing Theater' in New Jersey.

Simliar to a previous branding project for The Fresnel Theater in Portland, and Comedysportz Las Vegas, the brief for Shore Thing Theater was to create a brand logo reflecting the ethos of this venue. An entertainment space near the New Jersey shoreline, Shore Thing hosts live comedy, arts and education in a safe environment for the diverse surrounding community.

Working with Ria, we discussed a few different approaches, eventually settling on a logo where waves and a shoreline met with a stage and spotlights, blending the two aspects together into a memorable brand image.

Here's the final design, together with some earlier iterations, showing how the brand design evolved.

Get in touch for a design quote

Branding the Kings Arms, Salford

Back in 2018, I did the logo and rebranding on the Kings Arms Theatre pub in Salford, but I never did a blog, so here it is.

As a regular there they knew me well as my graphic design work for other productions had already graced their walls. When it came to their rebrand, they just had to ask.

Rebranding of the King.

The venue is pretty unique, being a great real ale pub, and also a theatre. Many times I've sat in the bar, watching it fill up in seconds as the sold-out show upstairs has its halftime break. It's a grand old place bursting with fresh new talent (The sitcom Fresh Meat was filmed there).

Above the bar is a stained glass window of a king. Not sure which one, but it was a starting point. For the rebrand, I took what was already there and gave it a bit of modern pop.

I got a lot of great feedback from Lisa, who commissioned the work and suggested the tattoos of local legends.

Using the same forms from the window; beard, robes and crown I created sketches, simplifying the stained glass into line art and turning the king to face and embrace his subjects. A new king with a broad smile who likes to put on a performance. (in my mind he sounds like Brian Blessed!).

Since the rebranding, the pub has launched its own ale, the Queen's Legs. Does the queen have hairy legs or is it the King in drag? I'm afraid even I can't reveal that.

Recent design work for the Kings Arms Salford.

Branding Design - Fresnel Theater (USA)

A brand design is more than just a logo. It's a representation of what the product or service is – what it stand for. With a good brand should tell you what what it's selling at a glance. A good brand tells a story.

Matt and Krista were looking for a designer for their new community theater space, the Fresnel Theater, opening in Portland, Maine. I met Matt through Comedysportz, a comedy improv show.

He’s a really enthusiastic smart guy, and it came as no surprise that he already had a mission statement, which is a great starting point for a designer.

It answered the questions that I'd initially ask - designer to client. What are the goals of the business, what makes your company different? Descriptive words. So that I can read and listen to the language they use and tune into their frequency and start creating visuals

Branding design - The Fresnel Theater (USA)

So in designing the logo it was important to look for something that was welcoming and incorporated The keywords of playfulness community and compassion.

From a practical point of view It needed to be bright and chunky so that when transferred into signage on the building, it's seen clearly from a distance.

Matt was keen for the logo to reflect the lighthouses that portland is known for. The name fresnal comes from bevels in the lens of a lighthouse main lamp that helps focus the beam. As a designer, I love that kind of creative thinking.

Once the colours and typeface were finalised I created and branding guide. This is a reference document for printers. Most large commercial brands have very detailed branding guides, but really every business should have something like this. It’s helpful to printers and is a reliable way to future proof the consistency of your brand over time.

Here’s the final logo that Matt and Krista approved.