Luke Watkinson

Luke Watkinson
Graphic Design
A recent graduate from
University College Falmouth

Here is my work and thoughts.

Thursday 30 December 2010

The Smiths The Death of A Disco Dancer

The Smiths The Death of A Disco Dancer
As a fan of the infamous 80s band The Smiths. Inspired by the lyrics of the song Death of A Disco Dancer I have created this illustrative poster incorporating symbolism and lyrics from the song.

Wednesday 15 December 2010

James and The Giant Peach


I had always been a big fan of Roald Dahl since an early age. So I had a load of passion when it came to designing this great story; James and The Giant Peach book Jacket.

Graphic Posters

A series of graphic posters I have currently been designing. Here are a selection of 3 bold designs which are currently on display in my study space.

Printer Error

When printing premium satin photo paper facing wrong side up; the paper came out as an inky mess so instead of throwing in the bin, I thought I'd recycle the colourful mess into an illustration.

Tentopus Illustration




The 10 tentacled creature I name this one; The Flight of The Tentopus!

Saturday 27 November 2010

Monday 22 November 2010

The latest brand mascots have arrived with Vodafones new bee characters; promoting their new freebees. The computer generated bees are printed as posters and bill boards and also animated and aired on televesion commercials. The bees add a friendly, warm and humourous touch to Vodafone's branding. Once again a 'big' brand has turned towards using characters to promote their brand!

Thursday 11 November 2010

Cool Free Font



Illustrator or Designer?


Noma Bar is a Graphic Designer. His work has appeared in many media outlets including: Time Out Londonhttp://www.timeout.com/, BBC, Random House, The Observer, The Economist and Wallpaperhttp://www.wallpaper.com/. Bar has illustrated over sixty magazine covers, published over 550 illustrations and released two books of his work through Mark Betty Publisher: 'Guess Who - The Many Faces of Noma Bar', in 2008 and 'Negative Space'. Noma Bar is a Graphic Designer who brings into question where is/is there a dividing line between Illustration and Graphic Design.

Kobe Croquette Rebrand

Kobe Croquette have recently had a refresh with their branding. A brand with heritage, Graphic Designer Taku Satoh has created some eye-catching packaging which embodies the Kobe Croquette's West-meets East style. View the new minimalist contemporary architecture here; 



Chocolate Pie Chart


New pie chart chocolate, recently featured in Wallpaper Magazine. The well designed branding and minimalist packaging to a designer would be too good to eat. Swiss influence and modern sans font and good use of white space makes this product a striking product which can be viewed here 


The Brands are Back in town!




I have recently noticed that a bunch of brands have introduced/re-introduced characters or to promote their brand. Virgin Media have used cartoon mouse speedy as a fun metaphor to promote their fast service, Tetley's Tea have brought back the 2D animated little men, perhaps tapping into nostalgia in the tea market. And Sky have created iconic blue monsters that are reminiscent of Where The Wild Things Are and Jim Henson's puppets.

Cartoon legend Speedy Gonzales has been signed up by Virgin Media to advertise the firm's super-fast broadband packages. The fastest mouse in Mexico, famous for evading the grasp of his nemesis Sylvester the Cat, has been brought back by the internet service provider (ISP) to promote its up to 50Mb broadband deals. He will feature in a prime time TV ad campaign, and has also been immortalised in a London billboard made entirely of cheese. Ashley Stockwell, Executive Director of Brand and Marketing for Virgin Media, described Speedy as "the perfect celebrity partner" for the firm.

The reawakening of the 2D tea folk. Perhaps shoppers have craved a comeback for Tetley's 'tea folk', weeping milky tears and rocking gently beneath their tribute flat caps. But not many, surely, which makes Tetley's bid to revive the 'iconic' characters so puzzling. The Tetley Tea Folk were a group of little characters who were used for many years to advertise Tetley Tea Bags. The first advert featuring them appeared in 1973, and they were used right up until 2001 when they were finally deemed not modern enough and were dropped.

8ft blue monsters having a bath, a roast dinner and dancing in swimming costumes are the new characters used to promote Media brand Sky. Photographed by Gary Salter for WCRS, The monsters were designed and made by the Millenium team (Harry Potter, Doctor Who) who made the monsters that use animatronics to work.

Thursday 22 July 2010

CoolCities iPhone designs


My artists inspired iPhone designs for the CoolCities competetion.

Wallpaper Hand Made issue. What a printing challenge and huge task it must have been for Wallpaper to organise and accomplish such an achievement. Definitley taps in to the modern customisation and personalisation generation. Modern technology makes challenges like this possible.

Thursday 6 May 2010

Design Proposal for London Olympics 2012!


Here is Liodon! The 2012 London Olympics mascot I have created.

Brand characters


Are brand characters possibly one of the most powerful and versatile marketing tools ever invented? Brands such as Michelin, McDonalds, Duracell and Sugarpuffs utilise the power of character design. Without these characters that personify their brand identity probably would not nearly as successful as they have been.

Monday 3 May 2010

Jody Barton stick men


Illustration by Jody Barton. Created for an ecological project Reminded me a little of my 1000 characters. I like its subtle contrast and minalimalism.

Monday 12 April 2010

Inspirational typography I just came across from http://www.a2swhk.co.uk/
which reminds me of my ant-war poster.

1000 Characters

This is a self-initiated project where I set about drawing 1000 characters.
Each character is based on my daily thoughts, comments, or references to
things I have seen or done.

New work! for International Society of Typographic Designers (ISTD)


Box-set of the 100 Most Influential Persons in History.
Bound in leather it contains a book which includes a
biography for each influential person and a case of
100 cards.

Anti War Poster

Anti War Poster
Hidden Message revealed when the red is blanked out

PROFILE

My photo
Manchester, Lancashire, United Kingdom
Currently based in Manchester I am looking for freelance graphic design opportunities.