Thomas Paterson Portfolio
Explore My Work
Sustainable Building Company Style Guide
I developed this style guide for a mock sustainable building company, ‘Greenlea Homes’ which built ecologically smart homes to connect with the outdoors. The purpose of the style guide was to help the company use its brand consistently and effectively in collateral to promote the company and its marketing position. The elements of the style guide include a logo, key words, colours, typography and photographic styles to establish the brand and help Greenlea Homes connect with families who wanted to live in smart, sustainable homes..
I designed the logo to include a graphic element that shows a modern house with a smaller gazebo attached for outdoor living. In front of the house is an image of a tree that also suggests the person the company is building for (with their arms upraised). The house has a simple design reflecting the company’s interest in building smarter homes with outdoor spaces. The green of the logo ties in with the company’s name and its vision to build ecologically smart homes. Overall this portrayed a cohesive and strong identity for the company.
Personal Brand Development
In this project I developed a personal brand to convey the design choices I am interested in. I like design that is minimalist, clear, has strong lines and is symbolic. I also wanted to create a brand that reflected the origins of my name, Thomas, which means ‘twin’ and ‘strength’.
I created a symmetrical logo which involved twin elements with two identical stylised hammers symbolic of strength. The hammers could also suggest two ‘T’s’ being crossed.The text ‘Thomas Paterson designs’ is in the Nexa Light font. It is clear and organic and contrasts with the strong, sharp edges of the logo graphic. I also created a pattern which involved the use of ‘T’s’ connected and crossing. There is a strong consistency between the logo and the pattern.
NCACL Project Plan
This project involved working in a team of two to develop a clear social media strategy for the National Centre for Australian Children’s Literature (NCACL). The centre has an archive of children’s literature that is open for everyone to use. The goal was to improve social media engagement with NCACL and use branding consistent with branding NCACL already used. The centre already had Facebook and Twitter pages but was looking to improve these. Our research showed the average user of these pages were women aged around 40 years who worked in the education sector.
We created a series of social media tiles in colours already used by NCACL - bright green, blue and cool-toned grey. We also developed heading and subheading styles and strategies for the use of photographs or images. We created an abstract asymmetrical pattern which is different to the rounded edges used in other branding already used by NCACL to create a fresh new look. The simple sans-serif font, Brandon Grotesque was used. By re-using some elements but also developing a new pattern we were able to unify new design elements with existing elements.
Physcial Activity and Nutrition Infographic
This project was an infographic I created to reflect data from the ACT Year 6 Physical Activity and Nutrition Survey about both healthy and unhealthy behaviours of Year 6 children. The data was generally provided for the years 2006 to 2018. The target audience could be anyone but I wanted the infographic to help viewers such as parents, teachers and health professionals to explore health trends and find the story behind the data.
My approach was to use a bubble chart with four quadrants to display four different stories about healthy behaviours that were improving, those that were declining, but also about unhealthy behaviours that were declining. It was interesting to see that there was no unhealthy behaviours increasing. I also used some other graphic elements including isotypes to emphasise particular statistics and coloured four-sided figures to reveal some key differences between girls and boys. Overall, the infographic provides a number of different ways for viewers to explore the data visually.
This project involved re-designing the packaging for a set of Sony Headphones which were originally packaged in moulded plastic in an unattractive manner. Such packaging contributes to the worldwide problem of plastic waste. The challenge was to redesign the packaging in a sustainable way targeting the 45+ years market that this ‘classic’ product would appeal to.
Older users trust the Sony brand and seek a set of headphones that is reliable without an over inflated price. Within this setting, users also want a consumer experience that delivers an attractive product without being confused by endless details.
In the rebrand of this product I emphasised this was a ‘classic’ set of headphones. The retail packaging used cardboard (instead of moulded plastic) with the shipping box made of corrugate leading to more sustainable packaging. The retail box had a minimalist design in black, with some key text in red, on a white background. The design deliberately incorporated blank space to allow a focus on the image of the headphones and the smaller icon images. The packaging included a travel bag as an extra feature that would appeal to the user.
The design succeeds in creating the feel that the consumer is buying a classic product that works well. The classy, minimalist feel of the retail and shipping boxes add to the experience.
Sony Headphones Rebrand and Packaging
Christchurch Massacre Creative Photograph Story
In this project, I developed a photo story about the Christchurch Massacre for one of my university courses on culture and power. The purpose was to reflect my response to the event in a visual way that did not focus on the gunman or the graphic details of the massacre. I decided it was important to focus on the victims who included people who were heroes and on the responses by the Muslim community, the broader community and the government.
I was aware of the themes of good and evil and unity versus prejudice and sought to use images that conveyed or symbolised these themes. (These images were separately referenced for the purposes of the course I was doing.)