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web, brand and motion design

BIG BLUE WHALE
Motion, Brand & Web Design

VIDEO SHOWREEL

Video Production & More

I am creative director of Big Blue Whale, a video production company I created with friends. We are based in Leeds, West Yorkshire and specialise in online video content for use in marketing campaigns, online promotions and events. My roles within Big Blue Whale have varied hugely requiring me to be very versatile. To date they have included director, producer, office manager, camera operator, hyperlapse cinematographer and as creative director I oversee all post production work. Check out our videos on Vimeo by clicking our VIMEO PAGE.

Big Blue Whale Branding, Logo Design & Animation

I designed and animated the logo for Big Blue Whale. The animated logo is used at the end of all our videos and was designed to be fast but detailed so there is something new to be seen on each viewing. The logo itself has developed over the years as we have refined our brand.

WIN THIS || JAPANESE FIGHTING FISH || MUSIC VIDEO

Pre-production, Director, Camera Operator, Video Editor and Motion Graphics

Our first of three music videos for the band Japanese Fighting Fish. Working closely with the band we developed themes and a story that would form the core of the music video. Storyboards were created, locations scouted, actors hired and extras recruited. Filmed over a weekend it was non stop action but everything went smoothly thanks to our careful planning.

BOOMTOWN FAIR OFFICIAL HYPERLAPSE VIDEO

Hyperlapses, Camera Operator and Video Editor

We shot and edited a hyperlapse video at Boomtown Fair, a place of incredible visual delights. I planned the video edit around music from artists who performed at the festival including Oculus and After Hours. By visualising the different sequences beforehand I was able to edit them together quickly. The weather was generally overcast so I graded the different sequences to create a sense of warmth and summer.

GRAFFITI LIFE || HALO VIDEO GAME LAUNCH VIDEO

Post Production Video Editor

Working as part of the Big Blue Whale team has allowed me to work with Graffiti Life on a number of exciting video projects in and around London. By combining life action footage, timelapse and hyperlapse photography we create dynamic and exciting videos that go hand in hand with the creation of Graffiti Life’s wall murals. For this job we filmed the creation of a huge mural for the new Halo game on XBox.

DR MARTENS || THE SKINTS || UNDERGROUND PERFORMANCE

Pre-production, Camera Operator and Editor

Working closely with Dr. Martens we filmed The Skints band performing live on the London Underground. The video was launched in conjunction with Dr Martens ‘Spirit of 69’ campaign. I took full control of the creative process from the planning stages right through to the final edit. We communicated our ideas to the client with storyboards and took on their suggestions to ensure the final film met their needs.

WEBSITE DESIGN

Portfolio Style Website and the Importance of the Blog

As Big Blue Whale’s work is very visual I wanted to create a portfolio style website. To increase our Google rankings I thought it would be very useful to have an active blog as content generation combined with video is great for SEO. I also included blog post previews on the home page to drive views from Google to the home page. View the Big Blue Whale website by clicking here.

TESTIMONIALS

“James is a man who knows what he wants and how to get the best out his cast and crew. His editing skills are second to non but I most enjoyed working with him on set. He takes no prisoners when it comes to getting the best shot and commands respect whilst taking no BS! It’s hard to argue when you see the results.”

Carlos Thompson – Front man for Japanese Fighting Fish

“Here at Jack, we have worked with Big Blue Whale on numerous occasions and they have always delivered an amazing piece. They are very reliable and are willing to bend over backwards to suit our clients needs. They are a great company and I will always be using them in future projects.”

Alina Basu, Senior Account Manager

BRANDON HARVEST
Online Marketing & Banner Design

MAKE STYLE

Online Marketing Campaigns & Banner Designs

Working remotely for Brandon Harvest, an online marketing company based in Norway presented a unique set of challenges. Communication was key as was understanding and interpreting the client’s requirements. One of Brandon Harvest’s clients was Make Style, an online makeup store. I designed online marketing material for Make Style which included full banners suites, site re-skins and landing pages.

Brandon Harvest - Online marketing and banner design

Clean & Elegant Banner Designs for the Makeup Industry

Designing banners for Make Style involved using a combination of product images and stock images that complemented the products on sale. I also designed custom graphical elements to help make the designs pop off the screen. The target market was tech savvy women of all ages.

I also created online banners for seasonal events and competitions such as Easter and promotions for Norwegian Fashion bloggers.

ACTIVE EDUCATION

Online Marketing Banners

I created full sets of banners for Active Education, a health and fitness company based in Oslo, Norway. By using strong colours combined with flat design elements I created banners that catch the eye. By using exercise images makes it clear to people viewing the banner what it is promoting. Combined with the banners being displayed on fitness sites this greatly increased the click through rate to Active Education site.

RUSTELEFONEN

Charity Competition Give Aways

Rustelefonen is a youth charity in Norway that raises awareness of the risks involved in drinking and illicit substances. I created marketing material to help promote their competition giveaways as well as concepts to boost the exposure of their drinking app.

SIDE 2 WEBSITE RE-SKINS

Side 2 is a blog style website that features articles and promotions related to the fashion and lifestyle industry within Norway. I designed re-skins that are designed to fill the sites advertising spaces in addition to the banners creating more impact for specific promotions.

SCOTT M SALT PHOTOGRAPHY
Video Editing & Hyperlapses

JACK AGENCY || JAMESON IRISH WHISKEY

Hyperlapse Cinematography & Video Editing

On this project for Jameson Irish Whiskey I worked as camera operator filming all the hyperlapses that are featured in the video. To capture each hyperlapse requires practice and patience as it is a time consuming process. The results speak for themselves as they add dynamic depth to the video. I also edited and colour graded the completed video. I spent time working on a high impact intro sequence to draw the audience in.

JACK AGENCY || CARLING CIDER

Video Editing

On this project for Carling Cider I worked as video editor and had to communicate extensively with the agency working with Carling to ensure the video was on brand. As an international brand there were strict requirements I had to fulfill in order to complete the project. The footage was filmed by Scott M Salt who passed it onto me so I could start the editing process. I also had to colour grade and stabilse the hyperlapses.

THAMES & HUDSON || MURAL XXL

Video Editing

On this project for Thames and Hudson I worked as video editor whilst also communicating with Jack Agency who were managing the project. I was supplied with the raw footage which was filmed by Scott M Salt over 3 days. My work flow involves firstly sorting through all the footage pulling out good footage. I then start editing the clips to the beat of the music. I also added primary and secondary colour grading to all clips.

TIBET’S SECRET TEMPLE

Video Editing

On this project for Secret Temple I worked as video editor. Scott M Salt filmed the raw footage before passing it onto me in the post production stage of the project. Scott filmed a lot of pans so I incorporated them into video and made a feature of them that runs throughout the video.

TESTIMONIAL

“I have worked with James on numerous projects now and will continue to use his services for future video projects. His ability to understand what the end client wants is crucial to achieving exceptional edits whilst being able to provide fast turn around. Delivers every time.”

Scott Salt – Director

BIO365
Brand, Web & Product Design with Online Marketing

BIO365 BRAND DESIGN

Remote Freelance Design

I worked remotely for Bio365, a Norwegian health company. I was lead designer on their 2015 re-brand. This was a large job than spanned across their website, marketing department and product range. With the launch of the Bio365 website I was tasked with updating all their online content which included landing pages, product graphics, online marketing campaigns and banners for each of their products. For the logo I took elements of their existing design and created a bolder, more iconic logo. Brand consistency across all design work was very important.

BIO365 WEB DESIGN

Creating Headers and Banners

For the Bio365 website I created graphical elements that tied in with the new logo design including header design, slider graphics and product images. I also created landing page graphics for all 24 products. Using the brand guidelines I established I ensured all products, pages and graphics were consistent in their use of colours, fonts and graphics to create a unified look across all online content of the business.

PRODUCT DESIGN

Designing Eco Friendly Packaging That Reduces Material Usage

I designed the front and back print graphics for BioZan, an eco-friendly cleaning product. I referenced traditional washing products design elements to make the brand recognisable as a cleaning product and used green stripes to reflect the green credentials of the product.

Bio365 Box Designs

I created new box designs for all 24 of Bio365 products. A large number of concept designs were developed before the final design template was approved. Good communication with the client was essential as they had a clear goal in mind and it was my job to interpret their requests. Once all 24 designs were approved I created InDesign print PDFs so the boxes could be printed and manufactured on a commercial scale.

Package Design for Razor Brand

I designed the packaging for the Edge razor brand. There were two versions of the product, Perfect Plus for men and Perfect Touch for women. I referenced classic design elements for each of the markets to create my print designs. I also prepared PDF print files for use at the printers.

ONLINE MARKETING

Banner Suites for Online Marketing Campaigns

In conjunction with all the other design work I have also created online marketing campaigns for the individual products associated with Bio365. I have created full banner suites for many different products that have been featured on some of Norway’s biggest sites.

Landing Pages

I also created a number of landing pages for the various products on offer by Bio365. I was given a little more creative freedom with these designs as it is important that they catch the users eye very quickly. I still ensured branding was in place though with correct use of fonts etc.

CONCEPT DESIGN

Bio365 Packaging Designs

A small sample of some of Bio365 box concept designs I created before the final design was approved by the client.

Logo Concept Designs

Concept designs for the new Bio365 logo. I took key elements from the old logo and created something new and a lot more modern.

POPCORN GAMES
Brand & Web Design

CAR BOOT BINGO

Logo Design

The client had a very clear vision for what they wanted to achieve with the Car Boot Bingo project which meant my role as a designer was to firstly understand their vision and then transfer it to the screen. The logo had to be fun with an easy to read font for older players with a tight layout so easy to see on banners, ad boxes etc. It also had to graphically represent a car boot sale.

Web Design

The requirements for the Car Boot Bingo website included a simple user path to drive conversion to free registration, app like design including gold coins, virtual world/goods, compelling content so not just a cookie cutter network skin and lastly a combination of the virtual world with real world car boot images. Bringing all these elements together into a cohesive design was extremely rewarding.

Car Boot Bingo website

BINGO CRASHERS

Logo & Banner Designs

A designed a simple yet eye catching text based logo for Bingo Crashers. I provided the client with a wide range of font choices, layout styles and colours choices before arriving at the final logo. Making time for research and development and including it in the budget is essential for a successful project as it gives me time to process and interpret the direction the client wishes to take the design work.

TESTIMONIAL

“James was extremely quick and professional in getting us live with great images and themes that matched our requirements directly. He exceeded our expectations and was on time and budget for every project. I would highly recommend his services.”

Lawrence Gouett – CEO & Co-Founder of Popcorn Games

CREATIVE GENIUS MEDIA
Brand & Motion Design

BRAND DESIGN

Logo Design & Animation

I designed and animated the logo for Creative Genius, a video production company based in Newcastle. Using colours that people react well to we developed a simple yet iconic logo that is easy to recognise. By playing with the C and G of Creatie Genius I was able to create a typographic logo that was inspired by the megacorporation Omni Consumer Products (OCP) from the film Robocop.

Branded Stationary Designs

With the logo signed off and approved by the client I moved onto creating a number of stationary elements including business cards, letterheads, invoice templates and comp slips. I designed the templates so that they are simple to edit and update making them easy to use.

BLUE TOKAY MOTION DESIGN

Animating Snakes & Text

The Blue Tokay film was filmed and edited by Creative Genius. With my skills in motion design I was employed to create the opening animation screens and end plate. I was supplied with the logo assets which I used as the core elements of the animation. I also added custom graphics including swaying grass and moving clouds to add depth and detail to the animation. The final touch was to animate some kinetic text.

NERG 2016 MOTION DESIGN

Retro Animated Event Logo

NERG 2016 was another video that was filmed and edited by Creative Genius. I was again employed to create a custom animated intro screen. I took the NERG logo which has a retro game design and animated it in the style of Space Invaders, a classic arcade game.

BEHIND THE SCENES VIDEO

Video Capture & Editing

I filmed and edited a behind the scenes video for Peter from Creative Genius as part of his online marketing campaign, specifically to be used on social media. It features Peter’s photo shoot at a local studio in Leeds where Big Blue Whale were shooting and editing stills for him.

TESTIMONIAL

“James is one of the best designers I know and his skills are outstanding. He is reliable, honest, creative and very successful at what he does. He pushes ideas to the limit, creating stunning visuals which captivate my audience. I have no hesitation in recommending James to support your next design project. Thanks for continually being close at hand, even last minute when clients need amends. Keep up the great work!”

Peter Cooper – Chief Exec.

Creative Genius Media

R HILTON & CO
Brand, Web & Print Design

BRAND DESIGN

Logo Design & More

Working closely with the client I created a clean and accessible brand for R Hilton & Co, a building surveying and historic buildings consultancy based in Manchester, Lancashire. The logo references the flower of life which has a rich history within the construction of Celtic churches.

Brand Guidelines

With the logo design complete I moved onto finalising the brand guidelines by signing off on font choices and use of colour. This ensured a consistent look across all digital and print design work. I created stationary templates, magazine adverts, poster designs, stickers and more.

WEB DESIGN

Responsive Web Design

After completing the brand guidelines to the satisfaction of the client I started work on designing the new website. I wanted to convey the feeling of space and tranquility that is often felt in historic buildings. To achieve this I gave the design lots of white space. This approach also reinforced the clean and approachable brand design elements I had already developed for the client.

PRINT DESIGN

Pull Out Stand Print Design

I created pull out stand designs for use in R Hilton & Co’s training programs. It was important to ensure all the assets used within the stand designs were of a suitable resolution so when the stands were printed and set out for display all elements looked sharp and professional.

Marketing & Advertising

R Hilton & Co also asked me to create print designs for stickers which were to be used on all products sold by the company. I also designed a magazine advert which was featured in various industry specific magazines as a means of promoting the company and generating new clients.

NORTH WEST LIMES SUPPLIES

More Logo & Business Card Designs

R Hilton & Co also run and operate North West Limes Supplies who are suppliers of a select palette of historic building materials and provide an independent consultancy service to the heritage sector. Again the client had a clear idea what they wanted for the designs so my job was to translate their ideas into real world designs. The use of the rose for the logo ties in with the red rose of Lancashire.

northwestlimesupplies.uk/

TESTIMONIAL

“I have worked with James on several occasions over the years, and have always found him to be highly creative, proficient and full of energy. I have no reservations about recommending his services and will no doubt be using them again myself in the future.”

Rupert Hilton – Director

WILLIAM HILL ONLINE
Web Design & Online Marketing

WILLAIM HILL BINGO LOGO ANIMATION

Animations that Pop

Designing content for William Hill Bingo had strict guidelines. All design work had to bright, friendly and inviting to appeal to the target market. To animate this logo I combined bright colours, bouncy animation elements and additional particle animations for fine detail.

WILLIAM HILL ONLINE CASINO

Online Marketing Banner Campaign

Working for William Hill was extremely fast paced and required tight deadlines to be hit on a daily basis. As lead designer for the Live Casino rebrand I took inspiration from real world casinos. The aim of the project was to encourage new users to join whilst maintaining a high retention rate of existing customers. I also designed a suite of banners for online marketing as part of the advertising campaign.

Online Casino Website Design

I designed the website to complement the other William Hill sites including Sports, Vegas, Poker and Bingo. I designed the user interface so only 1 click was required to play each of the live casino games. The website had to link seamlessly to the croupiers streaming live from Riga.

Magazine Print Design

I also designed a print magazine as a way to advertise the new site within William Hill betting shops. Competitions, Croupier BIOs and more was included in the magazine to generate new player sign ups. Bringing each of the elements for this project together required a good understanding of William Hills branding to ensure the Live Casino brand was instantly recognisable on any platform.

MOBILE BINGO APP

Designing for iOS & Android

I was lead designer on the Mobile Bingo team that was a multi department project. I created all design elements for the project including the mobile app, landing pages, game logos and marketing banners. To reflect the William Hill Bingo brand I designed the app with lots of blues and bright colourful graphics. This was William Hills first mobile app so a lot was riding on its success.

Designing Custom Game Logos

To ensure William Hill’s app stood out from the competition the decision was made to design custom game logos for each of the games. This meant the app did not feature generic graphics as supplied by the vendor but bespoke logo graphics designed to fit in with the app design.

Landing Page Design

Websites for mobile devices present their own unique set of challenges. Refining the design down to the essential elements is the key to a successful mobile site. I also designed the landing page for the app that sat directly within the main William Hill Bingo page.

ONLINE MARKETING

Big Brand Games

I worked with many big brand names, broadcast companies and international businesses to create many different marketing campaigns. Speed and quality of work were essential. As was the ability to design banners in a number of different styles for each of the products.

Cross Category Promotions

Understanding each William Hill product ranging from Sports, Bingo or Poker was essential. Establishing and then following brand guidelines was key. I designed marketing material that included landing pages, banners and animated videos that sat across multiple William Hill pages including Sport, Casino, Poker, Games, Vegas, Live Casino, Skill, Bingo, Virtual, Day Trader and Mobile.

Bespoke Game & Logo Designs

I designed a lot of logos for a range of new games and promotions. I used a combination of custom design elements, typography and stock footage to create my designs. My banners, logos and websites were designed in such a way that the assets are easy to reuse and they are quick and easy to update. Good naming conventions and general attention to detail means my design files are well structured.

ADVENTURE
Film Making

KAWS @ YORKSHIRE SCULPTURE PARK

Day Trips & Hyperlapses

Not every adventure has to be traveling for weeks on end in a foreign country. Some of the best adventures are just local day trips out and about, my visit to Yorkshire Sculpture Park being a perfect example. An amazing setting, stunning views and perfect weather combined to make this trip a memorable one. Kaws’ sculptures are truly amazing and are a match made in heaven when combined with hyperlapse photography.

CORNBALLS, A CORNISH ADVENTURE

Van Life, Shooting from the Hip and Editing Fast Style

Cornballs is an adventure film that follows two friends on their quest for waves in Cornwall. To start the adventure we jumped into a van and set off. We were super unlucky with the waves and had to wait til the last day for the waves to arrive. But they were well worth the wait.

Shooting from the hip meant I had to be quick to react at any given moment to capture all the spontaneous fun whilst living out of a van. By watching the raw footage at the end of each day I started putting together editing sequences in my head in preparation for editing.

When editing I tried to edit fluidly and make quick but good decisions whilst cutting to the rhythm of the music. This helped me keep the hours down and was a good exercise for me as I can be a perfectionist. I finished the project by colour grading the film. My aim was to create a film look with consistent colours and tones across all clips.

CHICKEN YING YANG

Where It All Began

When I started my freelance career I was mainly designing websites but I wanted to teach myself some new skills. I set myself the goal of creating a climbing and adventure film that was of the same standard as all the amazing online films I have been watching on Vimeo and YouTube over the years. I wanted to create something that would jump off the screen and shout ‘WATCH ME’.

By combining my love of travel, adventure and climbing my friend Ant and I set off on an epic 2 year journey. The end result is a fresh and unique climbing film that breaks the mold from most other climbing films that follow a fairly generic formula.

Upon release it was featured on the homepage of UKClimbing.com, the UK’s largest climbing site and generated a lot of interest within the climbing community across the globe. We also won a high profile film competition in Gibraltar for ‘best film’.

ALCAIDESA BOULDERING

100% GoPro / Classic 84 Boulder Problem

In the run up to Chicken Ying Yang I purchased a GoPro 2 and started experimenting. With this short my goal was to create a cool intro with fluid transitions between shots. Filming everything myself I used a Gorillapod to help get the angles I wanted. No other gear was used.

BOLONIA BOULDERING

100% GoPro / My First 7b One Move Dyno

For this short I wanted to test out the slow motion capabilities of the GoPro 4. I purchased the camera specifically for the high frame rate and 4k film modes. A short but highly technical boulder problem, it took me many attempts to finally stick it, happy days.