So it’s friday, you’re a beyond busy PHP Developer and there’s simply no time to browse Sheffield’s foodie shops for healthy, organic, pricey loveliness (not that you would anyway - you’re a techie!), as that website you’ve been working on for weeks has got to go live by the end of the day, and there’s a few job tickets to complete before that happens. So what’s a programmer to do for fuel for the afternoon? Well, it’s easy… just do as Captain America (Jeremy) does. Go to the corner shop and buy as much sugar based crap as you can and the job’s a good’un. Welcome to the terrible diet of a Programmer at D4.

Next week we reveal Mr Crisp’s shocking Milkshake addiction… I kid you not.

Success!! It was slaps on the back all round in the D4 studio recently as we proudly fought off the competition, battling it out in a three way pitch to deservedly win the brand re-development rights for North Lincolnshire based Pink Pig Farm. The excitement surrounding this project was further increased as it was the first pitch we had won (at our first attempt) under the new government initiative ‘Designing Demand’. The success of winning this Design Council based project will hopefully be the first of many for the D4 team.

To assess how we would be able to help Pink Pig, we sent along decisive duo, Clare and Marianne who put on there wellies and flat caps for a day on the farm. Leaving no question unanswered and no stone unturned, they analysed everything from the farmyard itself, right through to the shop and restaurant. After careful consideration, it was soon decided that the best way to help move things forward effectively, would be to embrace the Pink Pig brand as a whole.

The first step on this road to re-developing PInk Pig, was to consolidate their service / product offering, defining ‘who they are and what they stand for’. We decided their point of difference was an honest, family run, working farm - “it’s all about the pigs” as Paul put it. Once we’d developed an identity they loved, it was just a case of getting it rolled out across the business. With work firmly underway on the website (and the new designs looking great by the way!), we also set about improving the communications aimed at customers across the shop, cafe and farm trail. This has included re-designing the shop layout, introducing special offers and creating intriguing ‘did you know?’ facts about the Pink Pig.

Exciting times lie ahead for Pink Pig and D4 with the new development hoping to be launched by the end of September. It certainly seems like the futures bright……the futures pink!

It’s been an interesting start to the week so far for me - I’ve enjoyed doing the Art Direction for two photo-shoot’s that couldn’t have been any different.

And in complete contrast, yesterdays photo-shoot could not have been any different… outdoors, on a lovely summers day by a reservoir in Derbyshire (warm). This was for one of our latest clients, Stratagia. The aim of the shoot was to capture images of Derbyshire and the Stratagia team within a natural environment. And where better than Linacre Reservoir near Chesterfield, which is just a few miles away from their office?

The location worked a treat as you can see from the image below, and a good time was had by all… despite Mr Swift losing his Ray-Bans in the corn field somewhere! It called for a pint of cider and a ploughman’s lunch (sat outside of course), before heading back to sunny Sheffield.

As a designer I take a lot of visual reference from Japan more often than not, and one thing’s for sure; the Japanese never fail to surprise me with their ‘methodical’ creativity… and what do you know, they’ve done it again? Using different varieties of rice, Japanese farmers have created these superb ‘cultural’ images in their rice fields aided by computers to help plot out the design.

Now I’m a big fan of Hokusai and his ‘Great Wave’ - in fact it’s one of my favourites from Art History lessons at Art College (many years ago!). It’s been reproduced thousands of times in varying formats and to be honest ‘done to death’. So yes, I’ve seen it in many, many forms… but never like this!

Good effort.

Say the word ’solicitor’ to a member of the public and most people would respond with a joke portraying the law as hard faced and fee chasing. So, eager to help dispel this myth, we at  D4 have recently teamed up with ASD Solicitors to help re-design their website and prove that solicitors are capable of showing off their lighthearted side with a bit of fun in front of the camera.

We decided that part of the re-design would be to stop using the previous cheesy stock photos of toothy American models and replace them with a more inviting collection of photos taken of key members of staff at ASD. We felt this would help give a more natural portrayal of the company and approachable image for those found navigating their way around the new website.

After the initial camera-shyness had subsided, the ASD staff really got into their element and all manner of poses were being struck with several of them obviously realising they’d missed out on previous life callings as models and were now making up for lost time! As I’m sure you can tell from the photos below, much fun was had by all involved and the day was a great success…….

So we’re in the middle of this great branding and design project for a new business start up in Sheffield… and (woohoo!) they produce ice cream. Without wishing to sound like an M&S advert, this is no ordinary ice cream, this is ice cream inspired by flavours and ingredients from the Far East, including black sesame, lychee, ginger and green tea.

This new brand on the ‘foodie’ block is called Yee Kwan Handcrafted Ice Cream & Sorbet, and it was set up specifically to improve the ‘dessert experience’ in Chinese, Thai and Japanese restaurants, which up until now has been pretty limited. Once Yee Kwan told us we had been selected ahead of other design agencies in Sheffield there was only one thing on our minds… SAMPLES. Take it from us, the product is excellent; we’re big fans and delighted to be involved with something so close to our hearts – FOOD!

Post sample tasting it was all hands on deck to ensure a working version of the brand was ready for the launch day at Sheffield’s ‘BiG: Make it Your Business’ event that took place on Fargate in Sheffield city centre and was opened by Leader  of Sheffield City Council Paul Scriven.

The brand we developed for this delicious ice cream and sorbet did the trick it seemed; when we went cruising by on the Saturday (err looking for more samples) the lemongrass and lime flavour had sold out.

We’re now on with the final packaging design and the website design and development. But for now here are some visual snippets of our graphic design work and a few images from the day…