Sand Rose Commercial Website

In these uncertain times The Sand Rose Project are currently considering the possibility of commercial letting to support their charitable work. Angie has commissioned me to produce a site that will market the cottages to this specific market.

I wanted the site to have a strong coastal theme with slightly relaxed and quirky elements to contrast it with the dross that makes up most of this market. The project raises potential new technical issues for me: incorporation of an online booking system, for instance. I have made attempts to compose the site without the use of tables but at the moment have encountered insurmountable difficulties - I need Liz's help - and have fallen back on old methods again. Nevertheless, have made great progress in my understanding of HTML and CSS and how they work together.

Have adopted the two design approach with a more and less formal style presented to the client. I must say that I prefer the vibe of the less formal, the client, however, begs to differ.

Crisis - Direct Mail Campaign

The Brief
Create an innovative piece of Direct Mail that raises public awareness of homelessness and the work of the homeless charity Crisis.

Target Audience
Permanent residents in urban areas across the UK, mainly time-poor and cash-rich professionals aged between 30 and 50. It’s important to remember that the general public are familiar with the homeless problem and have been asked to support it over many years. They are likely to be busy going about their own lives and so are difficult to attract and engage with.

Tone of Voice
The communication must be intelligent, informative and thought provoking. It should not feel corporate but must feel authoritative. It should feel real, gritty and iconic. The end result should inspire support and action from the target audience.

I hadn't identified this as a brief that I was particularly interested in pursuing but had second thoughts following conversations with Timm, he had taken his own angle on it, and the realisation that I would like to tackle a project with a worthy cause at its heart. After considering a number of ideas I finally decided to pursue the notion of a card door hanger, now found everywhere but originally a stalwart of the hotel environment. I like the idea of this little device, normally associated with a comfortable middle-class lifestyle, having its focus turned to support the homeless. In addition to this, doors are incredibly symbolic of shelter, security and well-being, so there is a further association.


Initially I wanted the typography of the piece to have a slightly distressed hand-finished style to it, possibly because the brief insisted on a certain grittiness. However, I found that in beginning to pursue this end the piece lost an amount of impact. In adopting the final American Typewriter typeface the result is perhaps more corporate, to be avoided according to the brief, but the impact is preserved and coherence with the reverse of the hanger is enabled.


Some have pointed out that the original message - I Have No Door to Hang This On - implies that this is a personal message from a homeless person, and that this should be supported further on the reverse. I appreciate this view but believe that the reverse statement works with the initial message to explain that Crisis is an advocate for people who find themselves in this position. I did experiment with variations on the message and tried different formats to enhance interactivity e.g. tear-offs that could be actioned in some way by the recipient and that modify the message when removed. However, these often appeared trite, clever for clever's sake, and what you gained in some respects, you lost in terms of immediacy of message and mystery. There is something slightly surreal and intriguing about a door hanger that claims, I Have No Door to Hang This On.






The final boards submitted to D&AD. I always intended to enhance the power of the piece by taking it into the environment, especially those types of locations where homeless people may gravitate or sleep rough in, and photograph it in situ. I also photographed it in counterpoint to typical middle-class urban doorways. However, I eventually settled on a photograph which catches the hanger displayed against a background of domestic normality as my key image. Beyond the appealing balance within the composition, I also feel that there is a heightened sense of incongruity which adds power to the device.