Simcoemedia Design Consultancy

Machine Shop Instruction Videos

Pete Simcoe — Fri, 09 Dec 2011 18:22:48 +0000

Creation of instructional videos for Loughborough Design School students in iPad, DVD and HD Quicktime .mov format. These videos provide basic understanding of the functionality of centre lathe and milling machine tools. Students can scan QR codes on the associated poster designed for the workshop to find the relevant guide.

We needed a selection of multimedia products to complete our Machine Shop video project and Simcoemedia did a good job of highlighting the key messages we need to communicate through the use of video sequences. They also produced some great additional presentation material to present to students such as posters, a web gallery and a DVD design.” – Kevin Badni, Senior Lecturer, Loughborough Design School.

Framiac Framr Software Box and Brochure

Pete Simcoe — Mon, 14 Nov 2011 19:26:27 +0000

Design for Framiac Framr promotional material in the form of a printed brochure and a software box. Framiac Framr software is designed to help picture frame makers plan, price and manage the whole process of creating frames. Mark Wilson, the UK’s Framiac Framr director bought the company based upon the success he had experienced using the product and is now promoting it across Europe. You can download the Framiac Framr email-friendly brochure to see the complete design. The cover is an original design. Photographs of people and products were purchased from iStockphoto.com.

Framiac FramR provides a powerful toolset for framers who are serious about making a profit in their business. These tools enable you to streamline your business, by providing a better understanding of your costs, your customers, and the most profitable parts of your business.
- Mark Wilson, Framiac Framr

Chester Collection of Photographs on iStockphoto

Pete Simcoe — Mon, 03 Oct 2011 13:27:35 +0000

iStockphoto.com is a massive collection of royalty free images ie you can buy an image under a single commercial license and use them on multiple prints or web views without paying an additional fee. This is a great site for designers who need quality images and illustrations for their projects as well as audio and video files.

Simcoemedia has recently been uploading images to create ‘The Chester Collection‘ – a selection of images from around the beautiful Roman City of Chester in England. The city has a rich mediaeval history including Chester Castle, the city walls and many examples of the black and white architectural style Chester is known. These images range from around £2.00 – £20.00 in price depending upon your size requirements.

View the Chester Collection on iStockphoto

Audio-Echo Soundtracks and Film Reviews

Pete Simcoe — Wed, 07 Sep 2011 18:24:52 +0000

Audio-Echo.co.uk is a mixture of portfolio, magazine and platform for downloading soundtracks created by Peter Simcoe. The idea is that this site combines the professional, creative and personal in a way that groups related articles, downloads and subjects together. The soundtracks are professionally produced for personal download as a result of concerts performed and the tracks are also available under a commercial license for use in video in a similar way to the portfolio items created for www.istockphoto.com and www.audiojungle.net. The site is linked directly to a verified PayPal account where users can download the original soundtracks for 99p or £5 for collections.

Djanogly Northgate Academy

Pete Simcoe — Mon, 01 Aug 2011 13:34:30 +0000

Nottingham’s Northgate Primary School has converted to academy status under current UK government education policy for successful schools and will be known as Djanogly Northgate Academy. From September 2011 they will be working in partnership with the existing Djanogly City Academy which caters for secondary aged students in the central area of Nottingham city. The formal partnership between the two schools will offer continuous learning for local child and young people from aged 3 to 19.

Simcoemedia was asked to work with the staff and children to create a new logo for Djanogly Northgate Academy. The design brief stated that the logo must have an individual feel to it but also be related to the existing Djanogly logo – the colours must also match. Headteacher, Liz Anderson was very pleased with the process and final design and said this:

Once we had provided a rough guide to the direction we wanted to go, Peter [Simcoemedia] led us through a comprehensive design process carefully and considerately with many interesting developments. This process and following discussion enabled us to select the final and most appropriate design for our needs and we’re really happy with it and will be proud to put it on the uniforms, buildings and stationery.
- Liz Anderson, Head Teacher

Virgin Trains Website Background

Pete Simcoe — Fri, 13 May 2011 08:38:54 +0000

Virgin Trains used an image created by Simcoemedia Design Consultancy in the background of their website home page from May 2011 to October 2011. The image was taken on the meadows next to the River Dee in Chester facing over to the houses that line the riverbank on the road leading to Christleton. It was taken in May 2009 just at the time when the yellow buttercup flowers were particularly bright and trees had fresh green leaves on their branches.

It is great to see an image created by Simcoemedia used prominently on a major UK website and it was only when I came to book some tickets with Virgin Trains to go to the New Designers Exhibition in London in July 2011, that I realised the image had been downloaded from my Chester photography lightbox on iStockphoto.com portfolio and used! What a pleasant surprise.

Ridgeway Marketing website

Pete Simcoe — Thu, 21 Apr 2011 22:14:31 +0000

Ridgeway Marketing is a Training and Mentoring company based in Newark, Nottinghamshire. The company helps small to medium businesses [SME's], schools, creative industries and new start-ups to expand the marketing tools available to them through carefully tailored group and individual mentoring. Simcoemedia was asked to produce a website for the company which is based around the WordPress engine, allowing the client to login to the system to make changes and add news items. Director, Beryl Pettitt, had this to say:

Simcoemedia have provided Ridgeway Marketing with an excellent website and I’m really happy with the results. Pete [Simcoemedia] payed close attention to the requirements I had and always made me feel like I knew what the next stages of the process would be, along with the associated cost implications. The site provides me with what I need for my company’s online presence.

The website has a slider homepage image, news section and detailed training and mentoring sections and provides a clear, effective user journey through the site whilst also allowing access to third level detail pages with little effort.

Simcoemedia Timeline Presentation

Pete Simcoe — Tue, 05 Apr 2011 11:11:55 +0000

Peter Simcoe, Freelance Designer at Simcoemedia has created a timeline of his design career, achievements and company history. The presentation outlines design experiences prior to setting up Simcoemedia in 2002 and demonstrates how these experiences enabled him to be successful in the work he undertakes for clients today as well as the advantages and challenges of working as a freelance designer in todays market. The presentation has been used to inspire and educate students at Loughborough Design School in England, Limerick Institute of Technology in Ireland and Vaal University of Technology in South Africa.

Pete described the projects, clients and design processes he undertakes on a daily basis in great detail but also related these experiences to students on an engaging level. Students from graphic design, multimedia and fine art really benefited from the methods and techniques described as well as valuable advice for their short, medium and long term futures in their respective careers. We would recommend his presentation to any graphic, multimedia or arts students
- Kate Chmela-Jones, Lecturer in Graphic Design, Vaal University of Technology

The presentation was part of a full day workshop led by Peter [Simcoemedia] for the multimedia students at the Institute. Students were first given the opportunity to hear first hand how a freelance designer survives and the tools and techniques employed to keep a business afloat. The students responded well to calls for questions and debate about social media, working in teams, speculative design and how to avoid the pitfalls that can damage a designers reputation in the business community. Student feedback was positive and I felt that they further developed in their understanding of what would be expected of them when they graduate.
- Denise McEvoy, Lecturer in Multimedia Design Limerick Institute of Technology

Although Simcoemedia is not primarily focussed on Industrial Design and is more about the graphic and multimedia subjects associated with it, his presentation was of interest to the students studying at Loughborough Design School because they need to formulate strong ideas and policies about their own social media, project management and design practice. Feedback from students has been very positive.
- Ian Storer, Lecturer in Industrial Design, Loughborough Design School

Should you wish to see this presentation at your company or institution, please contact Simcoemedia using the web form or call +44 (0)1244 374268 [alternatively: mobile +44(0)7704 629906] to discuss. The presentation can be tailored to your students or company needs and usually lasts 2 hours. Additional discussion can be found by accessing www.design-design.co.uk – a design blog created and maintained by Pete Simcoe.

Resource: LDS Poster for Design Comm presentation
View: Simcoemedia Timeline Presentation

Augmented Reality Experiment

Pete Simcoe — Thu, 23 Dec 2010 21:18:45 +0000

Simcoemedia was asked by Tony Hodgson at Loughborough Design School to produce an interesting and creating Augmented Reality application for use on promotional items for the school. The idea is that a hole is created on the surface of the card then products appear to eminate from this. An interesting feature is the ability to view the products and video at 0 degrees and 90 degrees depending upon the tilt of the FLAR Marker.

Below are the results:

You can see the Augmented Reality project in action by printing out the Augmented Reality FLAR Marker, visiting the Loughborough Design School Website then following the instructions to see your simple printed item come to life using the FLAR Toolkit, some 3D models, video and product design images!

Portable Lap Steel Guitar Design

Pete Simcoe — Tue, 21 Dec 2010 16:00:44 +0000

This lap steel guitar design is heavily influenced by electric guitarists such as Dave Gilmour from Pink Floyd who have used lap steels on classic tracks such as “The Division Bell”, “One Of These Days” and “Great Gig In The Sky” to incredible effect by adding overdrive, reverb and delay to what was seen as a traditionally Country and Western instrument used by some of the genres greats.

As a designer I tried to reverse engineer the music of more progressive lap steel players such as Dave Gilmour and looked to design something that would express the type of music they play in physical form. From the results, it seems that this not only impresses but is a great conversation starter, opening doors to all sorts of curious guitar activity!
– Pete Simcoe

The guitar has been featured in Guitarist Magazine and on the cover of New Designer as well as being displayed at New Designers Exhibition in Islington, London