Allow me to introduce myself. I am a graphic designer, songwriter and creative thinker. Inspired by typography, design, science, art, emerging technologies, and social well-being. I have over a decade of commercial experience in the creative industry.
My name is Rachel Anning.
Take a look at my portfolio, it's horizontal.
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A 44 page brochure highlighting the Queensland Community Awards, for The Department of Communities (for a sponsored event). I look forward to having the budget for special finishes again after my recent stint in not-for-profit.
The cover was a five-colour print job, embossed with a spot varnish.
Student Flights was a fantastic brand to work on, not only because they were appealing to a student audience but also because the visual identity rolled out throughout Australia, the UK and South Africa.
Although the existing brand had equity, the old colours and style were too dated to keep. So, new logo, typography, colours, and a new visual hammer (as we liked to call it) in the asterisk world map that features on every element.
I created the concept and wrote the copy for this series of film night flyers.
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This job was huge, including collaborating with the store fit-out designer to ensure the ambience of the stores reflected the visual identity. Press and magazine advertising templates, retail store advertising templates (this valuable real estate was critical and I designed a new system for these posters), a suite of in-store tool, and local store marketing materials (film night flyers, vouchers, ticket wallets and many more).
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I was involved in all aspects and the smallest of details for this visual identity and worked very closely with my team of designers to roll the items out into templates and finished art.
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An example of a piece of local store marketing.
This refresh also provided an opportuntity for me to be innovative in terms of consolidating items.
This was originally three separate items that I consolidated into one folded paper ticket wallet. When it's folded up, tickets and passport can be slotted safely inside. It's a fun piece with added personality in the copy and typography.
An in-store flyer for a competition sponsored by several brands.
I created the concept and wrote the copy.
Ercol is a prestige furniture brand, made in the UK. I was assigned as Art Director for Ercol during my time at CMW, London.
This involved designing brochures, magazine advertising, website skins and eDM templates.
A key aspect was setting up photo shoots (scamping the shots, designing sets, selecting talent, commissioning photographers and stylists, and some post-production).
Ercol is a prestige furniture brand, made in the UK. I was assigned as Art Director for Ercol during my time at CMW, London.
This involved designing brochures, magazine advertising, website skins and eDM templates.
A key aspect was setting up photo shoots (scamping the shots, designing sets, selecting talent, commissioning photographers and stylists, and some post-production).
FCL’s corporate travel magazine Intouch was an enjoyable project. It was a ground-up design from the first issue. Collaborating with the Editor on the flat-plan and feature ideas, and commissioning illustrators, and photographers.
The challenge was making it beautiful, yet as template driven as possible. It did get a special mention in the Australian Catalogue Awards. On subsequent issues I worked with junior designers, who worked up the more templated pages, and all print production. I would often encourage them to have a go at some of the more design-heavy pages and offered support, encouragement, and objective design feedback.
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As a nod to the original logo I kept the flags, though I resized and repositioned them so the logo alluded to a ship sailing forward. I kept their blue and red colour theme though replaced the palette with a more elegant colours.
I created stationery, in-store-tools (such as; ticket wallets, film night flyers, vouchers, store window posters etc.), press and magazine advertising.
The work included collaborating with the store fit-out designer to ensure the ambience of the stores reflected the new positioning and visual identity.
The work also included collaborating with the online team to create the website and templates for eDM’s.
Cruiseabout is Australia’s only national retail cruise agency. In 2007 Cruiseabout had one office in Turramurra, Sydney. They had big plans and wanted a new look to appeal to the sophisticated cruising market. Cruiseabout now has 37 stores across the country with plans to open more in 2013.
When I refreshed the Cruiseabout visual identity, there was some equity in the brand, their office had a fifteen year history servicing prestige cruising clientele.
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Save the Children wanted a brand refresh to reflect their new positioning ‘Safe and Happy Childhood’. The process of meeting the brief included focus group testing.
I based the new visual identity on four key colours to represent the four pillars upon which the organisations 2012-15 strategic plan was built (Humanitarian Respose, Education, Child Protection and Health).
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The visual identity was then rolled out into a range of marketing materials, a re-skin of the website, and eDMs. An important aspect of this refresh was to create a suite of templates allowing state office staff to work from a self-service model.
The visual identity rolled out early 2012 and was quickly adopted by staff throughout the organisation.
This is a recent update to the donor communication pieces. I suggested we could save costs by using the same envelope artwork for both the window and non-window options. They came out really well.
This example is one of several products, The Children's Emergency Fund.
Two examples of invitations for events.
At FCL we did a lot of DM, from conceptual to postcards and a lot in between. Testing, testing, testing and using propensity modelling. It was great to see results and create customised pieces for specific segments.
This piece was for Flight Centre brand.
I refreshed Flight Centre’s global standards for press, direct marketing, TVC, store-front campaign boards and travel catalogues.
I enjoyed the measurable success of direct marketing. Meeting briefs based on data analytics propensity modelling meant really good results for all.
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I also redesigned The Captain’s Catalogue. Working in close collaboration with the Editor to come up with new features. Once the first catalogue rolled out and styles were set the publications team took over upcoming issues. It was then a matter of marking up design amends, offering objective feedback for improvement and signing off the finished art (which often involved some rewriting), and proofs.
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Pictured here are panels for the retail store windows. There are six panels in most stores, the templates are rolled out by the Media Team and they need to work in both large and small sizes.
I designed the templates and set the copy styles, not only in terms of what they looked like, but also the wording used.
Revising the press ads and product-based items (such as these window boards) was a real journey into detail. Considering the best ways to get across a lot of information in a small space, working through the heirarchy and flow of information and ensuring those standards were durable and flexible.
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I updated the design for a large number of local store marketing items (film night flyers, vouchers and ticket wallets, to name but a few). I then briefed the design and artwork team to roll out my initial designs to finished art for a content management system (allowing stores to customise and print).
At FCL we did a lot of DM, from conceptual to postcards and a lot in between. Testing, testing, testing and using propensity modelling. It was great to see results and create customised pieces for specific segments.
This is an example of a personalised piece for Escape Travel.
A couple of fabrics I designed for Save the Children retail stores (before the visual identity update).
The small piece on the right is a t-towell, the large pieces were for 1450x700mm two colour screen prints.
The brief was to work within their brand guidelines to create a letter insert letting existing customers know they could save money if they renewed early. I created the concept and wrote the copy.
More Th>n is a vibrant, modern, adaptable brand to work with, and is one of the direct insurance sectors most premium brands.
I can confirm that it’s definitely pronounced ‘Porsha’.
Incredible guidelines. Exactly what you’d expect from German engineering, and their reputation for exactness. Designing for Porsche involved minute calculations for exact positioning and sizing of every element depending on the actual page or advertisement size.
Outstanding consistency.
I worked on Porsche during my stint at the award-winning DM agency, CMW in London.
Being the Art Director for Weight Watchers Europe* was a huge job for many reasons.
I was briefed to create a quarterly magazine that went out as a direct mail piece to to tens-of-millions of households all over Europe in four different languages (English, German, Swiss German and French). These integrated campaigns also included door-drops, and magazine and press advertising.
Then I would sketch out ideas for the set and themes, chose talent (weight loss success stories from all over Europe), commission a photographer and stylist.
*I lost my hard copy (how old-skool) portfolio when I moved from UK to Australia. These are the only PDF’s I had on file for my Weight Watchers work. I did design these, but they aren’t the huge integrated campaigns I’m talking about here.
This concept for Roland Smith in the UK was hugely successful. The campaign's response rate went up 300%.
A Honda self-mailer DM piece.
Marbles credit cards, DM pieces, application forms.
Beneficial, DM pieces to convert existing banking customers to credit card customers.
I also designed the credit cards for these affiliate brands (RSPCA, RSPB, RAA, Mothercare).
Simple really. The brief was to create an eye-catching insert.
Intune is an insurance provider who position themselves as the insurance company for the young at heart (for over 50's with hutzpah).
I designed this die-cut piece working within their existing brand guidelines. And, I wrote the headlines for their pieces, which was always great fun.
The brief was to create an eye-catching series of ads.
Intune is an insurance provider who position themselves as the insurance company for the young at heart (for over 50's with hutzpah).
I wrote the headlines for their pieces, which was always great fun. Here are two pieces I designed using their existing brand guidelines.
Integrated campaign including a website takeover, bus shelter posters, and a direct marketing piece, as shown, tested both with and without the inclusion of a small bag of Kohl.
The little girl photographed in a village in India was wearing dark Kohl around her eyes to ward off evil spirits, which was the heart of the campaign. I sketched the photo brief in terms of content, composition and lighting.
(Before the visual identity update.)
A series of pieces for a prestige car sales. This look was created for them, they didn't have any guidelines at this stage.
Seasame have a distinctive, fresh, fun visual identity, which is stand-out for a finance company. The brief was to create materials within guidelines, using supplied illustrations.
Also shown a Seasame A4 6-page roll-fold application form.
Some initial work on FCM Travel, a corporate travel brand.
Not much to say, simply showing a few executions for a new visual identity; stationery, folder, and a few ideas for execution of an introductory offer.
A letter and data capture device for direct mail to their existing customers.
Another design for a letter and data capture device for Honda's existing customer database.
More Th>n is a vibrant, modern, adaptable brand to work with, and is one of the direct insurance sectors most premium brands.
The brief was to work within their brand guidelines to create a range of pieces, predominantly inserts for direct mail; promotions, referrals, or cross-sell offers.
More Th>n is a vibrant, modern, adaptable brand to work with, and is one of the direct insurance sectors most premium brands.
The brief was to work within their brand guidelines to create a range of pieces, predominantly inserts for direct mail; promotions, referrals, or cross-sell offers.
Sight Savers. The challenge with these ads was that they were generally black and white, which helps with the ‘We are a charity and we don’t spend money on advertising’ feel, but makes a compelling ad more difficult to achieve.
Added to that the response form, but I think this ad works well despite the limitations.
The brief was to create pieces within brand guidelines for brands such; Land Rover, Volvo, Volkswagen, Honda, Kia, Skoda, Seat and Audi.
I also created a series of national press advertising templates for Renault, to be used in a CMS system allowing their dealerships to produce their own advertising that was consistent and timely.
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Often these were direct mail inserts or advertising promoting 'own brand' insurance offerings (underwritten by Royal & Sun Alliance), or various materials post-purchase, such as policy documents.
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I created these pieces whilst working in a satellite design hub for Williams Lea, a gargantuan global outsourcing organisation (owned by Deutsche Post). The brief was generally to create flyers, manuals, forms and sometimes exhibition stands – within style guides.
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Volvo Exhibition Stand and flyer for car insurance.
Following guidelines to create a third-party insurance offering.
This time for The National Trust, a highly regarded charity that looks after special places – for ever, for everyone.
2012 Annual Report. 6-page roll-fold cover and 52 pages inside.
Born to Cycle Laos Campaign posters, postcards. The BORN TO theme is a larger global campaign that needed to be integrated. Born to Trek and Born to Knit are other campaigns I worked on (creating logos and other materials) during my time at Save the Children.
Save the Children. Recent poster and postcard for Fitness First campaign to promote Charity Challenge – Adventure Volunteering.
A more formal event invitation.
The venue was Wharf No 1 in Hobart, so I used a circular theme to represent the nautical element.
The thin key-lines don't represent well on screen, but looked gorgeous printed. If we'd had the print budget I'd have had a gloss finish on the coloured key-lines also.
Save the Children – first month communication piece. 4pp A6 perforated postcard.
A billboard for the Queensland 36 floors charity fundraiser event.
A little on the busy side, I'd have preferred a less busy photograph, however, we didn't have a lot of images to chose from.
Mums Helping Mums Campaign.
Logo, and a couple of pieces; a poster and A6 postcard.
A simple, yet elegant website design for a yoga business in the UK.
A bit of a giggle really... an example of some of my very early design from the early 90's. It's dated, but it was hip at the time.
During this phase of my career I got experience plenty of photo shoots, both still life, and lifestyle shoots, for Aiwa stereos and Mitsubishi VCR, TV and microwave ovens.