Greg Holmes - Design Portfolio

IN

DIGITAL PUBLICATIONS

PRINT SHOWCASE

HENRY’S HONEY

BRAND GUIDELINES

PHOTOGRAPHY SHOWCASE

CORPORATE VIDEOGRAPHY

FIGMA DESIGN SHOWCASE

ILLUSTRATING FOR REAL METAL SCREENS &

EXHIBITION LOGISTICS & STAND DESIGN

CONTACT

Hello.

My name is Greg Holmes, and I’m a graphic designer.

I recognise that the world of graphic design is changing as new technology develops and trends form quicker than we can keep up with them. With this in mind, I believe adaptability is one of the key traits of the ideal designer. I have over seven years of experience as a professional graphic designer, and in this time, I have learned motion graphics, branding, videography, photography, layout design, UX/UI and much, much more.

I am a keen communicator, both verbally and visually. I carry the skills that enable me to take words and bring them to life through cross-platform designs that intrigue and capture imaginations. I understand that design is subjective, and I aim to create designs that can be interpreted by the masses.

This body of work spans the past four years of my professional design career, in which time I have embarked on a multi-faceted career that has explored website development, merchandising, exhibition logistics, fabrication, brochure design, videography, several marketing disciplines and more. Welcome to my portfolio.

Northern Lights

I have been obsessed with the intricacies of creating beautiful publications since my university days. The process of selecting card and paper stocks, engineering a layout to fit within the realms of its printable area and reading through the finished product is one of my most satisfying areas of design.

As the world becomes more environmentally aware and designers are tasked with finding greener ways to publish, I have worked with online publishing software to create all-inclusive publications that still give the reader something to be excited about. The technology has allowed me to capture vital data influencing my future publications, such as readability, screen time and hyperlink clicks. Adapting to this way of working has allowed me to appreciate the beauty of both physical and technological design.

IN YOUR FACE

The brief for this project was to create an advertising campaign using a signature skill set of my choosing.

The faux campaign aimed to send a strong message, so I chose to talk about the dangers of smoking around children.

I torched the end of a dummy with a lighter, ripped a cigarette in half and photographed them together on a white gloss canvas. The image was rasterised, sharpened for vibrancy, and positioned alongside relevant text.

Website Design & UX Principles

Northern Lights

My first major task at Northern Lights was to design and oversee the introduction of a brand-new website that would showcase the company’s products and projects in the best possible light. My duties included specifying a web design company, leading brainstorming sessions with them, migrating data from the old platform to the new one and ensuring all photography was resized for web usage.

Once the website went live, I was solely responsible for uploading new products, gathering data using Google Analytics, writing and constructing project case studies and coordinating feedback sessions with my peers to test user experience.

The design and migration took a year to implement, and the website has been a successful work-in-progress since its launch in April 2020. The feedback sessions and the ability to discover new UX trends have given me the confidence to implement important CTAs and menu adjustments throughout the website, improving the analytical statistics year-on-year.

Selected Prints

Selected Prints

Branded Stationery & Documents Northern Lights

As part of the brand overhaul I completed for Northern Lights, I designed a range of brandnew stationery options for the company that would truly reflect the luxury brand and the products that the company make.

The range of stationery included compliment slips, business cards, custom envelopes, letterheads and more.

As well as stationery, I created a range of comprehensive documents that would be used to specify product information, conformity information, real metal finishes and much more.

HENRY’S HONEY

I often partake in mock briefs to ensure that my approach to design is as contemporary as possible. I constantly strive to use my design knowledge to push my boundaries and learn as I create.

For the Henry’s Honey mock brief, the only thing I had to work with was a description of an ideal client. My creative input for the project was creating a series of logos, colour libraries, polygonal backgrounds and mock-ups to illustrate my vision for an artisanal honey brand.

Brand Guidelines

Northern Lights

Writing cohesive brand guidelines is essential for any company’s branding and design team. They are fundamental in identifying a company’s image, ambitions and tone of voice. When I joined Northern Lights, the company had no brand guidelines.

As I developed the Northern Lights brand to be what it is today, I knew that writing a comprehensive guide for our staff to adhere to was essential to ensure that staff members represented the company to clients and other companies consistently.

The brand guidelines I designed contain a mission statement, colour palettes, typefaces, stationery examples and guides to creating published advertisements.

Photography: Manufacture

Photography: Personal

Figma Design Showcase Freelance

Since designing and implementing the Northern Lights website, I have taken time to learn the essentials of designing apps and website layouts using Figma. The program allows me to take the principles of graphic design and branding and apply them to highfidelity wireframes that I can now create from simple concepts.

My favourite Figma design is a concept I created to show The Carlsberg Group’s approach to carbon neutrality through an e-learning platform. The platform intends to guide users through a login page and give them the ability to search for courses and enrol on them.

Using Carlsberg’s branding and font kit, I created a comprehensive layout that uses a series of buttons to connect to other pages, including a course video page and a personal progression page.

Corporate Videography

Northern Lights

Working alongside Wakefield-based 6B, I directed and partially shot a corporate video for Northern Lights using two Canon DSLR cameras, professional-grade lighting and a camera track.

The brief for the video was to capture an enticing series of factory processes used to create bespoke lighting and to show the finished result in situ.

I worked with 6B to direct each stage of the three-day shoot, capture still and moving shots and edit the raw footage to deliver a professional standard of corporate film. Northern Lights has been transforming spaces through bespoke lighting for over thirty-five years.

Forming close collaborative relationships with several leading interior designers, they have become the UK’s leading decorative lighting company.

Click to Watch

Illustrating for Real Metal Screens

Northern Lights

The COVID-19 pandemic caused complications across the manufacturing sector, requiring designers and artisans to think outside the box. After consulting with Northern Lights’ Head of Creative, I used my knowledge of Adobe Illustrator to create leafy patterns for a barrier screen that would eventually be used in high-end restaurants upon their reopening.

The factory was inundated with brass sheets, and the idea was green-lit as a ‘back to work’ project. The AI file was transformed into a DXF and then processed by a laser-cutter to create three intricate fretwork screens.

The screens were hand-finished with patinating acids and fitted with perspex screens to ensure restaurant guests were provided with an extra layer of protection as they began introducing themselves to hospitality settings. The task allowed me to explore the capabilities of Adobe Illustrator’s excellent shape-building tools to create something that I am still immensely proud to have designed.

Exhibition Logistics & Stand Design Northern Lights

Working at Northern Lights introduced me to the world of trade exhibitions and the sheer amount of team effort that goes into each event. During my time with Northern Lights, I played a pivotal part in co-ordinating the logistics for four Londonbased exhibitions, including HIX and Sleep & Eat.

My duties included designing signage & stand designs, specifying wallpaper, flooring & furniture, product layout, accreditation and even designing intricate decorative fretwork (pictured bottom left).

The months of planning for the events enabled me to become obsessively organised and make use of desktop applications such as Asana, which allowed me to stay focused on individual and team goals in the lead-up to an event.