Experienced designers and art directors themselves, when my clients at Royal Mail commissioned HGV to design a set of stamps reflecting the best of British design icons, we were really excited as we had an opportunity to join the debate as to which icons would be shown as well as the challenge of how best to display them.

After experimenting with subtle backgrounds showing the Union Jack or muted symbols related to the subject, in the end it had to be the design icon which was king on a plain background.

In the Financial Times on 25^th September 2001 you could read an article written by Jim Davies entitled:  ‘The Royal Mail new stamp collection for October pushes the boundaries of design and printing technology’. The economic sciences use intaglio, the same gravure technique used on bank notes. The chemistry stamp is printed with thermochromatic ink; when heated with your finger reveals an ion trapped inside the molecule. The Peace stamp, probably the most subtle stamp ever produced by Royal Mail, uses embossing. The Physiology or medicine stamp releases a eucalyptus scent. The Literature stamp features an entire TS Elliot poem that you can read with a magnifying glass as it is printed with a micro printing technique and the Physics stamp uses a hologram.

This work his never going to reach the level of innovation achieved by the Nobel Prize winners but I am pleased to be rewarded too as this set of stamps won a heap of awards worldwide including the Asagio trophy for the Peace stamp voted the most beautiful stamp in the world (Asagio is the philatelic Numismatic club of Vicenza, Italy).

Logo for Holy Cow, an organic dairy company that markets a range of indulgent hand made products including cottage and cream cheese. The calligraphic and quirky treatment of the cow captures the essence of the brief and reflects the premium positioning of the brand.

The heart shown below was the alternative design proposed to the client.

New visual identity for an online organic butcher based in Devon who delivers meat to the door anywhere in the UK. The meat is produced to the highest standards of animal welfare.

Entrepreneur Iqbal Wahhab, founder of the award-winning Indian restaurant The Cinnamon Club, initiated this idea with Roast Restaurant situated in the heart of Borough Market.

The Roast identity inspired by a knot in wood forms the mark that metamorphoses into a pear on the pudding menu, a bottle on the wine list and celery on the bar menu. An onion, drawn as a knot, appears on the tear-inducing bill.

Logo for Fitnesslab, a sports medical centre run by physicians who measure performance by testing cardio-pulmonary capacity to inform scientific bespoke advice on how to exercise at ideal levels to either improve general fitness or endurance as well as efficiently lose weight.

Redesign of Flocafé brand identity for application in 80 classy coffee bars throughout Greece and Cyprus.

The brief was to reposition the Flocafé brand with the more personal feel of a local café than a chain and inject the brand with an Italian and contemporary flair.

To support the new brand identity, and inspired by the new logotype letterform, I designed a bespoke typeface that is used on packaging and advertising.

The execution of this logotype for Quintet required vital hand lettering skills to be able to communicate its visual pun. If you take the number five and simply rotate it clockwise 45 degrees or just ligature the 'u' and the 'i', it would have neither look like a five or a 'ui'. Phew!

Develop a brand strategy followed by a brand identity for Jeeves of Belgravia, a chain of premium dry cleaning shops.

The Jeeves name is associated with British heritage, quality, attention to detail and personal service. It communicates honesty, loyalty and reliability.

All the marketing communications materials capture these most valuable brand assets and make the brand much more visible as well as highly memorable.

As an evolutionary design solution the sword was used as a typographic footnote to articulate the strapline as well as the numerous Conqueror sub-brands. This was an effective, appropriate symbol which was in the vernacular but equally didn’t offend any other culture.

Most audiences are receptive to wit and this solution for a pet shop selling expensive items for people who like to smooch their pooch won six awards worldwide. It also won the hearts of passers-by who, once they have seen the shop, remember it.

When I suggested photographing (I wouldn't say shoot...) animals to put fur on the reverse of the stationery, the client offered his customers as models.

Identity of the new tramway system built to welcome the millions of visitors who came to Athens for the 2004 Olympics. The solution reinforces the tramway green credentials. The elegant trams were designed by Pinafarina, renowned Italian designers for Ferrari and Alfa Romeo.

We created the brand identity for Esprit Europe, the express delivery service to Brussels and Paris run by Eurostar. The speed of delivery distinguished the new company from its competitors as only Esprit parcels could reach both capitals the same day. To communicate 'delivery' and to convey a sense of speed, related promotional items were wrapped in brown paper and enhanced with urgent stickers.

After a while, the urgent vinyl stickers became also useful to cover any accidental bumps on the delivery van.

GDR’s quarterly Global Innovation Report is an exclusive analysis of consumer trends distributed to a select client base including the biggest and best global brands.

To celebrate the 25th edition of the Global Innovation Report, GDR commissioned a complete redesign of the book. I designed the cover to represent the contents with a spectrum of colourful information absorbed and displayed inside the publication.

This brand identity and strapline for The Foreign & Commonwealth Office and The British Council promotes the UK to rising stars in the eight Central European countries joining the EU in May 2004, demonstrating that Britain is a gateway for creativity and ideas.

Preliminary research showed there was real confusion about the meaning of GB and UK in the targeted countries and initial ideas based on using those acronyms were dropped.

You might think we used an obvious device. The Union Jack naturally features a crossroad and together with the strapline, conveys a dual meaning. The expected colours were dropped not only to avoid connexions with overt nationalism but also to communicate modernity. The revamped flag became a platform for highlighting different cultural events.

We worked in tandem with Tony Muranka and Peers Carter on this project.

Following the merger of two wine merchants, we created a new visual identity that included the name creation, tagline, launch items and wine catalogues.

Techniquest is an interactive science museum situated in the Bay of Cardiff. The right idea for the logotype came up while the client was reading the brief and it was now just a question of bringing it to life. The question mark within the letterform becomes an icon that can also be used independently. Inspired by the four colour scheme of the exhibits, our logo alternates those to communicate a sense of fun.

The mask formed from Almeida in hand lettering might look like a happy accident, but it is one of those opportunities that only a trained eye can spot and an experienced hand can execute.