After a great start and then a worrying early mid-year slump, the second half of this year proved busier than I anticipated. In addition to work for Allen International, some professional writing and direct client work, from mid-November to mid-December I joined the Siegel+Gale team in London to develop a couple of brands that'll make up a major strategic overhaul of a global HR brand.

Due to my previous commitment to Allen International I was only able to join Siegel+Gale at the tail-end of the first project. For this project I was tasked to deliver brandmarks for three concept directions for a major IT HR brand. One of which has been chosen and I'm pleased to report that the client is excited about the overall direction as well as the specific brandmark that I designed. I'll publish the brandmark work on this website as soon as the project goes live.

The second project required all guns blazing from start to finish. Working with a large senior creative team I delivered a number of ideas, but, after a strong start, for the first time working as a senior brand identity creative on a major project none of my initial routes made it into the final three. However, I did pick up and run with another designer's seed idea and delivered a few 'aha' moments internally, which was deeply gratifying on a creative level for me. The brand is a major US-based global IT firm that is also part of the same parent global HR brand as the IT HR brand mentioned above. I'd be extremely pleased if the client also got from the concept that I developed what could prove to be a very clever big brand idea.

Siegel+Gale are doing very well at the moment. A few prudent business decisions during the recession enabled the company to go from strength-to-strength during the downturn. It appears that my contributions have always been highly valued by Siegel+Gale and that we might work together on at least a couple more big brand projects in the pipeline.