Nick Garrett

Author: nickgarrett

  • Trims +refinements

    99% of commercial retail design falls off at the ankle yet one of the most important areas of design is the foot especially in turned or cabriole legs.  It takes several goes at finding the exact pattern and balance –

    Below:  The leg on the right has had a trim up lightening the lines through the base area.


    Master Chippendale had the foresight to get into the furniture pattern book game in its early stages. He carefully noted the popular styles of the day, and published a book called The Gentleman and Cabinet-Maker’s Director in 1754 at the rather expensive price of £2.8s. It was supported by wealthy subscribers, and meant to appeal, as the title says, to both gentlemen and cabinet-makers, “as being to assist the one in the Choice, and the other in the Execution of the Designs; which are so contrived, that if no one Drawing should singly answer the Gentleman’s Taste, there will yet be found a Variety of Hints, sufficient to construct a new one.” (Preface).

  • Can great Logo save your company?

    I tell my clients all the time,

    “If you’ve come to me for a great price on a logo and your plan is to grab it and go on your way then I’ll do it for $50 bucks”.

    I tell them this because I have a philosophy and an understanding of the relationship between a brand experience and a consumer that I have come to embrace over my career. My sentiment comes from a good place and admittedly I tend to wrap it in a bit of drama to get attention, but the point is simple: my logo design will not save your company.

    I am a brand strategist & consultant first and a designer last. The act of ‘branding’ is an all encompassing act for any product, service or company. From the logo to the new hire training materials, your brand should be procured and managed. To assume you can ‘set it and forget it’ is dangerous. The fact is, you have a brand already. Every company does. What you can not ascertain is the magnetism of your brand, the direction of your brand or the long-term strategy of it. People that you do business with are developing deep psychological imagery of who and what your products and services are to them at all times and if you’re leaving it up to luck to define, you may end up losing out to competition.

    Great brand experiences are the result of endless attention to detail, research, testing and repetitious creativity. It’s also that ‘something’ that can enable you to charge more for your products or services than the competition while actually BUILDING market share.