design studio
The Power of Place: Inside the DSD Studio and Why Creative Space Matters
Every great idea starts somewhere. Sometimes it’s on a notepad. Sometimes it’s in a late-night conversation. But more often than not, it’s in a space that makes you feel inspired to think differently. I believe your environment has as much influence on creativity as the tools you use or the people you work with. That’s…
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Mechanical Keyboards Explained…
When you think about tools for graphic design, you probably picture a fast laptop, a colour-calibrated monitor, or a trusty tablet and stylus. But there’s one tool that often gets overlooked… your keyboard! If you spend hours every day in Illustrator, Photoshop, or InDesign, a good keyboard can genuinely make your workflow smoother and more…
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If you go down to the beach today…
You’re in for a big surprise. Our guest author, David Kightley, swops screen obsession for the more relaxing scrunch of pebbles underfoot and gentle swoosh of waves at the water’s edge of a shimmering Cornish beach in search of rare pieces of Lego! The impact of plastic pollution on our beaches is in the news…
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A silent struggle behind the aesthetic…
The graphic design industry is built on creativity, innovation, and visual storytelling. From branding and advertising to UI design and illustration, as designers we shape how the public experience the world visually. But behind the polished portfolios and pixel-perfect campaigns, many of us face a quieter, more persistent challenge: maintaining our mental health. The pressure…
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The Power of a Sub-logo…
A good brand has flexibility at its core, with an identifying logo device that can work across multiple platforms and applications. As an extension to this a brand can have sub-brands and sub-logos to help target different market segments with tailored products or services. Apple is a great example of this with it’s sub-brands such…
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Give your brand the best Christmas present ever!
We are all familiar with hitting the refresh button on our screens to give us the latest version of simply anything and everything. In this seasonal post our guest author, David Kightley (aka the Old Sage), gives us a timely reminder to include a close and often forgotten friend on this year’s yuletide shopping list.…
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What are you dreaming about this Christmas…
Everyone is entitled to have a dream at this time of the year irrespective of whether we have a white Christmas or not. In this seasonal post our guest author, David Kightley (aka the Old Sage), shares his long-held pipedream for an artistic extension of our studio setting. Having achieved our ambition of a somewhat…
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Great design is a piece of cake…
Have you ever stopped to think about what a wonderful thing a piece of cake is? Equally, a piece of cake is an age-old English idiom to claim that something can be easily achieved. In this post our guest author, David Kightley (aka the Old Sage), compares the key ingredients required to create both a…
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Studio 3, the story so far…
It’s crazy to think that we’ve already been ‘city-based’ for almost a month! It was way back on August 3rd that I first visited 78 New London Road; soon to become DSD’s new home and third studio in the firm’s 12-year history. The path to moving studios started in early January this year when we…
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DSD by numbers!
Painting by numbers is seen by some as cheating, but to others it’s an artistic process and a godsend that allows relative novices to create a masterpiece! In this post our guest author, David Kightley, paints a picture of how DSD has been built on numbers from its foundation in 2009 right up to the…
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