Jump on this site (17.11.2011)

Last year, bookmakers William Hill ventured into their first web-based horseracing product that united their shop punters and their online community. The competition drew over 10,000 users who tracked the progress of their live bets via the software in a bid to win the £100,000 cash prize.
The campaign was such a huge success that the client has decided to run a 2011/2012 edition, which has now gone live.

I was involved with the project throughout every stage of its visual build, starting with the design and brand evolution. This year I have designed and coded a new condensed interactive how-to-play feature, I've improved the User Experience with a revised coupon-entry display, and I've written a script-driven visual points display for the main page of the site. As the game progresses I will also generate graphical EDM's update messaging and prize graphics across the campaign. take a look at some of my new design features here and here.

Head to your local William Hill shop to take part in the competition.

In other news, the Coffee Slot section of my Artwork gallery welcomes a new illustration celebrating the uplifting effects of tea! Take a look.

A javascript replacement service will be operating between Flash and the Internet (13.10.2011)

Technology, as it so often tends to do, has moved on. It develops and evolves until it eventually dies out and is forgotten. If you truly want to embrace a technology at the peak of its climb, it seems you have to follow it closely, because before you know it, every digital platform on the planet will begin to phase it out in favour of a richer, less disputed alternative solution.

For me, Flash animation, games and website development had sat proudly atop my skill-set mantelpiece, eagerly awaiting the day that I would have time to actually use it. Sure I built some navigation menus with Flash, designed one or two interactive MPUs, and even my first simple target-hit game with it. But just as I was getting my fingers used to the rhythm of its syntax, hot-off-the-block Apple stepped up to the microphone and announced that much of its technology had gone off the idea of hosting Flash content. Fast-forward to today and we see contemporary web standards on the same stage shrugging its shoulders towards Flash and muttering something about HTML5.

It’s with these startling revelations that I’ve decided to retire my two core Flash galleries here at andib.co.uk and replace them with two nifty new javascript galleries that I’ve just polished off. I’m thoroughly pleased with my upgrade which has taken me around two weeks to get in place, complete with all the aesthetics of the Flash navigation and caption tabs with links – all without navigating off the page. Brilliant.

You can see the new Design and Illustration imagery experiences by visiting my Homepage here.

Gadgets for goals! (24.08.2011)

This week I have been working with some very gadget-centric clients in designing their online Premier League content. The main trio looking to engage their web-communities this football season include Xbox developers MSN, mobile phone operators Orange, and Football Manager 2012 console game creators Sega.

Each of these three projects has proven to be a worthwhile exercise in blurring the boundaries between two of design’s greatest demons - maintaining brand conformity being one, and radically pushing a design idea being the other.
One will usually triumph over the other depending on how open a client is to exploring new visual concepts, but in the case of these technology brands, I was able to deliver results that complimented both sides of the scale.
The Orange website was a relatively quick build and has lead to a Rugby World Cup product being designed in a similar vein.
The Sega product is now also piped overseas for the French Football Manager 2012 market after a translated version was generated.
The MSN project is the most infant of the three and sports the wildest departure from brand conformity, which has received a high level of positive feedback even in its early days of release.

You The Manager (02.08.2011)

The start of the Premier League football season is an important time for The Mirror newspaper as it marks the return of You The Manager - the world-renowned fantasy football game staged online, over the phone and of course, in the paper.

This year I was fortunate enough to work on the game by designing and building all of its visual assets across the new features, marketing emails and various splash/landing pages. The graphics had to demonstrate an equal balance of Mirror branding and friendly User Experience, and the whole project was mapped out in wireframes for the client's approval. One or two original Andi Best touches have also crept into the website as well, like the "amateur" pitch graphic for pre-purchase users.

You can see the design process taking shape here and here, and view the game in all of its glory here.

Abstract-by-sea (30.05.2011)

I am very pleased to announce that four pieces from my Perfect Day collection have been selected for hanging in a new exhibition entitled Abstract opening in June.

The exhibition runs from the 11th to the 30th at the L’artishe gallery in Swanage – a brand new exhibition space in the heart of the coastal village. The show will feature works Across, By Day, Out and By Night.

So if you’re planning a beach getaway this summer and want to take in some artistic sights, head over to Swanage for sunbathing, village shopping and the L’artishe gallery - L’artishe Gallery And Studio 71 High Street Swanage BH19 2LY

Got soul (17.05.2011)

I have an on-going relationship with the Kamisoul brand following a lengthy campaign of bespoke illustration promoting the clothing label throughout its establishing phases.

May was a particularly important month for the company as their ecommerce site was launched and a widespread advert campaign across a number of magazines was constructed to reel in new business. Working closely with the founder of the company, I generated a host of advert designs in a very tight timescale to head the campaign.

Keep an eye on the site (www.kamisoul.co.uk) - which already boasts one or two illustrations from our earlier collaborations – as new features and content will be arriving as the development goes on.

Smart bet on the Internet (02.04.2011)

Over the past 12 months Andi Best has been involved in some very successful widespread Internet gaming campaigns surrounding the fantasy sports market. I’ve generated page layouts and bespoke graphics/designs for around 100 new products spanning a whole host of different disciplines.

William Hill’s The Jumps was a massive campaign that attracted around 100,000 Internet users over its 4 month duration. Throughout that time, I designed splash pages, promotional graphics, game interfaces and email templates, which came to lead the branded artwork of concurrent print material for the site.

Another successful campaign was the 2010/2011 Guinness Rugby 6 Nations project. The design aspect of this project was entirely led by me in full compliance with the client’s own branding and product promotion. Outstanding features of this campaign included the design of bespoke trophy award illustrations, online viral adverts and "breakout" header graphics and navigation.

These competitions are now closed but the websites can be viewed in their closedown state. Take a look at William Hill’s The Jumps and Guinness Rugby 6 Nations.

Escape to the sea (19.04.2010)

With the new Spring season comes a whole new outlook for Andi Best Illustration & Design. The illustration, graphic design and web development business is now based in Brighton, East Sussex, amid the seagulls, sticks of rock and bohemian good-time vibes. To mark the occasion of setting up shop in the new seaside environment, the website has had a bit of a tweak, ushering in two new Flash portfolios on the home page. You can now use these “quick view” systems to flip through the more bespoke examples of my work under both the Illustration and Design categories.

In other news, I’ve recently teamed up with Themis Publishing to produce a bi-monthly web comic to feature in their popular gaming magazine The Escapist. My new comic Paused depicts the secret lives of computer game characters exposed during the game’s paused state of play. You can view a sample of the Paused webcomic here here or you can bowse the full set from the Paused category in the Artwork area.

Furthermore, design work has been completed on the SFOR Sofa assembly illustrations, and also two new activity and colouring books for children’s publisherKwéyòl 4 Kids.

Keeping it Raw (15.11.2009)

This month, Andi Best was delighted to have one of his newest t-shirt designs selected by indie brand clothing company limited-ink. The chosen design is entitled "Factory Reset" and is a front-runner for their new Raw t-shirt range, featuring an i-pod style Reset button on the reverse, right shoulder.

Also this month, andib.co.uk has been working on some feature illustrations for two upcomming magazines - Milen Guide and Sate. A few other web-design projects are also underway for companies C&D Restoration and PJ Bingham and Co. Ltd..

Early Christmas Shopping (13.10.2009)

Now that the winter weather has drawn in, I’ve found it harder and harder to enthusiastically leave my studio at night, resulting in many more hours spent tweaking and updating the website. Most notably, the launch of the Banded department within the Andi Best online store, featuring fresh merchandise for both the Banded design service and Festighoul. A few other t-shirt designs have gathered in the Design department too.

Also, the site layout has had a bit of a bump around as well. Much debate was raised over the 5.1 version (flash) taking root as the landing point of the site, and a few sorrowful faces even grieved the removal of the neon-triangle graphic. So in light (get it?) of the demand I have reinstated the landing page and, well, if you’re reading this, you know it all turned out. To summarise, both versions 5.0 and 5.1 are now equally accessible for your preference.

As for design work, all cylinders have been firing at andib.co.uk, with leaflet development for Smart-Lets estate agency, poster board design for a Home Renovation firm and even a lengthy contract with a top-secret commission. Furthermore, a couple of web design projects are on the horizon and one or two new illustrations have been added to the image galleries.

Out of the darkness (23.08.2009)

So what do you do when a 10 mile radius of the city housing your studio suffers a 63-hour long power cut? You sit in the dark, go to bed early and persevere on brand new web projects between power surges!

That is exactly how andib.co.uk conducted itself for the better part of this week and as a result of its efforts, a new edition to Andi Best Illustration and Design has been forged. The long awaited Banded design service has finally crawled out of the darkness and found itself a home on the internet – www.banded.co.uk

Banded is an innovative new design service delivering graphical promotion to music and venues across the country. Industry professionals and music-makers of all varieties can request custom-made designs for promotional products, including posters, websites, logos and much more.\nAs well as providing leading design services for up and coming talent, the service aims to build an online community of bands, musicians, audio artists, venues, event promoters, record labels etc. to collectively promote how they are impacting on today’s music scene.

Dawn on the Lawn (04.06.2009)

May has been a busy point in time for andib.co.uk as a whole host of new clients have been staking claim in the project diary. As well as two book jacket designs underway for Apex Publishing, the good folk representing Dawn on the Lawn have commissioned an illustrative design for the 2009 electronica festival’s publicity campaign. Themed on the fusion of electronic dance music and the outdoor farm-field surroundings a new logo and decorative set of graphics were produced to publicise the event in Reading.
Take a look at the final design here.

Also, two new style images from my collection have made their way into the Artwork area of the site. Greed and Am I Talking To Myself are classic examples of my editorial drawing and focus poignantly on some contemporary matters flaring up in the media recently.

Xtremely good view (06.04.2009)

You would have been hard pressed lately to read a tabloid paper that did not contain an article reviewing the new Google Street View application and it’s ability to photograph the nation in all of its socially dysfunctional glory. Comedy aside, Andi Best decided to use the application for its intended purpose – to see if my house had been photographed! This was subsequently followed by pondering where I might have been at the time that my house was photographed.
Amid the disappointment of discovering that my street had not yet been among those trawled by the Google camera car, I decided to peruse some of the likely areas where I might had been captured as an oblivious background pedestrian, when part-way into my search I discovered this photograph It shows the company vehicle of the Xtreme Vortex company, proudly displaying graphics designed by andib.co.uk some months ago.

SucCSS (11.02.2009)

2009 has kicked off fantastically for Andi Best Illustration and Design as commissioned project work has arrived thick and fast. I’ve been working with a host of new clients and made a number of project contributions from my studio including poster pitches for the Radar indie festival, personal portraiture, newsletter and business card development for Remax estate agency, decorative illustration for private homes, avatar logos, branded stationery for local businesses, web design projects for a data management firm and complete visual branding for Kamisoul clothing company. Also, if you’re in the Bournemouth and Poole area, keep your eyes peeled for a promotional poster campaign in honour of International Women’s Day.