Branding Work

I've had the privilege of working with a number of brands in my freelance career. Creating branding packages, working with established guidelines, and logo design. It has always been difficult to choose a favourite field of design to work in, but branding and logo design is certainly in the top five.

Below are two of my favourite freelance branding projects to date: Community Interest Company Designing Dialogue and the University of Derby's Creative Showcase 2025 along with some of the development process for each.

These are two of the final pieces from my work with Designing Dialogue. One of their ongoing projects SHED had an established brand, and the board members were seeking a new and fresh branding package to appear related but distinct.

The idea came from my research into the SHED project - a portable versatile folding wooden structure, used for gathering and sharing events between communities and their members. The logo is reminiscent of folded paper, which led me to sketching ideas relating to origami. The board liked one of the sketches I presented so much that they wanted the finished piece to resemble the sketch with only a handful of adjustments.

I tried to keep the vector image while keeping the rough linework of the sketch. The board liked the pencil drawing from my initial ideas so much that I went back to the logomark's roots. We added more folds, shading, and narrowed the custom logotype. Our final goal was to have a suite of logos in a custom colour palette, with animated brand guidelines and stinger to aid with any future social media or moving picture projects. The palette needed to be vibrant, while also being accessible to those with colour blindness.

Once the finished logo was decided upon, we agreed that the most pleasing use of an origami logo should be a bouncing paper ball which becomes the flat logo at its finish. On its third major iteration, in a hand-drawn 30 fps format, the board agreed to move forward with it. This became the video below.

Given a number of months to complete the project, I completed it in three weeks, much to the gratitude of the board members and CEO.

My next project is one where the brand guidelines were already established by the senior lecturing team in the University of Derby School of Arts. My services were requested for help with the Made It Creative Showcase 2025.

My work was to create signage, wayfinding, animated stingers, photograph people at the event, and document the fashion show. I then took the role of social media manager for the period the event was running. Here's some of the work I created during that time.

Once each of these assets were created following the specific colour palette and logo rules in the established guidelines, I began work on social media. It involved showcasing the work of graduates and Masters students to drive engagement and encourage attendees.

I used my initiative to find themes for each daily post, dividing them into three major categories: individual students, single courses, and images from the show itself.

Senior Lecturer Kev Jones' testimonial:

"Luke has consistently demonstrated a high level of performance since joining the BA (Hons) Graphic Design course at the University of Derby. He is a dedicated and punctual student with a professional and approachable manner. Luke is intelligent, curious, and eager to learn, responding thoughtfully to feedback from both tutors and peers.

He is a valued member of our cohort, known for his attention to detail and commitment to producing work that is both personal and creatively interpreted. Luke continually challenges himself to deepen his understanding of design and strives to meet professional standards in all his projects.

Luke is also a strong team player. He serves as lead designer for the School of Arts Research (SOAR) publication and contributes to the UoD Creative Agency, where he collaborates with staff and clients on live briefs and internal projects. His recent work on the publicity and wayfinding for the 2025 Made It Creative Industries Showcase highlights not only his design talent but also his organisational and marketing skills. His contributions have been instrumental in promoting the work and talent of this year’s graduating students."

Of course, these weren't the only logo designs I worked on. The following are a handful of other examples I've created on freelance commissions in my time. Each had unique challenges, and each were for live-streamers on Twitch.