Chris Noble Portfolio

A Introduction
B Miscellany: from Branding to Packaging to Marketing
C Publication Design
D With Added Copywriting
E Illustration
F Photoshop Work
G Web Work
chris noblechris@chrisnobledesign.com

chris noble portfolio email index Introduction A
Long story short.
In 1981, my brother Mark and I were
bought BMX bikes. Six years later,
my father was knee-deep in the UK’s
BMX freestyle association when
they acquired the UK’s only freestyle
magazine, Freestyle BMX, which Mark
had contributed to. My father quickly
took over the magazine and made my
nineteen-year-old brother editor.
As a teenager, I idly drew detailed
lettering and graphics on everything
from bedroom walls and trash cans to
envelopes and school history books. At
eighteen, I started learning the ropes of
desktop publishing and soon became
the magazine’s designer.
In 1992, during the doldrums of action
sports, Mark and I started a new
company with me as Creative Director,
took on the flagging magazine and
relaunched it as Ride BMX Magazine*.
It’s there, at first in a tiny set-up under
the stairs at home in rural Dorchester,
England, that I really cut my teeth
in print graphics, crashing through
influences such as magazine designers
David Carson (Raygun, Beach Culture),
Andy Jenkins (Homeboy, Freestylin’)
and Jeff Tremaine (Big Brother), and
Grand Royal magazine. The first seven
years were a pure hands-on learning
experience.
It wasn’t all magazines. Throughout
this period and beyond, I worked
with James Holder on his various
projects, among them popular
clothing labels, café chains and third-
party branding work. (James is now
founding father and Creative Director
of the international sensation that is
Superdry™.)
And with growth and new publications
came new art directors and designers
to hire, mentor and manage as well
as other creative contributors to
collaborate with, not to mention overall
business direction.
In 1999, having successfully launched
Dirt MTB Magazine to critical acclaim—
again initially with my design—we set
our sights on the lifestyle market with
Level magazine. It turned out to be
an epiphany for me. Given my usual
free rein, months of part-time tweaking
from the initial Ride BMX/Grand Royal-
inspired mock-ups led to the final
honed product with its own unique
style. It won the ‘Best Designed
Consumer Magazine of the Year’
award at that year’s UK Magazine
Design Awards, beating Wallpaper*
and other favorites in the shortlist. “A
newcomer to the lifestyle scene, Level
renounces the style despotism of
certain rivals,” the awards book states.
The judges concluded, “Clarity, control,
confidence—and all in its first issue!”
While Level only lasted two years—it
didn’t stand a chance against the
established titles with their hardened
and ruthless London-based ad sales
teams—its aesthetic effect still lives on
in my work. Over the following years,
many articles in Ride BMX Magazine
would have fit comfortably into Level,
bringing the clean yet grid-free look
of the latter to a new subject and
audience to widespread approval.
This tight branding, a Helvetica-plus-
hand-drawn look, lasted a few years
until I broadened my scope, giving
individual articles greater personality
and by adding typefaces and art
direction suited to the subject. Each of
these articles still had a look distinctly
of the magazine’s brand, only with
added appeal by sub-branding the
subject fittingly. I made a similar
approach during my temporary stint as
art director of Document Skateboard
Magazine, after which the editors
wished I could have stayed on.
We sold the company at the end of
2006. After a year of art directing
Ride from my new home in the US,
I moved on to freelance for various
clients, including as Art Director
for the Southern California-based
Snowboarder Magazine.
Thinking.
Good branding is all about the total
feeling you get, from the brand’s public
face to the end product experience—
from perfect packaging to simple
functionality—and customer service.
Every brand has its own story and
attitude it needs to convey and on the
surface of it all is the visual statement.
What you see always comes before
what you get, which itself must be a
thing of beauty.
My aim is to put a compelling and
strongly tailored feel into the apparent
simplicity of all the branding and
graphics that I do, rather than blindly
follow in the footsteps of competing
brands or that which the brand has
done before. I get a feel for the brand
and its intentions, and without much
in the way of forethought translate that
feeling into visuals. A rough, off-hand
idea goes through varying degrees
of tinkering to end up as a refined
treatment ready for presentation.
The way I see it, in a world of wild
typefaces, boundless color and
endless Photoshop possibilities, that
“clarity, control and confidence” I got a
handle on in 1999 shines through.
This book represents my picks from
my career in print to date. It is noteable
that a fair chunk of that career has
been publishing and designing niche
magazines, which brought with them
their own specific limitations: time and
money.
Producing one hundred pages a
month—including photo editing, image
scanning, repro and even thinking
up a title for most of the articles and
sections—usually put a challenging
crimp in the amount of time I could
give to anything. Toss into the schedule
other in-house work, be it video motion
graphics, website building, lugging
boxes of magazines in from a truck or
just day-to-day business running, and
I was really down to a hundred work-
hours for those hundred pages.
I only point this out because it always
surprises people who don’t work in
magazines.
It’s for you to judge how well I spent
my time, and how well I could spend
it working with you. I, for one, know
I could work wonders.
*An American publication also named Ride BMX Magazine launched at the same time, in cooperation. Our magazine became known as Ride UK BMX Magazine and later, to avoid confusion, that named was officially adopted.
We’re all brands here

chris noble portfolio email index Miscellany: from Branding to Packaging to Marketing B
MISC

Simple custom folder to hold media information and magazines
˜˜ Cover photo and 2012 Sketchup mockup (reskinned in Photoshop) by CN

Reader profile for media people; four folds, actual size: 700mm long
˜˜ Amusingly innapropriate but better-looking use of line graphs, where bar or pie chart would be the norm. Photo (and 2012 Sketchup) by CN

1 Launch Party invite 2 Postcards for insertion into advertising trade magazine 3 Business card 4 T-shirt iron-on offered with Level magazine 01 5 Paper publicity fly-stickers on a roll for plastering everywhere
level.MAGAZINE:UK
people style music Film travel liFe adventure
All thINGs Good www.4130.com | pHoto: spiKe JonZe
level.MAGAZINE:UK
people style music Film travel liFe adventure
All thINGs Good www.4130.com | pHoto: spiKe JonZe
1
5
3
4
2

And Forks box (for BMX bicycle forks) and 50% scale dummy (made by CN)

Deluxe BMX packaging for seat/post combo: packaging concept, engineering and design
Shown: artwork, digital mock-up (Adobe Illustrator), final product

July 2009
Deluxe BMX company: swing tags and packaging
Deluxe BMX handlebar grips and packaging
Allows shopper to grip grip without removing it from packaging

Deluxe BMX tradeshow giveaways: introductory brochure (2008), a water bottle, mug, and a double-sided poster

Deluxe BMX advert treatments from 2008 brand intro ad onwards

Deluxe BMX company: promo T-shirtsWeb ads (banner and 300x300 GIF slideshow)
Rip of an 80s classic design
for ‘Rockville BMX’ store,
hence retro back print
From Mexico ’68 Olympics
poster, a concept that
also cropped up later in
Snowboarder magazine
‘Lotus’ logo (of Esprit S1)
remade to say ‘Deluxe’
Collaboration T with quote from
a Deluxe team magazine article

Series of T-shirt designs for Judo brand
(For and in collaboration with James Holder, pre-Superdry)

Magazine promo T-shirts, offcut sticker, zip-up sweatshirt, knickers

Book and DVD covers
˜˜ For the books, eBook size-optimized artwork also produced for Nook and Kindle Fire

Corporate logo
˜˜ Factory was a coming-together of three companies; the logo is made up of three equal,
stylized boxes (denoting a ‘factory’ process) in perspective, forming an “F”
Online/corporate logos
˜˜ The heart denotes vitality. Heart icon reformed to make the back of a skateboard, a BMX
tyre and a motocross exhaust pipe

Corporate logo
Factory didn’t use the logo (choosing one an in-house buddy did), but then a BMX
distribution start-up my brother was helping out needed one, and as it was a freebee…
Lines beefed up, boxes now represent distribution (of bike parts)
Brand logo for a proposed but now-shelved yoga product company
Top: First concept: shadow on legs in lotus position and belly button (the hot spot in yoga) would
have looked good in wood floating above a ‘Kerry B’ store door
Below: Purity, life and balance represented by a circle. Also shown mocked up on a cylinder,
perhaps on a water bottle or as packaging for a yoga mat. Would have been very distinctive
wherever it was used. Possibly too Japanese-flag in red, would have changed color in next round

Corporate logo proposal for Grind Media which is the coming-together of ASG (Action Sports Group), primarily a print publisher, and Grind TV, an online enterprise; rounds 3 (top, my personal favorite) and 8
˜˜ Thinking behind round 8:
1. Colors blend from the red in RGB (digitial) to the cyan in CMYK (print) and are squares, representing pixels (for digitial) or colour swatches in a color book (for print).
2. The icon has five sides representing Grind Media’s five core competencies (print, digital, mobile, events and TV)
3. Icon is very simple origami construction—as if from a strip of paper (print)
4. Icon bears the scars of being skated on—grinded—if it were solid, 15-20 feet wide, laid down and banked like the “origami” shadows suggest
5: Bottom right, idea for logo built as outdoor skateable art/lunch table for head office
Main logo
Smaller use
Smallest use
Web URL favicon.ico size (view at 100%)
Monochrome options
Skateable logo/picnic bench for the parking lot

Grind Media logo work in progress

Various brand and publication logos
˜˜ Top-left: Barcode reflects “buyer” subject. Numbers on logo’s as-accurate-as-possible barcode type “thebicyclebuyer” in the phone keypad alphabet; replaced by functional barcode when on the cover.)
˜˜ Middle-right: 4130 Publishing Ltd logo: black blocks in columns count: 4,1,3,0; also works upside-down

ETHAN“E-SToNE”FoRTIERbAck
EStone-Mary-Cavan_BizCard.indd 2 1/25/13 2:20 PM
236 AvenidA FAbricAnte Suite 201
SAn clemente, cA 92672
PHOne: 949.325.6200 FAX: 949.325.6196
www.snowboardermag.com
S i n c e 1 9 8 7 n M a d e i n t h e U S a
ETHAN “E-SToNE” FoRTIER
SENIOR PHOTOGRAPHER
3498 Winesap ROad, sLC, UT 84121
MObiLe: 801.556.7753
ethan@technine.com
STANCE: REGULAR
RooTS: VERmoNT/CoLoRAdo/SLC
ETHAN“E-SToNE”FoRTIERFRoNT
MaryWalshback
236 AvenidA FAbricAnte Suite 201
SAn clemente, cA 92672
PHOne: 949.325.6200 FAX: 949.325.6196
www.snowboardermag.com
S i n c e 1 9 8 7 n M a d e i n t h e U S a
Mary Walsh
Online editOr
OFFICE: 949.325.6160
MObIlE: 207.720.0737
mary@snowboardermag.com
Stance: RegulaR
RootS: loon, nH
MaryWalshfront
Magazine logo design, alternate, in use
˜˜ Rebellious upside-down “MAGAZINE” treatment was
eight months before Comedy Central did it
Business cards Party flyer

Snowboard event logos
Pro model
Women-
specific
Men-
specific
Multi camber
Eco friendly
Flat camber
Speed lacing
Reverse
camber
Normal
camber
Speed entry
Product test badge and
buyer’s guide icons

Volcom 23%
Burton 15%
686 10%
Holden 10%
Analog 9%
ThirtyTwo 8%
Nike 8%
Airblaster 4%
Quiksilver 2%
DC 2%
Special Blend 2%
Bonfire 2%
Nomis 2%
Ride 1%
Technine 1%
Rhythm 1%
Electric 30%
Oakley 28%
Ashbury 11%
Dragon 9%
Von Zipper 7%
Anon 7%
Smith 6%
Spy 2%
R.E.D. 35%
Bern 27%
Pro-tec 20%
Smith 15%
Sandbox 1%
Giro 2%
Dakine 23%
Burton 15%
Coal 14%
Neff 13%
Volcom 9%
Airblaster 5%
Celtek 4%
One Ball Jay 3%
ThirtyTwo 3%
Banshee
Bungee 3%
GoPro 3%
Rome 2%
Dang 1%
Nixon 1%
Grenade 1%
Helmets
Goggles
Outerwear
Accessories
n
18 19sm 2013RETAILPRODUCTREVIEW thebrandaudit
Infographics for Snowboarder Magazine trade special issue (two years)
Academy 1%
Lib Tech 26%
CAPiTA 17%
Burton 17%
Never Summer 10%
Gnu 8%
Rome 5%
Forum 4%
Ride 3%
K2 2%
Arbor 2%
Yes 2%
Nitro 1%
Technine 1%
Stepchild 1% ThirtyTwo 31%
Burton 24%
Nike 20%
Vans 7%
DC 6%
K2 3%
Deelux 3%
Ride 2%
Salomon 2%
Nitro 2%
Union 39%
Burton 28%
Rome 8%
Ride 6%
Forum 5%
Gnu 3%
Flux 3%
Flow 2%
Technine 2%
Salomon 2%
K2 2%
Bindings
Boots
Boards
With this year’s Brand Audit, SNOWBOARDER Magazine tapped retailers across the country
to see what manufacturers were pumping out the gear that pumped up the consumer. The
question was sent out, and when the answers flooded in, we compiled them on these pages
as a reference guide for which companies are killing it.
We asked over twenty of the leading retailers from across the United States to provide us
with their top three selling brands in each of the presented categories for 2011. We combined
these results to arrive at how often each brand was ranked as a top three seller.
Retailers taking part
in this survey include:
Eastern Boarder, Leominster. MA
Eastern Boarder, Natick, MA
Wave Rave, Mammoth Lakes, CA
SnoCon, Seattle, WA
Exit Real World, Portland, OR
Salty Peaks, SLC, UT
World Boards, Bozeman, MT
Satellite, Boulder, CO
Cal Surf, Minneapolis, MN
Youth Shelter Supply, St Could, MN
Mt Hood 26, Welches, OR
Blindside, SLC, UT
Emage, Denver, CO
Eternal, Reno, NV
Darkside, Killington, VT
Newt Harolds, Boise, ID
Causalities, Marquette, MI
Flipside, Ashville, NC
Civil, Greenwich, RI
Shred Shop, Skokie, IL
Moda 3, Milwaukee, WI
the
Brand
Audit
16 17sm 2013RETAILPRODUCTREVIEW thebrandaudit
The
Brand AuditWith this year’s Brand Audit,
SNOWBOARDER Magazine tapped retailers
across the country to see what brands have been
selling best leading up to the SIATradeshow in
Denver.
The question was sent out, and when the
answers flooded in, we compiled them
on these pages as a reference guide to
which companies are killing it.
The
Brand
Audit
Shops gave a 1st, 2nd, or 3rd ranking
to a brand, marked by
nred, norange, and nyellow
respectively in the graphs.
14 15
The
Brand
Audit
16 17

Builder News magazine
Media kit rate card, four folds
Infographics for media kit
78.8%
11.9%
Owners, Partners, Corporate Executives,
Directors and General Managers
Construction Managers,
Purchasing Agents,
Buyers and
Superintendents
5.5%
Sales and Marketing
Management
3.2%
Architects,
Designers and
Engineers
0.6%
Other
76.1%
22.5%
Residential Builders, Developers, Remodelers,
Specialty Contractors, Engineers and Architects
Developers, General Contractors, Engineers and
Architects of Mixed-Use Multifamily Construction
0.9%
Other (tradeshows
and special
events)
0.5%
Building Material
Wholesalers
and Dealers

Front Back Cover opened
Back spread
Inside spread
Media kit tri-fold folder

Ad rates Special positions Bonus exposure Tradeshow distribution Reprints Mech spec Format information Deadlines Art submission spec Terms
Green issues Build guides Modern builds Money Multi-family builds Web news City planning Disasters Laws and regulations
For the magazine
For the media kit, print side
Advertising
opportunities
Digital ad rates Article archive ads Product section AV hosting Podcast hosting Targeting Blog ad rates Digital magazine E-newsletter
For the media kit, web side
E-blasts Press release
marketing
Social networking site logos rebuilt and optimised to Builder News icon specification
Icons for media materials and magazine

chris noble portfolio email index Publication Design C
PUBLICATION DESIGN

Level magazine
Covers
˜˜ Jackass, the TV show, was not publicised in the UK until six months later. All copywriting by CN

Level magazine
Travel: Korea

Level magazine
Style: Autumn/Winter

Level magazine
Travel: Los Angeles

Level magazine
‘Good Stuff’ pages

Level magazine
Style pages
˜˜ Title credit: Ice-T, 1986

Document Skateboard Magazine
Roadtrip
˜˜ Text on first spread is in the shape of a gun, reflecting the article’s title

Team tour

Interview
˜˜ Direct work on this magazine was a temporary, two-issue position as we were between official designers

Ride UK BMX Magazine
Trip

Spreads

Spreads
˜˜ Vegas photos (bottom-right) by CN

Euro X-Games
˜˜ A departure from the average X-Games representation

Interview

The Bicycle Buyer magazine
Pre-launch concepts/promotional cover mock-up
˜˜ ‘Identikit’ cover concept, image design and production, logo and copywriting also by CN

Before After
Magazine and supplement covers redesign

Snowboarder Magazine
Spreads

Turkey trip
˜˜ Title typeface customized by CN to create alternate caps to avoid adjacent repeats of form

Major interview

An adventure, with goats
˜˜ Aged Helvetica font, pull-quote choice and intriguing redaction by CN. Inspired by the George Clooney CIA spoof movie of a similar name

Japan snowboarding guide
˜˜ Red guide sections designed to be cut out as pocket guides—if only as a design element. Humorous subheadings, inspired by English often found in Japan, by CN

Covers

Roadtrip
˜˜ Illustration and lettering by CN

Interview
˜˜ Concept: Power-business book, with aggresive ‘edits’ of pull-quotes and title, turning “Chris Doyle’s Rules”—rules for business—into “Chris Doyle Rules”, which some think he does, at least on a small bike

Roadtrip
˜˜ The photographer said he’d shot and processed his work with a “filmic” look. I reflected that with use of the “screen” effect, making everything look projected, overlapping, onto a screen

Interview (with a legend)

chris noble portfolio email index With Added Copywriting D
WITH ADDED COPYWRITING
Concept, copywriting and design

Space-filler ads for Ride UK BMX Magazine to go in Document Skateboard Magazine
˜˜ Usually thrown together in minutes on Doco’s deadline day. Thrasher, the world’s most
famous skateboard magazine, had recently stirred up some hatred toward BMXers, so
these ads were a lighthearted attempt to rebuild bridges

insert
cassette
here.
the best bmx video ever to come out of the uk is available on dvd
dvd includes ten minutes of exclusive bonus footage
scene access + digital quality
console
compatible
Region 0
PAL
A FILM BY
A RIDE BMX MAGAZINE VIDEO
see
p.175
more
info?
Full page ad for Ride UK BMX
Magazine’s Cassette video on
DVD. Cassette was one of the
first BMX videos to appear on
DVD, hence the emphasis on
the medium.
Tongue-in-cheek space-filler ad for Ride UK BMX Magazine to
go in Dirt MTB Magazine

chris noble portfolio email index Illustration E
ILLUSTRATION

For Snowboarder Magazine
For “After Hours” event poster

For Ride UK BMX Magazine
Roadtrip article

Props ‘Road Fools’ video roadtrip article

Dennis McCoy interview

Illustrations as used

‘Japan Issue’ had useful translations,
one of which was for “My name is
Shaun White.” Mistakes, unlikeness
and chocolate gold medal intentional
Suspect stances (foot placement on board): duck, stinkbug, pigeon and Euro
To illustrate the news pages’ “Sicktionary” section
Dicks on sticks: skiers
Photo incentives (features
previous Austin Sweetin cover)
Dompe: a French-Canadian
word for “anything that sucks”
Chair massage: a fall down wood, metal or concrete stairs

To illustrate the “Fresh Tracked” (good/bad) page
Featured rider scorns meat-eaters, but recommends sushi
Featured rider loves Cadillacs; not “going green”
Featured rider loves painting because “There are no rules”;
art is a fantastical take on the accompanying photo, below
Featured rider likes butterfly knives,
partying (“beer… a fire…”); hates TV
Featured rider prefers “style over spin
count” and dislikes the Olympics

To illustrate the “Fresh Tracked” (good/bad) page
Featured rider hates energy drinks “poisoning kids”
Featured rider hates bug bites, claiming “Mosquito, spider, tick,
bed bugs, butterflies... None of these are good”
Featured rider said “it’s insane what [wolverines]
are capable of” and dislikes people staring at
their phones during dinner
Featured dreadlocked rider grows organic
veggies, had just started a jewellery company
and loves his father’s “TJ’s Cajun Spice” which
he puts “on everything”
Featured rider dislikes Twitter, saying, “Who cares if the
Pope just took a dump on his holy throne?” Forgive me
Featured rider dislikes coaches
in snowboarding

Anna Paquin For Ride UK BMX Magazine
Roadtrips article

Robbie Morales mini-interview
Roadtrip
Much-videoed Roadtrip
Camera project
Digital sequences article

Various

chris noble portfolio email index Photoshop Work G
photoshop WORK

Flipwhip piece

Photographer’s body removal

For Ride UK BMX Magazine and Snowboarder Magazine
Cover logo overlays
˜˜ Top cover required placement of the logo between the tree and the bike (on the depth plane) which entailed rebuilding the tyre to lay transparently over the logo

Before and after: three digital images into one fake multiple-exposure film shot, for an interview with the three gents

Before: removal of various objects, people, birds etcetera + color enhancement (results on next page; photo used on a Photo Issue cover)

After

chris noble portfolio email index Web Work G
WEB WORK

levelmag.com
Late 2009 to early 2011
˜˜ Content of left and right columns flipped to older/newer content without affecting the other.
On the right are ads. Made with Textpattern CMS
levelmag.com
Early 2011 onward
˜˜ Closer to a standard blog format with automatic but length-aware extracts etcetera

levelmag.com
˜˜ Clockwise from top left: Video page format; “Whatnot” micro-snippets link to external websites, similar thinking to notcot.org; Contents page, with random main image from main “GoodStuff” pieces;
“Article” format example (title and two following pages). Each Article was custom-built in Dreamweaver to reflect the design of the print version of Level

snowboardermag.com
Concept/brief design for busy site (from corporate template).
andforks.com
Simple site for new, specialist BMX brand

chris noble portfolio email index
END

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