Nick Constantinou MA(RCA) DIC MEng

Industrial Designer - Digital Designer - Photographer

Virgin Media mini site

Freelancing through Aquent recruitment agency

The job was to graphically design a mini site for Virgin Media’s online short film competition. I used Photoshop CS2 to design the mock-up. There was a requirement for a strong brand identity whilst still in keeping with Virgin Media’s overall brand integrity. The site was to have a clean, minimal feel to it. A high attention to detail and careful consideration of colour and typography were required. For this reason I created a colour palette and a page of buttons, links and type faces that were to be used. The page layout was created using a grid to ensure alignment and visual harmony. The home page was created along with the video page and a sample page to ensure the template would work throughout the site.

INGG graphic asstets

Inspired Gaming Group

The graphics and marketing team at Inspired Gaming Group often had projects that required high resolution, original graphical assets. As an alternative to trying to source suitable graphics from databases such as GettyImages, which are expensive and not always exactly what is required, I decided to create them from scratch. I used 3D Studio Max to model and render the assets. These were then used on brochures, POS material, posters and online. By modelling the items in 3D I was able to get the exact camera angle and composition that was required. I was also able to create animations from the model files such as spinning fruit machine reels. (see Animation)

Science Museum shop visualisation

Kit Grover Ltd

I was asked to help with the interior design of a temporary shop in The Science Museum, London, and create 3D visuals to assist in the design process and use as a way of communicating ideas to the client. The temporary shop was to run along side the exhibition "The Science Of...". I used 3D Studio Max to render the shots. The first set of visuals I produced were very early on in the design process. Stage 2 included some obvious changes. These images were all that were needed to communicate the idea and (unfortunately) no further detail was needed in the renderings. The final design consisted of mirrored partition walls covered in graphics. The shop merchandice would be displayed on 4 "gondolas" that would with illuminated end panels.

AWP graphics

Inspired Gaming Group

A redesign of the traditional fruit machine involved replacing the mechanical reels with a touchscreen and the vertical illuminated panel with a secondary screen. However this resulted in a large amount of blank space around the screens. To remedy this and as a way of introducing more illumination to the machine, a backlit graphic was required. I had the job of creating the graphic. It would be illuminated by means of electroluminescent (EL) panels behind it. The illumination would be animated, in a similar fashion to the traditional bulb lighting on the original terminal. By modeling and rendering assets in 3D I was then able to construct the composition in Photoshop. After several iterations the final graphic was signed off. I then created a cutting path from the Photoshop file that could be used to create the EL panels. I imported the final graphic in to Flash and adjusted the brightness of each asset to create a variety of animated sequences, from which the best one could be chosen. The EL controller could then be programmed accordingly.

DJ logo

I was asked to create a logo along with flyers and posters for the DJs "Shift F7" and "Ctrl X" who play in the Royal College of Art bar. Due to the unusual nature of the names I initially wanted to create a logo that was based entirely on the words with no extra imagery involved. I began by abstracting the lettering slightly by creating negative space based on a carefully selected typeface and then manipulating the font characters in illustrator to achieve the desired effect. This proved to be a success with the client but the image appeared a bit flat and it was not as abstract as I had hoped. I solved both these issues by using the lettering as a mask with one of my photographs from Australia. This seemed appropriate since the events were summer themed.

Center Parcs visualisation

Kit grover Ltd

For this project I was asked to help redesign and create visuals for the take-away restaurant, Dining In, that is situated in the Center Parcs village in Sherwood Forest. The visuals were to be used to show to the client how it might look. I modelled the building and interior from scratch and textured and illuminated it in 3D Studio. I then rendered using the Vray plugin.

Tableware renderings

To experiment with some render settings using Vray I decided to model up some tableware: wine glass, cork screw, wine bottle and also I designed a salt and pepper set. I am quite fond of pigs so I modeled 2 silver pigs with the holes in their snouts.

TomTom One rendering

For a personal project I decided to mode from scratch and render my TomTom One satallite navigation device. I used a digital micrometer to measure the unit and modelled it in Solidworks. I then imported it in to 3DS Max 9 and rendered it with the Vray render engine. I then tweaked the final image in Photoshop.

Eau de toilette bottle rendering

I produced this rendering of an eau de toilette bottle using Vray and 3DS Max. Thanks to Aversis for the model.

Nokia 3410 renderings

I produced several renderings of a Nokia 3410. One shows the original case and one has my newly designed glossy black cover with chrome effect buttons.

Canon zoom lens renderings

I modelled, textured and rendered the Canon zoom lens EF 70-300mm 1:4-5.6 IS USM.

Coca-Cola vending machine graphics

Inspired Gaming Group

One of the projects that I was involved in at Inspired was the modification of one of the Coca-Cola vending machine to include a huge 52 inch touch screen. Since this was a joint venture between the two companies, I was asked to create graphics for some of the terminals that were to be branded in Inspired colours. I decided to have the whole machine in black with the only colours being that of the logo ie different shades of blue. The logo by itself would be a bit too static and boring so I added a large blue flame. The printers asked me to produce this in vector format which was a bit of a challenge but I used gradient meshes in Illustrator to achieve the desired result.