GWR Park in Swindon is rapidly becoming my favourite park precisely because it has little bits of interest added over the last few years AND at the same time this irks: tiny width margins, no space after ellipsis, single character words at the end of a line (and repeated together), widows (a single word left hanging on a new line), a hyphen does not do the same job as a dash, and an ampersand* (&) is not a subsitution for 'and'.

I know that councils are cash-strapped, that doing it yourself is cheaper and that most people didn't spend an entire term learning about typography and typesetting, aren't massive typography pedants, and won't either notice or care – and the overall design is pretty good... but there are standards lost in time and technology.

A quirky little boozer. Menu, website and events design. Collage design created with photos of pub paraphenalia, staff and beers.

I wrote, designed and published this 'novelty' 48-page book, ISBN: 978-1-80352-769-7. Unsure why I started taking photos of "naïve, instinctive, phallic street grafitti" and posting on Instagram, then Tom Blake suggested I create a book and offered to write a foreword. It's crammed with 66 specimens, an author's note and pseudo-science statistical diagrams.

For sale (£10 incl. P&P) – [email protected]

Vector illustration artworks. Colour-themed set of three limited edition prints celebrating the town's infamous roundabouts, its many hills and public art. A few still left for sale (£50): [email protected]

Worth watching: This TEDTalk discusses how and why charities undervalue marketing whereas businesses know it is vital. See Charity communications and philanthropy

• Assume the reader (potential donor, funder or supporter) has no prior knowledge of your organisation, or context of your work – and not much time to work out your message. Make your message quick and easy for anyone to understand: explain terms understood within your organisation or sector.
• Ask yourself the questions that funders want to see answered. Be specific in your ask for donations: generic aims such as "to improve wellbeing", or "to help people" don't help funders understand what you do, or why they should fund you.
• Offer quantitive information where possible.
• Infographics can outline a situation at-a-glance. A picture can be worth a thousand words.

• Test your communications' ideas with someone 'outside' of your organisation (like me). They can often identify factors that might be overlooked by colleagues who are immersed in the 'day-to-day' and know your organisation inside-out.
• Talk about what you do today (no-one needs a detailed foundation story about your evolution).

• Make sure images support your message. Choose images that make sense to someone who doesn’t know you yet.

Book design commission by the author who supplied high-resolution scans and the manuscipt. Work involved lots of planning, colour balancing and cleaning up of images in Photoshop, fact-checking and sub-editing text. Additional and last minute changes to the size and extent of the book meant additional work and print management project management to produce this hardback 'coffee table' book celebrating the life of a very accomplished Swindon watercolourist, Frank Quinton.

1. To be a graphic designer you need to think creatively but you don’t necessarily need to be artistic.
2. Art is often about expression – artists want to express what they think or feel or have observed. It is entirely subjective. The artist wants the viewer to understand their personal perspective.
3. Graphic design is mostly about communication. Making sure the viewer notices and understands the message is much more important to the designer than their own feelings.
4. Note to clients: this means you can constructively critique a designer’s work without fear of upsetting them.
5. Design is problem solving. For every project the problem to be solved is ‘how do I best get the message across’ given specific conditions.
6. A designer has to keep in mind the people the message has to reach and where they’ll encounter the message. The style may be subjective, but design can be judged objectively.

7. Good design software is not the same as good design. See below:

Peter Saville via @mockiro on Instagam