With the widespread use of Word and inkjet printers, most business tend to generate their own stationery with a logo dropped into their documents. Most don’t realise that it’s a false economy, inkjet inks are expensive!!

CSP Construction MD, Tom Coghlan, wanted something a bit more classic for his tropical construction company. The team at APAGANZA were happy to oblige.

First off we experimented with some logo options, something clean, simple and effective for summing up what Tom’s neat operation was about.

The final contenders (above) where then discussed and the ‘palm leaf’ option was chosen. We really wanted, with the stationery, to get across Tom’s ideals of retaining as much of the local nature as possible in his projects. Something natural and simple was the key.

After hunting through paper samples of Bangkok’s paper suppliers, we chose Tintoretto Malange stock from Italian paper supplier Fedringo. Fedringo have a great reputation for using clean hydro-electric power where possible and are involved in forest replenishing (Every tree taken for pulp, a new one is planted), they also use fast growing plants for their pulp such as cotton, hemp, flax and bamboo. Way to go…

The finished result was stunning, the stationery looked, smelt and felt good and was achieved on a surprising low budget.

The next project, after the stationery, was a decent brochure that would really show the beauty of Tom’s projects. Again we were happy to oblige. The first task was to obtain some good photography. Time for some adventure…. Graphic design is a great profession, intellectually stimulating and rewarding BUT sometimes lacks physical adventure.

Apaganza head honcho, designer, tea boy and sky pest, Ivan Longland, decided that to get some really great shots, it was time to unleash the beast……

This is his La mouette 210cc paramotor trike, quite simply, just sit in, start her up, inflate your wing and you are off to the skies….

Paramotors are ideal for airborne photography, they are relatively stable and with enough height, allow the pilot to fly hands free for short lengths of time to capture some great photography.

So, with a 6 a.m. take off from a local sports field, he was on his way to Tom’s project ‘Coconut Grove’ in Hua Yai district. An hours flight with his sony digital camera firing off in all directions Ivan landed with some stunning results…

That task done, we set about designing the brochure. We decided to use as much local paper as possible and again, keep things looking as natural as possible.

One of our pet hates here is seeing too much obviously computer-generated floor plans and artists impressions of buildings, it sucks! so Tom’s architect ‘Bay’ drew up some great traditional hand-drawn plans and elevations. As for the finished project… you can flick through it yourself… HERE

If you are lucky enough to be interested in having a beautiful home built in Thailand, CSP-Construction are the people to talk to… www.csp-construction.com

The polar co-ordinates filter in Photoshop is a rarely used gem. Following this tutorial I will show you how to simply create a reflective glass orb or ball from any photograph. This works with ANY version of Photoshop going back over the last 15 years.

How to do it.

Select your photograph (I am using an image from Stockvault).

For best results crop you image to a square using the crop tool with ‘shift’ key.

Now apply the Distort: polar co-ordinates filter on the ‘Polar to rectangular’ setting. You will have a weirdly distorted image!

Next go to image:image size and unproportionaly scale your image height by 50%, then duplicate your Background layer.

Now go to image:canvas size and increase the height by 200% leaving your image in the top half.

Now Edit:transform your ‘Background copy’ layer using ‘Flip Vertical’, then with your shift key held down move the whole layer down to the bottom half to line up.

Here’s the fun bit

Flatten your image in the layers palette. Now run Distort: Polar co-ordinates again using ‘Rectangular to polar’ this time.

Voila! You have the start of an Orb!

Now select your orb with the ellipse selection tool then you can adjust the amount of edge reflection using Distort:Spherise filter  (I will use 100% for this exercise).

Edit: Copy the orb. Now File:Revert back to your original picture. Then Edit:Paste

Adding Shading

Scale down your Orb a little then select it again (Ctrl click the layer icon).

Next gently shade the bottom right hand edge using black, a soft brush set to multiply and 20% opacity.

Select a slightly smaller circle and centre it in your orb.

And using a smaller soft brush with white set to ‘screen’ and an opacity of 20%, gently brush in a highlight inside your inner circle in the top right.

Finishing touch

Create a new layer and edit:fill:black 100%. Then Filter:Render:Lens flare (Pick one to your liking). Then set this layer to ‘Screen’ in the layer palette

Move the layer so the bright spot falls on your brushed in highlight….

You are done!

This is a great technique for generating crystal balls, Christmas tree baule baules and (using different areas of an image) bubbles. Have fun with it.

Ivan Longland.