Lloyd Harvey

According to recent television advertisements:

“Sometimes a change of name, is more than a change of name. Sometimes its a chance to show the world, who you’ve always wanted to be.”

Now, I’m not one to listen to advertising but for some reason this particular message stood out to me. Norwich Union are changing their name to Aviva… who the hell cares!? I here you say… And you are right, who should? They as a company know all too well that this is an unequivocal fact and the reasoning behind the change isn’t as superficial or arrogant.

What the company has done, is a very powerful move in their marketing strategy. The name Aviva, like Norwich Union, says bugger all about the actual business and what they do but the word itself, is the key. It is so much more memberable and the alliteration gives it some serious psychological weight.

I think change is a good thing. I won’t ever know if the change to Aviva will pay off (nor do I really care) but the point I wish to make is the importance of re-branding and marketing.

For the past 5 years, I have been taking art, illustration and design very, very seriously and have been promoting myself under the alias of Shrunken Head Design. For me, at the time, I wanted a name that said I was dark, weird and maybe a little dangerous whilst suggesting that there was some design aspect at play. In this time, my website underwent numerous changes in style and content and the work I was producing also evolved.

Over time, I started to create stranger art and continued to push that aspect of my persona as an artist. But, one thing I had noticed was that more and more lighter pieces were working their way into my portfolio and in different styles. This was fine but to me, my work was getting a little cluttered. I was starting to realise that marketing my self was getting tricky. Shrunken Head Design no longer represents who I am or what I do.

I still create dark work but equally I create work that is completely different to what I would normally aim towards. In the same manner, a lot of my attitudes and personal philosophies are different as to when I started out. Maybe I have just matured, maybe its more of a conscious metamorphosis.

I looked at my website and my work, and realised I couldn’t put them together under one roof. The two aspects of me, the light and dark, needed their own space to breath and spread out.

And thus, Shrunken Head Design is technically no more. My web address, emails and forum names shall remain as they are but the website itself and even my work here, on Redbubble are undergoing some transformations. www.shrunkenheaddesign.co.uk are now in two parts representative to my work. The old red logo is gone and the overall feel to the site is cleaner and smoother (I hope). As for the work on here… a schism is under way. On this profile, the darker work will remain and the lighter work will disappear. But not completely.

In the next few weeks, I will be opening up a new profile on here and will be adding work suited to the profile. I haven’t decided on what I will put up, or what I will be called but I have decided that I will also be opening a separate bubblesite for the work.

Please have a look at my website and stay tuned for any updates.

Lloyd Harvey