Mark Turner

I have always enjoyed drawing and creating from an early age, and wanted to be a sculptor. As a child I used to walk passed Henry Moore’s studio every weekend with my father. Later I was to attend a secondary school, which had a family group statue by Henry Moore and as a student, spent many hours drawing and painting it. I then decided after leaving school at 16, to attend design school. I did an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in art and design at Stevenage College in Hertfordshire. It was a great course that introduced me to all aspects of design, from packaging to typography, to print to fashion and textiles, and furthered my love of studying art history. I graduated from there with a diploma with merit, but my love of packaging had really taken hold. I was transfixed, by the whole form and aspect of what packaging could do for a product. I then attended Great Yarmouth School of Art at the Higher National Diploma (HND) level, again within the two years I attended the course, my love of art history escalated and my interest in Henry Moore’s sculptures turned to his war drawings, which I was fascinated by and in my spare time from the course I would produce numerous pen and ink drawings. My final thesis was on Henry Moore’s work. I then graduated from there with a Higher National Diploma with distinction. Further into my design career, my path crossed again with Henry Moore as I joined and worked at a design studio, which was based in the same village as his studio. So Henry Moore has been a huge influence on me as a designer and artist.

Kre8ive Partners is a group of very talented people we are all from a traditional background in our training and have a joint 80+ years of combined experience within our senior team. We are all about design and everything we design in the studio we can produce as a final artwork. We get involved with all sorts of design, from tin plate to flexible poly to ridged plastic to carton board. We take pride in producing innovative and forward thinking designs that are backed up by a passion to ensure the final printed job is exactly what was designed. Whether printed litho, flexo, gravure or digital, we ensure the project is correctly delivered or installed on time and within budget. We manage the project from concept to completion. Our international awards are a testimony of our Creative Passionate Thinking.

LIFE! It is so important that everything is designed, from a simple paper clip to a complex constructed building. Without design in the world, the world would be a dull empty box. Design at its best, captures the eye, appeals to the heart and satisfies the mind…It can help sell the most mundane items and to give them real purpose.

Packaging is my passion, it started from my love of sculpture and form as a young artist and design allows me the best of both worlds to produce a piece of packaging that is not only stunning, but unique and meaningful with real purpose for our clients.

I have not got a favourite piece I love all design that has a true purpose, a true meaning, uncluttered and pure raw design.

My first piece of packaging was for a chocolate company. But my first design was for a Nike campaign I was working on.

I love to use many different materials in my designs, I particular like flexible poly and glass. I am a digital designer, but with a traditional slant.

Creativity is not something that can be turned on like a tap. You are either creative or you are not. It is something you cannot teach. I feel most creative when we are having a design/brain storming meeting in the studio. I love the interaction of other like-minded, passionate people; ideas really come alive!

I think you need to consider all the aspects. From the point of view of a piece of packaging, the surface graphics i.e. fonts, colours and imagery, the material if it is suitable for the job. The print method will it give the desired affect that I am after. All these factors are needed, to be considered to create a good design.

Joy and excitement even after 30 some years, I still design with enthusiasm and most of all passion!

Electric I feel alive. I have been in design for over 30 years now and I am as passionate today as I was when I started in design.

Very good question. A combination of things: colours, fonts and the imagery used all become integral to the success. I love to experiment with tactile materials as I find this also can help stimulate the senses.

I do not like to judge or comment on other designers' work really, as I do not know the full brief they were commissioned to do. But when I look at other packaging design I look at the typographic used especially the kerning to see if they have just set the text using a computer’s setting or if they have considered the inter character spacing. To me design is all about space around the design.

As a designer and especially a packaging designer I feel a huge responsibility to the environment that I share with my fellow creatures. I do not believe in over packaging and I am working on design concepts for one of the UK’s largest retailers to reduce significant product carbon footprints.

I think design has taken on a whole new meaning and importance in today’s world. Clients want design with true meaning and not just with decoration. I feel people love and appreciate design more than ever! With the advances in technology and digital media the impossible is now possible which is extremely exciting. There are no boundaries to what can be achieved as long as we can dream we can create.

The last exhibition Kre8ive Partners exhibited at was back in 2012 at the ‘Business Design Centre’ in London, but our work was part of a design show more recently in Paris in 2016. I not sure when we will exhibit again as a studio as we find time is to pressing to spend long periods of time out of the studio. But we never say never!

From everywhere, as a designer you are like a sponge soaking up inspiration. It can be from a simple walk in the woods with my dog or a visit to an art gallery or even a shopping trip to a super market.

My approach to all my designs is less is more, to keep the design to its simplest, none cluttered or over-worked or fussed. But if there is a call for a more complicated design then the most important point to consider is what to leave off and what is not needed in the design I think this is the art of true design, which is my approach and kind of style to my way of thinking to design.

I live in the United Kingdom and am immensely proud to be a British designer. We have huge influences everywhere in England, and I strongly believe we have some of the best designers and visionaries in the world. And for me to be part of the design community, not only is Britain but in the world, is a great honour as design is so important but more importantly I believe without creative people doing creative work the world is a less colourful place to live.

We work with any size of company to us the project is the most important as long as we get excited and infused we will get involved. We have some of our clients that have worked with us for over 20 years, which we are very proud to be part of their current and on going success. I love to built a brand from just a simple pencil sketch into a world leader. I am a traditionally train designer, a designer using tools as simple as a pencil and marker pen. The technology helps us to create our designs more efficiently and many be more quicker, but they do not design.

A good question, word of mouth is a very good way to be introduce to a designer. I do not agree with free pitches I have been asked to take part in them but I feel it devalues my craft. We have also met clients through exhibitions when they have visited my stand.

Every project starts with a pencil and pad, I come from a traditional background, and only use my mac as a tool. I feel you can get so many ideas down on paper even before you started the machine up. It also helps me clear my mind from the clutter and makes me decide on fundamental decision for the design i.e. fonts, layout, imagery. Then once I turn to my mac I have already got a clear understanding of the kind of font I wish to use be it sans, serif or script which can reduce wasted time in going through our 10 + thousand fonts.

I would say 1. My Wireless Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin speaker - for its ergonomic, simplistic shape. 2. My iMac - detailed to the extreme 3. My Mazda RX8 - just beautiful 4. My Fisher & Paykel Dish Drawer Dish Washer - stunningly simplistic 5. My A0 drawing board - old but a design classic

Every day is different in the studio. I start the week with a plan with what needs to be done, but it can easily be changed and turned on its head with a simple phone call or email, but that’s what makes life exciting sometimes - the unknown and the way you adapt and reorganise the traffic through the studio.

Listen to your peers, watch them how they work, do not be frightened to ask questions how ever ridiculous you think the question is. But most of all have fun! Design is not a job it is a way of life!

I have enjoyed my life, working on some of the biggest brands in the world, working with some fantastic like-minded creatives. These are some of my positives my negative is that I live my complete life to deadlines. I have become a time control freak!

‘Less is more’ it is important to know what to leave out as well as what to leave in on a design. A design layout needs air to breathe yet to be unique and distinct.

For me creativity is key, but I think you need to be passionate, enthusiastic, understanding and patient. Knowing my own mind helps me guide my clients to the right decision and direction to take. Listening to your clients needs is paramount, but you need the strength to stand up for what you believe is right for the client and in turn what is right for the design/brand.

For me it all starts with my trusty pencil and markers, I am a traditionally trained designer. But once I have the initial ideas and thoughts out and down on my pad. I take to the mac. Software packages are illustrator, photoshop, strata, iC3D. Sources of inspirations - everywhere, art galleries, nature, my scrap books and sketch books.

Time management is key to keeping costs down and within budget and to keeping to deadline. My studio runs on a FileMaker job bag system, so technology certainly has a part to play here. But I think as you progress with your design career you become very much aware of time and that the client will only pay so much for it.

It depends, if it is a piece of standard packaging it can be a few weeks. But I like to take the standard and turn it on its head. I love the challenge of designing something that pushes the boundaries and taking the impossible and coming up with a solution that has a new view on it.

I have be so fortunate to work on some amazing projects from the Sea Containers ‘Blue Ribbon’ Trans-Atlantic Crossing Challenge to numerous launches for Walt Disney Studios Home Entertainment. I think my most prestigious project was when I designed and created for Her Majesty Queen Elizabeth II of England. Our relationship started when I was working for another design company. I was a key team member who created both ‘The Royal Farms’ and ‘The Windsor Farm Shop’ brands, in which we worked closely with His Royal Highness The Duke of Edinburgh. The experience was second to none, as the brand icons are now part of ‘The Royal Archives’. The whole project was huge, high profile and very pressurised as the amount of work that was needed to be produced was to a very short and tight deadline. There were over 500 items that needed to be designed, sourced and branded from milk packaging to whisky and champagne packaging, to a simply branded carrier bag to an intricate piece of Point of Sale. The project was massively exciting but on the other hand hugely worrying, as I knew the World’s press was going to scrutinise every little detail I did.

I am proud to work in many sectors of the design business. Some of my clients are: Walt Disney Studio Home Entertainment Fisher & Paykel BAFTA Royal Farms Windsor Imperial War Museum (All 5 sites) Gilbertson & Page (144 year old pet food company) Maple Leaf Bakery UK division ITV The Women’s Institute Vonziu Elite Teva Goldenfry Tesco

I am passionate about packaging. I love to work on brands large or small and make a real major difference to my clients.

I would love to be recognised more by my peers for my design work. To work even more internationally. And to do what I love to do… produce stunning, beautiful design.

It depends, I am a team player and have worked in large and small design teams, and have headed-up many teams, but I do enjoy working on all aspects of the design from creating the brand to designing and producing the final piece of packaging.

I would love to discuss our work in the pipeline, but we can only talk about it once it is in the marketplace due to client confidentiality.

People can contact me via my email mark@kre8ivepartners.com or at the studio on tel. +44 (0) 1462 455555

I have always enjoyed drawing and creating from an early age, and wanted to be a sculptor. As a child I used to walk passed Henry Moore’s studio every weekend with my father. Later I was to attend a secondary school, which had a family group statue by Henry Moore and as a student, spent many hours drawing and painting it. I then decided after leaving school at 16, to attend design school. I did an Ordinary National Diploma (OND) in art and design at Stevenage College in Hertfordshire. It was a great course that introduced me to all aspects of design, from packaging to typography, to print to fashion and textiles, and furthered my love of studying art history. I graduated from there with a diploma with merit, but my love of packaging had really taken hold. I was transfixed, by the whole form and aspect of what packaging could do for a product. I then attended Great Yarmouth Art of School at the Higher National Diploma (HND) level, again within the two years I attended the course, my love of art history escalated and my interest in Henry Moore’s sculptures turned to his war drawings, which I was fascinated by and in my spare time from the course I would produce numerous pen and ink drawings. My final thesis was on Henry Moore’s work. I then graduated from there with a Higher National Diploma with distinction. Further into my design career, my path crossed again with Henry Moore as I joined and worked at a design studio, which was based in the same village as his studio. So Henry Moore has been a huge influence on me as a designer and artist.

I love to create; I have always and will always love to design. To produce good, solid effective design gives me a huge buzz, and I am as passionate today as I have always been since I was at art school.

Not really forced no. My uncle was a commercial artist, as they used to call them, and I wanted to go into fine art with my love of sculptor from my influence of Henry Moore, but I guess he persuaded me to go into more commercial art and become a designer. So I combined my love and passion for 3D and form and became a packaging designer.

I design branding, point of sale and packaging. I would love to design more glassware and tinplate packaging, for the packaging form as well as the look of the surface graphics.

I don’t see myself as a design legend. Certainly in my own eyes, I am a simple designer who enjoys his love of design and to see the success my clients have with my design. My advice to young designers is to listen to your peers, watch how they work, do not be frightened to ask questions, however ridiculous you think the question is. But most of all have fun! Design is not a job it is a way of life!

Good question. GREAT design to me is timeless! With perfect precision nothing more, nothing less, pure perfection! Good design aspires to be great and in time, can accomplish it.

A design that looks effortless, simplistic and timeless. A design with meaning and has a true conviction to the brand.

In the case of packaging it can sell product! As long as the product inside the packaging is of equally good and high standard, the client will retain future sales and new sales. Very early in my career I worked on a range of frozen dessert pie packaging for a retailer in the UK, and the supplier of the product called me to say that the sales had gone up over 300% since his product was sold in the newly designed packaging. So good design really can influence and create huge increases in sales.

Gosh, I would really love to design a very unique champagne bottle or maybe an amazing perfume bottle and packaging both with no expense spared totally new and incredibly stunning and decadent, yet still relevant to the brand and client.

I would love to take a brand/piece of packaging and revolutionise it to the extreme, looking closely at its carbon footprint, the material it is using, the shape and form it has always been presented in. Something that pushes the technology to beyond its limits and really makes the world think about the need for design and more importantly great purposeful design. That would be pretty awesome.

My secret is really my approach to all my designs; less is more, to keep the design to it’s simplest, non-cluttered or over-worked or fussy. But if there is a call for a more complicated design then, the most important point to consider is what to leave off and what is not needed in the design. I think this is the art of true design, which is my approach and kind of style to my way of thinking to design.

I admire many great designers: Marcello Minale, Martin Lambie-Nairn, Mary Lewis, Ian Logan, Jean Paul Gaultier and Paul Smith to name just a few.

Gosh there are so many I could choose, I really love the following ones: 1. The wireless Bowers & Wilkins Zeppelin speaker for its ergonomic, simplistic shape. 2. The Mac Pro again for its beautiful form and perfect styling. 3. Monkey Shoulder Scotch Whisky bottle & branding for its pure genius! Its 3 brass monkeys full of fun and quirkiness. And many more besides!

At the moment I would say the ‘Vonziu Elite Range’, as I have won not only silver but also a gold global award, both from my international peers. I have some great ideas for the rest in the range and I am very proud and honoured to be the creator of the design. I hope it becomes an iconic piece in later years to come.

For me I learnt very early on in my career that less is more and that it was equally important to know what to leave out and what to leave in on a design. When I was at art school I had a tendency to over complicate my designs to the point of full decoration, and one of my tutors took me aside and showed me how to think differently. I guess with a more commercial eye and viewpoint, it certainly worked and I still use the same thought process today.

I would of still done a job in the arts. I think if you are creative it is very hard not to follow your heart.

LIFE! It is so important that everything is designed, from a simple paper clip to a complex constructed building. Without design in the world, the world would be a dull empty box. Design at its best, captures the eye, appeals to the heart and satisfies the mind… It can help sell the most mundane items and to give them real purpose.

My life partner, who I know would truly follow me to the ends of the earth. And to my biggest supporters would again be my wife Susan and my two amazing daughters Madison and Skye.