Remembering Andy Croft

We first met Andy through his involvement with Transition Norwich. We asked him to help with work we were doing for Home Farm Nacton to develop local markets for their organic vegetables. We remember vividly his enthusiasm, excitement and extraordinary eye for the character of things as we drove him round the farm to inspire his design of a new logo. Andy’s design perfectly captured the beautiful setting of the farm on the Orwell estuary and is still used by the farm, including on the striking vegetable boxes he also designed.

When we later founded Hodmedod Andy was the obvious choice to develop the design of our brand and packaging. He brought his fresh and quirky perspective to the task, as well as a perfectionist attention to the smallest detail, collaborating with illustrator Carol Kearns to create our logo and all our packaging. Andy quickly developed a close and creative working relationship with Carol, working with her illustrations and hand-lettering to produce the unique look and feel of the Hodmedod range. A typically inspired touch of Andy’s was to suggest that we have our cartons printed inside out to take advantage of the rougher texture of the back of the card.

Most recently Andy was working on a redesign of our labels. Again, it was Andy’s unique vision that first suggested a distinctive unusually shaped label as a key element of the new design. Our relationship with Andy came full circle back to Home Farm Nacton as one of his last designs was the label for the organic quinoa the farm now grows for us.

We greatly appreciate the contribution of Andy’s talent to Hodmedod and will always remember him with great fondness. Getting to know him through the work he did for us we couldn’t help but be aware of the important part music played in his life. Andy would never have mentioned it, but it was no surprise to learn how he’d responded to a busker having his guitar smashed last year by getting a group of fellow Norwich musicians together to raise funds to buy him a new one.

There's a great tribute to Andy Croft (known as Andy Sacre on stage) and the musical side of his life on Richard Shashamane's Norwich Blog.

We’ll be making a donation in Andy’s memory to Youth Music, a charity that gives disadvantaged children and young people the chance to make music. We encourage anyone who’s enjoyed Andy’s work for Hodmedod to do the same:

Donate to Youth Music in memory of Andy Croft...

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