Susan Jefferson

From fashion to art, literature to music, style means different things to different people. Often intangible but always obvious, style can be usefully defined as: "A distinctive manner which permits the grouping of work or image into related categories." From a practical perspective, we can use style to convey messages about ourselves and our businesses. We simply have to engage the cognitive faculty of our audience with grace and beauty that clearly communicates our clarity of vision. We’ve broken individual components of style from four recent commissions to demonstrate how this can be achieved: Andy Hamer is CEO of Codebook International :  a software firm providing business solutions to architects and facility managers. Creating an open consultative feel was important for an organisation whose customers’ approach to business is relaxed but professional. Expression is relaxed and confident. Head is balanced and upright, being neither aloof nor 'over-friendly'. Glas...

Making portraits of female clients is an honour but also a bit daunting. Women balance several roles simultaneously; sister, mother, lover, daughter, friend and of course professional businesswoman. It makes them complex creatures and a challenge for the portraitist needing to capture character. Creating a professional portrait is even harder. The image has to communicate professionalism without losing personality, capture elegance without losing authority. "clients make unconscious decisions based on your portrait." Despite our best efforts we all make unconscious judgements based on appearance. Recent Princeton research found that first-impression judgements were made in milliseconds and reinforced the longer portraits were viewed. You probably have a LinkedIn account: clients, employers and colleagues will be making unconscious decisions based on your portrait. So, for professionals of both sexes your portraits are vitally important. "identity can only provide clues...

Bi-folding doors have, without a shadow of a doubt, become extremely popular over the last few years and their popularity seems destined to grow even further. Bi-folds are a great option when there is a large aperture to fill as they can range in size from two doors with some manufacturers having a maximum size of eight doors. They are available in a number of configurations and many can have an access door included so the whole door does not need to be opened. Multi-point locking systems come as standard to ensure safety and security. Aluminium bi-folding doors are very contemporary in style and feature slim lines and lots of glass, meaning less of an interruption to the view outside. Available in over 150 different RAL colours and even dual colour it has never been so easy to find the right option. There are a range of handle options that can be matched to current decor and the option to have a weathered or non-weathered threshold. Aluminium is extremely low maintenance and, teamed ...