About me
I’m Rob — dad of three under six, graphic designer, and now unwilling hernia expert.
These blog posts are a designer-dad’s survival guide to life with three kids under six — told through the lens of print deadlines, pantone swatches, and parenting chaos. Where graphic design meets dad life, and the print registration is always blown out.
Expect honest, funny, and slightly chaotic stories where bedtime routines feel like client briefs, school pick-ups run like print jobs, and tantrums land harder than a missed deadline. It’s the messy overlap of kerning and parenting, colour matching and kid wrangling — proof that life doesn’t come with bleed marks or a neat final print.
Subscribe for more chaos (the good kind).
Or email rob.allen@brandem.com.au or rob@conservationprinting.com
What's "Dad Point of Hue"?
People sometimes ask me, “What’s Dad Point of Hue?”
It started as a simple idea — a play on “point of view” — but for me, it’s becoming something bigger. It’s a passion-project and how I see the world as both a designer and a dad. A life lived in full colour — the bright, the messy, the in-between.
As a designer, I’ve spent years thinking about layout, balance, and getting the colours just right. But fatherhood? That’s a whole different kind of palette. Some days are vivid and full of energy; others are muted, smudged, or covered in cereal and paint fingerprints.
Dad Point of Hue is where those worlds meet.
It’s about creating stories, pictures, and moments that remind kids (and parents) that life isn’t about being perfect — it’s about being present.
It’s about seeing the beauty in small things: a half-finished drawing on the fridge, the sound of kids laughing in the background while you’re trying to meet a deadline, the bedtime story that turns into a giggle fit.
Through my books, illustrations, and projects, I want to celebrate that colourful chaos — to mix design with dad life in a way that feels real, a little funny, and sometimes even brave.
It’s my reminder to keep looking for colour — even when life feels black and white.