The Change Creative
The colour yellow is a colour that, like red, DEMANDS our attention and is impossible to not notice being the lightest hue of the spectrum. It is uplifting, happy, cheerful and fun. Yellow also encourages original thought, improves our inquisitive nature and offers hope and optimism for the future whilst improving our outlook on life. Continue “The colour yellow and its meaning”
The monocle, the sign of a true sophisticated gentleman also showed the wearer as an intelligent and mature human being. Where has this piece of clothing gone? It takes utter class and confidence to wear something such as this and the design (of which this blog is all about) is nothing short of gold plated genius. In this blog post, I discuss the design of the monocle and 10 famous people that have worn or do wear one. Continue “The monocle , the sign of sophistication and 5 gentlemen who wore them”
Many companies like to add some Christmas sparkle to their brand during the festive period to show their warm wishes to their customers and it can be a great way to put an extra smile across the faces of your consumers. In this blog post, I will briefly discuss several ways for you to make your WordPress website Christmas themed. Continue “How to make your wordpress website Christmas themed”
Thinking of a redesign of your website? For many people, their website is their love, their pride and joy, their baby and no one can give it a bad name or degrade it otherwise you’ll defend it to the hilt. Unfortunately, just like flairs and mullets design goes out of fashion and so do websites at a much quicker rate than most other things that are designed too! I decided the time had come to redevelop my website as it wasn’t reflecting my main skill ( which is probably my artistic and graphical training ) so wanted to bring that across in how I layout my pages and make the visit a more visually appealing treat and showing what I can do for you or a potential client. In this post, I explain 5 reasons it may be time to bin the loafers and put on some boots and get redesigning your website. Continue “Should you redesign your website and why I did”
Creating a colour scheme for your brand should not be taken lightly, colour has a huge psychological power over its viewer than has been with us in nature from the beginning of time. It’s not simply saying ‘I want it to be yellow’, you need to consider what shade of yellow as a vivid bright yellow has a different feel, mood and meaning than a dark mustard yellow. Here is some basic information about the meaning of the main shades of colour.
If I see another little 3d white man with a huge spherical head on a website or as a Twitter profile image I think my head will explode with creative madness ! This little man is soooo over used by small businesses that it shows a lack of understanding of just how important branding and graphic design plays in your potential customers decision making.
This may sound like I am being extremely harsh on the little white man and please don’t suggest I am bullying him but your business is a unique entity, unlike this little fellow. By using common stock imagery you are : –
Most medium sized to large corporations will have what is called a branding style guide and it must be adhered to at all times. Some of the elements in the guide can include what fonts should be used, their spacing & curning, the exact RGB, CMYK colours of the brand and the typical images and marketing message that should be considered as part of the overall look and feel of any marketing collateral whether digital or offline.
I realise by using stock images that look the same you think you are being consistent but if that image is seen again and again throughout the web on different websites that aren’t your own business then you are damaging the possibility of selling your product or image to the target market.
When I see people using unaltered stock images online it really disheartens me and puts me off using that business service or product, it makes me feel I can’t trust them and I will disregard them from my retail choices.
Don’t get me wrong stock images are great in helping graphic and digital designer gather elements you need to create unique graphics but if you use them as the sole way to “picturize” your website you will simply be putting your potential customers off doing business with you as although may you think the images you have chosen look good the majority of people will see an unprofessional website that shows lack of care, does that really reflect your business goal? I doubt it, your business has personality so show it off to the world!
The little white man doing various activities is my no.1 thing that makes my creative blood boil to see people using on their digital platforms, I mean, why!?!
But it also gets worse, pictures of random actors trying their hardest pretending to be business people standing in line are common place, avoid them or use sparingly and never use them for your main brand image that is simply a big no no!
It is probably better to have no images at all if you are going to use unaltered stock images that are damaging your online reputation with potential customers. If you need unique images communicate your message verbally through correct use of heading styles, and contextual information and then hire a graphic/digital designer when your business budget can afford it.
It may seem like an extra expense your business doesn’t need and maybe the cost will seem heavy at first but if the graphics communicate your business message in a unique and imaginative way compared to your market rivals then when people are looking for your service/product they will remember you and see that you are indeed a very highly professional business worthy of doing business with as well as increasing the worth of your business.
I am JAWILSONDESIGN a branding, web and graphics specialist that can help you improve your company’s image in a unique and imaginative way if you should need any help updating, improving or creating a new brand image please don’t hesitate to contact me.
I was approached by a health business expert who is in the process of starting up a business in association with Forever Living Aloe Vera Products to design a logo and business card. In this post I show how the logo developed and evolved over the two week process.
To start I needed a basic understanding of the company’s service and products. I was informed that Diamond Lifestyles will be promoting a lifestyle selling Forever Living products and building a team of other sales members to keep the sales flowing, increasing your turn over and reaching the “Diamond Lifestyle”.
My first idea was to combine the Aloe Vera plant with a diamond as can be seen in this picture below. This was a very basic idea and only a very quick mock up to see what it may look like combining the two elements but I beleived it to be “too literal” and no at all professional or communicating the right message so… I went back to the drawing board!
My first thought was to be very visual but then I considered how other health companies represent themselves to the market and after studying some of the more successful brands a classic and elegant style is used by most brands. I decided that I would try combing the D and L to create an abstract use of the two letters and ensuring the typography was communicating the right message.
I decided this was the right way to approach the logo but decided it needed some graphic within the lettering. As the company was branded Dimaond Lifestyles I wanted to include the diamond somewhere on the logo. Above you can see the first logo is inside the lettering on the tip of the L but something just wasn’t right so I got a pen and paper out and did a few sketches.
Realising that the key aspect of the company is to help people reach the pinicle point of a “Diamond Lifestyle” I took the back of the D & turned it into a pedestal ( as can be seen above ). This felt right and communicated the message in a more subtle way than the first idea.
The logo was starting to get somewhere! The pedestal idea was really liked by the business owner and thus some more development ensued. I realised that the new logo had no relevance or indication that Aloe Vera was involved in the company which I considered to be a slight problem.
Considering the plant itself, an aloe vera leaf has what look like spikes ever so often down the edges. Taking this element of Aloe Vera I added it to the D but after self analysis I concluded it was starting to look less clinical and elegant and starting to look a bit more cartoon like which I definitely didn’t want. The message I was sending out to anyone viewing the logo was going in the wrong direction so I took a step back and added The name of the company below the DL positioned like a set of stairs.
After showing the logo to my client we discussed how we both felt the diamond was being lost a little so I made the diamond a lot bigger and more prominent in the logo design than it used to be. Below are a few different variations of the logo with a large diamond.
Now we had enlarged the diamond colour was the next thing to be considered. My client said “I don’t think black is the right colour for an Aloe Vera company” and maybe she was right.
The black is the colour I usually create any logo in so that colour doesn’t influence design but black can also be used in logo design to represent a clinical and crisp feeling which is a characteristic that I felt was important in designing for a health company.
Listening to my clients wishes I took the favoured logo design and then tried varying colours to see what it may look like.
Realising that flat design is in vogue at the moment I tried to steer clear of gradients…now that the logo had colour I didn’t feel it was adding anything of particular value and I still felt as though the black was best closely followed by the white, my client agreeing but also showed interest in the green ( for the literal sense of aloe vera).
Again I felt adding colour to the logo in this flat fashion gave the impression of a cartoon like and even worse, cheap impression to the company which I wanted to avoid thus I spoke to my client and suggested we strip back the colour again and consider “the colour of a diamond”.
A diamond doesn’t have any colour, it can trap light and thus become iridescent of every colour of the rainbow but it is in my opinion a diamond shares similar qualities to that of ice…all these thoughts of multiple colours led me naturally onto considering a 3d gradient approach.
As can be seen in this logo the diamond has been reduced right down but an edgey diamond like gradient has been applied to the logo. Showing this to the client she was extremely happy with how it looked, she preferred a 3d look rather than the flat logo, it was really starting to go in the right direction.
The final logo was slightly metallic/silver. It kept the initial idea of a clinical and sleek look to represent the health industry whilst keeping colour to a minimal to avoid any message linking to colour. Although there is no representation of Aloe Vera my client and I concluded that the key aspect of the company is the “Diamond” status for new members of the sales team.
We discussed that the Aloe Vera could be on the business card thus communicating the link to Forever Living. To learn more about Diamond Lifestyles please click here.
In my next post I will show and discuss the business card I developed in combination with the logo.
Your business isn’t just a grey box, paperwork and turnover, your business is a piece of art and a brand. The brand is the personality that identifies your product, service or company against your market rivals. Get it right and it will attract the consumers you are seeking, get it wrong and it could detract your potential customers away from doing business.
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If your brand is designed in such a way that provokes human emotion it can even get excellent media attention
Remember the 2012 Olympics Logo and games mascots? They were controversial and many people verbally communicated just how much they didn’t like it. By being controversial and so different to previous Olympics logos it was give huge media coverage which made the brand awareness and attention to the games itself very high on an unprecedented level.
In my opinion it was an excellent brand design because it got people talking regardless of whether it was liked or disliked by the majority of people. What people experienced was something that was different, unexpected, pushing boundaries and futuristic.
It even grabbed the attention of conceptual extremists with suggestions of aliens making an appearance or there being a major terrorist attack. Bizarrely, this increased the success of the brand design by spreading the word of the 2012 Olympics in all communities interested in these things and further put the Olympics into people’s minds.
The importance of choosing the right colour cannot be undermined. Colour have so many meanings to us on a subconscious and cultural level that different combinations can convey and symbolize a different emotion and concept.
Once you identify the colour combination that you like best and convey the message you need your designer MUST adhere to the EXACT colours so your brand is easily recognisable.
Next to consider is the most familiar object of branding – the logo.
I believe that a good logo design must be able to communicate the product or service being sold in a conceptual but not literal way. Another words if you sell ice creams don’t simply use a clipart of an icecream and forget to edit it, instead consider your target market and what may attract someone to do business with you rather than go to one of your competition. What makes your ice cream business different from the rest? Can it be inco-operated into part of the logo design?
After the design of the colour combination & logo a good brand designer will know the importance of creating a style guide so it easy to follow for future designs. The style guide is created so that any future branding works (such as advertising) relates and is identifiable as your company.
When designing a new advert this style guide should be consulted; it doesn’t mean it should restrict your creativity but instead keep your company looking professional and re-enforce the brand in peoples minds consistently wherever they see something to do with your business whether it is a compliment slip to a large billboard advertising it should speak you.
A well designed business identity isn’t just important, it is crucial to your business! When you start your company hire a designer you must make sure they are professional and understand how delicate an operation a well designed brand is and takes time to perfect.
The branding designer should be able to design everything that your business identity will appear on from letterheads to websites it should all have a consistent feel but also convey a message, even have a life of its own it has that much personality!! Don’t take your business identity lightly consult a branding designer today, you will find it is one of the best investments you make in the early stages of your business.
Having an email address that isn’t @hotmail or @gmail whether for business or applying for jobs is really quite important for several reasons. In this blog post I plan to explain the issues surrounding not having a branded email address.
Last year I started rebranding an IT company that had two sectors, a data centre consultancy & a state of the art Colocation Data Centre. Both had been branded with separate identities due to the fact the consultancy was very well established and a recognized brand and the investor didn’t want to damage the brand recognition. Considering this the rebranding of the company had to be carefully thought out and the Digital Artwork to be displayed on the walls of the data centre was no different. In this post I discuss 5 things that I feel are important to consider whenever you design some digital artwork for a corporation. Continue “5 things to think about when designing good digital artwork”
