Each of us in small business came into what we are doing with a Vision or a skill or maybe even a dream. It could have manifested itself as a product or a service, a doodad or widget or even just selling the idea – but there was obviously a time where we were doing it all. The making, the thinking, the website, the writing, the selling, the chasing and – if you were lucky – the invoicing.
Read More
As part of an ongoing conversation into how we should all be using social media in 2019 is the conversation about sales. Social media managers are increasingly being asked about the dollar value amount they bring into a business, what’s their ROI. And we have no issues about being asked about our ROI – what we do want to look at is what we mean when we talk about the “return”.
Read More
A new year is a time when most of us review the year that has been and take the opportunity to adjust our habits moving into the new year. Call it new years resolutions or intentions or your focus for the year, now is the time to be considering how you want your year to look, especially within your work or business.
Read More
I like to think that I am pretty lucky in the people that I call my clients. I know a lot of people with an incredible amount of talent, and one of those is Charlie Ainsbury. Charlie with his business partner Luke run one of the best bars in Sydney, This Must Be The Place, named Timeouts Best New Bar of the Year in 2016. Being that they are both absolutely top-shelf bartenders, they have this tendency to win awards – and there isn’t a bigger cocktail award in Australia than the World Class Cocktail Competition, which Charlie won in 2014 and again in 2016. Pretty incredible huh. I was invited by BLANK Agency, the marketing gurus for This Must Be The Place, to help design the packaging for a product that was part of the submission for this years World Class Cocktail Competition – a ready-to-pour cocktail that could be sold off the shelf. Charlie created an amazing cocktail inspired by the passion of Don Julio Gonzalez, the maker of Don Julio Tequila, which extends the cocktail flavours and experience into the meal, blurring the boundaries between wine and cocktail. Infused with vanilla, cardamon, chardonnay and star anise, this cocktail is the perfect accompaniment to food and brings out the best in a range of flavours. For the bottle design, we utilised watercolours to abstractly show the range and levels in the cocktail, from strong and rich to light and fruity. The label was designed to compete with a range of wines in the category, particularly those which are biodynamic and boutique. Wine labels are typically beautiful, with a focus on art and design elements like illustration and watercolours, and so to appeal to a similar target market and belong as a part of the category, similar inspirations were used. To accompany the cocktail, we created a booklet that was designed to educate the customers, being that this product is a completely new concept and quite innovative. This would be hung on the bottle and is full of ingredient illustrations, tasting notes and serving instructions, to make sure that each bottle of Domaine Julio is served in the way it was intended, to best appreciate the flavours. I love working with anyone who loves what they do, and the team at This Must Be The Place are exactly that. Here’s hoping that this beautiful cocktail is available on shelf sometime in the near future…
Read More
I have been thinking about writing this post for months. I wasn’t sure that I should do it, I really didn’t want to offend anyone. But here’s the thing – this is an opinion piece, and my feelings are so strong on the topic I can’t keep it in anymore. Let’s start with a preface – I love the University of Western Sydney, or Western Sydney University. I did my Masters there, my partner studies there and I think that their advertising as part of the rebrand has been some of the best I have seen in many years at creating a real vision of what Western Sydney is and can be. My problem lies with the logo. Flat out the whole thing is really unbalanced and it makes me so frustrated that I ball my fists up and growl at the signs when catching the bus past the campus (which was the catalyst for this piece). I understand what they are trying to achieve – directly tying the university to the rise of Western Sydney, the SEO benefits, the prominence of WESTERN SYDNEY over University implies that no matter who you are, there is a place for you here, I get it. But WHY is the crest at the bottom of the logo? that is the part that baffles me. Comments from the university are below – “The new brand elevates Western Sydney. Reordering the word mark and placing Western Sydney at the top of the logo is a symbol of the pride we have in our community and region. The shield is the platform for our typographic ‘W’, which is unique with the curved based referencing the landscape. Colour is one of the more emotive shifts in the brand, changing from blue to red. The deep red as the primary colour is bold, determined and confident. This is partnered with vibrant tones such as fluoro orange to deliver youthfulness and optimism to the brand.” – Sourced here. If WSU is aiming itself at the same kind of visuals as the Ivy League universities of the U.S., then the crest is the most important part of the visual. In all logos, the logo mark is just as important as the typography attached to that logo. And maybe that’s my issue, that the logo Mark is not placed in a position of importance, that it is placed as an after though.…
Read More
For those of you in the design world, by reading this headline you already know exactly what I’m talking about. For those of you who aren’t, here is the overview: AirBnB, an accommodation connection website for international travellers, has just relaunched their logo. Now, I spoke to you last week about why a logo is so important to a small business (and to be totally fair, the same rules do apply for medium and large size businesses too), and I spoke about how important it is for your logo to be unique.
Read More
Someone once told me that a logo is worth a thousand words. I would probably agree, but change it slightly – a logo is worth the first thousand words your business will ever say.
Read More