A corporate re-brand is not something that happens overnight. Generally speaking, corporate rebrands come about because either there has been a significant change in thinking about the way that the business operates, where you are positioning your brand in the market or that there has been enough time that your branding is starting to look a bit dated.
Read MoreHOW TO START SAYING NO IN SMALL BUSINESS
Saying NO to different opportunities as a small business owner is scary. We want to say YES all the time because we aren’t sure when the next opportunity might come or if by saying NO just that once, all the opportunities will disappear. But it’s not that cut and dried.
Read MoreHOW TO GET BETTER MILEAGE OUT OF YOUR BLOG POSTS
A blog post is not like a firework, one spark and it’s done. Blog posts can (and should!) attract customers for months after you write them. All it takes is a little planning and motivation to keep them working for you all year round. 1. Comments. You can and should be commenting on other people’s posts all over the Internet. On Facebook, Instagram, other blogs, LinkedIn, whatever platforms your brand operates on, create the conversation that social is supposed to be about. Be more subtle than “hey read my post”, but use it as an opportunity to contribute your own story, your own learnings or perspective. 2. Backlinks within your own posts This is one of my most effective tools as a social media manager. They say it costs 10x as much to attract a new customer as it takes to retain one – so why doesn’t the same rule apply for your blog? If you have an interested reader there, bounce them between posts and keep them on your site. This can be done in a few ways, including widgets that preview content you might be interested based on the tags attached to the post you are currently reading; or literal links in your post when that topic is mentioned. Both work well. 3. Emailing them out to clients when the question arises This is a great one for more corporate companies. How often us your customer service writing the same stupid response to a common question? Write a blog post, and cut your work in half and ensure that consistent quality information is given every time. 4. Flashback Friday, Throwback Thursday etc. This is a very visible Internet trend but is also just good advice. No-one else is going to talk about your older content if you don’t – and you didn’t write it for it to be a one and done deal did you? The idea of social media is also that your follower base is continually growing – so an older post will always have a new audience, and that might be the perfect piece of advice for that audience, who in turn will share and move the content, encouraging new followers who haven’t seen your content… See the cycle yet? So establish a flashback system – whether it’s #flashbackfriday #throwbackthursday or posting content that is exactly one year old; remember to push and hustle your…
Read MoreHow graphic designers can work with web developers for best results.
I have designed quite a few websites in my time and some of them I have even built and coded. The biggest trouble with being a designer working on web projects is undoubtedly working with developers. Good ones are hard to come by, and often you are working to completely different schedules – in my experience, they work nights and mornings to have their weekends off, while I need a little more sleep than that. Couple that with a designers need for perfection and a developers need for function and you have the potential for some sleepless nights and heavy frustration. In my experience, as with all things, it really comes down to good, open and honest communication. Similarly to briefing in a client, I’ve got some simple tips for briefing in a project to your dev team: 1. Always start with a face to face meeting. As a small and local business owner myself, I believe it’s incredibly important to support those Aussies who are working on their dream, so I strictly work with Australian developers. I have worked with a number of them over the past few years and the most successful projects have worked out when there was a face to face meeting, earlier in the design phase – once you’ve gotten an overall concept signed off by the client. Sit down, have a coffee and talk about what you expect from them; what you will do, where you go from here. Then take the time to explain how you think it will function, then get their expert input. If you don’t know about CMS’s or development languages because you’re newer to the game, that’s fine – but lean on your developer to make these recommendations so you don’t over promise to the client. 2. Project manage. At the end of the day, this is your client and it’s absolutely your ass if you can’t deliver. So work out a schedule (Gantt Chart for those in marketing), allow a buffer of time and start riding your developer a little. Anyone working on a far off freelance project is going to need a nudge, so drive the beast. 3. Content. Ultimately in website development nothing can be done by your developer without content. Text, images, graphic assets, the whole works. Get it together in web optimised .jpegs, sort it into page folders in your Dropbox, name everything using a…
Read MoreTHE BEST DIGITAL PROJECT PLANNER FOR GRAPHIC DESIGNERS
I get asked a lot how I stay on top of projects from so many different clients and different kinds of work and remember to do my own blogging and images and the whole lot. And I won’t lie to you – its a lot of stuff. It’s a lot of small tasks that make a big difference for a business, both my own and my clients businesses. Well today I am going to let you in on a little secret. My new most favourite thing, the secret to my continued success (other than my winning personality and moxie of course) and boy is it a doozey.
Read MoreWhy use WordPress over Wix to build your own website.
I think everyone remembers their first website and shudders – whether it was the worlds most customised MySpace page (how many people got their start in coding thanks to those skills I wonder…) or a badly coded multi page website done in DreamWeaver and actual code files that barely worked. No matter what side of the fence you fall on there, we can all appreciate how easy it is to create a beautiful website yourself with just the click of a few buttons and a reasonable eye for what looks good. My first website was my own. And it was (in 2011) a Wix website. And I still shudder. From that experience to a few more websites built on the platform and quite a few conversions from Wix to WordPress, I have learnt a little bit that cements my belief that WordPress is literally the best website builder known to us. Here’s what they won’t tell you about working with Wix. Updating things is frustrating. Getting the initial build done on a Wix website isn’t all that difficult. Once you learn how the system works, the user interface is pretty friendly and you can get the thing working quickly. But basic functions like blogging or an Instagram feed or adding more items to your portfolio are much more difficult than they need to be, and it dis-inclines you to do it. A website is a living breathing thing, and should be updated regularly for you to build better search engine results, a better user experience and ultimately grow your brand (whatever that looks like). Mobile responsiveness is not a priority Today we have to be constantly aware of how technology and devices changes our impression of a website. If you’re working on an iPhone 7 and all of a sudden someone’s website looks like shit, you’re absolutely going to notice and assume that business simply isn’t up with the times. So while you might be able to make your website look the way you want it to on YOUR computer or phone, Wix gives you incredibly limited tools to test and see what your site looks like on other devices or browsers. I just don’t think it’s good enough, and I have absolutely been burnt before. Hosting is a pain in the ass. Wix really encourage you to purchase hosting through their channels, and you have to be a hacker of defence-department proportions…
Read MoreSusie & Jake’s Wedding Invitations
Producing wedding invitations for any couple is going to be a challenge. You are working on the biggest and most expensive day of their life and you want to make sure that you do that honour justice. You want to do the absolute best job that you can possibly do for them. I am lucky to have been involved in a few weddings over the past couple of years, like Laura & Tim’s and Jo & Martin’s, and I really do relish the challenge of coming up with a distinct look and feel for wedding invitations that suits the couple to a tee. When I was approached by Susie & Jake to work on their wedding invitations, I knew I was ready for a new challenge. Susie came to me with the idea of using water colour paintings and native flowers as part of her invitations. This tied into her overall wedding theme of natives for bouquets and decorations at the receptions, and it’s lovely to be able to produce invitations that speak to part of the overall look of the wedding. The clusters of native flowers seen on their Save The Dates and Wedding Invitations are hand illustrated, not purchased stock imagery. This is incredibly important I feel to ensure that for a day like your wedding, you have a beautiful and completely unique piece that represents how important and individual your day is. We decided to continue the theme throughout all the stationary, with each piece having its own flavour – the Save The Dates have less flowers, being the first piece of the puzzle, while the Invitations are more like the bridal bouquet, layered with flowers and the RSVP cards are made up entirely of foliage, giving them a distinct look and feel. I absolutely afore these invitations, I think the effect is beautiful and totally suited to the couple they were created for. More importantly, the couple and their guests have all been completely delighted by the invitations, and you cant really ask for much more than that. Thank you Susie & Jake for letting me be part of your special day!
Read MoreKNOKAL HOMEPAGE REDESIGN
I think one of the hardest parts about going out on your own and starting your own business is knowing where to start, and where to find new customers. Part of it is not being afraid of rejection and literally getting in touch with everyone you have ever wanted to work with. And part of it is just putting yourself out there, and hoping that the person you are looking for is also looking for you. My god, this could be the intro profile on a dating website. What they say really is true – the best opportunities come when you put yourself out there. And in very few instances has that statement been as true as in the work that I have done with Knokal recently. Knokal is the online version of a business directory, specifically designed for small businesses – if you’re looking for an accountant, a graphic designer and even a zoologist, Knokal is the place to go. If you’re working for a big corporation and you need a freelancer or small business person to help you out, Knokal is the place to go. And as a small business owner myself, I wanted to check out the competition, get a bit of work from other small business owners (some of my favourite kinds of client) and generally put get on the page. I created a profile on Knokal, thanks to a hot tip from other entrepreneurial ladies in the LMBDW Group on Facebook. If you aren’t involved, you really should get on there, it’s a hotbed of badass babes doing good things. Anyway, that aside, I created a profile. Put in some information and thought that at the very least having more information about me around on the interwebs would be good for my SEO, and besides it was totally fee – so I wasn’t loosing anything by putting myself out there. Then along came David. David is the founder of Knokal, and knew that he needed a homepage redesign to get better conversions and attract more sign ups. He is a big fan of the entrepreneurial theory that business owners should “eat your own dogfood” – that is, if you have a product, use that product when you find yourself in need of whatever it is that you offer. So David needed a graphic designer, and he went to Knokal. I don’t know if it…
Read MoreDOMAINE JULIO – Packaging Design for This Must Be The Place and World Class Cocktails
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 MoreWHY I HATE THE NEW WESTERN SYDNEY UNIVERSITY LOGO
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