For one reason or another, there has been plenty of talk online lately about brand guidelines – what you should include, why they’re important and what they offer your business. I’m not going to rehash that here, it doesn’t add any value to a conversation that is already happening. What I have observed though is the tendancy for brand guidelines to be a beautiful document that sits in a drawer and doesn’t get applied to all parts of your business, the way it should be. And that’s something worth tackling.
Read MoreWEDDING STATIONARY – BEN + EMMA
As a designer, any work that you undertake for yourself is always going to be heavily scrutinised. This is an expression of what you like, not what your client is directing you towards or what you need to do to make a crust. This is truly your own style, and it had best be incredible.
Read MoreREDESIGNING MY OWN LOGO
I have always maintained that one of the biggest issues in small business is that you, the owner, almost shouldnt have time to work on your own business – because when you do, that means there’s not as much work coming through the door. Like the mechanic who’s car is always falling apart, or the hairdresser who hasn’t had a colour in forever. It happens to us all. While I make a really active effort to make sure that my content is being updated, my website is fresh and my socials are looking great, there’s usually something that gives in these situations. And for me, it was my branding. I had simply out grown it. But the challenge and time it was going to take to sit down and rework was daunting. Really daunting! The problem with creating your own design work is that everything you touch must be the epitome of your work. You have no client to bail up and fall back on and cry about because they chose the wrong concept or gave you too restrictive a brief. This must be the pinnacle of what you can do, the hallmark piece that represents your style, your aesthetic and your approach. I know my lovely friend Kate from Two Wild Hands struggled with the same pressure when working on her own wedding recently, although hot damn did she pull it off. The aim was to create something simple, a mark that would stand the test of time but show creativity, multiple streams of service and embody the simplicity and clean lines that I truly love in good design. There’s some cute nod’s to things like responsive design and feminism there, but ultimately I have aimed to create a logo that encapsulates where I want my design to be, and I am proud of this design. If you’re feeling daunted by the idea of doing the hard work to get your own stuff up to scratch, here’s a cheerleader in your camp saying just go and do it. You will feel 100% better than if you didn’t. If you’re ready to overhaul your logo, your brand, your marketing collateral, social media or your product, I want to help you. All you have to do is get in touch and I will help make you something that YOU love as much as I love my new logo.
Read MoreRhonda’s Branding gets a refresh in Terrigal
The 80’s have a lot to answer for in terms of graphic design. Random triangles on everything, squiggly backgrounds and flourescent colours abound. And while we can continue to be inspired by that look, sometimes its nice to go for clean white, natural textures and pops of colour that are inspired by the true colours of food. Not everything needs to be neon! Terrigal darling and 80’s enthusiasts Rhonda’s Bar has recently had a complete brand refresh as part of an overarching relaunch of the restaurant. Long gone are the psychedelic walls, strong 80’s vibe and sticky floors. Instead, Rhonda’s has grown up and brought together branding to match. Their previous branding was wholly and solely inspired by the 80’s, and they owned it. This restaurant was known for its look, its theming, and was incredibly popular with the locals because of it. But now? It’s time for something more. The mid-century inspired shapes in Rhonda’s logo itself are a clean and fresh departure from their former logo, inspired by lipstick writing on the mirror and neon. The colour palette has changed, from being dominated by fluro pink, black, white and the glow of a neon sign, to be more relaxed, more mature and absolutely more coastal through the use of soft turquoise and grey, while keeping the strong signature black and white. Pattern is used sparingly but boldly – their social media and menu showcases the use of a black and white chevron that is elevated and obviously inspired by current interior design trends, while bringing in a fun repeat print through the menu and on imagery really gives you the vibe that this is a place to have a good time. Thankfully, this more mature and elevated approach extends not only from their branding but across their menu and drinks offering too. Crisp woodfired pizzas, modern tapas and sharing plates and classic spritz and cocktails mean that now Rhonda’s has become a place to start the night, share a great meal and have a good drink, rather than a place to end the night. With a sleek new website and beautiful new branding, I’m excited to see what’s next for Rhonda’s – seasonal menu’s, new drink offerings and delivery options are apparently all on the cards. Welcome to the brave new world Rhonda.
Read MoreDo you have a brand or is your brand you?
I had a client come to me recently wanting to rebrand his family business. They’re moving into the next phases of the business, where the son is taking over from the father and expanding the business into a range of new services, which is going to be great for the family and great for the son. However, he wants to keep the existing business name, and it got me thinking about what’s in a name.
Read MoreKAYLA + LEWIS WEDDING STATIONARY
I love working on weddings. As a graphic designer, normally something I produce is the first indication of the style of the event that guests are invited to, and that’s a pretty special thing. It is an incredible opportunity to be part of someone’s dream day, whatever that looks like and to help alleviate some of the stress around weddings.
Read MoreTHE NON-REBRAND REBRAND; OR, HOW TO FRESHEN UP YOUR BRAND WITHOUT A NEW LOGO.
A rebrand doesn’t have to be a completely new logo design. Because branding is made up of so many more elements than just your logo, by changing any of the core elements of what it is that makes up your visual identity you can completely refresh the look of your brand without having to lose the heritage and history of your brand. A logo should always be designed to stand the test of time. A logo is not the place to try out the Pantone colour of the year, or that new drawing technique just released by Adobe Illustrator, despite what your design student niece might tell you. Your logo should be timeless and should still hold the same values that you placed in it when it was originally created. But it is absolutely true, that after a bit of time, the other visual elements of your brand can need a bit of a refresh, a touch up, a realignment, to make sure that your brand continues to say what you want it to say, and continues to be relevant to the constantly evolving nature of business. Imagery, colour and layout are the quickest and easiest ways to give your brand a fresh new look, without throwing the logo out with the branding or baby out with the bathwater as it may be. A great example of this is the recent website redesign that I completed for the team at Hair by Phd. By simply updating their visual presence with a fresh new website, fantastic imagery and some new brand colours, we were able to completely revamp their presence. From their website to social media and print design, giving them a bold new look was simple – without having to change their well recognised and long-standing logo. Similarly for Objective Corporation. By updating the layout of all of their marketing materials, incorporating new brand imagery and playing on their long-standing brand colour through the use of a tonal palette, they were able to refresh their brand without losing a logo that has so much weight in a marketing in which they have operated for years. In both cases, these changes are neither simple nor subtle – in fact, they are quite dramatic, and as such, make a huge impact on the presence of and perception of the brand. And sometimes, that may be exactly what your brand needs to…
Read MoreWHY EVERYONE SHOULD HAVE A SIDE HUSTLE
When I got to my third year of design school, I distinctly remember taking on my first ever freelance client. It was my roommate at the time, and she and I traded a logo design for her burgeoning fashion business for a dress she made me for my cousin’s wedding. And pretty much since then, I ran a nice little side hustle as a freelance designer.
Read MoreOBJECTIVE CORPORATION REBRAND
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 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…
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