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Archive for the ‘Design’ Category

Brochure Design

Thursday, October 27th, 2011

Just One Brochure

This is the second instalment in our complete rebranding for Just ONE. Based here in Liverpool; Just ONE is a recruitment agency specialising in the health care industry.

We’ve been giving them a fresh new look, company logo, brochure and a website design – which we'll be writing a blog about very, very soon!

After getting to know our clients well and understanding their needs, we began the process of rebranding. We know that their company revolves around eight core business streams. Each section of their business can stand alone, but more importantly can be accessed in ONE place (get the pun there…). This gives their clients ‘Just ONE’ point of call if they need one or more of the services they provide. These eight business streams under the one roof, is how our concept began, and after incorporating this core idea with some kick-ass design skills, we created a logo that harnessed that.

But rebranding is not just about a logo, it’s about continuity. This idea has to translate across all media…

Because these eight business streams are at the core of everything Just One do, we wanted to continue this concept across into the brochure. Once again, bringing out our designing skills we set to work crafting a brochure that had the same elegance, and crispness as their logo.

These brochures have a lot of information about the services Just ONE offer. Displaying all this information in a way that is visually engaging can sometimes be tricky, if it appears dull or lengthy consumers will generally glaze or skim over parts looking for the most relevant text.

Each business stream was displayed on a single page, accented with its own individual colour. Accenting each page with its own colour is a great way to show all eight sections in a visually striking and easy to understand manner. We also felt these colours were strong enough to carry their own. So, with this said, all the images are black and white. Some may say this is risky, but we say… it’s a ruddy good design! It makes the important assets of the company really stand out and I believe it enhances the overall design giving it a very chic, minimal and professional appeal.

The most important thing about good design is… that you don’t notice it. – If designed correctly it should showcase the information and engage the reader without being too ‘in your face’ or taking over from the information it’s trying to display.

Testimonial;

“Really pleased with the work carried out by Studiowide. Consistently offered advice and guidance and provided a first class customer service. We've now got a website, brochure and logo that is unique to our marketplace. All the feedback we've received has been positive and it's helping us move into new business areas.” Greg Price. Business Development Manager, Just One Recruitment & Training, Merseyside.

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Company logo

Thursday, October 6th, 2011

Just ONE is a multi-disciplinary education, healthcare & social care consultancy that covers a range of sectors including housing and education. This client came to us with the request to redesign their overall image, including, logo, website design and company brochure.

The current company logo and website had been with them since the company was set up over 10 years ago and it was felt the time was right for a refresh.

Our main challenge in this project was to inject a creative edge whilst still conforming to the professional standards for the sectors which the company operates in.

As usual, even though we were all itching to jump right into the logo design project, before we pick up any tools we must first review the project in full to find out exactly what we are producing and what the desired outcome is. These questions are typically written in a design brief, but, more often than not, as in the case of this client, can be talked through at the first briefing meeting.

Just ONE gave Studiowide an overall brief of; simplicity, clean, crisp and uncluttered, and something that is unique for their industry.

Armed with this information for the new company logo we can then move into the research stage. We analysed the competition to see what types of logos they were using and to see if there are any trends or clichés that stood out, and which we should steer well clear!

Designing a logo is a collaborative process, meeting with the client, hearing their needs and taking on board their suggestions. The company had an idea for the prominent use of colour in their identity, in order to portray eight business streams which make up the company divisions.

Our client also gave us explicit instructions that whilst they would like to incorporate as much of their idea as possible, they wanted Studiowide to steer them towards good design decisions.

We then worked on creating a number of design concepts which we then whittled down to the three best designs. From the three concepts we explored slightly different variations of each one and presented them to the client.

Whilst undergoing this process there is always a natural winner in the three concepts. The one concept which stood out for us was the use of the eight strong colours warping in a circular motion. This was a visual representation of the cross sectional working of the business streams, able to move together whilst remaining a separate entity.

The warped shape of the symbol was also utilised in the logo type. We chose a simple san serif font with a light-weight stroke, in lower case for the words “just”, moving into a capitalised and stronger font type for the word ‘one’.

Out of the three concepts we had submitted the client had selected the one which we also felt was the strongest concept.

Following this agreement of concept we then moved into the refining process of laying out the symbol and typography in a variety of formats to come up with the final company logo – above.

All that remains once we have created the final logo is to prepare the digital files in print and web versions and submit these to the client.

Every business and brand needs a company logo, more so in fragmented market spaces. No brand or product should wander faceless, in the competitive marketing jungle without one.

Testimonial;

Tags: company logo, Logo design
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3D Graphic design

Friday, July 29th, 2011

Last month a Liverpool based inventor came to us to request our assistance with bringing his recent ideas to life. Our client required 3D graphic design and modelling in order to create product design drawings to support his applications to a Patent office.

We arranged a series of short briefing meetings and then set about sketching up the outlines so that we could finalise the concept. The client brought us the overall idea of how the products would work and what the they should do, it was then down to us to add the finer design details required in order to bring the concepts to life through 3d graphic design.

In three dimensional computer graphics, 3D graphic design and 3D modelling is the process of developing a 3D model using specialised software such as Autodesk 3ds. It is a process of creating a wireframe model that represents a three dimensional object. That object can be alive or inanimate. A three dimensional model is created using a set of points in 3D space which are connected by various geometric data such as lines and curved surfaces.

Autodesk 3ds Max, formerly 3D Studio MAX, is the 3d modelling software that we used on this project. It's a great animation and rendering package developed by Autodesk Media and Entertainment. We use our software on the Windows 7 platform using 64 bit media PCs. 3ds Max is some serious software when it comes to 3D product design and 3D modelling and is frequently used by video game developers, TV commercial studios and architectural visualisation studios.

We had four different products to work on for our client, all requiring 3d graphic design and setting in a graphical page complete with title headers. The brief also required to include some capability for the final model to be viewed in proprietary software. We turned to our good friend Adobe and created PDF documents with the finished files embedded. This meant that the client could open up the PDF using the standard Adobe reader and then view the graphic design in actual 3D space.

The project took 4 days to complete and the total turnaround from initial meeting to sign off was just 10 days. The finished graphics were delivered on time to the patent office. Our client has now commissioned our strategic marketing services to help bring their other products to market.

Tags: 3d graphic design
Posted in Case studies, Design | No Comments »

Business Advertising

Tuesday, July 5th, 2011

By Beki Reilly

It’s been estimated that we see over 500 advertising messages every day (BBC), how many of these could you recall on your way to work or to the local shops? Not many I can imagine.

This may sound like an unusually high figure but advertising can so easily wash over us, instead of doing what it’s intended to do – grab our attention. It acts like a garnish to our everyday lives. We know it’s there… sitting on the side on the plate, but we’re just not interested in it.

In order to make an impact with business advertising you need to do something that;
a) Stands out
b) Communicates the USP (unique selling point) of your business to potential consumers in those few seconds you have to impress

We were recently asked to create an advertisement that captured the interest of fine food retailers, and stood out from the competition; this was for our client Feeding Your Imagination.

We created a concept around a bold visual which highlights that Feeding Your Imagination offers something different; a bespoke range of gourmet food produce with flavours people may not have experienced before. This in theory becomes a red carpet event for your taste buds – the VIP in food indulgence.

Extending the uniqueness even further we integrated the advert with a Quick Response (QR) code. This code enables consumers to interact with the advert by scanning the QR code with a mobile phone. QR codes are at the start of becoming main stream in UK promotional circles and are an ever-increasing tool in business advertising.

These codes are a great way of engaging potential consumers. The visual cue of the code acts as a hook, which then leads the user to further substance. This is advertising with a reinforced message, without overloading everyone.

To interact with the QR code users require a smart phones application. Consumers then scan the code which will then take them to an extended message of the campaign. This can be a further call to action or a promotional offer. In this campaign we used the QR landing page to communicate further product details to potential new retailers.

Our business advertisement for Feeding Your Imagination will be gracing regional fine food magazines over the next few months. As always we like to share our designs which are created for our customers from our studios in Liverpool.

As a company we also like to share best practice advice allowing new marketers and business owners an insight into industry techniques – please use our share buttons to repost this information to your friends and colleagues.

Tags: Advertising, business advertising, creative
Posted in Advertising, Creatives, Design | No Comments »

Logo design

Wednesday, June 22nd, 2011

by Carl Da-Costa-Greaves

It struck me today whilst signing off a logo design project for a client, how important it is to get the right logo for your business. This isn’t just the responsibility of design agencies alike, but business owners should also step-up to understand the importance and complex nature of a logo design process. Only then can the right choices be made and the necessary steps taken to commission a professional logo design in the first place.

A good logo design is not just a mark or graphic but is an opportunity to create an immediate recognition for your organisation. Your logo can have meaning and above all represent your business in a professional way.

So why is it that some businesses still continue to operate with either no logo or just a cheap ‘get me by’ stock graphic? Some people just don’t get how important a logo is and how valuable it is to their business.

A great logo must firstly be simple and allow for easy recognition; good logos feature something unexpected or unique, without being overly drawn. Followed by memorability – an effective logo design should be memorable; this can be achieved through a simple, yet appropriate design. Lastly, for a logo to be effective it should also be timeless and able to work across a variety of mediums and applications.

Whilst designing a good logo, thought must be given to the environments that the logo will be used in. Online, in print, Avatar formats for social media sites and favicons. Addressing all of these variables up front helps to yield a good logo. Whilst naturally considering all of these environments we also follow a logo design process of;

The ‘meet and brief’: One of the advantages for ourselves as a creative provider targeting local businesses is that we can deal on a personal level. The first stage in all of our creative services’ is the ‘meet and brief’. All of our clients are invited to our Rodney Street studio for a creative discussion about their business, and to discuss their logo designs. This crucially gets them out of their usual environment and as professional Chartered Marketers we use this opportunity to bounce ideas around, whilst we learn about their overall marketing strategy.
Research: Following our general agreement of what the brief will look like we then move onto conduct research, focussing on the industry itself, on its history and on its competitors.
Reference: We then conduct research into logo designs that have been successful and current styles and trends that are related to the design brief.
Sketching and conceptualising: This is where the creative matter gets to work. In order to end up with 3-5 concepts we would typically brainstorm and scamp up over 20 logo concepts. These are developed around the brief and research.
Sleep on it: Good reflection is an important part of the design process and allows our ideas to mature, whilst providing renewed enthusiasm ready for the next day.
Presentation: Crunch time. This is when we present 3-5 digitised logos to the client, eagerly awaiting their feedback in anticipation.

Our sample logo design project illustrated above was created for HR Integrated Solutions. The company consists of a small team of human resource professionals who service a variety of HR needs for a range of SME businesses. Here we created a simple logo which has both meaning and depth, whilst remaining personal to their business. The logo consists of contemporary typography and a simple graphical illustration which reflects the individual business owners.

Testimonial;

“Having very limited experience in the area of marketing or branding, Carl was extremely patient with us; talking us through the process but still allowing our own ideas to take fruition! Carl and his team have the patience of saints; for as the ideas became visuals we changed our minds and wanted different aspects. This happened on a number of occasions! All our demands were undertaken by the Studiowide team without complaint; they understood and wanted the best for us, their client. Communication was excellent, and we were kept informed and up to date on progress. Thank you Carl and all the team at Studiowide.” Heather Hayes, Director, HR Integrated Solutions.