Branding

Laila Zichmanis is a Canadian brand strategist and marketer about to launch her business, Lumena, in Toronto, Canada. We’ve been working with her for some time now to develop a powerful brand identity for her business and I think these three initial concepts Caroline and her team have created are just stunning aren’t they?

Each concept has been borne out of the idea of light or illuminating things. Some obvious, some more subtle.

Concept One

Love this colour palette and the beautiful brand patterns.

Concept Two

I love the chink of light that shines through the “window” in the logo. It’s all created as a vector file so would be fully scaleable and could also work as a solid colour (albeit without the light chink!) if required.

Concept Three

This was Laila’s favourite concept: strong yet feminine. We’re currently in the process of amending colours and tweaking bits here and there, so I will certainly share very soon!

What do you think? I love them!

Tagged as in Branding, Case Studies, From The Studio, Graphic Design, Logo Design

These bright, crisp days are just what we needed aren’t they?

There’s a lot happening at Flourish at the moment which we’re all finding incredibly inspiring. Team promotions, new designers, some very exciting client projects, the launch of the branding masterclass, oh, and the small matter of a nip tuck to the Flourish brand identity (which I’ll share with you soon). Because of all this bright, new stuff, I’m feeling very fired up, very creative and very excited about the future.

I think this lovely, yellow mood board just about sums up our mood right now. Optimistic and inspired. How are you feeling right now?

Recently I’ve been spending 10 minutes at the start of every day on Pinterest. It’s a tip I picked up from Elizabeth Cairns when we were recording a video for the Branding Masterclass; Elizabeth encouraged us to spend time getting into our flow at the start of the working day: doing things that inspire us. For some of you that may be being relaxed, others may like to organise, spend time outside or exercising. For me it’s about being creative. And I’m finding Pinterest the perfect inspiration tool – as long as I limit myself to 10 minutes a day.

What do you do to get into your flow?

Ps the only downside to Pinterest is that it’s incredibly difficult to track back the image sources. None of the above are my images (apart from the colour palette) all via my Spring Optimism Pinterest board

Tagged as in Colour Psychology, Inspirations

I’m often asked where we find our inspiration for our own brand and the brands we work on. The people that ask have clearly never seen our creative boardroom! At the heart of the room is a bright (flourish) green painted sideboard packed with magazines, catalogues and direct mail to inspire us.

We are also adept at using online resources: Pinterest, google images, design blogs and work from other agencies.

As well as using these resources for a bit of focused and structured inspiration, it’s also about having our eyes open at all times, because you literally never know where inspiration will strike. Packaging in a supermarket or department store, an old property, travel abroad or something as simple as the colours in nature. All of these elements have the power to inspire, it’s just about how you interpret them.

So how can you find inspiration for your own brand?

Start with your home. Most (not all) of the small business owners we work with run a business that taps into their passions; a business that is in some way a reflection of them.

If that’s the case for you, root through your wardrobe, your favourite items in your kitchen or the things that influence you in interior design. Is there a common theme?

Look at the magazines you have in your home and start to dissect them. What do you love about them? Is there anything that you can take inspiration from? Layout, treatments, typography etc.

Visit exhibitions and take inspiration from how other businesses brand themselves. Start to build up a mood board to help you articulate what you’re after.

Once you have a scrapbook or mood board of how you’d like everything to look and feel, you’re in a great position to talk to a branding company or graphic designer and they will be able to interpret this into something unique and very special

Images: All sourced via Pinterest

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