Over the last couple of weeks I’ve shared with you some of the brands that I love, and the reasons why. We’ve also looked at some of the learnings you can take into your own business and I hope that I’ve started to inspire you about how you can make your brand more engaging, more fun and perhaps more sticky.

But how do you make those lessons your own? Aside from the legalities of copying someone you admire, it just doesn’t make good business sense. Branding is all about differentiating yourself from your competitors, making yourself irresistible to your ideal clients and communicating in a way that makes people ache to work with you.

There’s a concept in design that no idea is ever new, that we’re constantly taking inspiration from what has gone before and building on it to create something fresh and new.

I think there’s a lot of truth in that.

Great design doesn’t just happen. Inspiration is all around us, and being good at what we do is about opening our eyes to what’s out there and creating a mental scrapbook of ideas, ready to call upon when the time is right.

The skill, for me, is in being able to make the appropriate links to inspiration and creating something that is inspired by, rather than slavishly copying, one or a multiple of trends. I often see ideas that are ‘inspired by’ something that just doesn’t fit with the company’s brand. And you know what? It doesn’t work, it feels awkward. Wrong somehow.

If you’re opening your eyes up to your branding then you need to take your inspiration from much of what’s around you. But then you need to put your own twist on it. If you don’t, it won’t be authentic. I was watching a video for Creative Live which Jasmine Star was presenting and she said something really powerful:

(I’m paraphrasing here)

“I’ve shown you how I did me. Now you need to work out how to do you.”

You can see the full video here.

And that for me is the essence of a great brand. Don’t put illustrations on your website because you like ours and you want a piece of it. Don’t wear (as Jasmine puts it) flare white jeans because she does. Don’t use that font because you’ve seen someone else using it and it seems to be working for them. Put your own spin on it, work out how you’re going to do you.

And so as you look through websites and cuttings of the brands that inspire you, look at what they do, what appeals to you and ask yourself why it works. But most importantly, ask yourself what your take is going to be.

You have to put your spin on things, and be able to walk away from an idea that you love because it doesn’t work for your brand.

So embrace the inspiration, keep your mind open to ideas, but know when to say no as much as yes.

I’m going to share the development of this across a couple of posts as we really need your input moving forwards. But first up, the initial designs and brainstorming.

Avatar Marketing Inc is a startup marketing business that offers marketing services to Canadian SME’s. Laila Zichmanis has a strong background in marketing and brand strategy, having previously worked for Procter and Gamble, amongst other organisations. Laila is now turning her attention to the SME market, another sector with which she has plenty of passion and experience.

The Brief

Laila’s brief was very simple at it’s heart: simplicity, passion and marketing science. Laila isn’t delivering the creative side of marketing (yet) – her focus is on the strategy, planning and implementation.

Here are our initial ideas and colour palette.

Concept One

I love the simplicity and passion of this concept. It also has a touch of science about it.

The font choice for this logo was selected for it’s simplistic class, clarity and strength.

The symbolised flower within the logo (avatar) represents communication, efficiency and could potentially portray the variety of sectors within Laila’s business.

Concept Two

With this concept we have manipulated a clean sans serif font. By creating lots of space between each letter and elongating some of the type we generated the ideal suggestion of integrity, purity and growth.

Laila’s scientific and analytical approach to the way you work is a quality that resonated with the team when we brainstormed. We were keen to show her an option that communicated this in a modern and feminine way.

Concept Three

The typeface for this concept was selected for it’s free-flowing forms which depict virtuoso, passion and energy. The colour purple is used for its quality, purpose and vision and when paired with this beautiful font makes for a logo that packs some personality punch!

Laila is going to pursue my personal favourite – concept one, but we need your help in deciding which icon she takes forward. Keep your eyes peeled for my next post as I’m going to ask you to vote

In my experience, the temptation is to go for the logo, and do the website in 6-12 months as funds allow. Now sometimes that’s the right decision, but not always.

If you have a fixed (or lean) budget you need to channel the investment into the items that will make the biggest impact. And if the logo is useable (I’ll clarify that in my next post…), then better to start with website and brand identity and really start changing peoples perceptions quickly.

The fact is that if you do have a fixed budget and want to put your lovely new logo on your less than wonderful website, it’s going to struggle to have the impact it deserves.

But if you can do the website well and if the logo is useable, you’re likely to get a better return on your investment. Good, strategic design is what’s important here. This isn’t about settling for something “new” for the sake of new. It’s about being planning where you want your brand identity to be, the impression you want to create and how you want visitors to respond to the design.

And just to illustrate my point, here’s a couple I made earlier.

Old website design, new logo

Here’s HarveyMaria’s current website with their lovely new logo design. OK so the header looks classier, but there’s a long way to go in terms of design.

New brand identity, old logo

Wow. What a difference!

Now obviously some thought, care and attention has gone into this website design, and the design works because of more than the brand identity. The navigation has been thought through, the functionality and the messaging have been considered, and it all works together to create a coherent, useable, aspirational look.

But look again at the design. This is a great example of the power of a strong brand identity. We’ve worked hard to develop a look and feel for HarveyMaria that extends beyond their logo (in fact, do you see that I’ve cheekily superimposed their old logo onto the mockup?). The old logo barely makes an impact – it’s the brand identity that’s really making the difference: the fonts, the colour palette and the image styles. The devices we’ve used to draw attention to certain parts of the design.

The point is that it’s the whole that matters, not just the pretty logo stuck up in the top left hand corner. And the whole – when it’s planned and executed well is your brand identity. Thoughtful design, with colours, typography and images that support your business message.

And there is a very big difference between redesign a website and developing a brand identity whilst working on a website design but I think that’s another story for another day…

What do you think. If you had a fixed budget would you invest in the logo, the brand identity or the website?

Claire runs Green Tree Cosmetics, a company that creates high quality, natural cosmetics. Claire asked us to create a brand identity for her  with an approachable, distinctive and environmentally friendly look. She loves all of the concepts and would really appreciate your thoughts and input, so without further ado I introduce the colours…

Colour Palette

Green Tree Cosmetics is an Autumnal business with subtle Winter undertones. The colours we’ve selected highlight the professionalism, sophistication, elegance and style that are key to the success of the brand.

Colours are muted and yellow-based. Your Autumnal palette is passionate, visionary and aspirational – all the qualities that will attract both Claire’s retail and corporate markets.

Concept One

Concept one oozes quality and elegance whilst an accessible and friendly feel is maintained in the rounded shape. The logo is distinctive and has a professional and luxurious feel. The bird icon is fresh and visionary and hints at the natural and environmentally friendly products.

Concept Two

The second concept has a unique and unusual font with soft flicks which look like leaves. This stylish and distinctive logo is clean, strong and accessible.

As an extension of the leaf in the logo we have introduced a tree graphic which sits separately to the logo. This graphic enhances the overall look and feel of the brand and relates to the ethos of the business.

Concept Three

Sophisticated and stylish.

The elegant font combined with the muted colours creates a modern, clean and distinctive look.

We have shown the icon in the context of the logo and also as a separate graphic which is very adaptable across the range of products. This icon can change colour depending on the product type or flavour and has a strong, iconic presence.

Over to you

I’m finding it hard to choose (I have two very firm favourites) – and I know Claire loves them! Do share your thoughts and vote for your favourite. We really look forward to hearing your thoughts.

I have been bursting to share this with you for longer than I can remember.

We first met Emma de Polnay at our Focus and Flourish workshop in December where we helped Emma shape her vision for her business in 2011. Excitingly we then met with Emma again in June to talk about a rebrand and new website for My Special PA. It’s fair to say that Emma’s business is going great guns this year, and what better a way to celebrate than with an elegant new brand identity and website design?

The Brief

My Special PA specialises in providing personal and virtual assistants to all manner of creative businesses: from artists to interior designers, architects to design agencies and everything in between. They provide the much needed organisation and detail to a sea of creatives much preferring to be in the space their best!

One of the things I have loved the most about working on this project is the collaboration and teamwork we have had. Emma had a strong vision around what would be right, but needed our creativity to pull it all together and take it up several levels. Bella Pieroni, one of Emma’s clients and the artist that created the fabulous illustrations of the butterflies and the comedy sketches, Esme, one of Emma’s Special PA’s who ensured that every i was dotted and t crossed, and of course the Flourish team who delivered both elegantly beautiful designs and a website that is easy to update and easy to optimise. (In fact, as an aside, Emma’s SEO consultant told Stuart that he had built the best Content Management System she had ever come across – praise indeed!)

The Approach

Chloe created an incredibly elegant logo design and followed this elegance across the brand identity. Our original concept was to letterpress the business cards (this brand identity would look amazing letterpressed) and this certainly influenced much of the understated style of the website.

One of the challenges with this site is that it both needs to feel ordered and neat but with a creative twist. Many creatives, with serious levels of attention to detail when it comes to design, are going to be looking at the site and so as ever, thought and care was essential. I love the simplicity of the typography, the colours are punchy but used sparingly so as not to go OTT and the illustrations just bring the whole thing together.

Here are some screenshots from around the site, but do go and take a look yourself and let us know what you think! http://myspecialpa.co.uk/

Note: I’m going to get a little bit techy here about colour psychology. Regular blog readers will be familiar with me talking about seasonal colour psychology personalities and the effect they have on the business. If you’re new to the concept of colour psychology you may like to read my Colour Psychology Absolute Essentials posts first.

I’m often asked by clients whether their own personality has any bearing on the colour psychology of their business. My stock, and immediate answer is no, it shouldn’t do. Colour psychology is about using colour (and texture, shape, type) to support the key brand messages of your business. We’re very analytical about identifying those core attributes and they are what drive our decisions about colour. But it’s not quite as simple as that.

Your personality will probably influence your business

In my experience, the vast majority of entrepreneurs shape their businesses in line with their own values. You may do this consciously or subconsciously, but experience tells me you’ll do it.

This often means that both business and business owner will share certain characteristics and attributes. And I think this is more prevalent, though not exclusively so, in small businesses.

Small businesses don’t always feel comfortable about showing their true “personalities” through their brand. And I think that’s a shame. By being aware of your core brand values and creating a brand identity that supports that, you’ll gain more profitable, loyal clients and differentiate your business from your competitors. It’s certainly a benefit we see time and again with our branding clients at Flourish.

But I digress. Let’s think big for a moment. Do you suppose Richard Branson eradicated his personality when setting up Virgin? Of course not! It’s his very drive, values and ambition that many of his customers find so utterly compelling. And that message is very aptly supported by the Winter colour palette: exciting, vibrant reds, luxurious and strong black.

So to scale back to small businesses. If small business owners are prepared to embrace the effect their own personality has on their business brand, then the chances are that your business colour psychology personality will be very similar to your own personality.

Your business colour psychology won’t be in line with your personal colour psychology because we want to please you, but most likely because my experience tells me it’s nigh on impossible to completely eradicate the influence of the business owner on their company, and that leaves a lasting, and positive, impression.

What do you think? Do you accentuate or dampen down your personality within your business?

Paul Digby is an experienced Interim Manager who we met at an exhibition earlier this year. Paul has recently set up his business, Hakser, and commissioned us to create a smart brand identity for him to help him differentiate Hakser from the competition and communicate confidence and professionalism.

Hakser is without doubt a Winter business. Dynamic, strong, experienced, focused and commercial. Paul brings a wealth of international experience with big companies at a high level. His business couldn’t be anything other than winter!

Here’s the stationery. I love the clean lines, the strong alignment and the bold colours. I know we have a reputation for consumer work, but we thrive on the challenge of creating something really sharp for the business to business sector too and I really think that this brand identity delivers on that score.

I’m delighted to share these deliciously dinky business cards that we’ve just had printed for Gray’s Dairy. Do you remember a very long time ago I shared with you the logo designs for the new business? Well I’m delighted to say that things are moving forwards with the business (there seems to be a lot involved in setting up a dairy company!).

We love the cow on the back with her fun and friendly stance and the bold-Autumnness of the colour palette and logo. What do you think?

Regular readers of the Full Bloom blog will have been on Suzanne Dibble’s branding journey. I first blogged about Suzanne’s choice of name for her business Stellar, I then shared with you the initial logo design concepts. And I’m now delighted to share the final logo design and business card designs.

Suzanne is going to have some delicious letterpress business cards printed, and so just as soon as they are back from being printed I shall, of course, be photographing and sharing them. I’m not quite sure who is more excited about those cards – us or Suzanne (I think, on balance, it’s probably us – Suzanne probably has a bit more in her life than print ). In the meantime, above you’ll see the final logo design.

Suzanne favoured option three, but with tweaks. Caroline adapted the font ever so slightly and we also tried the cards in blue (which I loved, but then I’m a bit of a blue person). And below here they are in all their glory!

I love, love, LOVE this website design and brand identity we created for photographer Chrissie Taylor of World 360 photo. Chrissie is a seasoned pro, a photojournalist and lifestyle photographer in the truest sense and approached us to help her create a brand new website for the relaunch of her photography business.

As soon as we met Chrissy we knew the type of style that would suit her personality. Very grown up, very understated and very cool. It’s a very simple design, but that doesn’t mean it was quick to produce. In the less is more school of graphic design details matter, and that meant spending a lot of time getting every last bit right.

Caroline created the logo design and Rob the website design. I love how they work together and let the photos do the talking.

I love these gallery intro pages that are a montage of every image in the gallery to come.

This is how each individual image in the gallery sections work.

And another gallery intro page – this time for weddings. As with all our websites, Stu has created this site to be fully updatable as Chrissy’s business grows and develops. She can (and already has) add galleries, amend the page contents, switch the menu about and add pages.

You can see the live site at http://world360photo.com/