Branding

Pablo Blue are a startup gift and interiors business on a mission. We’re going to be creating a gorgeous brand identity (which is so very nearly ready to share with you) and so I thought it was about time I did a little introduction.

Here are a few snaps of the mood board. What I love about this is that we wanted to create something that looked serene and lovely, but that had a little twist, a little edge to stop it feeling boring. It would be all to easy to create something very tasteful, very understated, and dare I say it, bland. We wanted to create something with a lot of serenity and a little jolt, a little punch to keep things interesting. And that’s the point really with the lovely neon table (from a Sofa.com shoot) and the electric colours of the bird in the glass dome. It’s about taking something and putting a twist on it to keep things fresh.

Keep your eyes peeled as I’m hoping it won’t be too long before we show you the intial design concepts.

Tagged as in Branding

I’ve been thinking a lot about flourescent colours recently. It all started when I went to New York and I seemed to notice a lot of “flouro” as they call it over there – in shops like Kate Spade and Purl Soho and also just in what I was drawn to. I serendipitously picked up a pink neon pen for my scrapbook from Muji, and then as soon as I hit the styling class, there were splashes of neon everywhere.

Isn’t it funny how that sort of thing happens? You have a germ of an idea in your head for a while and then suddenly, bam, it hits you all at once!

Back at home Easy Living magazine featured neon and then, lo and behold, the king of middle England Johnnie Boden sent me through a catalogue with neon on it! And you know what? I really think it works.

In small doses I love a bit of neon. I think it adds a real edge to something that would otherwise be very tasteful and safe, and it’s good to funk it up isn’t it.

Neon and Colour Psychology

In terms of colour psychology, neon sits firmly in the Winter camp. It’s bright, intense and incredibly dramatic! A little definitely goes a long way.

We’re going to be experimenting with a splash of neon for homeware and gift company Pablo Blue and I’m really excited. It’s pushing our client ever so slightly out of her comfort zone, but she’s really up for the experiment and we’re looking forward to creating something that lifts her brand out of the safe but bland zone into something much more compelling.

We’re also using edges of neon for Love Interiors to give it a directional and design led edge.

Neon colours carry the same properties as their less flourescent counterparts: so neon pink is still feminine, warm and nurturing, but the neon, winter edge brings with it a level of edge that mean that the coolest brands can carry off this colour. And if you’re afraid of neon, remember that Liberty of London pull neon off incredibly well and it signals their commitment to high end design.

Tagged as in Colour Psychology, Inspirations

Do you ever feel as though you’re holding back on creating the business you really want because you’re afraid of scaring people off?

Putting your neck on the line and saying “this is who we are, this is what we’re good at” can be scary, because to do it well, you need to be different, shake things up a bit and go against the grain. You need to be confident (and experienced enough) to know who your profitable clients really are and the things you need to change in your business and your branding to grow your business. You need to be bold enough to stand out.

And that means you need to be strong enough, and focused enough, to put people off.

Take Lisa Cox‘s business for example. If she hadn’t been clear about what makes her special as a garden designer, do you think she’d have commissions from Leeds and France? I’m not sure – especially given that she hasn’t done all the “normal” things a garden designer is expected to do to make it, like have a show garden at Chelsea. Lisa’s business has an international reach because it’s compelling. And it’s compelling because she’s stamped her personality and her beliefs and values into her business. And she communicates with passion and flair. But that means that she won’t appeal to everyone.

Flourish is another example. We work with clients across the UK and internationally who love our approach to design, love our work and love our brand. It’s an exciting time for us and I’m really looking forward to getting our new website live to communicate more powerfully what we’re up to. Business is good right now and things are really getting interesting. And yet I know that Flourish isn’t right for everyone. We’re unashamedly feminine, we bring out our clients personalities and we are approachable. Our clients use us and love us because of that. But it isn’t right for everyone.

Only this morning I received an email from a prospective client concerned that our portfolio was too feminine. It takes balls, focus and confidence to be able to listen to feedback like that constructively and not let it throw you off course.

Too many businesses play it safe because they lack the focus and confidence to stand out; to create a business that truly inspires them and inspires those around them. Let’s agree to take some time out to get clear, step back from the day to day pressure of running your business and think really hard about where your business is headed. Then creating something inspiring won’t be so hard after all!

Tagged as in Branding

Spring Greens by Design Seeds Your response to my post on Blogstomp got me thinking that I should share more resources that will make your blogging and business journeys more fun. And so I am delighted to share Design Seeds with you. Have you found her on Pinterest or via her website already? Isn’t she [...]

Tagged as , color palettes, colour palettes, design seeds, design seeds review, jessica cololuca in Colour Psychology, Inspirations

When we think of branding as being all about how nice your website looks and how many people comment on your business cards it can be difficult to get a handle on the power of your brand. After all, as long as it’s smart, what does it really matter? Well I think it matters a [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Web Design

I’m really excited about this Five Minutes to Focus project, because it requires some very big thinking. Something I think many of us don’t give ourselves enough time for in our businesses. We get so sucked into the day to day that we forget to lift our heads up and think about where we’re headed. [...]

Tagged as in Five Minutes to Focus

We have some really exciting projects in the studio right now, and one that I’d like to share with you is the very beginnings of a rebrand for Love Interiors. Jo Love is a highly successful interior designer who works mostly in high end residential and commercial practice. Her firm is based in Cobham, Surrey [...]

Tagged as in From The Studio, Rebranding

One of my favorite designers Mike Kus has recently given a talk called ‘Designing for Humans’. The talk explored the concept of creating meaningful visual designs with easy-to-use functionality in order to create an overall improved user experience. As part of this talk he did an unauthorised re-align of the Innocent brand. As they are a perfect example [...]

Tagged as , Mike Kus in Branding, Inspirations, Web Design

We couldn’t resist sharing this beautiful Mood Book with you, which we recently created for a new brand identity project, Essentialis. As you are all aware Vision Boards are an integral aspect of the design process, we wanted to create a pocket-sized version for our clients as a keepsake. A Mood Book enables both us as [...]

Tagged as in Mood Boards

Something very serene and lovely to share with you today: three initial design concepts for top florist, Jane Wadham. Jane has a very well established business supplying flowers to prestigious London venues such as The British Museum, The Natural History Museum and Kensington Palace no less! JW Flowers has a great reputation and is poised [...]

Tagged as in Branding, Case Studies, From The Studio