This came through the post last week from Anthropologie. Beautifully designed and photographed and so much more exciting than another email newsletter.

I’m not saying that emails don’t have their place, they absolutely do. But nothing beats holding a piece of print in your hands for actually connecting with a business does it?

Are you using print enough?

Whilst the theme is important, in this instance it’s equally important that it doesn’t become overwhelming so I’ve been thinking carefully about how I can use patterns like these in a subtle way. Quite often the most impactful geometric patterns come from very simple, basic underlying structures and the journey of stripping some of them right back to how they were first created has been really interesting and helped me get a better understanding of how I can create my own.

I was 21 when I discovered my burning passion for all things geometric and it took completing A-Levels in Chemistry and Biology and starting a degree in Geology to realise it (yes, I said Geology). But once I realised it, I was hooked and have been ever since. Looking back I can see now that it’s completely shaped the way I view design and it’s driven my passion for order and structure in the way I work.

Images sourced from www.butdoesitfloat.com/The-Maze-of-No-Emergence

Over the past week I have been working on an exciting new website design for the stylish baby changing bag company Mamami.

The design is still a work in progress so I will be revealing that later on but in the meantime I wanted to share a snippet which uses a watercolour brush stroke created in Photoshop.

Add some wow factor

Brushes can add personality, style and wow factor to your design. You can create stylish brush effects which look great behind images or with text over the top to enhance your design and give it a unique edge.

Give it a go

To reveal your preset brushes click on the brush tool in Photoshop. Or have some fun creating your own bespoke brush designs and add them to your brush list.

As you’re probably aware we are currently going through some design changes and I have been given the exciting task of illustrating our new icons. We have been working really hard to develop our own style that capture’s the essence of our brand. Over the coming weeks I would like to share with you our new illustrations, whilst at the same time giving you an insight into our design journey!

After working really hard developing our design style we are are really happy to show you a sneak preview of our Flourish duck. And below you can see how the design has developed from start to finish.

You can really see the shape of the illustration develop with each iteration. Right through from a stylised static version to the final flourishing duck.

We felt the initial designs didn’t have the exuberance and energy  that we wanted to express through our illustrations. This was mainly down to the quite boring and very static positions of a duck just sitting by a river bank. We needed to give our duck some much needed movement and energy. After re-drawing it flapping its wings ready to fly, we immediately realised that it was this movement that made the pose intriguing  and much more interesting to the eye. It also communicates the all important quirky edge to Flourish that we’re keen to express.

So I’d like everyone to please give a warm welcome our Flourish duck!

I’ve been exploring the big world of typefaces for a stunning accent font to work for brand packaging, potentially the tagline and to truly ‘personalise’ the brand style.

However, this project has a bit of a twist.

As you may have gathered from some of Fiona’s recent posts, there’s an underpinning Arabian theme for this particular project and it’s my job to make sure we communicate this subtly through a cracking font choice. My research so far has really helped me get a better understanding of what makes a great script font that captures the subtle Arabian tone in the way I want it to.

Here are a couple that have got my heart buzzing…

I absolutely love how fluent and smooth this is and how it taps into the Arabian script style so perfectly. Softly cohesive, moving and passionate.

A little more structured but equally aspirational and full of personality.

Next we’ll be exploring patterns and devices that can carry the brand style forward, so watch this space!

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!

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.

And I do understand that thinking, but it doesn’t make good business sense. Why? Because that same slow decline into Christmas is often mirrored on the other side, and it’s often February before life lets you start planning ahead. As you know, we’re working hard to dangle some carrots to get you thinking about your websites and logos this side of Christmas (and whilst we will be dangling some carrots in January, our biggest carrots will go to the lovely people who have already started thinking ahead!) and so I thought that we might celebrate some of those Forward Thinkers on the blog.

Introducing… Griffin Glasshouses

Linda Lane is Managing Director of Griffin Glasshouses and one of our first Forward Thinkers. Linda is planning ahead for a busy Spring season and has asked us to create a new website. We spent a couple of hours mapping out the website with Linda and her team – planning the customer journey, understanding how we could make the most of Griffin’s sales funnel and understanding how the site should be structured.

For the last couple of weeks Linda has been able to focus on her day job whilst we’ve been hard at work behind the scenes: developing concepts. creating wireframes and this week, creating a knockout design that I hope knocks the socks off the current design.

The Current Website

Naturally there’ll need to be a little input (when Linda and her team are ready) to review the designs and feed back to us with any changes, but the idea is that the whole process is as efficient as possible to enable the Griffin Glasshouse team to focus on what they do best while we do what we do best.

And with a small sprinkle of Flourish magic dust

This is a bit of a work in progress, but you get the idea…

The next step is to create the look and feel for the rest of the pages once we know that these initial concepts are headed in the right direction. I’m really looking forward to seeing the impact the new design, navigation and structure have on the Griffin Glasshouse enquiry levels, and most importantly, their sales. Watch this space…

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

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.