Ta da! The brand, spanking new website for the Branding Masterclass is now live, and with the next class less than four weeks away, I wanted to share the design with you.
I’m not one to hang about (as my team will testify) and so when I made the decision to launch our first masterclass back in late November 2011 I knew we had our work cut out preparing the “classroom” (aka the blog), the brand, a promo video, writing the content and the sales copy as well as all the back end admin it takes to run a course. We did a LOT in that two-ish months and fitting in a stand alone website was always going to be impossible. But I did want to pull one together for the next class.
Both James and Stuart have worked incredibly hard to pull this together before Easter, and I want to say a very big and public thank you to both of them (and Caroline) for making sure the site was ready. I know it wasn’t easy, especially with your current workload, but it is very much appreciated.
The Designs
The designs are very much rooted in the brand identity James created back in January for my masterclass classroom. I wanted everything to feel clean, easy to read and welcoming but also with some substance. This isn’t airy fairy stuff, despite the prolific use of flowery pictures! There’s real, commercial meat behind what I’m writing about, even if much of it is delivered in a light and easy to understand way. And so I love James’ use of type, colour and white space.
There’s a bit of work to be done after the Easter hols on the about page – I wanted to put a quick showreel together of our work for anyone that hadn’t come via our website or blog, so we’ll add that in over time. We also plan to integrate our event booking system into the website and be done with the horrible shopping cart once and for all! But I think that realistically that’s going to need to wait until after May…
We wanted to bring the testimonials to life and as they’re such a photogenic bunch, the social media avatars work quite well don’t you think?
I’m really excited to share the new Branding Masterclass video with you. We recorded it last Friday and I spent much of Wednesday editing it all together, with James working frantically behind the scenes to put together the fab stills with all the lovely student testimonials.
I never thought I’d say this, but I really enjoyed creating this video, and I think that was mostly down to the team that worked on the project. James, one of our Graphic Designers, worked on the visuals, and I just love how they look. Remember the video from before Christmas? We hadn’t formalised the brand identity back then, and I just love the fresh, clean look James has given the testimonials. Dani, our Account Exec was a real trooper. She did the recording as well as charging round styling the “set” (aka a corner of my kitchen!) with me and cheering me on! And Adrian Kirk, who you’ll meet next week properly, who helped me get a bit more of my sparkle onto the camera.
I wouldn’t say that I struggle to speak in public (what am I saying? Those of you that know me well know that I love it!) but I’ve never been one for am-dram. I was never in any plays at school and I have zero to none experience of performing on camera. So even though I felt pretty happy with the original masterclass video, I hope you can see a difference in this one?
Adrian was amazing at getting me relaxed, helping me focus on my message and get more of “me” across on camera. I know I have some way to go, and I’m not quite ready to be a TV presenter yet (ha ha!) but I think he achieved great things in just a few short hours. I’ll definitely be working with him when we produce our next video for Flourish.
Behind the scenes…
The “Set” and Adrian and I discussing the next take
We spent the morning practicing in the studio which was great for practice, but the light is pretty dreadful, the dark, tudor beams make it a difficult set to work with and most of the rooms have phones in, so we were convinced that we’d end up with a great take that was ruined by a phone ringing halfway through. Our studio is so lovely and charming when you’re actually there, but it’s really not great for the camera. So we decided to up sticks and relocate to my house, which has lovely light and a few more props on tap to make things a bit more beautiful!
I was a little concerned that a home setting would look a little unprofessional, but ultimately this is a class that most people work through from home, so we felt it made sense. Hey, if I had a funky loft studio that might have done, but I did feel very relaxed in my own home.
We had to do a little shifting around and remove all of my personal photos but I think it worked out quite nicely. And it was a real shame we couldn’t have got my pretty tissue paper pom poms in on the shoot, but they were a little out of context! I’d made them for my daughter’s birthday and they did look lovely, but maybe a little irrelevant for the video?
I loved the excuse to rush out and buy a new dress (well obviously?!) and get my hair done (not sure that you’d know it especially but it felt nice to be pampered ). Is it just me, or do you do that before a photoshoot as well?
And the music…
Oh, and one last thing. The music. When I bought the music before Christmas I fell in love with the emotional feel it had to it, it seemed just perfect for the masterclass. Uplifting and a bit spine tingling at the same time. But it really bugged me because I knew that it reminded me of a pop song, and I couldn’t work out which one. Nor could anyone else I spoke to. And then I realised, it’s Mika! And it all makes sense…
Ok so the sentiment of the song isn’t quite what I’d have chosen but I think the melody is perfect. What do you think?
And the thank you’s
Thank you so much to some of the lovely Branding Masterclass students who supplied such fabulous words. I really appreciate it And so in order of appearance…
And if you’re tempted to join us, do! You will love it. And I would love to have you. Registration closes on 6th May and you’ll save £30 when you book before 23rd April so just do it now before you forget Booking and full details here…
Thank you, thank you, thank you to each and everyone that poured your love, energy and efforts into our competition to Win a Place on the Branding Masterclass. So many of you worked so hard to creatively tell us why you felt you should win your place, and I’m afraid in the end we just couldn’t pick a winner, so we thought it fairer to draw instead.
Huge congratulations to Kate Fletcher who has won a place. We’ll be in touch to book you on.
For those of you that didn’t win, don’t forget that booking is now open , I do hope to see you in class anyhow, it’s going to be a lot of fun. Warmest, Fiona
Just wanted to thank you for such a professionally run course, the content and information is fantastic. The course lived up to all my expectations …. which were pretty high. Jo Norman, Daisyley We had such a phenomenal response to our February Branding Masterclass, and I enjoyed teaching it so much, that we have decided [...]
Wow. We are almost at the end of my the Branding Masterclass and maaaaan has it been a journey! 42 inspirational entrepreneurs joined me for my very first online four week class into branding greatness. We’ve had people from all walks of life and from all over the world, including Canada, France and New Zealand. [...]
Would you like a sneak preview of the Branding Masterclass branding? Oh go on then… With less than two weeks to go until the launch of the fabulous online Branding Masterclass the team in the studio are working incredibly hard dotting the i’s and crossing the t’s on the brand identity and blogsite. You can [...]
Shameless plug alert! We have some wonderful business owners signed up to join me on 6th Feb for the Branding Masterclass but as the Early Bird Offer ends on Sunday I thought I’d give you a quick reminder of the reasons you need to book your place if you haven’t already: Staying ahead of the [...]
Whether you’re sharing my fighting spirit and optimism from my last post, or you’re feeling a bit jaded after the seasonal festivities and a lack of direction I would love for you to join me on my Branding Masterclass. It’s an online class that starts on 6th Feb and runs for a month. You can [...]
Yesterday saw the first of our Focus and Flourish workshops that I’m running with the fabulous Elizabeth Cairns. And whilst I’m still slightly shattered from such an action packed day, we had such amazing feedback and I saw such leaps forward in each guest that I just had to share some of the highlights of [...]
It’s around this time of year that most of us start looking forwards to what we’d like to get out of our businesses next year. And ahead of the first of my Focus and Flourish workshops I have been mulling over a question I ask myself a lot: what does success look like to me? [...]
Unless otherwise stated all text, artwork and images are copyright to Fiona Humberstone and Flourish Creative Marketing Limited 2005-2012. You may use our images and artwork on your own blog provided that you link back to the post and credit us as owners.
Please don't reproduce our posts without contacting us first. Many thanks.
). Is it just me, or do you do that before a photoshoot as well?
