From The Studio

I am super, super excited to be launching our first Branding Your Small Business eCourse and I’d like to invite you to join me on our first course!

The eCourse builds on the creative and positioning work we do in the one day Branding workshop and takes the concept to a whole new level. We’re going to have a whole month together to go on a journey to building a powerful brand. I can’t wait! The eCourse will start on February 6th and run until March 3rd. During that time I’ll cover all the core elements you need to know to create a brand that attracts, engages and retains your ideal clients; differentiates you from your competitors and enables you to charge what you’re worth.

What’s covered

Whilst it’s not just about creating a gorgeous logo or website, there will be plenty of detail on that as well as brand positioning, defining your brand personality and finding, defending and owning your niche. We’ll look at colour psychology, typography and mood boards and how to market your business cost effectively to support your brand.

As you’d expect from any of our workshops, it’ll be fun, creative and practical. I’ll share tons of knowledge with you, and we’ll also work through plenty of exercises so you can put into practice what you’ve learnt. And the great news is that you can do all of this from the comfort of your own desk, so where ever you are in the world, you’ll be able to join in. You can pick up the sessions at your own pace – all I ask is that you try and find a minimum of three hours a week to really focus on what we’re doing.

So if you’ve also fancied joining us for a Flourishing Workshop but couldn’t make the dates or couldn’t physically get to Guildford, this is your opportunity to join us. Full details and booking for the Branding Your Small Business eCourse on our website – do take a look, it would be great if you could join us.

What do you think? Are you in?

Tagged as , branding your small business ecourse in Flourish Stuff, Inspirations, Workshops

I’m delighted to be able to share the initial logo design concepts for Avatar Marketing Inc. Whilst we’ve worked with clients in Dubai and California previously, Laila was our very first Canadian client, and utterly lovely at that. She happened upon our website and loved what we were up to, and was determined to have us create a strong brand identity for her business. The wonders of email and Skype mean that it’s actually very simple for us to work with clients across the UK and internationally and we’ve built up a great relationship with Laila.

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

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

Clare Yarwood-White may be taking a break from the business in order to focus on her two young boys and her health but her website has just been shortlisted for no less than two prestigious Sheerluxe Online Shopping Awards.

Although Clare’s website isn’t taking orders right now we’re all chuffed to bits that she has been recognised by one of our favourite publishers.

Sheerluxe picks the most prestigious, most luxurious brands for its discerning clients and if you’re remotely fashion conscious and haven’t visited the website yet I urge you to go and take a look. You can also vote for Yarwood-White in the Best Bridal Accessories/ Best Bridal Jewellery categories while you’re there!

The Yarwood-White eCommerce website was Flourish’s first eCommerce site and we all worked incredibly hard to create something amazing. From Stu developing an eCommerce platform to match the exacting brief from scratch; to Chloe and Caroline creating the strong and stylish brand identity and me art directing the photo shoot and lots of creativity and thoughts in between.

As well as looking gorgeous, the website performed incredibly well, with conversions peaking at 10%, average order values increased (by up to 600%!) and search engine placement improved significantly.

We were gutted that Clare decided to take a break from the business but agree with her that life is far too short to not look after your health. Hopefully the Yarwood-White break won’t be forever.

Tagged as , sheerluxe, yarwood-white in Case Studies, Flourish Stuff, From The Studio

We’re having a wonderful time in the studio at the moment working on some really challenging and creative projects. Excitingly we’re also working with clients from much, much further afield – including all over the UK and recently, Canada (more on that later…). Anyhow, Claire Prior is one of those “further afield” clients – having [...]

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

Angela Marshall is an author and one of the country’s leading image consultants. I’ve known her for years since I met her networking when I first started my business, and I was delighted when Angela invited to give her blog an image makeover. Angela works with large corporates: often financial institutions and professional services, and [...]

Tagged as , angela marshall, appearance management, blog design in Blogging, Case Studies, From The Studio

Hurray! Something gorgeous to look at! This is Chloe’s first draft for the eCommerce website design for Harvey Maria. What do you think? Remember the current website? Visually and structurally there was a lot to do. Make it feel more aspirational, easy to use and something that reflects our brand values and engages our target [...]

Tagged as , ecommerce web design, Harvey Maria, powerful ecommerce in Case Studies, From The Studio, Graphic Design, Powerful Ecommerce, Web Design, Websites

Visually this post isn’t going to be quite as exciting as the post that came before and the one that follows. But it’s an important part of the eCommerce website journey and one that I think is important to share with you. The Wireframes Between every website brief and website design comes the planning and [...]

Tagged as , ecommerce website design, Harvey Maria, powerful ecommerce in Case Studies, From The Studio, Graphic Design, Powerful Ecommerce, Web Design, Websites

I’m delighted to share our latest website design for Sera Golding’s MIB Band: The MIB Experience. Remember when I interviewed Sera back in the summer and she talked about the amazing upscale events they were playing – from Jewish weddings to large scale corporate events and private parties? Sera has an enormous range of quality [...]

Tagged as , MIB, mib music, Sera Golding in Case Studies, From The Studio, Web Design, Websites

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 [...]

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

I love pulling colour out of images. I find it brings the image to life and is creatively incredibly inspiring for me. The lovely Jennie does this so beautifully on her blog The Odessa May Society with her Color Dose series. I find it so addictive that I would just love to do the same for the Full Bloom [...]

Tagged as , Odessa May Society in Blogging, Case Studies, Graphic Design, Inspirations