Liezl Croft is an utterly lovely wedding and family portrait photographer. A force of South African fabulousness, creative, warm, friendly and with an eye for fun she asked us to create a brand refresh and blogsite that would reflect where her business is today as well as (of course) attracting and retaining lots of new clients.

And whilst we’ve been working with her on her printed literature now for several years, I was delighted when she asked us to give her blog a brandover. Having set up her business less than two years ago, Liezl had previously created her websites herself and felt that her business was at a level where she was ready to step things up a gear.

As well as being a cracking lifestyle photographer, Liezl is also very crafty and I think you’ll see that come through in the look and feel of the site.

We’ve worked on creating direct mail for Liezl in the past (which we won a design award last year for) but this project gave us the chance to really flex our creative muscles! We designed to create Liezl a WordPress based blogsite – a website and blog rolled into one which would give her the chance to showcase her photography without being too onerous to manage.

We put together a colour palette that created an aspirational feel, whilst plenty of texture and elements like the bunting creates a sensory quality and follows on from the work we did previously on the mailers. We all love the icons that Chloe created for each category, and the beautiful pattern that sets off the blog. I’d always known that Liezl’s work was beautiful, but what I hadn’t appreciated was the enormous difference the right surroundings make to her images.

If you take a look at the difference between the old blog and the new, I think you’ll agree they’re night and day apart.

Liezl’s old blog

I don’t want to embarrass anyone by going into this too heavily, let’s just say that the design of the blog had a long way to catch up with the quality of Liezl’s work…

And the new blogsite

Liezl has been so much fun to work with on this project and we wish her lots of luck with the new site and branding. It’s too early to measure the financial success of the blog – it’s been live for less than a month, but visits have doubled and the feedback to Liezl’s Facebook and Twitter page was overwhelming! Do hope on over and take a look (and do leave her a comment too, it’s so lovely to receive feedback when you’re writing your heart out and you know how lonely it can be when you’re first blogging)… You’ll find Liezl’s website and blog at www.liezlcroft.com

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 see the brand elements below.

You’re going to see a bit of a nip tuck to the Flourish brand identity over the next couple of months as we prepare for a very exciting extension and refocus on our own brand. I’ll be sharing more about the story behind that soon, but in the meantime, this gives you a flavour for where we’re headed. The Branding Masterclass needs to reflect and work with our brand, but it’s also a brand in it’s own right, with it’s own attributes and characteristics, so we needed to keep it all similar but not the same.

The colour palette focuses on creativity, communication, logic and clarity. The graph paper gives a nod to work (yes, it will be a lot of fun, but I will be working them hard too!) and the icons give direction around the site.

The class will be held online via a password protected blogsite, so we needed to create a clean and easy to navigate design that  inspired the participants to focus, reflect and take action. Here are a couple of screengrabs:

The login page

We wanted to keep this simple – it’s about getting people to do what you want – login or register for details of the next class. For the people that aren’t registered, obviously this is all they’ll see…

And the class pages themselves

I was in two minds about whether to show you this, but it just looks so beautiful that I couldn’t resist! I am desperate to overhaul the Full Bloom blog design now (yes, I know again but there is so much I’d like to change…). There are still a couple of changes to make but what I hope you can see is how light, airy and neat everything feels. The perfect setting to the inspirational and powerful nature of the content

Registration for the masterclass will close at midnight on Sunday 5th February so if you’d like to get involved, then don’t forget to book – go on, do it now, while you remember… Full details on the website.

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…

These posts are a bit like busses aren’t they? You wait for one In The Studio This Week and then two come along at once!

Harriet Tipping is a very lovely nutritional therapist who has just about to launch her business, Nutribeing. She already had a logo but no brand identity to speak of, so we really had a very free rein (within the confines of the brief of course!).

The brief for this blog design was to create something that felt fresh, uplifting and healthy. I think it’s a great example of a very clean and professional Spring design. You can just feel the energy bursting out of that green can’t you? And yet the purple keeps it restrained and the attention to detail in the layout and typography keeps the whole feel professional and smart.

I really can’t wait to get this live for Harriet as I know it’ll be a great platform for her to start to launch her business. Keep your eyes peeled too because over the next week or so we’ll be sharing the new website design for Nutribeing with you too…

It seems like forever since I’ve shared a snapshot of some of our work from the studio doesn’t it? We’ve been incredibly busy over the last month or so working on some really exciting projects and I’m delighted to share a couple of them with you this week. First up… A stunning website design for Sport Surface Solutions.

We love to do things that shake things up a bit, get people to sit up and take notice of a company, and as ever, prove that design for small businesses can be just as well thought out, just as aspirational as design for the big boys. Chloe has really enjoyed the challenge of working on a very masculine, Winter design and I think she’s pulled it off with bells on.

Sport Surface Solutions do exactly what the name suggests. They install and maintain sports surfaces and are clearly doing the right thing getting their marketing literature in order right now in time for Olympic hysteria in the summer!

Chloe has developed a new logo design and brand identity as well as website design which ties the whole look together. Those of you that follow our passion for colour psychology will notice the Winter traits: strong colours, strong alignment and structure, premium feel and impactful images. There is no messing about here: this is a website design for a company that means business.

The designs are currently in the process of being finalised before we move on to the build (hence the positional rather than final images) but I will share the build with you once it’s complete… I hope you like

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

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.

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.

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 sixty percent of her clients are men so it was really important that we didn’t make the website too girly. I love her new strapline which we developed for Angela based on my knowledge of the elements of style and image that are important to Angela and her business.

Angela has had a WordPress blog for some time now, and had been writing a fair bit. She has a really fun, no nonsense style and doesn’t mince her words. We felt that it was really important to inject some of that elegance and style that Angela has into the blog, as well as giving it an authorative no-nonsense look that matches her writing style.

Chloe has done a fab job neatening everything up, making the whole look and feel smarter, easier to navigate and more elegant. And I love how the theme just offsets what Angela is writing now.

We debated long and hard with Angela about which seasonal personality she should be (the joys of bringing colour theorists together from two different schools!) and agreed that Winter was the right season for Angela. Winter is authorative, elegant, expert, loves upmarket things and luxury. We’ve injected a bit of warmth into the colour to ensure that it felt approachable and comfortable to Angela

I know that Angela has had a great response to her new makeover and I can’t wait to see what the future holds for her blog! You’ll find it at http://www.angelamarshall.co.uk/ go on, take a look!

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 audience were just some of the elements of our brief from Harvey Maria.

The new look is certainly much cleaner, more sophisticated and more engaging. I love the new logo (which incidentally Harvey Maria brought with them from another agency, we all felt it worked really well and it adds a lot to the new design). The grey allows the fabulous tiles to shine and lets the flooring really speak for itself.

And here’s the Collection page

And this is the collection page as it stands. Improved navigation, a more sophisticated colour palette for the product information and the ability to access other collections from the same page make a real difference to the end result I think.

So I love the new design. I love the elegance, the sophisticated colour palette and the engaging typography. But this is very much a work in progress so we would love your thoughts and feedback!