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We had a fantastic time working with the lovely Matt Pereira on our video for the Branding Masterclass. It is worlds away from our vain attempts at creating a video with my dad’s camera!

For the latest video we wanted to ensure the scenes reflected the spirit of the class, for example we decided to film in Fiona’s house as most members of the class will be working from home.

We created a Vision Board on the wall which is a technique Fiona learnt in New York, only to be achieved with Washi tape. We have always created and refer to Vision Boards throughout the design process because it enables our customers to focus on their brand communication and gives us clarity on the brand message and how we show that through design. It is also a method our Masterclass students will be using shortly.

The video appears effortless however as with all projects of this nature, there were last minute tweaks and changes to the script and the set up of the scenes.

We had a complete nightmare of a day with the light, as soon as one shot was set up and ready to go the sun would dip behind a cloud. As you can imagine this was incredibly frustrating, we decided to cover the window to ensure it wouldn’t ruin takes. (We decided to step away and allow Matt to overcome his fear of heights and run up the ladder!)

As we were filming in a house we did incur a few minor issues, I successfully managed to ruin one of the best takes of the day due to Fiona’s lovely cat  (Harley) bringing in a mouse! There were several moments when he wanted to be on camera, so if you do hear a distant meowing you now, know why!

Fiona is a confident speaker, however within our first few videos she was missing the x factor that she possesses in person. After working with Adrian Kirk, Fiona made some small but incredibly powerful changes to things like her speech deliverance and connection with the audience through her body language.

This time around Fiona’s outfit allowed her to feel much more relaxed and with the colour gold connoting compassion and success, it positions her nicely as a Brand Stylist.

Tagged as in Flourish Stuff, Uncategorized

People connect to people’s passions and I am sure you’ll agree that Matt has done a brilliant job of capturing Fiona’s energy and enthusiasm for the class. As a keen photographer, I personally love the shallow depth of field as it gives the shot a whimsical feel, although the set up of the scenes gives a nod to the hard work ahead.

Whilst the Masterclass is beautifully designed and bursting with motivation I can guarantee you there is nothing whimsical about it and you will most definitely come out at the end of the journey with sheer drive and determination to better your brand.

We hope to film more videos in the near future so watch this space.

Tagged as in Behind The Scenes, Flourish Stuff, Uncategorized

There are so many influential food photographers that I have been drawn to. Up until recently, food photography was never really an interest of mine but I feel I have turned a new leaf and found a new world of inspiration.

The attention to detail in each shot is remarkable and, for me, selecting striking aspects of an object and playing around with depth of field and focus really makes an impact. It’s obviously essential to have a full shot so viewers can see exactly what you are photographing.

Some food photographers have such an eye for making mundane objects or products look sophisticated and irresistible and here are some stunning images by Catherine Gratwicke that best represent what I mean.

I love the way in which she creates impact by achieving a sense of a journey or story in her work.

Producing images for the blog and Facebook lately has been great fun for me and I’m really starting to enjoy the challenge of photographing still life. I’ve always been drawn to people, I love the difference in characters and the test involved in trying to capture their personalities in a single shot.

Capturing powerful still life has always been a challenge for me and I would always worry that I wouldn’t be able to create a similar effect.

When I first started at Flourish I was asked to photograph printed literature and it absolutely filled me with dread! I was so nervous all my creativity went out of the window; I panicked and produced some of the worst images I have ever taken.

After a few months of not touching my camera (at all) I feel I have rekindled some of my love for photography. I am by no means an expert but I have really enjoyed being tasked with product and literature shots and I want to continue to explore different textures and styles.

It’s inevitable that you’re sometimes going to encounter problems such as space, lighting etc. This is always going to be something that’s not always easy to overcome but just adds to the challenge.

Tagged as in Inspirations, Uncategorized

Earlier this week Fiona wrote a post about who you are writing for and I thought I would follow up with a post about what you’re writing. The point she was making was whether you should be writing blog posts for search engines or to engage with your active readers. And there’s a relatively straight forward [...]

Tagged as in Blogging, Search Engine Optimisation, Uncategorized, Websites

Ok Ok, so for those of you that know me, you know I am a very excitable person! For those of you that don’t brace yourselves! Ok so here goes…I just felt the urge to write a post today as I was feeling incredibly inspired by package design. We are constantly surrounded by advertising so [...]

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I have a theory that each of us makes at least one big mistake when they start their businesses. The trick is to not let that mistake overshadow your entire business but learn from your mistakes and move on. I’ve spoken to too many business owners recently who have spent scary amounts of money on [...]

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In my last post I shared with you the initial logo design concepts we had developed for Canadian marketer Laila Zichmanis’ business Avatar. Laila asked us to develop the flower icon further to introduce a more “scientific” element to the design. And as requested, Paul came up with a number of options. Laila and I [...]

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Creative pitching is outdated, unethical and unsustainable and is a practice that design agencies are working hard to stamp out. Clients argue that creative pitches give them confidence that the agency knows what they are doing. Frankly, that’s utter rubbish. But here are some top tips on how to choose a design agency without asking [...]

Tagged as , How to choose a design agency without the creative pitch in Uncategorized

Whether you have boxes of professionally printed leaflets stacked under your desk, or just run off a few copies on your home printer in time for a networking event or exhibition, the chances are that you’ll have at least one leaflet for your business. The question is, how do you create a leaflet that works [...]

Tagged as in Marketing, Uncategorized

So…as you know we here at Flourish have all been tasked with writing our very own blog posts, I’ve been wracking my brain on what subject to write about and finally thought about a recent restaurant experience that I could relate to a marketing theme. I was recently lucky enough to have been taken to [...]

Tagged as in Marketing, Uncategorized