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.

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.

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.

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 alternative question to this: Are you writing blog posts or news articles?

To begin with I’ll state my interpretations of each

Blog posts

Based on ideas around your business (or life for personal users) and your thoughts and comments on what’s happening in the news.

News articles

Based on factual information designed to engage and inform the reader about current or ongoing information (whether about the business directly or articles in the news that relate to your business).

Audience connections – blog posts

On a blog you will generally be posting to an active reader list – people who read what you have to say time and time again. You might get referrals by word or mouth (in this decade: social media) and them sometimes a post you write will perform really well on a particular topic in search engines (See how just one blog post by Flowerona about the UK Royal wedding bouquet received tens of thousands of hits, and resulted in the offer of a column for a floral magazine)

Though search engines are important to gain new subscribers (though the age old ‘word of mouth’ tactic is pretty good – i.e. ‘Share’ buttons) you are making connections with human beings and writing copy that is riveting and compelling. If your blog post is good people should want to share it and it’ll spread across social media platforms such as Twitter.

Audience connections - news articles

You may read or are linked to news articles by the BBC, the Telegraph and other news sites. Look at their tone and how they write. They’re connecting with the reader to inform them of what has/is happening.

It’s a good idea to keep factual information relating to your business where you are informing rather giving opinion in a separate news feed (generally integrated with your website). And this is where you can start putting your Search Engine hat on.

The tone of voice used for writing news articles that inform a reader is exactly the tone that is suitable to writing good search engine copy. They make use of repeating key note information and quotes to reiterate their point (see the correlation?).  By still making a readable piece of copy you can entice searchers on to the news article that you have written and then link them off to a) more information, b) your contact details and c) (if you have one) your own comments on a separate blog. Please feel free to rearrange this order as you see fit.

Expanding the example – the Telegraph

As an illustrative example The Telegraph has news articles for informing their readers of current news and blogs for their editors so that they can give their own comments. There are separated to keep fact from opinion.

The cost of upkeep

Whether you are writing a blog post or a news article the same problem arises: you need to write frequently. To engage with your active readers of a blog then they’ll be wanting new content to come back to. To engage with search engines exactly the same applies. If there’s nothing new they’ll got bored and stop coming back.

I HATE supermarkets, they are filled with people meandering about, I simply want to get in and out. When I’m walking down the aisles the first thing that stops me in my track is packaging. I love nothing more than to see an exciting and intriguing brand that makes me want to stop and explore. I find myself reaching for the most captivating brand, for example I am really addicted to ‘innocent veg pots’ at the end of the day it is vegetables, rice and some sauce but the packaging makes it seem much more luxurious. I trust in the brand and rely on the fact that I am going to get a healthy, nutritional meal. I personally love their relaxed and informal style this is emulated throughout the logo and packaging.

I am however slightly disappointed by their website. Don’t get me wrong there are aspects that are brilliant and completely right for them. Such as the bright colours and playful, rounded spring-like text. I just feel much more could be made of top categories; the site becomes a little repetitive. I am a huge fan of their adverts though and the efforts that go into the advertising and packaging win me over.

In the new ad for the Veg Pots the lively videos are simple, to-the-point and easy to watch and this is replicated in the product they are offering. Their target audience are consumers that don’t have time to prepare their meals. After just 30 seconds, I know I am going to get a healthy, substantial meal that takes just four minutes to make. Well I don’t know about you but that has ticked all my boxes!

I guess my point being that it is integral to be creative and have the courage to be different.

Some of you may have come across www.graze.com, again an appealing brand. When Caroline receives her Graze box I am immediately jealous! I see the gorgeous box and want one for myself. Graze deliver a highly personable service that allows their customers to feel valued. The packaging adds to the exclusivity of the brand and gives that extra wow factor.

Not only is their marketing fantastic; they deliver what they promise.

It is all well and good talking about what you can deliver, but it is vital to keep those promises as consumers want to know they can depend on the brand that they are choosing.

We all know you cannot please everyone; so don’t attempt to, focus on your target market. More than ever it is important to eat sleep and live your brand.

I’ve spoken to too many business owners recently who have spent scary amounts of money on ineffective websites or logos only to be too afraid to create something that is going to work because they’ve “had their fingers burnt” in the past and are worried about the same happening again.

Let me tell you about my fingers burning story.

When I started my business in 2005 I did my own books because I was advised that I should. I was told not to waste money on a book keeper, that I needed to know what was going on in my business and that it was easy. Well it might be for some, but it crippled me. I do not have a logical mind and it absolutely knocked me sideways. In fact, I got into such a mess that by October (four months into my business) my accountant advised me to get some professional help. To be fair, he did suggest that I get myself a book keeper who would be cheaper, but for some reason I persevered with him. I paid an accountant £80 an hour to sort out four months of bad book keeping.

£4,500 later (I seem to remember it was £4,500 + VAT?), as I handed over the last cheque he told me it “probably would have been cheaper to have just started again”. Clearly this was just what I needed to hear, money well spent

I couldn’t let my mistake hold me back

I had made a huge mistake, and I needed to take responsibility for it. A good book keeper probably would have charged me a fraction of what this accountant did and I’d certainly had my fingers very badly burnt.

But did this mean I would never use an accountant again? Absolutely not! Accountancy and book keeping isn’t a strength of mine and I knew I needed to use a professional to help me in my business. If I’d burried my head in the sand and sworn never to use an accountant again I probably wouldn’t have a business left. I have always used a book keeper to do the detail in my business and I review the monthly (as well as daily and weekly) figures but I don’t ever put myself through the torturous process of doing the books because I know it’s not helpful.

Are you letting a similar mistake hold you back?

Fortunately I’ve never met anyone who has spent quite such an eye-watering amount of money on 4 months worth of trading history books. But I do meet business owners time and again who realise they are losing opportunities through an ineffective website. They spend days and hours debating what they might do if they had the chance to change their website but they feel paralysed to do anything about it because they’ve already spent so much on something that clearly doesn’t work.

Hanging on to something ineffective for the sake of “getting value out of your mistake” just doesn’t make sense. For many of us, our websites are our shop windows: they have to be right. And if that means facing up to the fact you’ve made a mistake, perhaps that’s what needs to happen for the sake of growing your business?

If past mistakes are holding your business back, ask yourself: What can I learn from this and how can I move on?

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 have whittled the choice down to two that we are torn between, and we’d love your help!

Remember – core brand values are simplicity, passion and marketing virtuoso/ marketing science.

Icon One

Icon Two

I’m not going to say too much about these as I don’t want to sway you. All I will say is that I have one favourite, and Laila’s is the other! So we would really appreciate your input. Would you vote on the icon you think she should use for her business? Comments and thoughts welcome too as always…

Do they understand you? The relationship between designer and agency is essential. If you don’t like them, if you don’t think they understand you, if they’re not interested in or excited about your business, don’t commission them, simple.

Do you like their portfolio? You don’t have to like everything in it, and contrary to popular belief you don’t have to see something directly representative of what you’re looking for. But you do need to be wowed, impressed and inspired about how they can help you.

For me those are the two most important factors you need to consider when choosing a design agency. What would you add to my list?

When I started out in the print industry more than ten years ago everyone starting a business got themselves a logo, some business cards and either a leaflet or brochure. Times have changed, and that mix now tends to be a logo, a website and a business card nowadays. But despite the medium changing, attitudes to how you get your promotional piece to work for you doesn’t seem to have changed.

Over the years I must have spoken to thousands of business owners with the same laissez-faire attitude to creating promotional literature. The idea seems to be: get the word out and the people will come. So it wasn’t (and still isn’t) uncommon to see a leaflet with a logo pride of place at the top, followed by reams of text (or perhaps bullet points) on why XYZ Company is great. Unsurprisingly these types of leaflet don’t tend to win their owners much business.

Fast forward ten years and things aren’t much different on the web. There are numerous examples of great websites, but there are also an uncomfortable number of sites that follow the same format – focusing all on the company and very little about the intended reader. If you’d like your leaflets (or your website) to win you more business, here are five things you must do before you get them out there…

1. Set Goals: What do you want this piece of collateral to do for you? (hint: for websites treat each page separately as well as looking at it as a whole piece- it’s more work but I promise it will pay off!). I know this doesn’t sound like rocket science, but you’d be amazed at how many people don’t sit down and have a good hard think about what they’re trying to achieve. Starting here makes it much easier to get people to do what you want them to.

2. Understand what would compel your reader to do what you want them to do. Why does your (potential) customer need or want what you’re offering? What happens if they don’t do what you want them to do? What’s the downside?

3. Write action focused words that persuade people to do what you want: don’t talk about your business – talk about what’s on offer, why people need it – what’s in it for them and what the downside is if they don’t do it

4. Create a piece of design that doesn’t just look gorgeous – it makes all the right things stand out and grabs the attention of the reader as well as reinforcing your branding. Much, much easier said than done – I recommend you leave this bit to the pros!

5. Deliver with a flourish: if it’s a piece of printed literature get it in all the right places and deliver it more than once – three times in three months is my standard rule of thumb but it’ll depend on what you’re doing. If it’s a website you also need to promote it’s existence – think social media and offline promotion as well as traditional search engine optimisation and ad words.

Go on, give it a try! And let me know how you get on.

I’m running a workshop on this very topic on 20th January so if you’re serious about your business flourishing this year and are considering revamping your website or marketing collateral I highly recommend you sign up! Full details on our website…

I was recently lucky enough to have been taken to a fantastic Japanese restaurant in Soho, London. This place literally took my breath away.

From the moment we entered the restaurant we were very impressed with the décor and the outstanding service.  Friendly smiles, warm greetings and a great environment helped set the tone for the rest of the evening.

Arriving rather early gave us a chance to enjoy the rather swanky and romantically lit restaurant bar.  With a huge choice of very tempting and authentic cocktails it would have been rude not to sample them!  The service was quick and we were presented with two great looking drinks and a complimentary basket of Japanese snacks – everyone loves a freebie!

We heard about this restaurant from a couple of friends who had been previously.  They raved about the service and the food.  But most of all they talked about the interactive table ordering system. Now this is where our experience really took off!

Above every diner is a projector that beams images down onto the table that each person can control with laptop style touch pads embedded on the table.  Using the touch pad you can access and order from an illustrated food and drinks menu, set the mood image projected onto the table, discover the local neighbourhood, even order a taxi home. There’s even a live kitchen camera so you can see the chefs at work!

Needless to say the food was exceptional!  Delicate strips of sushi with tantalising dipping sauces where mouth wateringly delightful and together with some superb wine we couldn’t fault it.

So how does all this relate to my original plan on writing a marketing themed piece?  Well, this experience is a prime example of how a great product or service delivered in a friendly manner can inspire word of mouth marketing to really take shape.

It’s a fact that glowing reviews and advice from close friends, colleagues and family will encourage you to use a service or buy a product rather than from influencers of a detached third party such as an advertisement.

Today social media can play a big part in your word of mouth campaigns.  The ability for people to share information with their friends on a vast scale at the press of a button is something modern business should really take advantage of.  Your customers will actually choose to market your business for you directly to their close friends and family, and best of all – they’ll do it for free!

As with the restaurant I visited it’s usually something quirky or exciting that social media users latch onto and share with their friends.  You can’t force something to ‘go viral’ you can only help it by creating a great product or service to begin with.  So this new age social media and viral marketing run on the same principles as the traditional word of mouth.

So, does your business make people want to shout about it?