Knitwear designer Anna Bright approached us at the start of March, eager for us to address her current branding and blog design because it isn’t sending out the right signals or visually reaching out to the right people. Anna designs beautiful knitwear patterns that she sells to both budding or experienced knitters; women keen to learn new styles and expand their knowledge of knitting techniques.

Her love of all things knitted and gorgeous portfolio of work has enabled her to create steady online activity through her blog, but with a name (Princess Pea) she chose some time ago and a longing to attract more like-minded women in the knitting circle through her branding, Anna took the plunge to revamp her business name, invest in some gorgeous brand styling with us and ask us to redesign her blog in a big way. And did I mention that we’re over the moon she chose to work with us?

Here’s how the logo and brand elements look:

Anna has a quirky 1920′s personal style and she was keen for us to get a vintage feel through in her new branding, so we’ve harked back to an old-England feel for the logo and mimicked hand-knitted patterns through her brand elements.

Accessible  |  clear communication  |  classic/vintage  |  creative  |  efficient  |  practical

Currently writing her first book on knitwear designs and patterns, Anna needs a blog that builds her sales, represents her true business personality and demonstrates her experience in the very best light. She already has great connections in the world of knitting and a tremendous amount of passion in her product, but this needs backing up with well designed and carefully styled branding to really build a strong following on her blog.

At first glance, you might wonder why a new Irish business would commission an English agency to create their branding? Well we happen to think it’s a pretty clever idea; our design-take on the Irish theme was bound to be unique, impartial and hopefully give a little bit of the unexpected. When the lovely Maira contacted us from across the water we relished the chance to get to know more about her quirky business idea; selling illustrative, branded homeware gifts online and in stores to people looking for a flavour of Ireland to have in their home.

Here’s the vision board we created first…

Rich, warm, crisp, lively and bold, with natural links to Irish heritage and recognisable colours of Ireland.

OK OK so we could resist trying a shamrock! There, I’ve said it

Maira was also keen for us to achieve a very clean, stylised look to her branding so we’ve paired bold simple shapes with quirky, fun illustrations to add diversity amongst the patterns.

It would be lovely to hear what you think…

When Animal Art Fair approached us last year to address their website design we naturally jumped at the chance of working with them. Their previous website lacked finesse and didn’t show off the remarkable fine art on display to it’s full potential, so whilst we all felt comfortable working with the same logo, the website and branding as a whole needed a good push into 2013.

Here’s how the old website looked last year…

With so much happening, so many messages and so many directions to be pulled in it’s difficult to know what to do next! Don’t you just want to see gorgeous images of fine art?

After filtering down the core navigation, stripping back the content and simplifying the reader’s journey we made the real focus of the design the art itself. We’ve created a great banner space on the homepage to proudly display the 3 ideal directions we’d like the viewer to take and just let the art sing for itself. Nice big images so you can see the detail in all it’s glory.

The accompanying brand style is deliberately minimal as to not compete with the imagery and we’ve expanded the colour palette only slightly from the red and black base, adding a zesty lime green for a more contemporary feel and gentle greys to soften the contrasts. We wanted to create an exciting colour palette and simple design style that perfectly complemented the drama of the art; a challenge when you could argue that all are of equal importance.

You can check out the new website for yourself here. It would be lovely to hear your thoughts.

Let me introduce you to Gladis.

She is the incredible face of 3 years of very hard work by PSHPC to create a software solution for employers managing protection insurances, ie, income protection and life assurance. Now we all know that insurance isn’t the most exciting subject in the world but what Gladis brings to this industry really is quite exciting and here’s why…

A (very) brief overview

Employers will only realise that an employee is not covered by insurance when a claim is already disputed, or even rejected due to out-of-date information. Typically this happens at the most distressing time for an employee or their family and it can be unpredictable and tricky work for HR departments and their budget.

Enter Gladis – PSHPC’s answer. She identifies data issues, letting employers know that an employee may not be insured before they make a claim, therefore reducing risk, accurately budgeting and cutting costs for the employer. She is utterly unique and as her tagline states, she is virtually perfect in every way.

We’ve been working very closely with the lovely Sara Dean, expert in Business Communications and Director/Business Writer for the newly founded Inky Blue (you probably recognise the branding and blog design we created for Sara last year) and the wonderful team at PSHPC who had a spark of genius back in 2008 to create Gladis, to create a name, face and brand styling which would engage with the people who need Gladis most.

It’s not new news to learn that we start every project with a vision board and the Gladis project was no different, just a little more tricky

We started with 3 concept boards to really get under the skin of what Gladis is all about and interpret an honest depiction of how exceptional this software really is. The PSHPC team were keen from the start to create a character; a face for HR consultants to engage with and relate to. The big question was ‘How will she look?’

Refining Gladis’s attributes

After finely filtering down our ideas we landed (and importantly all agreed!) on one core concept. We knew Gladis’s target market was 28-35 year olds and we knew we wanted her to appear slim, understated, practical, efficient in her appearance, calm, experienced and everso slightly sassy so with a skilled illustrator’s hand we explored fashion-esque sketches with an adorable editorial edge. The result is fresh, fashionable, cool and organised.

Have you been watching the Homeland series on Channel 4? We took great inspiration from Jessica’s character because she seemed to epitomise the character we wanted to capture in Gladis: attractive but not threatening, sensible, efficient, loveable and loyal. After very careful thought, A LOT of research into illustration styles, head scratching, blood, sweat and tears about how we could capture these qualities we landed on a style that felt spot on – an unrevealing shift dress, sensible glasses, low-maintenance hair style, hands-free handbag and practical shoes. Efficient traits that perfectly mirror the software’s brilliance.

Her 6 accessories

After collectively agreeing that Gladis needed a handbag we expanded this into a range of accessories to enhance the brand personality, and could be used as icons to catagorise divisions across the software. Here’s how they look…

We were lucky enough to be invited to Gladis’s exciting launch last night at Harvey Nichols, and we had such a great time. It was so rewarding for us all to see Gladis truly come alive with presentations, banners and the gorgeous brochure which James has spent the last couple of weeks designing. Not to mention the rather delicious macaroon that came in our goodie bags

Big thanks to Sara and all at PSHPC for being wonderful people to work with on this original project and we’re looking forward to see Gladis flourish!

Remember when we posted about Hawthorn Handmade the other week?  Stephanie is a fibre artist whose new business Hawthorn Handmade, specialises in making needle felting craft kits – you can catch up on our previous post about Stephanie’s business or find out a little more about her and her work here.

Following our meeting we got straight to work on a vision board and we all adore the result! A Summer meets Autumn tone with muted colours and a style that gently taps into ‘cool vintage’ and the art of crafting. Fonts are quirky, backgrounds are textured and patterns deliciously tactile. Stephanie was keen to have a little American twist to the brand style so we’ve honoured this but brought it back home with the quintessentially British pheasant.

Which one will Stephanie go for? We’ll be posting the results and other juicy brand design over the next few weeks

We’re refining a few little bits here and there but I couldn’t wait, I had to show you the gorgeous design we’ve created for Toadstool Parties!

Toadstool Parties are a team of young creative people who are passionate about creating imaginative and enchanting parties and events for children. Fronted by the lovely business owner Sarah Chamberlain who has a theatrical background, she’s cherry-picked young individuals packed with energy, passion and a lot of patience to work with her towards creating these magical events. From themed parties to Wedding creche, face-painting and crafts, Sarah and her team do everything you can imagine to give children fun and excitement with an educational undertone. It’s clear you’ll get the full works for whatever the occasion.

Here’s the old website design

Sarah has been itching to work with us for a while now and the feeling has been mutual! Her current website lacks impact and doesn’t communicate her most important business values: aspiration, excitement, ethics and education. Above all it isn’t reaching out to the customers Sarah wants the most so we’ve waved our magical Flourish wand over the design to get the children just as excited as the Mums about what Toadstool Parties can do for them.

Lucky enough to have a friend who illustrates, Sarah already had some stunning drawings in place for her branding but rather than allow these to dominate the design like they tend to on her current site, we wanted them to fit comfortably within the overall look and work naturally alongside everything else. With a logo that fits suitably well with the overall design, Sarah asked us to focus our creative energy on just the website for now and with stacks of fantastic photography as well (which isn’t getting the recognition it deserves on her current site) we’ve brought them to the forefront in a storybook fashion, all adding to the enchanting, imagination-provoking style.

The new website design

Sarah was keen to avoid intense pattern and rightly so. However she loved the idea of having a layered, textured feel to give the site tactility and a sense of being able to jump into a world of imagination. This has been a tricky balance to get right but we’re over the moon with the result and it has all the excitement and energy we’d originally planned without being overwhelming or difficult to navigate your way around.

We’d all love to hear what you think of the rebrand!

Candid Apple is owned and run by the lovely Tamryn Lawrence who offers venue owners and organisers expert consultation on how to get the very best out of their venue and maximise their chances of captivating future brides and grooms for their special day.

Tamryn works closely with the owner or organiser, offering a wealth of knowledge and experience to help them create a venue that’s welcoming at every touch point, practical in the way it presents itself and creative enough to get any bride aching to hold her wedding there. For some couples, choosing a wedding venue is like buying a home! It’s got to be perfect and that’s exactly where Tamryn’s expertise takes centre stage. Her exciting current projects include working with the incredible Clarenco locations and you can check out some of her wedding tips on her Oxfam feature.

It’s important to Tamryn that her branding taps smartly into the business to business bracket because she’s not targeting brides directly so we’ve created a style that’s lovable and romantic but with a serious corporate edge.

For those of you who don’t know already I am a budding bride so this topic really interests me and I think Chloe has got the branding bang on. Tamryn has a very frank and direct approach to the way she works, she’ll tell it like it is if it means getting the best result and her wedding wisdom and confidence is perfectly balanced in her new branding.

We’d love to hear what you think

Ok Ok, I can’t hold it back any longer! I just have to share this with you

The lovely Stephanie Carswell came to see us in the studio yesterday to talk about her exciting new business venture, Hawthorn Handmade. As an owner of a gorgeous gallery in Dorset and an admiringly creative flair as a fibre artist, she’s decided to take the plunge into creating a new business making craft kits, specialising in needle felting kits at first with a view to expanding her range to complement her other needlework skills over the coming months.

Her work is adorable and her new kits will be targeting individuals looking to try a new craft or find an easier way to practice one they already know. With each kit being branded with the designer-maker, Stephanie plans to bring in other makers to expand her offering and widen her kit mix.

We’re delighted that she’s asked us to help her on this first (and very important) leg of her business journey and we can’t wait to get started!

Above: Ian couldn’t resist taking some sneaky shots of some of Stephanie’s little sculptures during the meeting

Below: Stephanie’s energy is very much focussed on her new craft kit business now but you can get an idea of what she currently works on in her Dorset gallery and whilst these sculptures aren’t exactly what the kits will offer, they really show off Stephanie’s skills and they’re just too darn cute not to show you!

From the Dorset gallery

With a clear vision of where she’d like her branding to go and some ideas that have got the team very excited already, the next stage is the vision board. You’ll be able to see where we take this and Stephanie’s brand identity designs over the coming weeks.

None of us can quite believe where the time’s gone but it was well over a year ago that Becky and Liana first approached us with great aspirations for a new website. I hasten to add that the project wasn’t meant to last that long (!) but as we all know, sometimes the chaos of the day-to-day can often take over and whilst Mango Studios have been extremely busy over the months, the big task of a new website had to take a temporary back seat.

But now all fired up with a new website design to make their competitors weep, it’s finally live. Whoop whoop!

A little content still needs adding by the girls here and there but we all agreed that getting the new site up and out was going to start winning them more business, rather than cling on to an old site which they’d mentally let go a long time ago.

The old website design

Becky and Liana were keen to invest their budget in the website so whilst we didn’t get the chance to create a new logo for them, we certainly took their website to whole other level.

It was apparent from the get-go that Mango Studios Photography really had special style but their branding wasn’t showing it off. Now based in their new studio in Cobham, they’re a duo of professionally trained photographers who have been in the industry for years and they know that by working together as a pair they can deliver something really rather special.

Understanding this, they both recognised their website wasn’t doing their incredible work justice and wanted to rebrand.

With a focus on mainly studio work it’s safe to say they’ve mastered their offering; mesmorising baby, toddler and family shoots, evocative wedding shoots and probably their most successful offering, Photoshoot Parties for groups of young (mostly female) teenagers eager to feel like a pop-star for the day. Genius!

Their brand new website

So here it is – clean and elegant with an edgy twist and just enough styling as to not detract from the impact of their beautiful photography.

Big congrats on your new studio girls and here’s to greeting 2013 with a branding bang!

When we show all of our polished designs together on one page it’s sometimes difficult to see the detail that goes into making them so bespoke. I love the imperfect smudginess of these drawings at this initial stage of the design process and they’re made all the more beautiful by some cracking photography. Hat’s off to Ian, and designer James for his camera skills! Enjoy…