Category: Digital Marketing

Digital marketing, website and social media examples from Steve Crooks, Freelance Designer

  • Hubspot Website Design

    Hubspot Website Design

    Hubspot Website Design project for a London based litigation support business. This is a development on a previous brand identity and website design project in which the website used a bespoke CMS, but not linked to any CRM platform.

    Hubspot Website Design project

    For their new site, Hubspot was chosen as it is primarily a CRM platform that helps businesses understand their customer data. Using Hubspot, Legastat can now automate a lot of the online marketing tasks, offer excellent realtime customer support, manage SEO, track leads and even tailor specific landing pages for any tactical campaigns.

    Alongside the CRM, Hupspot comes with a powerful website builder which is fully integrated into and sales leads, email tracking and customer records. It is highly adaptable making it perfect to grow with the business as they pivot into digital first court bundles and the impact of Ai in the legal sector.

    The Hubspot website design platform comes with a live chat which is proving to be invaluable in securing leads and converting them into sales. Using a pop up which appears on every landing page, a representative from Legastat can now talk to visitors and guide them to the information they are after, or have a team lead speak to them about their specific project.


    Legastat are well established face in London legal circles, supporting their customers for over 70 years. As the business has expanded, the website needed to communicate the different services offered in an innovative and engaging way to ensure all customers were aware of the scope in which Legastat could help.

    As with any website builder, it comes with a bunch of free templates and the option to purchase more expansive, better functioning templates. The problem with all of the templates is they’re the same as any other site out there. Using the functionality available, sometimes you have to spend more time on the visual brand and graphics to make your business stand out. Legastat wanted something that stood out.

    The services were all given their own product names, colours and distinctive imagery, all of which combined to give them their own identity and voice. This allowed Legastat to market these services to a new customer using new tactical campaigns via LinedIn and traditional print advertising.

    Their electronic disclosure service was split into three separate ‘products’ using an orchestra ‘Symphony’ to symbolise the scale of service available. Aria for small scale projects, Sonata for medium scale projects and Concerto for larger projects. They also introduced an Overture service for bespoke projects.

    Legastat Symphony Hubspot Website Design
    AIndividual products

    The other services all had their own landing pages giving them space to communicate their own advantages, but still fit within the main brand. The Legastat logo design was produced in order to allow it to be used dynamically and change colour to compliment the service colours.

    concept showing the transfer of data by seeds

    LexBundle Electronic court bundles – Image representing the transfer of data, in this case using seeds.

    electronic thumbprint

    esiCollect – Legastat’s forensic data collection service – the image shows a forensic thumbprint combined with electronic data

    legal reprographics represented by butterflies

    Legal reprographic service – the image represents the reproduction of objects and patterns within nature – in this case butterflies.

    Human eye electronic concept

    Legal document reviews – the image shows the human eye combined with electronic data to show how Legastat can see documents differently.

    Hubspot Website Design Projects

    If you are considering using Hubspot for your next CRM/CMS and need a graphic designer to help turn you visual brand into a functioning, engaging site, then please get in touch.


    Latest News, Projects and Articles

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  • Christmas Retail Campaign

    Christmas Retail Campaign

    Christmas is an important part of any retail operation and forms a vital part of overall annual sales. It is therefore vital to maximise this opportunity as many other campaigns throughout the year depend on the financial success of the holiday period. A well planned and executed Christmas retail campaign could make or break your year ahead.

    Banham Zoo use this time to promote a Santa experience to generate extra revenue, plus engage with the increased visitor numbers and promote their important conservation activities.

    The event included a Santa’s grotto, which incorporated a lot of the educational and conservation messages important to ZSEA. The visitors were invited to participate with craft activities and make a bird feeder to help the local bird population over Christmas. This important campaign was designed to show visitors that conservation is just as important in their own back gardens as the work ZSEA undertake. The local bird population is struggling and anything that the visitors could learn, the better chance they have. BBC article on the declining wild birds in British gardens >>

    Christmas Retail Campaign social media activity

    Social media posts showing the Santa image with birds. The challenge was then how to bring these elements across al aspects of the event, from signage, adverts and promotional material.

    Christmas wayfinder design

    Wayfinders and promotional posters using the Santa image or using the background moon/colours. This allowed the zoo to clearly identify which areas had been repurposed for the Christmas experience.

    Christmas Retail Campaign for food outlets

    Alongside the main attractions, the Christmas retail campaign included some food outlets being used for seasonal offers such as snacks and hot chocolates. A separate style was rolled out for some kiosks to given them their own identity.

    Retail examples

    Examples of retail activity. TV screen which is positioned behind the main ticket area, POS example upselling Christmas toys and a series of baubles which were presented on a real tree within the main retail area allowing visitors to buy experience gifts for Christmas.

    Do you have a Christmas Retail Campaign?

    If you want to develop a Christmas retail campaign and need help from a freelance graphic designer based in Suffolk, then please drop me a line and we can talk.


    Latest News, Projects and Articles

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  • Website Project Management

    Website Project Management

    As part of an overall consultancy role within ZSEA (Zoological Society for East Anglia) their website needed an overhaul and I was part of the website project management team.

    Working closely with the external digital agency the team produced a series of wireframes and development documents in order to consult with as many internal stakeholders to make sure the content would be correct and easily updatable.

    website project management design visuals

    The website project management team undertook a period of reflection and research to firstly establish the platform on which the website was to be built. The previous websites were build in WordPress, which has it’s merits, but was seen as unsuitable for the scope of the new project. One major aspect was to have the ability to run three websites, ZSEA, Africa Alive and Banham Zoo but have a single area controlling all membership information, purchases and tickets. In order to achieve this, ZSEA employed a digital agency with it’s own CMS system capable of producing websites within a template system, but still had the capacity for expansion. Given the size of the investment, it was important that the new platform and website infrastructure had the ability to be quickly changed allowing reskins for seasonal promotions and any future changes in strategy.

    website project management team wireframes

    Above shows some of the wireframes produced in order to communicate the structure the different departments within the organisation. These were then used to build a development site which the website project management team explored the best way to display the information.

    Website Project Management

    There are real benefits in having a freelance website designer as part of the development team. We are problem solvers and have the ability to explain ideas and concepts to those who are not visual thinkers. Using wireframes and sketches, often on paper during the meetings dramatically speed up understanding and development time as decisions are made a lot quicker. We also understand the corporate visual strategy and can steer decisions ensuring that overall visual style is consistent.

    An remember, the best thing about using a freelancer is we can drop in and out of the project when needed. If you have an upcoming website project you think needs the input of a creative visual thinker, then please get in touch.


    Latest News, Projects and Articles

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  • Video for Social Media

    Video for Social Media

    Video for social media is a great way to engage with your audience.

    Social Media Campaign Videos

    For example, this end of season video for a Suffolk farm park was designed to thank the visitors and staff. It provides a positive message which their online audience respond to. This was a great way to show images of the animals as well as the staff behind the scenes. It also gives the farm the opportunity to highlight all the positive feedback they had received over the summer. Designed is a 1080 x 1080 pixel format, the video can be used on Facebook as well as Instagram. Very well received, the video helped the farm engage with over 250 of their followers and had over 1000 views.

     

    Corporate Video Production

    For example, the video below for Liability and General promotes their work in the construction sector. This is an areas they specialise in and wanted to promote. The video uses an animation of their logo to help bring the brand to life. For more on the logo design project, click here.

    As well as video for social media, this extend format allows for use in exhibitions and in email campaigns.  It is also embedded onto their website. This gives the company a way to focus attention and adds another dimension to their brand.

    Using the same images as their other marketing material, the video is designed to fit within their overall brand. The simplest option is to produce a bland video based on a template, but this video is  uniquely L&G. It incorporates stock footage to add movement and animated sequences to highlight the offer.  We also opted for a professional voice over artist to give the video to keep the viewers attention and ensure the message was clearly understood.

    Video for Social Media Storyboard

    The design process started with the storyboard above. This gave us the opportunity to formulate the style and content of the video. I then drafted a script which was tweaked by the client before commissioning the voice over. The need for flexibility was also built into the process.  The edit is designed to allow L&G to swap out the centre of the video. This gives them the opportunity to develop additional productions. These will target different sectors within their insurance business.

    If you think your business could benefit from a targeted corporate video, or need help bringing your video for social media to life, then get in touch. The process is simple and can provide an excellent return.

  • Zoological Society of East Anglia ‘Be Amazing’ Campaign

    Zoological Society of East Anglia ‘Be Amazing’ Campaign

    The Zoological Society of East Anglia runs both Banham Zoo and Africa Alive. As part of a major fundraising drive following the COVID-19 lockdown, the ZSEA approached me to help with their ‘Be Amazing’ campaign. This campaign was designed to bring donors, ticket holders and fundraisers together to maximise their support.

    As part of the campaign, supporters were encouraged to raise money for the zoo and ‘Be Amazing’. The funds would be used for the welfare and food for the animals while the zoos were closed to the public.

    We used Givergy as the fundraising platform. This allowed ZSEA to run both donation pages and a competition pages. The competitions were all administered by the Givergy system giving the ZSEA the knowledge these were all covered by UK gambling laws and the winners chosen at random. For my part, I helped provide engaging graphics to support the competitions. These included some amazing people, such as people singing songs, ballet schools and local businesses donating prizes.

    Zoological Society of East Anglia 'Be Amazing' Campaign
    Support graphics for the Zoological Society of East Anglia Givergy fundraising site

    With so many organisations fundraising during this time it was important to the Zoological Society of East Anglia to look as engaging as possible. In order to achieve this, and to help with the overall delivery of the items we split each project into two options.  The first was general support for those fundraising on the zoo’s behalf. For these we used a framework based around the ‘Be Amazing’ message.  For more complex projects, we designed an individual treatment to reflect the target audience.

    One example of the bespoke project design was the material targeting the schools in the local area. While in lockdown, pupils were invited to draw an ‘Amazing’ picture. Using the frames provided, the pictures would be entered into a prize draw to win a trip to the zoo for their whole class. We also printed the winning picture onto T-Shirts for the entire class. Not only does this help to raise funds, it also provides a great good news story to promote with the winning class. To support the campaign, we produced social media graphics and a downloadable entry pack.

    Zoological Society of East Anglia School Art Competition
    Be Amazing School Art Competition social media graphics for Banham Zoo and Africa Alive, plus the downloadable entry pack with instructions and sample frames for the pupils to colour in.

    If you have a fundraising project which needs professional graphics to help maximise its impact, then get in touch. I have plenty of experience in not only designing the graphics for events, but also running them so understand the pressures involved.

  • Christmas Campaign Design for UK Garden Centres

    Christmas Campaign Design for UK Garden Centres

    This Christmas campaign design is part of an on going brand development project with Frosts Garden Centres. For more detail of the main brand design, click here >

    Everyone Love Christmas at Frosts was developed alongside the Frosts marketing and design team. They wanted a beautiful design they could use various elements from throughout their garden centres. They designed a campaign based around 5 unique animal illustrations, a fox, a robin, a deer, a squirrel and a mouse.

     

    Christmas campaign design for UK garden centres

     

    Starting with the initial sketches, we designed each character to be used individually and part of a set. This included their use with a Christmas background made up of holly, stars, hearts and mistletoe. Using this background we designed a set of Christmas baubles to accompany the tagline ‘Everyone loves…’.  I then produced each character as a lino cut. This gave them a sense of individuality and added to their personality. Once they were printed, the characters were scanned in and redrawn in order to make them vector graphics. This gave us the option to use them and a much larger scale.

     

    Frosts Christmas campaign design animals

    Christmas lino cut examples for campaign

     

    The Christmas campaign design was then rolled out over 2500 separate items of Point of Sale and Information graphics. With 4 different locations and hundreds of items in this was quite the undertaking. Using the Christmas characters and the Christmas pattern we designed POS specifically for each of the 4 locations helping them transform the centres into winter wonderlands.

    Frosts Christmas POS display designs
    POS Point of Sale design showing Christmas tree display unit, height chart and on tree bauble. Also showing 6m display board in main Christmas area.

     

    Christmas Tree plinth Point of Sale visuals

    Christmas Tree Light Display Point of Sale

     

    Working closely with the in-house marketing team we also need to develop ways of communicating the choices of certain items to the customer. This included how they were to make an informed decision on which tree, the lights and the decorations. This involved working alongside the build and installation teams in order to ensure the large graphics were produced to the correct specifications. The Light Your Tree Point of Sale shown above has a main graphic printed on the back wall with working lights in separate boards next to a working tree. In order to complete the look, each tree also has baubles showing which light is on display and a branded plinth for the tree to be displayed on.

     

    Christmas leaflet designs

    The design was also used on a series of adverts and supporting leaflets. In order to make the brand fit with the Christmas feel, we changed the brand green to a strong dark red and complimentary gold. Where possible we chose to print the gold as a 5th colour metallic special giving the leaflets a luxury Christmas look.

    The pattern made up of the animals and other Christmas motifs was an excellent way to brand Christmas products such as voucher cards, hampers and gifts. This was a great way to ensure all products had the Frosts Christmas design irrespective of supplier and county of origin. We either supplied finished artwork or supplied the pattern to the supplier to produce their own packaging.

     

    Christmas Product Design

     

    There are many ways of transforming a brand for specific campaigns, be it Christmas, Easter or commercial activity such as Black Friday. If you would like to discuss ideas on how we can convert your brand to fit a campaign, please contact me and I’m sure I can help.

     

  • Social Media Graphic Creation for Suffolk Attraction

    Social Media Graphic Creation for Suffolk Attraction

    Social media graphic creation that is on brand will make a huge difference to how your customers view your business. These immediately stand out from many other posts because they are considered and designed to communicate in a more effective manner. They also help bring a campaign together building trust and encouraging a positive action.

    Season Ticket Social Media Graphic example
    Instagram 1080px, Facebook cover and Facebook 1200px for season ticket campaign

    Above shows a series of social media graphics for use on different platforms for a tactical campaign to raise awareness of season tickets.  Using a common background and typeface the online campaign is designed to quickly grab the attention and mirror additional marketing activity offline.

    Instagram Video Creation

    Below shows the how we can use the same social media graphics for video use on Instagram. This includes real footage to bring the offer to life and engage with social media users whom particularly respond to video.

     

    There are plenty of online options for creating social media graphics. The issue is how to use these and remain sympathetic to the brand identity. These site offer simple and quick templates to use, but these have little flexibility when it comes to correctly interpreting the visual feel of the brand.

    Camping tactical campaign
    Camping campaign Facebook 1200px, Facebook cover and Instagram 1080px post

    Social media graphic creation for stand alone campaigns

    Social media is great vehicle to try different campaigns, but you still need to make sure these are targeting the correct customers with clear messaging and retain some link to your brand. The vast about of content a user is expected to consume means you need to work hard to pass on any authority your brand has built up.

    The below campaign for a Unicorn Day was designed to appeal to a specific audience. With such a departure from the main brand we needed to link back to other tactical campaigns by using the familiar informal font and choosing to add the logo onto the graphics. As most social media platforms show a thumbnail of the profile image alongside any timeline images, it is not always necessary to add the logo directly onto the image.  In this case however we felt we needed to to make sure the users fully understood the event was owned by Easton Farm Park. With this, the users felt reassured it would be well organised as this is their understanding of the brand.

    Tactical Social media graphic creation
    Social media graphic creation for tactical campaign for a stand alone event

    Using social media graphics to show information

    We can use the 1200px wide Facebook graphics to show more detailed information, which will appear directly in timelines once users have engaged with it.  This can dramatically help the uptake of events and offers. The example below shows a Christmas event and all available dates. The detailed information encourages shares and results more users declaring their interest. Over 1200 visitors have clicked that they are interested in this event (from a page with 8600 likes). Using the event correctly has allowed the client to offer tickets directly from Facebook making it as easy as possible to purchase. The event can be found here >

    Christmas Social media graphic creation
    Information graphic for use on Facebook timeline and event page

    Do you run tactical campaigns and need to explore how social media graphic creation can help these succeed. Drop me a line and I can show you many more examples completed for agencies and marketing professionals.

  • Bespoke Website Design for Supercar Hire Experts

    Bespoke Website Design for Supercar Hire Experts

    Bespoke website design project for PB Supercar Hire, experts based in central London. The website showcases the fleet of amazing supercars and communicates the different hire options.

    Each car has a simple table which clearly communicates the prices and the car specification. The price options include a mixture of daily, weekly and even monthly options, so it was important the customer be able to see how the price reduces based on the length of hire.

    Bespoke Website Design
    Homepage shown on desktop and mobile

    There is also an option for a short term lease for those who require the car for a longer period of time. These prices have been separated into a different section. This was not only to make the pricing easy to differentiate between short term and long term hires, but also to help with the SEO (Search Engine Optimisation) of the site. In using a different section, these pages can directly target keywords associated with short term leases. Working closely with PBSH, this has been continued over the entire site to use each page to target specific searches for that supercar. This helps mitigate some of the cost from their PPC (Pay Per Click) campaigns by boosting organic traffic from SERPS (Search Engine Results Pages).

    Bespoke Website Subpages
    Subpages showing information layout

    The bespoke website design is based on HTML and PHP. In order to collect enquiries, the site has a bespoke PHP CMS (Content Management System) added.  This collects the customer data, including which car they have requested the information from. It also provides this data to PBSH as a downloadable CSV file for them to use off-site. This enables PBSH to add customers who have requested news on offers to be added to their email database. The data can also be used to check on car performance and customer rental frequency.

    Bespoke SEO website pages
    Bespoke pages targeting different keywords for SEO purposes

    Do you have a website that needs to display information in a simple, easy to digest manner? Taking a look at how the information is communicated is very important to how many enquiries your website generates. If you would like to know more about this project, or bespoke website design case studies, please contact me.

  • Investment Bank Logo and brand design – UK based

    Investment Bank Logo and brand design – UK based

    Investment Bank KXV’s brief was to design a simple, bold design that enabled them to make an impact at investor conferences.

    The logo design introduced the simple diagonal line mechanism demonstrating investment. The strong shapes  help communicate their confidence and their ambitious approach to investment banking.

    Examples of the KXV Investment Bank Logo Design

    We designed the colour pallet to change from year to year, with the 2020 being the two tones blue. The plan is then to select a new colour for the following years to keep the brand fresh in the mind of investors. The logo was designed with this in mind so can be used on white, or reversed out of any solid colour. KXV hope this flexible approach will enable them to appear more dynamic than their larger investment bank rivals.

    Brochure and Report covers

    One of the main criteria for KXV Investment Bank was to move away from stock images and only use ‘real’ customers when showing testimonials or campaign messages. The strong shapes used on the brochure covers allow for this. Each cover of a report or presentation has it’s own shape design with a nod to the contents. These examples show a simple ‘tech’ pattern for a report on cyber security and a zig zag pattern for reports on market fluctuation and opportunities.

    We developed a campaign based on the individual priorities of the customer called ‘My Priority’ where KXV asked a number of customers why they felt they wanted help with their investments. This enabled us to use the real customers to give the campaign an real world feel and show people future customers could identity with.

    Website and Twitter design for UK based investment bank

    Website design

     

    Annual report design

    KXV Exhibition Stand Design

    Exhibition stand design and supporting corporate literature design

    If you have any queries, or wish to contact me for more examples, please drop me a line. There are many more examples of brand and logo design on the website, plus many more which have been commissioned by marketing agencies and marketing consultants. Due to rights reasons, these are not shown on the website but these design case study examples can be shown via email.

     

  • Animated Logo Design for International Interior Art Designer

    Animated Logo Design for International Interior Art Designer

    Animated logo design is becoming more popular as we look to make websites and their visual brand more dynamic. Animating the logo is a great way to add movement and help stand out from in your sector.

    As part of a project with a marketing consultant, we developed a new logo and then explored ways to make the brand more exciting.  As an interior designer working in a very experimental and innovate way, the client was very receptive to new ways of presenting the brand. As part of a delivering a complete brand for the new business, we introduced this animated logo design.

    As this project was completed on behalf of a marketing consultant, I have removed the real name of the art director. If you wish to discuss this project in more detail and see what else we produced as part of the animated logo design project, then please contact me.

    The logo itself was a typographic element designed to be clean and simple because we didn’t want it to over power the client’s interior design pieces. It was also to be used as a stencil and needed to be easily recreated in stitched fabric or etched on glass. Away from the design pieces, we wanted to use the logo in more inventive way and animating it helped really communicate the individuality on websites and presentations. This was particularly important as the business was seeking investment for the next stage of their growth, including gallery space in central London.

    The animated logo combined the typographic logo style with footage of a falling ink drop. As the ink drop hit the surface, the shape it forms indicated the variation and individuality to seen within the designs. The effect was produced by using a mixture of Adobe Animate, Premier Pro and After Effects. This was then exported as MP4 files for use in the client presentations and as an animated GIF for use on the website and supporting digital marketing.

    If you have a similar project, or are looking for a freelance logo designer, then please contact me for more examples.

  • Trafalgar Fireworks WordPress Design and WooCommerce Website

    Trafalgar Fireworks WordPress Design and WooCommerce Website

    This is an example of a WordPress design for Norwich based firework company. As a start up business it was important to keep costs down but still deliver a site with impact. It was great to work with them again having worked previously on their logo and brand design (see the case study here >) and their packaging design project (see the case study here>)

    We explored various solutions and discovered WordPress was by far the most suitable.  Quick to implement and OpenSource, WordPress is used by millions of websites all over the world. There are plenty of online resources available to help with learning how to update a WordPress site. There are also many pre-built templates to choose from which cost very little.

    Trafalgar WordPress Design
    Trafalgar WordPress Design and WooCommerce product page

    WordPress can be used alongside an eCommerce solution called WooCommerce. This, as with WordPress, has access to thousands of extensions allowing you to customise a store with added functionality. Due to the nature of the business, it was necessary to find possible ways to add value to the site. Fireworks are notoriously difficult to transport making any delivery options prohibitive due to costs. Very few carriers are willing to deliver fireworks, and those that do require large volumes to make it worth their while.   Again, due to the specific challenges faced by the business, we needed to offer an alternative for those with limited time around key dates, such as Guy Fawkes Night, Diwali and New Year.

    We explored the possibility of a Click and Collect service. The central Norwich location of the shop and the fact that they have parking at the front made this feasible from a logistics point of view. Click and Collect also provided an ideal option during busy periods at it allowed customers to select what they wanted before visiting and allowed Trafalgar to organise the order in advance. With WooCommerce installed, we sought a Click and Collect module which has been installed and has been very successful. The module even had options to allow a certain time slot to be ordered by the customer making the process even more streamlined.

    Click and Collect plugin and example of firework embedded video
    Click and Collect plugin and example of firework embedded video

    Another way to add value is to add video to the site.  This is something that WordPress excels at and is very easy to embed YouTube links into pages.  With videos on the site, Trafalgar can show how a firework performs, giving them the edge over other local firework providers. Not only does this allow customers to understand what they are buying, but also allows them to curate their own displays.

    Are you looking for a quick, cost effective WordPress design? Do you want to find creative ways to add value?  Drop me a line and we can discuss how you can get your business online and how we can make the site worth visiting.

  • Pignut Website Design

    Pignut Website Design

    This project for Pignut included developing a single page brand website, an eCommerce site and website training for the marketing department.

    Firstly we developed a quick and simple single page website to help establish the brand and build awareness. This site help generate valuable leads while the main site was in production. It also provided a showcase for some of the excellent photography which had been commissioned.

    As well as establishing the brand values and visual identity, the site also provides details on trade shows where buyers could view the new product ranges.

    Pignut website design and website training
    Pignut brand website

    The main site was developed using Magento as the main platform. An excellent eCommerce platform, Magento offers a wide range of services and options and is very flexible and scaleable. The Magento Marketplace offers access to thousands of extensions so any possible functionality will be available.

    One disadvantage, as with any out-of-the-box solution is the use of templates. These templates are tried and tested and allow you to get the site live quickly.  The danger is however, every templated site will look the same. We therefore had to work hard to produce extra design and code to ensure the brand value are experienced at every point during the customer’s journey.

    Pignut website design
    Example of Pignut login page with brand elements

    website design pages using Magento templates
    Pignut Sizing page, Brand Story page and Product page

    Website Training

    Once the site was ready to go live, we delivered a number of website training days teaching the Woodbridge marketing team on how to use Magento. This showed them how to add/edit products, how to add offer codes and how to add news articles.  They also mastered the ordering process making sure all customer communications where in line with the brand values.

    In order to make sure the teams were comfortable with how the system worked, I embedded myself in their offices for a week and helped with all updates. This also allowed me to observe how they went about updating the content and adjust my training accordingly.

    Website Design

    Do you have a similar website design project? Are you worried your site will look to generic if you use a template solution? Get in touch and we can talk about ways to make your website stand out and deliver your brand values.

    Update: The Pignut brand is now trading as part of the Smart Garden products after the main brand of Briers was purchased in 2019. The e-commerce operation is now included in the main site.  If you would like to see the initial brand site it can be found here >

  • Runaway Coast Brand Development

    Runaway Coast Brand Development

    Runaway Coast were a high end homewear retailer based in Aldeburgh, Suffolk. They produced and sold to both to consumer and trade, a variety of bedding, cushions and other home products. Working with Runaway Coast Runaway we developed a fun and attractive brand which proved very popular amongst their local and national customers.  The business expanded operations into London and various other pop up shops and trade customers.

    Runaway Coast Shop
    Runaway Coast Aldeburgh shop, original 4pp consumer leaflet, consumer bags and product label

    The brand identity was developed using an existing logo. We designed a signature style for literature and the retail outlets using their Lighthouse Stripe fabric.  This was the best selling bedding range and had quickly become synonymous with the brand.  Using the stripes on bags, leaflets and adverts gave the brand instant recognition and provided a useful tool to bring all the elements together. It was also valuable that using this brand pattern was simple and therefore cost effective to print.

    Runaway Coast Lookbook
    Runaway Coast 16pp Lookbook designed to showcase their fabrics to trade buyers

    We wanted to base the activity and the look of the brand material around the fun, memories and the beauty of the Suffolk coast. Rooting the brand on the Suffolk Coast gave it a strong sense of identity and helped promote the narrative behind the company. We borrowed heavily from established iconography and imagery found in coastal designs to influence the brand style.  Memories of coastal holidays provided a very strong, positive message and using this helped the brand.  Runaway Coast was all about presenting themselves as fun and friendly and the depth of material provided by coastal objects such as postcards and travel labels were wonderful to use in the designs.

    Runaway Coast website, examples of social media graphics and press adverts

     

    The brand was also influenced by what the coast represents. The sense of freedom and escape the Suffolk coast offers was something else we wanted to weave into the designs where at all possible.  Using photographs showing the space and natural beauty of the coast we helped convey these aspects in literature and point of sale.

    Examples of the highly successful Runaway Coast email campaigns

    If you have a brand which needs a similar narrative or feel your story isn’t coming through in your brand design, get in touch and we can discuss some options.  As you can see from the examples, we worked hard to make sure the brand message was communicated on all elements.

  • The Space Burston Yoga and Wellbeing Logo Design

    The Space Burston Yoga and Wellbeing Logo Design

    The Space Burston is a yoga studio and wellbeing treatment room in Norfolk. The Space wanted a light modern logo and visual identity to use on their premises and supporting material.

    We developed a logo which combined yoga poses with silhouettes of everyday people enjoying movement. It was important to demonstrate The Space was for all types of customer as they needed to illustrate that they offered both wellbeing classes as well as specialised treatments.  The logo therefore shows a runner to demonstrate sports massage, a gardener to show treatments for all ages and a young mother to show how they offer classes for babies and parents.  The use of grey is designed to give the logo and identity a calming effect and to be used as a colour pallet within the building.

    The Space Burston Yoga Logo Design

    The Space Burston –  Visual identity colour scheme

    As part of The Space’s visual identity, we chose three warm greys to use alongside white. This gave us a greater variety of tones when producing support material. The use of silhouettes in the logo lends itself very nicely to using the human form in these tonal greys. For promotional material we felt we needed an accent colour to help lift the leaflets and flyers. What worked well is an aqua blue as this compliments the grey and is a vibrant and eye catching addition.

    As a start up business it was important they kept costs to a minimum. As part of the project I helped set up a WordPress website which they have complete control over. I also supplied graphics to help their social media activity. As the business has matured we are now looking at a more extensive site which will offer online bookings.

    For more details on The Space Burston and how to book classes or treatments, visit their website here >

    If you have a start up business and are looking for an experienced graphic designer to help, then drop me a line. As with The Space I offer far more than just logo design and new visual identity. I can help identify common pitfalls often encountered by a start up business and provide valuable advice which will save you money and get you out in the market as quickly as possible.

  • Care Careers East Logo Design and Website Project

    Care Careers East Logo Design and Website Project

    Care Careers East are a specialist recruitment service for care professionals in Suffolk and Norfolk. The provide a bespoke service aimed at getting a better quality candidate for the many care service provides across the region. The issue the care providers have is traditional recruitment sites are often beyond their budget. Care Careers East also vet each candidate on their behalf and only put forward those they feel are of a certain quality. They also assist candidates work on their CVs and help find training opportunities to help raise the overall quality of those seeking jobs in care.

    Care Careers East Logo Design

    The Care Careers East logo uses simple letter forms making it easy to identify. The extra touch of including the east facing arrow as part of the ‘e’ gives provides an energetic shape to use on corporate material and throughout their corporate identity. The arrow not only illustrates the Eastern focus of the service, but also provides a forward movement supporting their ‘Fast Forwarding Your Career‘ descriptor line.

    Green is a colour heavily associated with the care profession and Care Careers East wanted to position themselves very much within that tradition. The use of two greens gives them a strong corporate colour but retain the flexibility of dark and light. The logo and the identity is therefore just as effective reversed out of the solid green.

    Care Careers East logo design and website development
    The Care Careers Logo and Website Homepage

    Care Careers East Website Design

    Before designing the website we looked at many pre-built options and WordPress plugins that offer recruitment functionality. None of these were exactly what we needed so we built our own. The main reason for the bespoke build is we wanted the site to have a more hands on approach for the candidates. One of the issues with the care profession is that a great many of the care professionals are not completely computer literate and are often discouraged to apply for positions due to the complexity of the online systems. We designed a site to strip away a lot of these obstacles.  For instance, instead of a lengthy online form to complete, the candidates are encouraged to send in their CVs. For those, of whom there are a considerable number, who do not have a CV, they are offered a simple downloadable Acrobat form which they either complete on their own PCs or print out and fill in with a pen.  This makes the positions accessible to all.

    Care Careers East Job application digital form
    The website jobs page and an example of the easy to use downloadable application form

    Care Careers East Digital Marketing

    As part if their marketing plan, CCE produce a number of emailers. These are split between quick ‘Job Alerts‘ designed to get new vacancies out to their database as quickly as possible and Newsletters, which will go into more detail about the regions care sector.

    We have also produced a number of online adverts including leaderboards, banners and MPUs.  These examples illustrate how well the over all corporate identity translates over all media providing Care Careers East with a robust and distinctive brand which stands out in the care sector.

    The Care Careers East MailChimp template, Leaderboard, Banner and MPU adverts. Also show is the stationery set.

    For more information about CCE you can visit their website here >. If you a similar project and would like to know more detail about the design and development process, please get in touch.

  • London Sports Cars Logo Design and Website Development

    London Sports Cars Logo Design and Website Development

    London Sports Cars logo design and website development.  London Sports Cars are a sales agency that deal specifically in prestige super cars. Part of an existing hire company, they needed a quick, simple logo design to help take advantage of their connections and sell sports cars online.

    Alongside the logo we also developed the online sales platform which included a showroom, all administered via a backend system giving London Sports Cars complete control.

    Case study for London Sports Cars Logo Design

    The logo is designed to be easy to digest. A considerable number of the clients of the hire business are non-English speakers so the London Sports Cars logo needed to be un-complicated and quickly recognisable.  The use of red is synonymous with super cars and the introduction of the blue/grey gave the logo a mature touch inline with many other high end services that the clients will encounter day to day.

    London Sports Cars Logo

    The logo was supplied direct to the client who then produced their own stationery sets and signage. It also translated very well to the clients digital marketing activity such as banner adverts and email campaigns.

    London Sports Cars Website Wirteframe

    London Sports Cars Website

    The London Sports Cars website was developed by first producing a set of wireframes. This allowed us to identify which areas of the site needed to editable.  The backend administration system was bespoke and built to make it as easy as possible to add and edit the sports cars available.  There were many existing WordPress plugins on offers, but after exploring these in detail we felt they were too complicated to use and the site we wanted to deliver needed to far simpler to use. They had also tried online services such as Autotrader but this site gave them access to a set of clients who demanded a more exclusive approach.

    London Sports Cars have the ability to make the cars a ‘Featured Car’ on the homepage, turn the car to ‘Under Offer’ or ‘Sold’.

    The London Sports Cars logo and website were developed in under 4 weeks and within a strict budget. This gave them the chance to extend their business into sales opening up a complete new market. If you are thinking of extending into new areas and want a logo design, identity and website to test the waters, it can be done in a very cost effective way.  If you want to know more, please get in touch and I’ll have ideas on how it can happen.