Author: Regine Wilber

When “nice ideas” quietly undermine your brand

March 20, 2026

Sitting in my design studio in Sutton Coldfield this morning, this news article really tickled me – and then made me think (a lot).

On paper, it probably sounded like a nice idea.

International Women’s Day. A thoughtful gesture. Something a bit different.

So… pink ice-cream makers.

And yet, here we are.

A Cambridge-educated international law firm partner caused controversy by sending pastel pink ice-cream makers to female lawyers and clients to mark International Women’s Day – as reported by The Times:

https://www.thetimes.com/uk/law/article/harneys-international-womens-day-ice-cream-h0cc0g8fv

Because the issue isn’t really the product. It’s what it signals.

It’s rarely one bad decision

Most brand missteps don’t come from laziness or bad intentions. They come from shortcuts.

Someone thinks:

Pink = feminine

Gift = thoughtful

Tick. Tick. Tick. Job done

But branding isn’t a checklist. It’s how things are interpreted, not just how they’re intended. And interpretation is where this falls apart. When I am involved in a brand consultancy project, one part of my discovery work is to look around for similar brands, similar challenges, and similar, relatable examples of why something could potentially be an issue. So I’ve done a little digging into more ‘pink gate’ type scenarios and as expected…

We’ve seen this before

This kind of thing crops up time and time again. Different industries, different audiences, completely different campaigns – and yet the same underlying pattern keeps appearing. A simple idea gets reduced just a bit too far, and no one quite stops to sense-check how it might be received.

Individually, these moments can look small or harmless. But they tend to follow a familiar shape. These are the kinds of moments where the intention might have been fine… but the execution told a very different story.

“For her” pens

Not a single campaign, but a whole category.

Pink packaging. Same product. Often a higher price.

It was positioned as thoughtful, but most people saw it for what it was – unnecessary at best, patronising at worst. I love the commentary from Ellen DeGeneres… hallelujah, we finally get our own pen… what ever will be next? Our own beer? Oh hang on…

Heineken – “Sometimes, lighter is better”

A beer slides down a bar, passing several darker-skinned people before reaching a lighter-skinned woman.

The line?

“Sometimes, lighter is better.”

Honestly, every slide by of the bottle is ‘cringe’! You can see what they were trying to say. But you can also see why it didn’t land that way. I can almost picture the meeting where this got signed off. On one level, it’s about the beer. On another… how did no one stop and say, “hang on a second”?

Definitely one of those moments where the idea might have seemed straightforward internally, but the second it’s out in the world, it takes on a completely different meaning. And not in a good way.

Pepsi protest ad

This one leaned heavily into the imagery of protest and social justice.

The problem wasn’t just the concept – it was how disconnected it felt from reality. The backlash was fast, and very public. I tried to to make my husband sit through one viewing of it and he gave up, too cringe, life is too short! I myself found myself even now displaying visceral signs of wound-upness and anger… why did nobody in there art department notice how ridiculously self-indulgent and far-fetched from reality this is? The mind boggles.

The bit people miss

Colour isn’t neutral, objects aren’t neutral, and context definitely isn’t neutral.

When you combine them, you’re not just giving someone a product or creating a campaign – you’re saying something about how you see your audience. And that’s where things can quietly shift from “nice idea” to something that feels a bit off.

It’s rarely about intent. Most of the time, the intent is perfectly reasonable. But intent doesn’t travel nearly as well as people think it does.

“But it’s just a gift…”

This is usually where the defence comes in.

It’s just a gesture. Just a bit of fun. Just a colour choice.

And on one level, that’s true. But brands aren’t judged on what they meant – they’re judged on how things are received. And often, the smaller and more casual the moment, the more honest the reaction. No messaging. No framing. Just instinct.

Where it actually goes wrong

In most cases, it comes down to a few very human habits. Designing for assumptions instead of real people. Going with the obvious answer instead of the right one. And not having someone in the room who feels comfortable saying, “are we sure about this?”

In my design studio, I can always rely on what we call ‘de-creative’ Steve who is very skilled at not knowing what something should be like, but knowing very well what something shouldn’t be like. I have a post on this because it’s not just funny but has actually become a very valuable part of my concept and design process. Watch this space…

These things are rarely a big strategic failure. More often, there’s been a small gap in thinking that nobody quite challenged.

The fix isn’t complicated

This isn’t about overthinking everything or stripping out personality. Instead, it’s about thinking things through properly. Looking at what your brand is actually saying when you’re not there to explain it, and making sure the idea, the execution, and the context all line up.

Because it’s usually the small details – the ones that feel harmless – that make the biggest difference to how something lands. And that’s often the difference between something that feels considered… and something that ends up doing the rounds for the wrong reasons.

So if something feels like a “nice idea”, pause for a second.

Because it might be.

Or it might be one of those moments where your brand quietly says something you didn’t mean at all.

Business-Card-Cell-Phone-and-NFC-Card-Graphic-Design-Studio-Birmingham-Sample

Laying down the branding law for Burley Law

February 14, 2024

Burley Law

Take a peek at my work with Burley Law! Together, we’ve jazzed up their brand identity, whipped up a sleek website, sparked engaging social media conversations, designed some cool merchandise, fine-tuned their brand voice, and boosted their SEO game. It’s been a fantastic journey helping them shine in their unique way!

Burley Law Branding
Advert-Graphic-Design-Studio-Birmingham-Sample-for-Law-Firm
Magazine-Advert-Graphic-Design-Studio-Birmingham-Sample-for-Law-Firm
Business-Card-Graphic-Design-Studio-Birmingham-Sample

Creative thinking in a Birmingham graphic design studio

The art of patience: mastering time for better creative thinking

February 14, 2024

Have you ever felt that rush of excitement when you’re handed a new design brief? That sense of eager anticipation mixed with a dash of creative anxiety as you ponder over where to begin? If you’re nodding along, then welcome to the club. You see, there’s this peculiar phenomenon I’ve noticed over my two decades as a creative professional, and it’s something that consistently emerges, no matter the project at hand. It’s about the journey of creative thinking from initial concept to final masterpiece, and the surprising role patience plays in this process.

Let me take you on a little field trip, a kind of behind-the-scenes tour of the creative process, if you will. It starts with a design brief landing on my desk. Now, you’d think after 20 years, I’d just dive straight in, right? Whip up a logo, sketch out a website design, or craft a brand strategy in no time. And sure, I could do that. In fact, sometimes I do. But here’s the kicker: the real magic, the kind that makes you lean back in your chair and go, “Wow, did I just create that?” happens under a different kind of tempo. It’s what I like to call the slow burn.

The Slow Burn of Creative Thinking

This slow burn during the creative design process isn’t about dragging your feet or procrastinating (though, let’s be honest, we’ve all been there). It’s about giving yourself permission to sit with the brief, to marinate in the problem, and to let your ideas simmer and evolve. In the world of instant gratification, where deadlines loom like thunderclouds and clients are itching for quick fixes, advocating for patience in creativity might seem, well, a bit out of place. But bear with me.

The Case for Patience

Over the years, I’ve learned something vital: good designs, the kind that resonate and endure, require patience. Not just with the process, but with yourself. It’s about allowing yourself the time to refine and improve a composition, to tweak a logo until it sings, to strategise a brand’s identity until it feels just right, or to polish a website design until it shines.

You see, creativity is not a faucet you can just turn on and off at will. It’s more like a river that needs to meander, to find its course. Sometimes, it flows freely; other times, it hits a snag. But given time, it always finds its way. And this is where patience becomes your ally in the creative process.

Expanding on the metaphor of creativity as a meandering river, there are also loads of creative thinking strategies that will help that river to flow, especially when it hits a snag. These strategies are like the tools we use to gently guide the river along its course, helping it navigate through obstacles and expand its banks to explore new territories.

One such strategy is lateral thinking, a technique that encourages looking at problems from new angles, often leading to unexpected and innovative solutions. It’s akin to finding a new tributary for our river to explore, one that might initially seem unrelated but ultimately leads to a richer, more diverse creative landscape.

Another useful approach is the SCAMPER technique, which stands for Substitute, Combine, Adapt, Modify, Put to another use, Eliminate, and Reverse. Each of these verbs offers a different way to approach a creative block, encouraging us to rethink and reframe the elements of our design, pushing us to think outside the box and discover novel solutions.

Mind mapping is yet another tool in our arsenal, allowing for the visual organisation of thoughts and ideas. It’s like creating a map of the river’s potential paths, helping to clarify the direction of flow and uncover connections between seemingly disparate ideas. This strategy fosters a free-flowing exploration of concepts, making it easier to navigate the creative process.

Lastly, embracing constraints can paradoxically free our creativity. Limitations, whether in time, resources, or specifications, can force us to be more inventive, finding ways for the river to flow despite barriers. It’s a reminder that creativity thrives not just in open, unbounded spaces but also within the confines of a challenge.

In our upcoming post, we’ll delve deeper into these strategies and more, exploring how they can help us think outside the box and guide our creative river to its fullest potential. These approaches, combined with the patience to let our creativity unfold naturally, ensure that the creative process is not just about reaching a destination but also about enjoying the journey and discovering the wealth of ideas that lie just beyond the familiar banks.

The Creative Epiphany

Now, back to that design brief. After allowing the initial ideas to percolate, something crazy happens. You go over the brief, the problem, the task again and again. And then, suddenly, it all falls into place. It’s as if all the pieces of the puzzle you didn’t even realise were scattered suddenly come together to form a coherent, beautiful picture.

This moment, this creative epiphany, is what every designer lives for. It’s the culmination of all your experience, your skill, and, yes, your patience, coming together in a moment of pure clarity. It’s the realisation that good things really do come to those who wait, who ponder, who refine, and who dare to revisit the drawing board as many times as it takes.

The Value of Experience

Now, you might be wondering, does experience speed up this process? The answer is yes and no. With experience comes a certain level of efficiency, a knack for identifying potential solutions more swiftly. However, the quest for that breakthrough idea, the one that elevates your design from decent to extraordinary, remains a journey. And it’s a journey that cannot be rushed.

Experience has taught me that while I can produce something relatively quickly, the depth, the nuance, and the impact of my work significantly improve when I allow myself the luxury of time. Time to question, to explore, to experiment, and to ultimately uncover the best solution hidden within the brief.

I know that the reality of deadlines, budgets and client expectations isn’t always your friend when it comes to slowing down, but it’s worthwhile explaining to clients why some things take longer than others, and what the merit of giving a project the time it deserves is in relation to the ROI. I feel fortunate to work with professionals that understand this but it wasn’t always like this. I have probably lost some clients over it over the years who were looking for quick fixes rather than complete solutions, but it did mean that I can focus on those clients and projects that are ultimately far more exciting and long-lasting. It’s a two way street… It’s the client commissioning you, but it’s also you giving your talent to a client. Don’t undervalue that.

Embracing the Process

So, to my fellow creatives, whether you’re just starting out or you’ve been in the game for years, embrace patience. Embrace the slow burn of creativity. Allow yourself the space to explore, to fail, to learn, and to grow. Remember, great design is not just about the end product; it’s about the journey you take to get there.

In a world that often values speed over substance, especially with the rise of AI tools for content creation, choosing to take your time might seem counterintuitive. But trust me, the results speak for themselves. When you give yourself permission to slow down, to let your creative juices flow at their own pace, you unlock a level of creativity and innovation that quick fixes can never achieve.

The Takeaway

I hope you’re feeling inspired to approach your next project with a newfound appreciation for the role of patience in design. Remember, it’s not just about crossing the finish line; it’s about enjoying the ride, learning from the detours, and ultimately arriving at a destination that’s truly worth the journey both for you and for your client.

So, the next time you’re handed a design brief and feel the pressure to deliver quickly, take a moment. Breathe. Reflect on the power of patience and the incredible potential it holds to transform your creative work. Trust yourself and your education, your talent and your experience that things will fall into place, the picture will be completed and you will solve the brief.

Good things—no, great things—come to those who wait. And in the realm of creative design, patience is, without a doubt, a virtue worth cultivating.

Restaurant Branding for The Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars

May 27, 2023

Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars

Branding and menu / collateral design four distinctive F&B outlets at Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars showcasing our commitment to exceptional hospitality design, tailored to the vibrant London scene.

Leaf and Cane Logo Copper Type
Chinese Cricket Club Logo
NYnLON Logo CMYK
City Lounge Logo Clear Space

Brand identity designs

“Regine’s approach is one of totally understanding the aim of the project and creating something that truly will impress the outside world. We have been fortunate to work on several restaurants together and other exciting brand projects. This experience has been wonderful and I look forward working again with Essence in the future!”

Denis Glibic, Director of Sales & Marketing, Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars

Various brand collateral desgins for the outlets

The-Hyatt-branding-Chinese-Cricket-Club-coasters-design
Chinese-Cricket-Club-fine-dining-restaurant-branding-Coffee-Cup-design
L&C Coasters Visual
Leaf-and-Cane-Cocktail-bar-Match-box-design
NYnLON-Bistro-Branding-postcard-design
NYnLON-Bistro-Branding-coasters
The-Hyatt-Citylounge-Cafe-and-restaurant-branding-Beer-Coaster-design
The-Hyatt-branding-City-lounge-takeaway-cups-design

Let’s talk fibres

April 13, 2021

Your brand connects with your customers in many different ways. Some call it touch points, but simply-put it’s all the varied ways someone will come across your brand in the mind, online and in print. We are tactile people, and online does lack that dimension. Print, however, opens up a whole Aladin’s cave of possibilities to elevate your brand beyond the purely visual. Let’s give it some texture…

What paper types are there?

Without going into every detail, broadly speaking there are these paper types, defined by the composition of their pulp and additives.

Recycled paper
Coated paper (matte, silk and gloss)
Uncoated paper
Bond paper

Recycled paper

Recycled paper is made from 60% to 100% recycled paper pulp. Paper pulp is mixed with water and blended until it breaks down. The individual fibres are bonded together again to make fresh paper materials. Producing around 100,000 sheets of paper requires around eight trees and 2,000Kwh of energy (which is roughly a carbon footprint of 6,000kg).

Paper can be recycled an average of eight times – pretty good going! Recycled paper is energy-efficient enough to reduce both your resource use and your carbon footprint.

There is a great range of papers out there now that fall into the recycled category and it’s an easy choice for brands focused on sustainability.

Coated papers

Gloss paper

There are two main types of coated paper which are basically opposites. Gloss paper has an incredibly high shine and a smooth, tactile feel. It’s a popular choice for leaflets and flyers because it enhances colours. Because it is used for direct mail, it can have the association with ‘junk mail’ and thus the perception can be that of ‘cheap’ rather than luxury. There’s also the issue of fingerprints on the shiny surface… That’s not to say you can’t create a mix of papers for a coffee table book that uses a particular finish on some sections and the gloss on others to work to their strengths.

Matte paper

Matte coated paper has a muted surface that refracts light subtly and evenly, reducing any glare. It has a soft, textured feel to it and is easy to write on in contrast to gloss coated paper. Matte coated paper is very popular when used to create magazines, books and other larger copy-based print, as it isn’t so reflective. Matte is a great compromise if budget is an issue for your print work – most printers will have a house matte in stock and it works for digital and litho.

Silk paper

Silk coated paper is the basically between gloss and matte coated. With that, it has the smooth feel of glossy paper but it doesn’t have the shine. Silk is produced by binding silk fibres together, which gives it a great feel and has a brilliant ink to paper contrast. If you use it with an LED UV printing process, silk-coated paper gives you all the shine and vibrancy of colours you are used to from gloss, but without the glare. Silk paper has long becoming a favourite stock for premium brands along with matte and uncoated.

Uncoated Stock

Bond paper

Bond paper paper type you will mostly find in office stationery, envelop production and packaging. As it lacks a coating, it has the advantage of easily being used for office printers or being written on by pen.

Not having an extra coat makes it prone to damage by tears, scuffs and stains. But on the upside, it’s versatile and won’t fingerprint.

Uncoated paper

Uncoated paper is similar to Bond paper and does not have a coating to fill in between the fibers. That makes it generally rougher compared to coated paper. Uncoated stock tends to be more porous, which makes it also more absorbent. This means that images printed on uncoated papers will be softer and less crisp, but if it fits with your brand values, that can be just the desired effect to be after. You can get amazing choices for textures and finishes. Something else to note is that you can’t UV varnish uncoated paper as it just ‘seeps in’ and disappears, but there are other ways to create the desired effect – with a clear foil for instance.

Paper samples and where to get them

It’s hard to imagine what a paper will actually feel and look like by its name or on the website of the paper mill alone.

Many printers will offer sample packs with printed options for their collection of papers. If you work with a design or branding agency (such as ours), we can organise samples for you for print brochures or stationery so you can be confident with your choice of papers for your brand.

You can also check out our list of paper suppliers in the UK.

Drop us a note if you’d like to chat more about this!

Your web tech wrapped up

March 19, 2021

It’s geeky time again! Let’s talk web tech… If you have a website, you probably know there’s a lot more to the site itself. My clients won’t notice most of these extra things to think about when setting up a site.

And I’ve got a lot of little helpers that make the web process smooth sailing. Here’s a quick roundup of some of my faves.

Some are available as plugins especially for WordPress, which has so many little nifty tools. These here are all available as web services though so use whatever system you’re into.

Adobe Color

Looking for the perfect colour palette for your website? Many designers spend countless hours trying to come up with the right palettes. Fortunately, there’s an excellent tool that can help you — and it’s free. Adobe recently launched a new site called adobe color (http://color.adobe.com) which takes advantage of Adobe Kuler’s (another free tool) colour wheel to provide you with a series of beautiful colour combinations.

You have the choice to use the colour wheel to define complimenting colours with different pre-sets:

Analogous
Monochromatic
Triad
Complementary
Split complementary
Double split complementary
Square
Compount
Shades
Custom

The one I love the most is Extract Theme where you upload a photo or graphic to pick the colours from – again with handy presets. You can opt for the colourful, bright, muted, deep, dark or your own.

Once you have a colour, it’s also really handy to see it in action as a gradient. Again, something you can do with Adobe Color. And if you are catering for higher accessibility, voila! Check out the colour blind simulator.

Adobe Color

Colorable

The human eye can distinguish about 10 million different colors. But we’re not able to spot every nuance out there. That’s where contrast comes in. Contrast is the difference in luminance or color that makes an object distinguishable from another. Contrast is important because it determines whether an object stands out from the background, or if it blends in.

Colorable helps you test different colours ‘on top of each other’, looking how a font colour will appear on different background colours.

Colorable

XML Site map generator

XML sitemaps are a good idea no matter what, but they’re particularly important for sites with large numbers of pages. If you’re running a large site, you might have hundreds of thousands of pages, and manually submitting each one by hand to search engines would be a time-consuming and potentially error-prone task. XML sitemaps can simplify the process.

Plugins such as Yoast for WordPress or OSMap for Joomla run websites can be used ‘on site’ as well, but if you don’t want plugins, this site map generator is quick and effective.

A whole other section worth mentioning – Google Search. Here you can use your XML Sitemap. When you submit your site in the console, it will also alert you to any issues with pages, links, breadcrumbs etc. It’s a rabbits hole but in its basic functions it’s very useful for helping with SEO.

XML Site Map Generator

Meta Tags

Meta tags are invisible text that helps search engines understand what your webpage is about. For example, meta description tags are the short, 150-character snippets that appear next to a search result. These help users decide whether or not to click through to your page. This website shows you how you can edit and experiment with your content and previews how your webpage will look on various social media channels.

Again, plugins such as Yoast for WordPress solve this issue neatly, but some parts are limited to the premium version. Meta tags is free to use.

Metatags

Let’s Encrypt

Let’s Encrypt is a Certificate Authority that provides free TLS certificates to millions of individuals and organizations operating in nearly every country around the world. They’re a nonprofit with a mission to encrypt the entire Internet. They help their users set up HTTPS websites so that everyone can benefit from encryption, from users browsing the web to admins managing servers.

Most good web hosts will integrate let’s encrypt so you shouldn’t have to worry about a thing. Just check that your hosting package comes with a free SSL certificate and that you have the padlock on your url starting with https.

Let’s encrypt

Do you know what will happen to your business if your website is down? Up to 30% of all visitors will abandon your website if they can’t access it. This makes the reliability of your website extremely important to your overall success as an online entrepreneur.

No system is perfect, and websites will go down at some point for some reason or another. What’s important is that you find out and are able to react quickly. We monitor the websites we host for clients for exactly that reason. This site monitor is free for up to 50 sites, making it great for SMEs to ensure their online presence is being watched out for.

UptimeRobot

There are lots more tools out there, of course. And I already have a list in mind of some services that make SEO and the finer details of your website so much easier.

Let us know if you want to talk more about your website design, development or hosting, we will be happy to help.

International Women’s Day

March 8, 2021

Today is international women’s day. It’s a day we always observed and celebrated back in the former East when I was a child. Our pen pals from Russia would send these amazing cards for it, and we would giggle cause they were our age, yet sent them as if we already were ‘women’. I never thought twice about it where the day came from.

For me, it was meant to be a day to remind ourselves that women should be treated equal to men. A day to remember those women who had suffered in history purely due to their gender. And to remind ourselves that females are just as pioneering, scientific, artistic, intellectual and caring as men.

But where did International Women’s Day come from?

A short history of IWD

In 1908, 15,000 women marched through New York City demanding shorter hours, better pay and voting rights.

In 1910, at a second International Conference of Working Women in Copenhagen, Clara Zetkin (Leader of the ‘Women’s Office’ for the Social Democratic Party in Germany) asked women from all around the world to take the day and press for their demands. She proposed that every year in every country there should be a celebration on the same day – a Women’s Day – to raise awareness of women’s issues. She wanted them to tell their stories, which would help people understand their struggles as women, and what they go through to be able to succeed. She wanted to change the way we viewed women and the way we would treat them as equals to men.

When the day was first proposed, Zetkin said in her proposal that women should “receive an equal hearing in the political, industrial and educational fields. We should unite and not separate”. International women’s day was established to give women the “opportunity to participate equally in all public and political activities, and in all social, industrial and economic enterprises”.

International Women’s Day is about celebrating all women, in whatever country, and giving people a chance to speak out and stand up for equal rights and equal pay, for sexual and reproductive rights and for women’s health.

Why March the 8th?

“International Women’s Day was honoured the first time in Austria, Denmark, Germany and Switzerland on 19 March 1911. (…) On the eve of World War I campaigning for peace, Russian women observed their first International Women’s Day on February 23, the last Sunday in February. Following discussions, International Women’s Day was agreed to be marked annually on March 8 that translated in the widely adopted Gregorian calendar from February 23 – and this day has remained the global date for International Women’s Day ever since. ” (History of IWD)

In East Germany, we had the 1st of March to celebrate the national army, the 3rd to celebrate my dad’s birthday and the 8th was International Women’s Day. That’s just the way it was. Reading more about the origins of International Women’s Day, I realise there are some quirky correlations with other celebrations.

The Greeks have their Festival for their Goddess Artemis on the 8th of March. Artemis is honoured for protecting animals and crops.

It also marks Welsh Witch Day when women who were of magic walked among ordinary folk being able to do so without finding themselves recognised or prosecuted.

What it means for us

I love the notion that after all these years, and thanks to some great social media campaigns, International Women’s Day is celebrated much more in the media than when I first came to the UK.

Of course, the commercial focus is more on Mother’s Day, but to see and hear so much about the 8th of March as a date to address women’s rights and those amazing female leaders across various sections of politics, science, arts and culture, education and health that continue to make a difference.

Hotel marketing ideas for the way out of the pandemic

February 23, 2021

Hotel marketing ideas may not be on your mind right now… but with the new timeline to opening up announced, it’s going to be critical in the coming weeks to secure much-needed bookings. The impact of the Coronavirus (COVID-19) has been devastating for many, but everyone will probably agree that one of the hardest-hit sectors is the hospitality industry. Hotels, restaurants, spas, golf clubs, theatres, concert halls and many other leisure companies have been through crazy times in the past year!

The COVID-19 pandemic is still disrupting travel to destinations all over the world. However, it is crucial that you start planning your luxury hotel and spa recovery strategy now. The travel demand will start to increase eventually, and you don’t want to fall behind your competition when it does.

We are looking at hotel marketing ideas that will help you plan the recovery and reopening of your venue this June.

Here are some top marketing strategy ideas that you need to utilise when preparing your luxury hotel and spa for re-opening.

Revamping your website

Display the current status of your business so there are no surprises for visitors. This information needs to clear and concise and should include at least the following:

Is your business currently open or closed?
Has your cancellation policy changed?
What preventative measures do you take to keep staff and customers safe?
Do you keep certain facilities closed or limited?
Are you following government guidelines? Have you taken all possible measures? This will boost customer’s confidence and trust in your business.

Along with this information, tell your website’s visitors where they can find further updates and who they can contact if they have any questions.

You could simply add a temporary banner on the homepage. Or you can design a specific landing page that visitors see when they come from social media or adverts. There are lots of reasons why your hotel and restaurant marketing ideas needs to include a brilliant website.

Whichever approach you take, a page that clearly communicates your latest news can help a great deal in creating trust.

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

FAQs are a simple hotel and restaurant marketing idea. Easy to implement, FAQs ensure anyone visiting your site will find the answers they are looking for. You probably have a set of regular questions that keep cropping up.

FAQs can also include other information about your hotel, spa, amenities. You can mention new products/services, offers/deals, and anything else relevant to your business that people should and need to know.

Many people use social media for planning their holidays. With channels like Instagram, you can use your beautiful venue to your advantage. Existing and potential customers will enjoy engaging photography that tells your story. They will also look to your social media for the latest updates on the COVID crisis.

You will want to post a statement about the current status of your venue and your plans for re-opening. Social media is perfect to announce your re-opening strategy. Write the core message in an eye-catching post, and link to the full statement on your site. There, guests can find out exactly how you are planning to re-open and what measures you have taken to keep them safe.

You can also talk about special offers and rates for the re-opening. This can be a time-limited offer or something for only a certain number of customers. People love promotions and discounts, so here is a chance to create some buzz and excitement!

Making loyal customers a priority

Customers who have stayed at your business before will likely book a reservation again during these uncertain times. Reward loyal customers with exclusive and personalised packages.

Don’t forget to let customers know about your loyalty programme. Use social media posts, blog posts, or whatever platform your target audience prefers to use. When thinking about hotel marketing ideas, building customer loyalty is a must. Word of mouth advertising is one of the best forms of advertising. People buy from people – and they are much more likely to act on the advice of colleagues, friends, and family.

Hotel marketing ideas involving local businesses

Many businesses that had events and conferences planned have had to cancel. You could start to offer deals to these businesses and potential clients to re-book these events and conferences at your hotel. Provide these customers with lowered rates, exclusive packages, and other perks to secure reservations.

Working with businesses in your local area really helps with marketing your hotel. Businesses and clients that have a great experience with you will likely use your hotel again and recommend it to other clients.

Managing cancellations

If someone wants to cancel their reservation, then they will. However, offering customers the ability to move their reservation to a different date will help you keep some reservations. Let people know that customers can move their reservations to a different date instead of cancelling.

Don’t forget to let them know who they need to contact to deal with their reservation cancellation or changes.

Maid in mask doing disinfecting the door handle in hotel

Promoting your safety measures

One of the most important task for businesses during this pandemic is your venue’s cleanliness and sanitation to ensure people’s safety.

There are many steps which need to be taken in order to implement this properly. Some of which include:

Education employees about preventative measures that will be utilised by the business
Cleaning the building and amenities thoroughly and frequently throughout the day
Reducing the number of workers in the hotel at one time
Redesigning processes to allow for social distancing to take place
Implementation of barriers in areas that could receive higher traffic
Using technology when face-to-face meetings can be avoided

Make sure that customers know you have taken these measures. This is something you should promote heavily. This is not just a hotel marketing idea, it really applies to any business interacting with the public. Talking about measures and precautions you are taking will help customers feel safer, build trust and customer loyalty.

You can even introduce branded safety items. Think masks and hand-gels to offer to customers when they visit your luxury hotel and spa. This will re-inforce that you care about health and safety of your visitors. It can also work as a marketing tool. People may end up continuing to use those products after their stay. Your business’s name and logo will receive more awareness. Branded gifts are always a good method for marketing hotels and increasing the interaction and engagement with your guests.

I hope this list of hotel marketing ideas will be useful for you to plan your roadmap back into ‘normality’. If you need any help with any of it, please get in touch!

What’s a media kit and how do I create one?

February 7, 2021

A media kit (or press kit) is a package of information relevant for the distribution of information for companies, charities or other organisations. They include facts about the people involved, the product, service or cause, as well as brand information, logos, images and visuals supporting any press releases.

Media kits are a great way for a company to show just how engaged they are with their audiences. Whether you’re a local business, a non-profit or a large corporation, having a media kit will help you stand out from the crowd. So how do you go about creating one? Here are 10 things you should include in yours.

Background

When it comes to building an audience, the media needs to know who you are and what you do. The ‘about us’ section should include all of the basics: who you are, what you do, where you are operating, when things are happening, why you do what you do and how you do it.

Journalists are busy people, so keep the introduction short, to the point and consistent with your brand message.

Bios of your team

Include anyone in your team who is suitable for interviews, expert commentary, and speaking engagements. Make sure you include those members who are being mentioned in any of the press releases. Of course you include their bio in the press release together with the company information. It is however good practice to have them in the media kit as well.

Your products and services factsheet

This can be short bullets outlining your products or services. Think of it as factual descriptions similar to how you would present them on your website or in your brochures. Avoid to make it sound like marketing though. Highlight what makes you stand out from others. It’s also useful to include known Q&As here.

Case Studies

Case studies are a great way to demonstrate the success of your products or services. So without making this into a marketing document, here is a chance to include testimonials and recommendations from suitable sources. Again, be careful to avoid promotional talk and keep it factual and informative with the journalists in mind.

Clients or associates

Obviously ask for permission first, but if they are ok, mention them as it adds credibility to your organisation.

Recent press releases

When selecting press releases for your electronic press kit, it’s best to choose something that has been released within the last six months. Ensure that the heading of your press release is easy to grasp and includes any specific announcements the media may be looking for.

You in the news

Already had some mentions in the media? Here is your chance to shout about it! If you’ve been on camera, show a clip – it will work well to show researchers and producers that you are not a newbie… The media tends to have a knock-on effect so showing where you’ve been featured can be really useful.

Avoid any copyright issues by including the name of the outlet with a link to the article or clip. You are not allowed to add their logo without their permission. You also can’t bypass this by re-writing it or making it into a pdf or similar. Best to be straight as you don’t want media coverage to cause any issues.

Your brand kit / multimedia elements

Include your logo and logo guidelines, any photographs, infographics, graphics or videos that will help illustrate what you do. You can link from a pdf to a shared folder like dropbox or google drive – or directly from your website. That makes it easy for journalists to download them rather than having huge attachments.

If you need help with creating your brand kit with your logo, fonts, colours and brand visuals, or a website that can accommodate this information, get in touch with us to see how we can help.

Awards / memberships / accolades

If you have any recent and relevant awards, mention them. This doesn’t have to be an elaborate section, but it will again help with reputation building.

Contact details

Don’t forget to have all your contact details in your media kit. This includes any social media channels where you are active, as well as traditional phone numbers, email addresses and names of the best person to approach with any questions or opportunities for coverage.

In essence, press kits should give journalists a flavour of your brand that contains all the relevant background info and gives them an appetite for more. It’s a collection of visual and editorial facts about your company and gives journalists a helping hand if they see an opportunity to feature you.

Marketing Ideas for Hotels and Hospitality in 2021

January 16, 2021

While 2020 took every business by surprise, it revealed a new shift in customer trends that are likely to continue in 2021. As we head into the New Year, now is the time for your hotel or hospitality business to re-evaluate their marketing strategies to increase sales, encourage customer engagement and create meaningful experiences that go beyond face to face marketing.

Our 2021 marketing ideas for the hospitality industry

Whilst we are still struggling with lockdowns, check out our top eight marketing ideas your hotel or hospitality business could look at. Some will work well to keep in touch with customers whilst localities remain shut. Others are great to put in place for when you are able to re-open.

1. Virtual tours of your property

If we’ve learned anything from COIVD-19, it’s that there are so many creative ways to use technology to engage your guests. Providing virtual tours of your property using technology, such as virtual reality, allows your guests to feel like they’re experiencing your property from the comfort of their own home.

You can take your guests on a complete walkthrough of your hospitality property, highlight your amenities and show the type of experience customers would have if they decide to visit. According to GuestCentric, properties that offer some type of virtual tour are clicked on ten times more than properties without this technology.

2. Interactive event experiences

A great way to stay in touch is to offer extra value to your customers. While it’s easy to send over a brochure of your company and ask customers to book with you, why not also provide something extra to your customers lives. Think about creating a live event, where you can invite guests in-person and host online at the same time. This is a very effective way to create unique guest experiences.

For example, if you’re a restaurant that specializes in French cuisine, host a live event with one of your chefs to teach viewers how to make a traditional dish or drink at home.

You can allow guests to ask questions and make comments to create an interactive event. You add value to your customers everyday life, provide fresh content and establish yourself as the authority in the hospitality business sector and creating engaging marketing content.

Social media platforms are always changing and offering new ways for businesses to connect with their customers. For example, Instagram now offers reels. Reels are short videos between 15-30 seconds long that can be created to connect with your audience. Instagram also rolled out an online shopping platform, so you can connect your products directly to your Instagram, with relevant links to buy these products on your profile.

Especially during a lockdown, social media is amazingly versatile and effective to keep in the minds of guest and to attract new visitors in future. Showing people behind the scenes, your kitchen, gardens, any refurbishments, how you remember your hotel from the past year, take out menus and special event boxes all give plenty of content to share online.

Another great social media platform that has made waves this year is TikTok. With over 800 million users active on the platform, TikTok is a great way to reach potential customers through videos. Many brands participate in the trends users create on the application, finding ways to relate it to their own business. If a video is interesting, it may become “viral” and draw extra attention towards your brand.

4. Utilise text message marketing

Customers love when you can simplify things, and almost everyone uses a smart device, so utilising text message marketing is a great way to stay in touch with your guests. Once you are open again, you can use it to make life easier for bookings and extras.

No new technology is needed, and once they opt in, it will open a portal for easy communication. There are a variety of ways you can use text message marketing in your business to provide an exceptional experience to your guests.

You’re able to:

• Confirm reservations and provide instructions on how to get to your venue

• Allow guests to make requests, such as extra blankets or towels, directly through a text. You can use text messaging to confirm the request and let them know when their supplies will arrive

• Keep customers updated on activities or events that are being offered on your property

• Provide discounts, deals or offer extra services to your guests as part of your hospitality marketing plan

5. Create a loyalty program

Offering a loyalty program is one of the easiest ways to connect with your customers in the new year.

Creating a loyalty program can either be a physical or digital program that customers join when they visit. It will allow them to have benefits after spending money at your location. For example, hotels like the Hilton will let guests accumulate “points” every time they visit their properties. These can be used for free hotel stays and benefits like free upgrades.

If you’re an attraction or restaurant, you can offer a free meal or visit after a certain amount of times. Make sure to ask your guests for feedback on what they enjoy about the program. That way you can tailor it to fit your specific business needs.

6. Integrate chatbots on your website

Imagine being able to answer all of your customer’s questions and concerns at any time of the day, without having to even pick up the phone. One of the top marketing trends for 2021 is to integrate a chatbot on your website. A chatbot provides businesses the power to stay in touch with customers, offer support, and answer important questions, 24/7.

Chatbots are a pre-programed application that can answer customer questions and help book a reservation. They can even connect them with a specialist when a customer lands on your website. This application even has the ability to respond to customers in multiple languages with its automatic language detections.

Chatbots are game changers, especially for businesses who don’t have staff working around the clock.

They can also be useful to share your safety procedures to make your venue COVID safe and re-assure them by answering repeat questions about booking and cancellation policies, changing opening hours etc.

7. Use influencer marketing

People are more likely to follow suggestions made by those they trust and look up to, instead of an advertisement. Influencer marketing is when you reach out to an individual that has an established

audience that matches your target audience, and offer to collaborate to promote yourself to their audience.

There are many ways you can do this including written content, videos, or social media posts.

To track if this method works for your business, companies will offer a discount code that the influencer will promote to their audience. Tracking the success of this code, and overall analytics of your website/business, will help you to track the efforts of your campaign.

8. Collaborate within the industry

Collaboration is a great way to market your business and enhance your guest experience.

For example, if you run a restaurant, you might want to partner up with a hotel to offer their guests a special discount if they visit your establishment.

Or if you’re a hotel, maybe you want to partner with a tour company to offer great rates, and exclusivity of their group booking needs. These partnerships not only help your business grow, they help the entire industry grow.

There are many more marketing techniques that can be integrated into your hotel or hospitality business in 2021. Creative, interactive brand marketing ideas that excite your guests will really make the difference in whether you reach a higher value of customers or if you blend in with the crowd.

Have a look at our hotel branding and design portfolio to see examples of hospitality marketing in action. You can read more about our branding and design work in the luxury hotel and restaurant sector here.

We would love to help your business with branding, marketing and design. Drop us a note for a free consultation.

hospitality marketing

Kiss your brand

January 14, 2021

K.I.S.S. stands for Keep It Simple Stupid. It’s a a design principle noted by the U.S. Navy back in 1960. If you are a linguist, you may just need to ignore the obvious flaw in the abbreviation…

K.I.S.S. is a great principle that can be applied to many situations. (Nobody likes things complicated).

Looking at your brand strategy, for example. Make sure your brand message is really simple. So simple, that everyone in your audience can ‘get it’. That way you can reach everyone you intend to – and you don’t alienate people with industry jargon. (Nobody wants to feel stupid.)

If you don’t have a clear vision for your brand, your audience won’t stand a chance. (Not even if they are mind readers).

Just like a brand strategy, your brand identity shouldn’t be complicated, either. Clutter never helps – not in your home and especially not in your brand and marketing material. A clear and simple message doesn’t have to be boring, you an use beautiful typography and photography, textures and finishes (if you print) to let every little element of your marketing material tell your story.

Go ahead, give your brand a big K.I.S.S.!

Brand colour swatches and why they matter

November 29, 2020

Have you ever wondered why so many companies of a certain type use a certain colour in their brand identity? And how it gives you a funny feeling when you see one that just doesn’t kinda fit?

Most of the popular brand colours make sense in one way or another – with blue being the expected ‘safe’ options often chosen by insurance companies, classic technology or financial businesses. Brands that live on trust and reliability.

Black is also suitably predictable. Luxury, confident, powerful – with the downside of sadness and grief. Purple seems to be the chosen colour for chocolate and tech…

Find silver logos and you will definitely find cars! And of course luxury brands with a traditional sense of wealth and exclusivity. Look at well-known green-coloured brands and you will see an eclectic mix from coffee through to oil. This may be because green does not only stand for healthy, wholesome goodness, but also for freshness, growth and innovation.

As with all things, colours and their brand allocation come with subtleties and subjective notions. How you feel about purple may be different to how your dad does – and which shade is chosen can also tip the balance from vibrant to icky or classic to dull. Colours are one of the most powerful tools we have when designing brand identities, yet they are also one of the trickiest one to get right.

It would be interesting to find out what the most common colours are and if that has changed as brands have changed throughout the ages.

Can you use colours to predict which brands will stay and which will disappear from the high street and which will be the new stars?

Read more about colour psychology and brand identity design in Emily’s article.

brand, brand advertising, brand design, Brand Identity, brand identity design, Brand Strategy, Branding

Tech, branding and ducks

November 22, 2020

I just mentioned a paragraph I have in our brand strategy workbook to my other half, techy Steve, and he taught me yet another new thing. Duck typing! (“Duck typing in computer programming is an application of the duck test—”If it walks like a duck and it quacks like a duck, then it must be a duck”—to determine if an object can be used for a particular purpose. With normal typing, suitability is determined by an object’s type.” Wikipedia)

Our brand strategy workbook talks about why you should bother with a brand strategy: “If it looks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, then it probably is a duck.” With a good strategy, you make sure your duck isn’t suddenly featuring a shark fin and razor sharp teeth hunting little chicks…

I like it when tech and design share the same sentiments.

Brand Strategy, programming

What is a logo?

November 12, 2020

A brand is not a logo. A logo is not a brand.

“A logo is the gateway to the brand.”
Milton Glaser

Weirdly, in some ways the brand used to be a logo. Going back to the origins of branding, when farmers would burn their mark onto animals to identify them as part of their herd. (I’ve always felt that spraying colour on their fur is far more fun and less gruesome but I’m no farmer…)

So whilst a brand is not just a logo, a logo is definitely a very important, visual part of a brand. It’s a mark, an icon or symbol that people can easily recognise and that represents a company.

There are several types of logo constructions. Here is some more information about the perhaps most common ones.

Letterform

Letterforms are logos that consist of letters. Classic ones are IBM, BBC, H&M, 3M, HP, GA, ING… They are usually acronyms that stand for the long brand name, a bit like a monogram on a handkerchief.

This type is a typography-based logo with just a few letters. Simplicity is key here. The abbreviated company names also have the advantage that they roll off the tongue much better and are easier to remember. Imagine the url for International Business Machines .com (IBM) or Minnesota Mining and Manufacturing Company (3M).

The focus on typography is important for the success of a letterform logo. Legibility and recognisability being two key factors here. You should also consider that the above mentioned samples are from household brands. If yours is not one (yet) of those people will have heard of, this has its own challenges.

Wordmark

Also typography-led, wordmarks or logotypes are a font-based logos which simply consist of a word, i.e. a company or product name. Ebay is a common example, as is Tate Modern, Google, Coca-Cola or Uber. Wordmarks work well with short, catchy names that are unique and memorable. Take that and mix it with strong typography and you are on the way to creating a recognisable brand.

They are also widely used by designers, photographers, personal and fashion brands where the name is key.

As with letterforms, it is really important to pick the right typeface, perhaps even customise it to be truly unique, and to consider a matching colour palette.

Emblem

An emblem logo has an air of tradition to it. It consists of words inside an icon such as badges, seals and crests. Because of the more classical feel with a sense of history and experience, you will Often come across them for public organisations, schools and universities or government agencies. Let’s not forget food brands and the motor industry that likes to use emblems to create that extra bit of reliable brand history.

Whilst a lot of them do stand out with their classic appearance, there are some that have stepped across into a contemporary look and feel. The Starbucks logo used to be a great example, although recently, they have lost the name within the logo itself and it’s more of an icon logo now.

Icon or pictorial mark

A pictorial mark (sometimes called brand mark or logo symbol) is an icon—or graphic-based logo. Think Apple, Vodadfone, Twitter or Target. With or without the company name, you just know who it is and what they sell because the brand has made that connection between the icon and their product or service. As mentioned earlier, the rise of a brand like Starbucks can be seen by its evolution from emblem to icon, removing the company name from the logo to be stand-alone mermaid-led.

Which icon or picture a business uses very much depends on their brand story. Are they playing on their name, such as Windows or John Deere, or is it showing the meaning of the brand – like Rolex, or the butterfly in the sun for surf.

This icon can also act as a mascot that can have a personality of its own… Think Michelin man or that man from Pringles, Tony the Tiger or Mailchimp.

Abstract symbol

A logo with an abstract symbol is similar to an icon, but it’s not a common icon. As the name suggests, it’s an abstract mark and could be a random, geometric form, a hand drawn symbol, a pattern or splash – anything that reflects and represents your business. There are plenty of examples out there. Brands like Ocado, BP or Nike. Even the Master Card logo and Pepsi are pretty abstract.

Other classic abstract ones are Mind, Cancer research and Firefox. The beauty is in the uniqueness, not being bound to symbols we all know, but to have the ability to create new contextual meaning with powerful, memorable graphics. With any of these, simplicity is key for a number of reasons, such as where the brand identity will be used and what limitations may arise from that – be it that they are printed on a specific material, or engraved, embroidered, printed small- or large scale.

The world is your oyster, but it does have to fit with the menu.

Combination marks

You can also find logos that combine any of the elements above, like NATO or the World Health Organisation, Lacoste or food brands such as Dunkin’ Donuts or slack. In my mind, this is a bit of a blurry line with those, as you can count them in other categories as well and often these days with small screen requirements, brands will have a few different options for their logo.

Unilever’s U mixes letterform and abstract. Apple has both an icon and a wordmark, as does Mercedes-Benz. Airbnb has a cool A/Airplane icon with their company name. Another candidate to eventually lose the words and just use the icon.

There isn’t a rule of thumb for which brand identity should use which logo style. It’s a matter of design and how you reflect the brand values. There are however several factors within your brand strategy and objectives that will guide you towards a particular style.

If you’d like to talk more in-depth about your brand identity or logo design, please drop us a note!

logo

What is an aperture

November 1, 2020

Both in photography and in typography, the aperture describes an opening. In cameras, its size correlates with how much light goes in. In typography, it’s closely related to what’s called a counter.

As per Wikipedia, a counter is the area of a letter that is entirely or partially enclosed by a letter form or a symbol (the counter-space/the hole of).

Letters containing closed counters include A, B, D, O, P, Q, R, a, b, d, e, g, o, p, and q. Letters containing open counters include c, f, h, i, s etc.

The aperture then is the opening between an open counter and the outside of the letter.

There are also variations. Take lowercase ‘g’ for instance, which has two typographic variants. There is the single-story version which is much seen in sans serifs with one closed counter and one open counter (and hence one aperture). Then there is also a version more often seen in classic typefaces – the double-story which has two closed counters.

anatomy of type

Serif Typefaces and their lesser-known sub classes

October 25, 2020

A serif is not a serif, so there are sub categories, pointing to the origin of each class. Serifs can be categorised as Venetian, Old Style (Geralde), Transitional, New Transitional, Modern, Slab Serif and Wedge Serif.

Serif type has its origin in a necessary artefact of stone masonry where Latin words were carved into stone in Roman antiquity. When you work with a chisel, there would inevitably be a starting mark, and the serifs would allow words to appear aligned. The Victorians used serifs in all of their typefaces, and they were common in Italian Renaissance architecture where they were seen as “Roman.”

Serifs remained a distinct feature of certain typefaces long after technology moved type away from stone.

Venetian Serifs

Venetian serifs are oldstyle typefaces named after the first roman typefaces used in Venice around 1470. Their key characteristic is the slanted crossbar on the lower-case ‘e’.

For example: Centaur, ITC Souvenir, Italia, ITC Berkeley Oldstyle

Old Style Serifs

Also called Geralde, oldstyle serif typefaces were designed during the 16th and 17th centuries, especially in France and Venice. Their e-bar is horizontal.

For example: Times New Roman, Plantin, Sabon, Bembo, Trump Medieval

Transitional Serifs

Serif typefaces created in the 18th century, and forming a transition between the Oldstyle Garalde and Modern Didone styles.The foot serif is usually level and stress is vertical.

For example: Baskerville, Caslon, Garamond (Stempel), Romulus

Modern Serifs

Modern or abrupt serifs first appeared in the late 18th century and are easily recognised by the extreme contrast between thick and thin lines. The serifs are usually straight and much finer.

For example: Bauer Bodoni, Walbaum (Linotype), Caledonia

Slab Serifs (Egyptian)

The slab serif (also called mechanistic, square serif, antique or Egyptian) typeface features thick, block-like serifs. The serif terminals could be either straight and angular (Rockwell), or rounded (American Typewriter).

For example: Rockwell, ITC American Typewriter, Clarendon

Wedge Serifs

The wedge serif, or hybrid serif, comes with little or no contrast and can feature either wedge-ended serifs, wedge-shaped serifs, half serifs or fine line terminals. They are often upper case only typefaces.

For example: Cooperplate, Albertus, Meridien, Romic

If you want to read more about type classifications off the beaten track, I can recommend the Typefinder that was written by Sarah Rookledge and Phil Baines (who used to be my tutor at Saint Martins College).

serif fonts

Navigating Online

October 14, 2020

If anyone ever had any doubt, this year must have shown to businesses of all sizes and varieties that the world is happening online. And as a business, it’s ever more important to give customers a great brand experience when you can’t be there face to face.

There are lots of ways to have an online presence, and each business is unique in some way, so there isn’t a right or wrong formula – but looking at a combination of different media together with ‘traditional’ print, advertising and marketing will be a good starting point to devise the right strategy for your brand.

Below are some ‘brand touch points’ where people will interact with you to consider. Remember, it’s no longer a case of having a product, filling a niche and giving customers the choice of ‘take it or leave it’… Brands are made by the people that buy them. It’s vital to build loyalty, support and advocacy for what your brand stands for right from the start so your business resonates with the right audience.

“Your brand isn’t what you say it is. It’s what they say it is.”
Marty Neumeier

Website
The headquarter of your online operations. All roads should lead back to it in some shape or form (and in your email footer) and landing there should be a pleasure that won’t disappoint. That’s one of the reasons why a website can’t just be something that looks like a template you populated in a day with stock images and dated graphic. It needs to sparkle and be as genuine as your brand should be.

You may need a brochure or an e-commerce site, or a hybrid of both. You may need an app for mobile devices. Talk to your agency about the best option and beware of tying yourself to systems that can’t be widely supported.

Invest not only in a progressive CMS (Content Management System) and design made for you specifically – think about using your own brand photography and don’t forget the website copy. If you spend all this time planning and organising a new site, you may as well go the extra mile to make it as future proof as possible.

Think about using video on your site – explainer videos for instance are a great way to bring your story in front of your clients in an engaging manner. Sound could also be a good medium, but give people the option to browse on mute! Nothing worse than going to a website in your break and the whole open plan office knows which site you’re on…

Make sure your site’s design and layout is responsive, so it looks good on a mobile or tablet and on a desktop or large screen. Different content will need to be considered for different devices, but that’s where your agency can help you with their expertise and advice on what works best where.

Use new technology to make maintaining and updating your site easy and time efficient. Dynamic content, custom fields and advanced integrations can transform the way you use your web content as part of your marketing – and save you a ton of time.

Don’t forget about speed, SEO and security. And GDPR! That subscribe form better be opt-in and your cookie policy should have the required choices available if your site is setting cookies. Have a look at your privacy policy if you collect any date and make sure your site has a good SSL certificate so users and browsers can trust their information is secure.

Thankfully, there are lots of tools available online which allow for entry level functionality that can grow with your website as you grow your business. You don’t have to start with a high-tech rocket to reach the stars. It has to be capable, for sure, but with the right base you can add more features as you go along and learn more about what your customers need.

Social Media / Third Party Platforms
There are so so many platforms out there now, one thing is clear – you can’t be on each one of them. So a good first step is to ask where your ideal customer hangs out. Using your ideal client as the central focus for how you run your online marketing is a neat little helper whenever you get stuck. What would they want? Where would they go? What would they expect? Would my content make sense to them? The answers will guide you to finding a manageable selection of platforms to create your profile on.

Just like for anything that has your brand identity on it, make sure your social media profiles look the part. Consistency across all the different media will help to establish your presence in the market and give your customers confidence that they are in the right place.

Look at getting a suite of templates for social media in place. Make a content plan. Think about what to post where when and to which audience.

If you are using Zoom or similar video chat software to hold client meetings, think about your background. It may be worth to create a branded background that looks professional if you have to work from home without a home office.

With a good reputation
and the right audience, you don’t have to shout to be heard.
Regine Wilber

PR
Having a presence in the news is a powerful tool for building your brand reputation. If you have a story to tell, tell it. There are not only literally millions of blogs and websites out there looking for fresh content, there are also reputable online events, magazines or news sites where your latest news could be featured. It takes time and patience and a bit of luck, but it’s all there for you to establish your brand online.

Emails and beyond
There are some fantastic tools out there to help make your customer’s journey a smooth and happy one. From online chat bots to personalised, automated client email campaigns with Zapier or IFTTT integrations, the possibilities and opportunities are endless. Email is still one of the most important elements in customer communication, so make sure it’s top-notch.

Think about spam prevention, which can be a real minefield. No point sending out fantastically crafted emails if they end up in spam. Try plain emails with interesting footers rather than mailchimp style HTML templates that may switch off the recipient because they instantly think they are being sold to. A/B test a campaign with different approaches.

Make sure your list is clean; no point having unsubscribes and spam reports from people who haven’t really asked for being contacted. There are some great email providers out there for transactional emails which can tie in with your website and submission forms and provide a link to your CRM where you keep track of your contacts and lead pipeline.

I also wanted to just touch upon measuring your activities. Google analytics, serpstat, rocket link and bit.ly, jetpack and all those tools within different platforms provide you with data about how your content performs. It’s a good idea to spend some time to assess which metrics are of real value to you, what matters at the end of the day and which you should mostly focus on to make a difference to your bottom line.

Hopefully this gives you a brief overview of the complexities of a digital marketing strategy. With any of these, consistency, continuity and good content is key to your success online.

If you’d like to chat about your website and everything around it, please get in touch!

online brand management, web development, website design

New brand identity for High-end Tour Operator Luxury Vacations UK

October 10, 2020

Luxury Vacations UK had outgrown its existing brand we developed for the client over a decade ago. The timing was planned to coincide with a major re-work of the tour operator’s website, as well as their promotional tour guides and the introduction of branded tour videos.

The new brand identity combines the UK’s iconic symbols of England, Scotland, Wales and Northern Ireland together with a classic, luxurious colour palette and visual details to be used in the material.

The re-brand focused on the company’s main audience, visitors from the US, who have cultural expectations and perceptions of the UK as a destination. The brand features a contemporary and non-cliché translation of the company’s values, deeply connected to their highest standards for customer service, luxury accommodation and the tours designed to allow overseas visitors experiencing ‘the real UK’. Delivering engaging, professional and expert tours with chauffeur guides has always been at the heart of the business and shows in the personal writing style of the copy, as well as the eclectic photography showcasing the tours’ highlights.

Using gold foil and a bespoke colour for each of the constituent countries means the brand identity is versatile to branch out into sub brands for regional promotional campaigns whilst remaining a recognisable badge for high quality luxury guided tours in the UK.

The brand has been rolled out across the new website, marketing materials and videos.

Colours, colours, colours

October 7, 2020

Fast becoming one of my favourite colour palette sites is http://colormind.io (Yes, they should have an ssl certificate, but I don’t think they will steal your date – you can just use it as a tool and don’t have to give away your personal info).

The site uses AI to generate however many additional colours you need for your palette. You can define some core ones you want to definitely keep and it will ai its way around those to match with other options. It’s a great way to test contrast and appeal on actual elements, see what it feels like without having to apply it to your web theme yet.

It’s perhaps meant to be an introduction for the products linked to it which allow you to create pages with Material Kit – but I am using it for the colours itself. Thank you Jack!

The Woodlands Suite

October 7, 2020

The private wing of the Royal Orthopaedic Hospital in Birmingham needed a completely new website. The site is based on Joomla and uses our fully customisable page builder to create a new, clean and fresh site.

Data such as the team, news and specialties are managed with dynamic content, making it easy for the client to update without having to go into every appearance of information separately. Most frequently changed content is managed via the creation of a new article, which is the simples form of adding content.

Visit the site

Existential holiday reads

September 15, 2020

If cats could talk, would they cry… by Anatoli Scholz

I kept the book for my holiday so I could read it cover to cover. I mean – if cats could talk… I have so many thoughts about that! Forget about Garfield, we’ve got a house cat and I do wonder…

The scene is set nicely to get you into the feline transformation universe.

I enjoyed the light hearted atmosphere the author creates whilst painting the picture of our main character’s background. I would have liked to explore a bit more what life as a cat is beyond the obvious challenges of food, communication and movement (although communication was unexpectedly uncomplicated).

The book moves through the various characters involved and you go with them until eventually you arrive at the place where it all comes to a finale with some catty surprises along the way.

It’s certainly been an entertaining and easy read and it did make me think (the end is interestingly ambiguous). As a fan of Felidae by Akif Pirinçci, I was perhaps hoping for a bit more intrigue and cat related observations, but the book is definitely worth a read, cat lover or not.

One detail I noticed which is totally ‘just me’ I suppose was the paper it’s printed on – it felt really coated and stiff, something I had to get used to.

I’ll definitely recommend it and perhaps there’s a part two…

Brand management in a locked down new world

September 14, 2020

175 days into life with Corona, businesses are getting used to developing ways of dealing with the volatility and uncertainty the pandemic keeps throwing at us.

Surveying smaller companies we work with, there is a shift in brand management emerging. Initially, it was key to keep customers informed of restrictions and closures. Since lockdown has been lifted for businesses, this has changed to communicating safety measures and new procedures.

In the early days of the crisis, we worked with our clients to prepare for internal and external communications. The Royal Orthopaedic Hospital implemented new strategies straight away, realising the need for up to date information. We helped them to utilise their existing system to adapt for internal comms.

Another client of ours, a dental practice, supported people with ‘home dental kits’ and online advice on how to keep their teeth healthy without being able to see a dentist. Since they were allowed to open again, they worked overtime to get through the mass of emergency appointments and help those most in need. By working flexible hours and reacting to the immediate needs of their patients, they secured a lot of new clients who couldn’t get appointments for months in other surgeries. It pays to be flexible.

Most of the companies feel that they need to maintain and improve the ‘goodwill trust and understanding’ they have received from customers, especially on a local level. Brick and mortar shops more than ever rely on their community.

Rebrand and social media template designs

A beautician we’ve rebranded during lockdown had started doing online beauty tutorials, promoting selected products available to purchase online When it came to opening again, we created a social media puzzle grid to announce the news and inform customers of Corona related changes.

Another business, a tech skills company, changed all their focus to delivering courses online. There is a barrier of confidence to break through, but it’s also a great opportunity to reach a much larger audience.

The smallest local entrepreneurs and micro businesses have been hit enormously and are still struggling to make up for lost time. For them, communicating on social media has been the lifeline to keeping customers engaged without being able to take bookings.

Within all that, the overwhelming trend seems to be for brands to work their best to keep their promises. Everyone is tired and probably a little bit bored of this situation and it’s a delicate balance of pushing on within the limits and being able to fulfil expectations. The bigger brands have the advantage of networks, funds and processes.

For the little ones, however, flexibility in changing service delivery, product ranges and in some cases their entire business model offers a real opportunity.

Image from Twitter/@mmtowns

Nobody wants the patronising attitude of big brands jumping on the government messaging bandwagon. (Remember Dettol and their ‘back to work ad’ which recently got a lot of mocking?) Nobody wants to constantly be reminded of the crisis, either – another balance to strike in brand communications.

SMEs with their feet firmly in the community feel their efforts are best focused on excellent service delivery and customer communication without pretending all is rosy. With more and more businesses disappearing from the high street, there is a gap and a good chance for those with an open mind to create mid Covid brand loyalty.

Cover photo by Photo by Edwin Hooper on Unsplash

SVG files and Joomla – a workaround

June 22, 2020

SVGs are super exciting especially if you are working with platforms that allow animating strokes and controlling the svg file with css. It’s also really convenient to have super sharp logos in a very small file size on your site. Speed is so important…

But with the security settings of Joomla, it’s not straight forward to get an svg file onto your site. If you think you can bypass the issue by going into global configuration for media and adding the extension to the list of allowed file types. You can do it, but you will promptly be ignored by the system.

So here is a workaround on using svgs on Joomla. (Obviously only use your own files where you know you’ve not added extra code that may compromise your site. )

Step 1

Create a folder in media to store all your files in. The standard folder is /images so somewhere in there is efficient.

Step 2

Access the files via FTP or a file manager. You can use something like FileZilla or go onto your host site and go through the file manager. Upload your svg files onto the server.

Step 3

Now it depends whether you are using a platform that supports SVG or you have to input the path directly into the media area if you are in joomla directly.

joomla, svg, web development

A little trick when you hit a locked installer in Akeeba

June 10, 2020

If you ever need to restore a backup with Akeeba Kickstart, follow their documentation video from their website and before you click ‘run the installer’, read this:

If you have ever tried to run the installer and it says “The installer is locked”, there is something else you need to do first. After extracting the backup archive with Kickstart and before you click on the “Run the Installer” button connect to your site with FTP or SFTP. Delete the file installation/password.php. Now the installer will be unlocked.

You can use a programme such as Filezilla to ftp onto the site. Then, look in the installation folder for the password.php file.

On this sample, it was in controllers in installation / angie – I’ve renamed the file to June-password.php just in case I had to have it again but that worked.

unlock

Screen caps magic

June 5, 2020

Whether you are trying to put together a presentation or you want to share a bit of news in an email – or you are trying to present some creative work to a client – screen caps are super useful to capture and explain – well – screens…

On a Mac you used to have this wonderful shortcut of command, control + shift and 4 (which is a bit of a hand full, but well worth the finger acrobatics) and you can start dragging across an area of the screen to take a snap which gets copied into your clip board. So from there you can easily add it to your powerpoint or publishing software without having to go through import processes. Unless you design for print, the quality should be fine.

If you have a Mac with a touchpad, you get a neat little interface asking you if you want to drag across the screen yourself or you want to capture a specific window or just the entire screen. Then you can also specify if your destination is the clipboard, documents, desktop or preview.

If you want to always save your screen caps in a specific location, or if you want to specify a custom location, you can do that, too.

First, click Command + Shift + 5 and your screen will go faded out with a little menu at the bottom. I’ve made a little screen recording of the function to demonstrate.

Once you’ve set this up, you can use the short cut to access that menu. You can go even further than this by checking the absolute short cuts in system preferences.

It seems to follow the rule of save to file with command, shift and a number plus option if it’s for the clip board. Definitely one to work with.

screen cap, shortcuts

First day on the bus

June 2, 2020
1 Comment on First day on the bus

I’ve just received some lovely photos from the school bus’ first trip to Mukwashi Trust School. All the kids are wearing masks because of the covid crisis, but they have a place to go to with a free meal for them. And the sign is also installed!

Check out more about Mukwashi Trust School in this recent post.

charity, graphic design, signage, vehicle design

A shortcut to building bridges

June 1, 2020

When you are in photoshop and want to just quickly open bridge to look at a bunch of pictures you may want to use, it’s a little shortcut that comes in handy: Command + Shift + O. It’s a bit weird cause it looks like nothing happens but then it pops up.

Why would you use bridge?

Bridge is a digital asset manager, or a media manager, which kind of sums it up. It also implies that it’s not just for photos, but for any creative assets, videos or sounds etc. You can view, sort, rate and assess your media in a number of views. The name Bridge gives it away as well – it’s not just a companion for photoshop, it works for InDesign and Illustrator and other Adobe tools, too. Like a bridge over hopefully not troubled water…

Here is a link to Adobe Bridge if you want to have a snoop around.

bridge, shortcuts

The marvellous Mrs Hollingsworth

May 30, 2020

This has been one of my favourite projects recently. Creatives are like doctors – the worst patients. I am not sure if I read this somewhere or if it’s an unspoken gospel. For me, I know how hard I find it to promote myself. Not because I don’t believe in it, but because clients always come first and as you all know, it takes a lot of time to get everything look ‘on brand’. So when Kate asked me to help her rebranding again now that she’s been in the photography field for nearly 10 years, I jumped at the task.

It has been a journey, that’s for sure. A windy road of trial and error because Kate cares just as much as all good creatives do about their work and how it’s seen by others. So it was a brave move for her to step out of her comfort zone, show who she truly is and what her passion is in a non-photographic visual sense. We’ve had many sessions going over her brand values again and again to see if they held up in light of her approach, ideal customer, specialism, tone of voice, etc – and how this should be reflected in the brand visuals.

She’s a pro, always has been, as a TV director and then as a photographer, and she’s one of a kind. Which is why this identity is bold and bright and as quirky as Kate is. The print material is designed to emphasise her style and the lovely story telling of her images.

We then created a matching website for her portfolio and blog. It’s designed for mobile and desktop and showcases her wedding, brand and family photography.

It’s been a pleasure working with Kate Hollingsworth and I hope she gets all the recognition she deserves (which is tons and tons and tons!!!) Go Kate, get them married!!!

Check out our portfolio

Visit Kate’s website

brand design, Brand Strategy, Design, website design

How to add free apple fonts

May 28, 2020

Apple has released more free fonts as part of Catalina. You can see the complete list of fonts to download here:

https://support.apple.com/en-us/HT210192

When you get to your FontBook app and click on ‘All Fonts’, you will notice that some of them are greyed out. It’s really easy to unlock them though, all you need to do is to right-click on a greyed out name and then on ‘download font’ and et voila, you have the selected font or font family installed.

Quick Screen Recording of the process

You can either select the fonts one by one or pick a bundle.

Here are some of the available fonts:

Canela from Commercial Type in 16 styles
Domaine Display from Klim Type Foundry in 6 styles
Founders Grotesk by Klim Type Foundry in 17 styles
Graphik by Commercial Type in 18 styles
Produkt by Commercial Type in 8 styles
Proxima Nova by Mark Simonson Studio in 12 styles
Publico by Commercial Type in 12 styles

There are also new display fonts:

Sauber Script by TypeJockeys
Quotes Caps and Quotes Script by Sudtipos

I’ve tried out one of fonts, Produkt, in a little opener.

Prudukt Font — I’ve created this font feature box with Unsplash

Apple, Catalina, free fonts

Mukwashi Trust School

May 26, 2020
1 Comment on Mukwashi Trust School

Design for charity

It’s not always about the money. And when a client of mine mentioned his new charity project, helping a school in Zambia, it felt right to be involved. With branding and design work being in short supply during this lockdown, this was the perfect time to put my energy into a project that will hopefully help change people’s lives.

The website is now live – mobile friendly and responsive so locals can have easy and quick access to the school’s information.

And I’ve designed a flyer with the school’s highlights, ready for locals to read and consider. The leaflets were given out these past few days. Tim shared some messages from the school with me…

“Leaflets have been collected. Everyone delighted. They start distributing them tomorrow. (…) Leaflet distribution today. I hope this makes it feel real. Right now, 7400 miles away, your leaflets are being read by candlelight and paraffin lights in mud huts and shacks.”
Tim Pain

We are also printing some stickers for their school bus and there will be a road sign for the school. It is amazingly rewarding and humbling at the same time.

To see the community so involved with the school, how the kids are understanding the opportunities that will come for them because they can get an education and to have teachers able to work in improved conditions makes me realise not just how lucky we are but also that we shouldn’t take anything for granted.

charity, education, marketing

Fooled by Progress

April 20, 2020

Complex problems require simple solutions. This book, by acclaimed British journalist Ross Butler, explains why.

This book is a survival guide for humanity. It explores the concept that progress is not about complexity, but based on simplicity. That in fact, simple solutions are far better suited to complex problems – whether in your own life or in society at large. Understanding the reasons for this is the first step to making your life, and the world, better.

This isn’t a self-help book.

https://youtu.be/haOSmlwdJXo

Perfect read for anyone interesting in progress – and simplicity

You can get your copy on Amazon.

Corona Crisis help for directors of Limited Companies

April 8, 2020

Martin Lewis has looked at how limited companies may be able to get help from the government.

Key points:

If you are having PAYE, you can go on the furlough scheme.

You CAN’T work any more, however:
You CAN continue to do your statutory duties, such as filing tax returns.
You CAN’T generate revenue. (With that there are issues about what it means, so the rules and guidance are not clear and Martin Lewis is giving some examples.

You could, for instance, prepare marketing material for your company that may in future generate sales, that may be acceptable, although he can’t guarantee it as there is no clear guidance on this.

You could also work in your profession, whilst on furlough, for a different Ltd company.

Worth the watch, thank you Mr. Lewis for spending your time and using your connections to finding things out.

NEW: Are you a small limited company director eg a one (wo)man band?

My new video briefing on helps, tips, and wriggle room if you're struggling financially due to Coronavirus difficulties.

(Subtitled version to come)

Please share pic.twitter.com/cqUdNyTzGi
— Martin Lewis (@MartinSLewis) April 8, 2020

You can also apply for universal credit whether you are on the furlough scheme or not. You need to check if you are eligible, and there are things such as savings being taken into consideration. However, you can at least apply if you are struggling, worst case you can’t claim.

Hope this helps…

Clap for our carers

March 26, 2020

Annemarie Plas shared the idea for an event that united the nation. 8pm was the time to make some noise for our carers – 2m apart of course – to show how thankful we are for all they are doing right now. She says “If the Dutch can do it, the Brits can do it, too!”

We set up our own street WhatsApp group at the beginning of the crisis and I shared the link to the appeal an hour before – replies of ‘our hands are ready’ and ‘we will be there’ came in and at 8pm we were lucky to experience a wonderful event. Neighbours stepped outside the house, clapping away, cheering up and down the road, all with gratitude and spirit.

Thank you, NHS.

We will be back again next week to make more noise!

What brands do in a crisis

March 25, 2020

Another day in isolation, another day where brands are being made or broken by how they react, how they communicate and how they connect to us during this outbreak.

I get really annoyed now by all those automated funnel sales emails that are coming through fishing for subscribers. The jolly sales talk of marketeers trying to tell me how to make my money with PPC and FaceBook advertising, or how they can set up retargeting pixels for me to work wonders. Put it on pause! My whole world is…

It’s house hold brands as well though that show their true nature, good and bad.

Wetherspoons informed workers that they will no longer be paid, saying he would only start payments again once the Government’s scheme to cover 80% of wages is in place – despite the Treasury saying that grants for salaries could be backdated to March 1.

Sports Direct is highly criticised for their handling of staff safety amidst their belief that the shops should stay open despite all the dangers this poses to staff and shoppers.

Apple, on the other hand, has been able to source 10M masks for the US and millions more for the hardest hit regions in Europe. In his tweet, Tim Cook shares the news.

Proud to share we’ve been able to source 10M masks for the US and millions more for the hardest hit regions in Europe. Our ops teams are helping to find and purchase masks from our supply chain in coordination with governments around the world. pic.twitter.com/uTsA6eA5ks
— Tim Cook (@tim_cook) March 25, 2020

BrewDog, an independent distillery in Aberdeenshire, UK, has used its distillery to produce hand sanitiser and is giving it away to local charities and the community. James Watt, Founder of BrewDog, said on Twitter: “We want to do all we can to help everyone get through this difficult time.”

German manufacturers Rotkäppchen and Jägermeister are helping out by supplying ethanol for the production of desinfectant.

For those of us home schooling, various TV personalities are offering their time for free to keep kids active and help to educate them. Carol Vorderman has opened up her online maths school for free for the duration of the school closures: https://www.themathsfactor.com/

Joe Wickes is doing daily PE class workouts at 9am on his Youtube channel: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=K6r99N3kXME

David Walliams releases a free audio story on his website every day for 30 days and there are lots of free activities/resource packs to download: https://www.worldofdavidwalliams.com/elevenses/

Darcey Bussell is giving free dance classes on her DDMIX FaceBook page. Audible has made hundreds of stories free during the lockdown. https://stories.audible.com/start-listen

Supermarkets are doing their best to make shopping easier for the elderly by having special shopping hours amidst panic buying and empty shelves.

There is so much going on, good and bad, and these just a few samples of how this crisis is not just a test for the operations side of companies, but also for their brands. We are vulnerable, we are uncertain and we lean on those we can rely on – be it in our neighbourhood via WhatsApp groups, via social media or phone calls. We don’t just seek the comfort (albeit mostly remotely) of our families and friends, it’s brands we look to for reassurance just as much as we look at our politicians and celebrities.

It’s judgement time and brands – personal or business – have the amazing opportunity to use their profiles to help people not just with products but mentally.

Of course there is one brand that should get a knighthood if there was such a thing. The NHS is doing amazing things. It really is a people brand. I am humbled by the hard work they do, the impossible situation they find themselves in and the ongoing commitment they show to our health. It’s absolutely awe inspiring. There are countless examples of their efforts to campaign for #StayAtHome…

Love this video by our F10 team who are looking after suspected Covid-19 patients. Takes a lot of courage. But when they had a challenging day they did this to get through #teamwork. They #StayAtWorkForYou so #PleaseStayAtHome. And if you can make this viral for them!!!! pic.twitter.com/e497dTBaup
— Dr Steve Dunn (@SteveDunnCEO) March 25, 2020

I have been lucky to work with quite a few NHS hospitals / operations on branding and web projects, so it’s pretty emotional for me personally at the moment because I know the people that work there are struggling right now and there is not much I can do. I’ve volunteered to help along with 400,000 other citizens hoping that I can give a little bit back myself but I am afraid it will only be a small drop on a hot stone.

The NHS – for me – is definitely one of the brands that seems to be genuine and authentic from the inside out. Something every business should aspire to be from a human point of view.

I hope we will get through this together and have a chance to say a big THANK YOU to all those brands that are on our side right now.

attitude, brand loyalty, brand management, Brand Managment, brand message

How to stay sane working from home

March 24, 2020

If you are usually working in an office, motivated by your team and the structure put in place by your managers, working from home can be quite a daunting experience.

It can be easy to feel that you are not getting anything done and a sense of stress/panic may set it, so:

Productivity:

Wear work clothes. Pretend you are going to the office in your normal attire.
Track your time – either on paper or with the many good apps. Break it down by section of work or client.
Make a checklist at the start of every day, preferably on paper.
Add to the list little incidental tasks you didn’t first think of, even if quite minor.
Tick off everything you’ve done during the day.

In terms of sanity:

Take the time to have tea breaks.
Take them away from the “office” preferably in the garden.
Don’t listen to the news all day. Find some good music or, if you can concentrate with the spoken word, find some good podcasts or audio books.

Fitness:

Don’t snack.
Stand up regularly and stretch.
Take calls whilst walking if you don’t have to be right in front of your computer.
Plan some exercise at lunch time or in the evening.

Communication:

Make the effort to keep in touch with your colleagues.

Have a morning catch up.
During the day, ask them how they are and what’s their setup like.
Don’t get mad if they appear not to be working as much as you, it’s not a race to the bottom, and their circumstances might be different to yours.

Family:

Make a conscious effort to be forgiving, the kitchen might be messy, the kids might start to get crazy. It’s new for all of us, and as an adult we have to be a sponge for some of the stress.
Try to get some one to one time with each family member, either for a game or chat or cooking together.

End of day:

Look at your list to see what you’ve achieved and be happy about any of the ticks, no matter how minor!
Think of something or someone that you should be thankful to. Even if small.
Try to get the whole family to do the same.

Mostly remember that this will end. Also that we are incredibly lucky.

Message us if you need any help.

attitude, business, corona crisis

Working from home – with your significant other

March 23, 2020

We are living in crazy times right now, that’s for sure. No matter what your working circumstances are, it’s going to be a wild ride before anything gets to be the new normal.

One thing I don’t have to think or worry about is what it will be like working with my husband.

We started Essence together in 2003 and both gave up our day jobs in 2004 / 05 to dedicate all our time to our consultancy. Since then, we have been working side by side on-off project depending, and our relationship has not suffered, but there are some things we found worked for us…

We work in a little home office, in one room. That may not suit every couple, but for us it is nice to be together (unless Steve has a string of video conferences to attend) and it’s practical to keep work in a work space. If you want or have to share a room, consider this:

Agree first on what background noise you will have during working hours

This is super easy now with lots of types of noise cancelling headphones, but before that we used to chat about what’s on our plate and if we needed quiet time or if some music would be good. Steve is a developer and analyst so when he has to focus, classical music really works for him. I am a soppy person and it makes me feel very emotional so it’s not that great for me when I’m designing. I prefer to listen to programmes so it’s a bit like having office banter in the background. And when I do strategy or copy writing, it’s all noises off – apart from the cat purring…

Don’t chat about non-work stuff at work

Time is precious. Especially now when we also have kids to entertain, uninterrupted work time is a premium. Don’t get distracted by catching up on what DIY needs to be done or what holiday plans you may want to make. Instead, wait for natural gaps in between jobs, meet in the kitchen for a cuppa and chat then. You get a little break and don’t feel you’re interrupting. If you need a break before your partner, have it, but don’t impose it on him or her and pull them inevitably out of a good train of thoughts.

Instead, use the ‘commute time’ to sit together and have a banter – the saved travel time is perfect to use for chit chat!

Wear work clothes

Don’t sit down in your undies or pjs. We found it helps to pretend to be in a real office even if it’s just a corner in your home. (Plus it may be too tempting to pursue more leisurely activities if you sit there semi clad 😂).

Share boring admin

If you have rather dull but necessary admin tasks as part of your work, same business or not, do them at the same time so you can agree it’s ok to moan about them! We do… and it helps to not struggle on your own.

Keep your work space tidy

If you can work from a study or spare room or even convert a corner in your bedroom to have a table in to work on, keep it tidy so both of you don’t have to feel pressure of more clutter to deal with.

Be patient and kind

Of course this is not going to be easy. You may find you function better in different rooms if you can.

If your jobs require different levels of concentration, noise cancelling headphones may be the answer without having to miss each other’s company.

No matter what the day throws at you work wise, don’t reflect your frustration on your partner. Being stressed is one thing, but venting on your other half who is an innocent bystander is not fair on them or you. If you get a bit wound up, talk about it (next break) and you might get a soothing shoulder rub and a hug! Be kind and accept it’s not going to be perfect, but neither is normal office work.

Respect different time requirements (but don’t use it as an excuse to hide during tea prep)

Very much job depended, it may well be that one of you can finish early. That’s ok… we all need to do the best we can and on another day it could very well be you needing to ‘stay late’.

Saying that, if it’s always you then ending up doing the household whilst he is working longer, beyond the usual hours, it’s good to check if perhaps the project itself is at fault and timings need to be adjusted. It’s easy to fall in that trap and the one left to hold the baby may resent you for it.

For us, it’s always been pretty seasonal that I have to work more at certain times in the year but I have a break first when the kids are back from school to have time with them and do household tasks together. I then add a late session if I need to.

I’ll let you know how I get on having my three boys all day every day now and working around home schooling them. I figure that’s a completely different challenge to being productive with your partner working beside you 😂😂😂

attitude, business, corona crisis

How to lock down documents

March 20, 2020

Amidst the current corona crisis, one of my clients needed a quick fix to communicate some potentially scary documents with their staff without alerting the public, and they didn’t have an intranet.

We had a brainstorm to look at the existing website capabilities without the need to setup a separate login area and to minimise admin, and DocMan from Joomlatools had the required features.

One option was to stop search engines from indexing the documents on the website. You can see here how to stop indexing.

The perhaps better option however was to also lockdown the documents completely to a user group that would only internally be granted access. So we set up a new access level with viewing permissions specifically for this type of documents. You can see how to lock down documents in DocMan here.

That way, no second system is required, and a shared internal login makes the access relatively easy.

Ultimately, a user based registration process that can enable and disable staff access is obviously the preferred solution but as a quick fix that worked for them.

coronacrisis, workarounds

Admin? The stick of creative work.

February 28, 2020

I filled in a business health check and one of the questions was how you cope with admin.

It’s the dread of most businesses – it has to be done, someone has to do it, and sadly, being a creative doesn’t mean you can get away with ignoring those excel spreadsheets, accounts packages, quotation and estimation work, and keeping track of those expenses, invoices, subscription renewals and travel receipts.

You can run, but you can’t hide and your next quarterly VAT might well turn into a nightmare orchestrated by Mr. Admin. I’ve been there, believe me, and it’s honestly far more ugly and stressful to pull a late nighter trawling through email histories and getting accounts in order than managing it a little bit at a time.

I’ve developed my own little rule of thumb… (love that expression). I can’t start creative work until the admin is done. That’s on 4 out of 5 working days. On the 5th day, it’s the other way around. It’s creative first, and potentially no admin at all (unless there’s print buying to be done as part of a creative brief).

This may sound petty and not suit everyone, but I need a clear head to think outside the box and worrying about that email I need to reply to will just hang over me and stop me from thinking freely.

And doing a little bit every morning first means there isn’t much to catch up with.

It also allows me to happily go into what my colleague Steve calls monk mode. In monk mode you just focus, ignore everything else, email, chat, news of another calamity, and you buckle down to concentrate on what you’re working on, nothing else.

I love being in monk mode. It takes the guilt out of not reacting to every inbound query in whichever form whilst I’m dedicated to what I’m working on and usually results in a much faster output than trying to do too many tasks at once. There has been a time when we all functioned without instant responses, and it’s ok to wait a couple of hours for a reply…

I’m obviously bound to urgent deadline requirements and sometimes it all goes out the window and I need to do an after hours catch up, but generally, by changing my attitude towards those more technical tasks and seeing them as the stick that gets me my yummy creative carrot, we’ve become quite good friends (Mr Admin and me).

What is a masterpage in PowerPoint?

February 27, 2020

It’s also called a slide master in Microsoft PowerPoint, and it’s basically the slide that sits above all the other slides and as such it controls the visual elements of the theme, such as the layout, background, colours, fonts, and also where these are positioned on any slides you create within that theme.

That way, you can create a consistent look and feel for your presentation.

Beware, there are limitations to how clever the slide master is compared to other publishing software with the same concept of master pages (such as InDesign). In PowerPoint you can’t position elements on the slide master to be on a certain layer (above or below) in relation to elements on the actual slides. But those little niggles are more for your graphic designer to fight with 😂 and hopefully your template will be set up so you can easily work with it to create a consistent look for your brand material.

You can read more about slide masters here at the Microsoft Support site.

Screen cap from Microsoft office support.

master pages, master slide, PowerPoint

How do I create a new blank presentation in PowerPoint

February 27, 2020

Press CTRL + N

😊 This short cut also works in most other adobe and Microsoft software – Word, Excel, Indesign, Illustrator, Photoshop etc…

PowerPoint

Always say never! Oh, never mind…

February 24, 2020

This morning, something dropped in my mail box and I had to look twice, three times even and check my previous emails to see if it really could be true. Did Gmail and Unibox have a serious issue with their font translation? Or is the font of choice for the European Design Awards entry newsletter really Comic Sans – in capitals?!?!!?

In a mild state of shock and disbelief (obviously there are more pressing issues out there than what font an awards organisation chooses to pop in their email header design), but I had to check it out with WhatTheFont and it really seemed to be Comic Sans… Hmmmm.

And then it hit me. Never say never! You can laugh now at just how dumb a moment I’ve had this morning. Their little visual hook was just perfect to get me, obviously gullible and opinionated when it comes to branding and design, to keep reading… so well done, mission accomplished!

My only criticism, I guess, is the fact that the newsletter and their social media look so different from their actual web home page. I think that’s what threw me. It was only when I saw their Instagram that the penny dropped and I could see the method in the madness.

So, after all this, and hanging my head in shame for doubting their taste or typographic sanity, I can only thank them for highlighting once again how critical good typography is for design, no matter which media.

With the amazing tools available today for web, email and obviously print, typography is sadly still very much an afterthought for SME brands with a ‘that will do’ attitude when looking at their marketing and brand collateral.

A new website for Interior Designer James Charles

February 28, 2019

James contacted us with the need for a new website, initially featuring his past successes, soon to be enhanced with his current projects in the world of architecture and design.

James has been very active working in both the US and Athens, as well as project managing in London. He’s been on quite a few TV shows over the years, so videos were an important element of the site, as is the ability to showcase his vast historical portfolio.

One big change has been to actually use his signature for his logo instead of a font, giving the site more personality than a corporate approach.

This website is designed with an emphasis on mobile devices as James’ way of networking requires an ‘on the go’ process of showcasing his work and reputation.

I really love working with other creatives who understand form, function and that bit of magic in-between… so I look forward to the next projects.

View the site

New brand identity for Hemp’s CBD Oils

February 28, 2019

Just finished – a new brand identity for natural food supplement business Hemp’s CBD Oils. This has been a great project to work on, not just because I know the client from other projects for a long time and this is an excitingly different market.

It coincides with another branding project which is also in the natural health area, but more scientific, so it’s been a nice challenge to find the right tone of voice for each of them.

Stonebridge Talent Branding

October 16, 2018

September has been a really productive and busy month – perhaps businesses are getting their ducks lined up for the winter months or perhaps it’s a general vibe of wanting to get things done after the summer. Whichever it is, I am in design heaven, with different tasks and challenges each day.

This project was just completed. The coach, Terence Perrin, is a start-up with many years of experience in talent coaching under his belt. He wanted to use a pre-designed logo from an image library (I am never a fan of this but his budget constraints didn’t allow for more, and at the end of the day what’s most important is to do a great job for a client within their budget). So instead of starting with concepts from scratch, I scoured the market place for an appropriate icon which we purchased and I adapted to make it work for him. It did however remind me of why it’s best to invest in a bespoke brand – even if just for the fact that only your brand will have that particular image. Of course with something as local and personal as coaching, it won’t have such a big impact if someone on the other side of the world uses the same icon, but I’d always strife for uniqueness.

I setup a website in a web builder that came with his domain name, same reason and even more restrictive than I ever imagined – again, if you can, it’s well worth investing in a product that is future proof for a business that’s evolving and changing. I like a challenge though and hopefully the result is still effective in terms of message and brand identity even if it was pretty limited in what one could do.

Add a flyer to the mix and we’ve delivered a nice little start-up collection for a start-up business. Fingers crossed it will be an exciting time ahead for Stonebridge Talent!

Luxury Holidays in the UK – Can I book now please?!

September 10, 2018

We’ve been working with Luxury Vacations for more than 12 years now – rather shocking how time flies!

The team have always been amazing in a graphic design sense, appreciating and demanding good design for all their marketing material. Over the years, the brand has come to life in many ways and recently we are focusing on completely re-vamping all the digital material.

We are now at a stage where more and more of their fantastic tours are in brochure form, giving clients the choice to read it online or even request a printed copy. Thanks to digital print and much faster website speeds, the options are all there for customers. And from a design perspective, it all helps to create a rounded brand image that resonates with overseas travel agents and visitors.

Brochure Design

Layers of Deception

July 15, 2018

This has been a great project. We’ve been working with Leo James, a UK crime author, to create his latest book cover design for his crime thriller Layers of Deception. We created a ‘layered’ composite including elements from the story’s location and content. It’s definitely a challenge to give a visual overview of the content of a novel with limited space and considering the even more limited attention span of people browsing book shelves.

book design, graphic design

Author: Regine Wilber

It’s rarely one bad decision

We’ve seen this before

“For her” pens

Heineken – “Sometimes, lighter is better”

Pepsi protest ad

The bit people miss

“But it’s just a gift…”

Where it actually goes wrong

The fix isn’t complicated

Burley Law

Burley Law Branding

Advert-Graphic-Design-Studio-Birmingham-Sample-for-Law-Firm

Magazine-Advert-Graphic-Design-Studio-Birmingham-Sample-for-Law-Firm

Business-Card-Graphic-Design-Studio-Birmingham-Sample

The Slow Burn of Creative Thinking

The Case for Patience

The Creative Epiphany

The Value of Experience

Embracing the Process

The Takeaway

Hyatt Regency London Blackfriars

Leaf and Cane Logo Copper Type

Chinese Cricket Club Logo

NYnLON Logo CMYK

City Lounge Logo Clear Space

The-Hyatt-branding-Chinese-Cricket-Club-coasters-design

Chinese-Cricket-Club-fine-dining-restaurant-branding-Coffee-Cup-design

L&C Coasters Visual

Leaf-and-Cane-Cocktail-bar-Match-box-design

NYnLON-Bistro-Branding-postcard-design

NYnLON-Bistro-Branding-coasters

The-Hyatt-Citylounge-Cafe-and-restaurant-branding-Beer-Coaster-design

The-Hyatt-branding-City-lounge-takeaway-cups-design

What paper types are there?

Recycled paper

Coated papers

Gloss paper

Matte paper

Silk paper

Uncoated Stock

Bond paper

Uncoated paper

Paper samples and where to get them

Adobe Color

Colorable

XML Site map generator

Meta Tags

Let’s Encrypt

A short history of IWD

Why March the 8th?

What it means for us

Revamping your website

Frequently asked questions (FAQ)

Social media campaign announcing re-opening

Making loyal customers a priority

Hotel marketing ideas involving local businesses

Managing cancellations

Promoting your safety measures

Background

Bios of your team

Your products and services factsheet

Case Studies

Clients or associates

Recent press releases

You in the news

Your brand kit / multimedia elements

Awards / memberships / accolades

Contact details

Our 2021 marketing ideas for the hospitality industry

1. Virtual tours of your property

2. Interactive event experiences

3. Take advantage of social media

4. Utilise text message marketing

5. Create a loyalty program

6. Integrate chatbots on your website

7. Use influencer marketing

8. Collaborate within the industry

Venetian Serifs

Old Style Serifs