October 2018 - Kaizen Brand Evolution

Planning your website project

Posted on October 30, 2018September 15, 2020 by YBmMqGwLx0

When you own a business, it is safe to assume that you have at least thought about the idea of having a website. It is a good idea, as in this day and age nearly everything is online, and having a web presence can sometimes be more vital than having a physical shop, for example helping you to reach places and customers that your shop cannot.

However, when it comes to a website, it can sometimes be a delicate process, as it isn’t just as simple as setting one up and leaving it at that. It needs maintenance, for example when you get new products or publish new content. But you don’t have to worry about doing all of this yourself, as here at Kaizen Brand Evolution, web design is something that we specialise in, and as such would be more than happy to help. But before jumping in the deep end take a look at some of the things you need to think about before beginning your website project.

Written content:

Before you can even start to think about putting your website together, you need to think about what you want to go up on it. There isn’t much point in saying you’re ready to bring the website together if you don’t have content, as then you will just set yourself back. To begin with, think about the different pages you want to have and what they are going to be. This all depends on what business area it is you are involved in. For example, if you are like ourselves here at kaizenprint.co.uk, you are going to want a lot of different pages detailing all of the different products that you have. However, if for example if you own a photography studio you might want to have fewer pages, and instead include a gallery page which then has subcategories of all of the different types of photography that you are involved in. But aside from this, everything on each page is vitally important, from the homepage telling people who your brand is to the contact page. So before starting your project, we highly advise sitting down and thinking about all of this, making sure that you have everything, before going over it again just to make sure you haven’t missed anything. Of course, it isn’t compulsory to have this planned before visiting us but will save a lot of time.

Photography and video content:

When beginning your website project, it is important to think about what visuals you are going to have on there, and this all depends on what it is your service or product is. However, one thing that is a common factor among all of the great websites is their photography. Images sell on a website, so before you have started your project it is a good idea to plan ahead and get them sorted now. Again, think about what your website is going to be used for, and plan your photography around that for example If you’re selling products, it is a good idea to use a professional photographer. They can catch your products in the best light, making them easy to view and also enticing for customer viewing them. Using a professional photographer is a good idea for whatever photography that you need, as it will really show in the quality of your images. Here at Kaizen Brand Evolution, we understand the best brands are ones that work together and we can put you in touch with a few of our favourite photographers. If you don’t need a professional photographer we have a team of graphic designers that can use stock photography that will look right at home.

Purchasing a domain:

Before beginning your website project, it’s a good idea to purchase your domain name. When you do this, you are ensuring that the website address is yours and yours alone. We highly recommend that you purchase yours off 123reg.co.uk and get it now. When this is done, you can let us know and we can upload a holding page to go up until your website is being completed.

Hosting your website:

Before you can begin hosting with a company, they usually request that you own your domain name, so it is definitely a good idea to get that part sorted first. But what exactly is web hosting? It is a service provided by companies that allow both individuals and other companies to bring their website online, and put it on the internet and provide them with the tools they need to do this. Here at Kaizen Brand Evolution, we use a company called Big Wet Fish who we highly recommend and will gladly put you in touch with them if you don’t already have something sorted yourself.

Research other websites:

One of the final steps that will be involved with your website project is the designing of it and once all of the content has been gathered this can go ahead. However, before meeting with your web designer, it would be a good idea to come with some preparations. Take a look at some other websites, whether they are in the same business as you or not, take a look at ones you like the look of and compile a list. Look at how they are designed, their functionality, colours and imagery, as this will all help when it comes to designing yours. For example, if you have a few, you could tell your designer that you like the look of X but the way Y functions, and as such can begin to create exactly what it was you had envisioned for your website.

We hope by now you have some idea of the steps that are required when you begin your own website project. But we also hope that this article has helped you understand a little better, and help you your way of gathering everything you need, before taking the step to creating your online presence.

If that is what you are currently thinking about, then why not let us help you even further? Here at Kaizen Brand Evolution, we have a specialised Web Designer in-house who is always happy to help get you up and running. Give us a call on +44 (0)28 9507 2007 or get us by email via our contact form.

Why hire a design agency?

Posted on October 23, 2018September 3, 2020 by YBmMqGwLx0

Kaizen Brand Evolution was born nearly 4 years ago as its own stand-alone studio under the Kaizen moniker. It is the job of Kaizen Brand Evolution to help our clients even further. If a client wants a completely new brand, we are there to help. If a client wants a new logo, we are there. Even if all a client wants is the design for their new marketing campaign, Kaizen Brand Evolution is there to help.

Since the studio came to life, we have worked with many important brands in many different industries, such as Punchestown, Down Royal, Boojum, to name but a few. But aside from the big players, we are also there when the smaller, more independent clients need us, but they are by no means any less important. If there is a smaller local business who sees that they need that extra something to bring their brand to the top level, they know they can come to us to help them bring their ambition back to life. We want to see businesses succeed because when they do it means that we have done our jobs correctly, and there is nothing we love more than seeing happy clients, both old and new.

In that regard though, why should you think about hiring a design agency? What can they do for you that perhaps you couldn’t do yourself? The answer more often than not is quite a lot, and today we are going to look at a few of those reasons, to help make your decision a little bit easier.

Portfolio:

Firstly, let’s assume that you are in two minds about hiring a design agency and maybe have a few in mind. You’ve got them side by side, with advantages for both. But I would ask you to stop with the general outlook and focus in on one thing about them all; their Portfolio. The size of an agencies portfolio doesn’t necessarily mean that they are the best out there, as it may be a case that they are taking all of the jobs that they can find, even if they aren’t the best to work on and don’t benefit them. The agency that you want to hire, will be the one with the big names attached to their portfolio. They will be the ones that haven’t done the reaching out but have been approached to take on these jobs. And if their portfolio is big, that’s even better as it means they have been approached by many of the top, top companies. Looking at the portfolios will give you a sense of what exactly it is you are getting and should make your decision easier on who to go with.

A Team of Creatives:

Freelance or agency? Part of the allure of going with a freelancer comes from them usually being cheaper. However, think of the reason that they are cheaper; there is only one person working on your project. This isn’t going to be great if you are in need of a full rebrand, as a lot of work goes into this and as such, they may not be able to cope with the workload. However, if you decide to hire a full agency, you are guaranteed to get a team of at least 3 if not 4 designers working on your project at the beginning. This is exactly what happens here at Kaizen Brand Evolution. When we receive a new job from a client a brief is passed to 3 or 4 designers to each give their own take on it. From there, each of these designers creates presentations that are presented to you the client, meaning you could have 3 or 4 different looking brands to choose from, instead of one brand from one person, which you may not like, setting the project back a few weeks. What is also advantageous about this, is that you may have the option to combine different aspects of each designers concept, meaning you not only get the brand you wanted but the brand you need.

Help from Beginning to End:

When you are starting out with your next project, you may only be thinking about a few things, a few immediate things to get you started, for example, logo design, website design and marketing material. However, as the project progresses and comes to its final stages, there may be more than you now realise you would like done as well, such as packaging design, poster design or even design for your first campaign. With an agency such as Kaizen Brand Evolution, we are more than happy to help you out there too. Bringing together everything that we have done over the course of the project and continuing on the work. We’re not happy until you are happy, and as such won’t leave you when you need our help.

If you are ever in need of design and branding work for whatever the reason consider looking at design agencies, despite them being slightly more expensive than for example a freelance designer, you know that it will be worth it in the long run.

If you are in need of a design agency to help you with your next project, whether that is branding, web design, rebranding or a brand audit please do not hesitate to give us a call on 028 9507 2007 or by email via our contact form, and we can set up a meeting to discuss what Kaizen Brand Evolution can do for your brand.

What a logo says about your business

Posted on October 16, 2018September 15, 2020 by YBmMqGwLx0

A logo does the talking for you; it’s your salesperson in the room when you’re not there, it’s your badge of honour, your declaration that you run a successful brand. A logo can ‘say’ these things correctly for you as long as it is crafted carefully based upon your ambition for the business. Ambition setting is a really important factor in this process and can dictate how your logo says anything about your business. From a typeface to a symbol, the elements and shapes need to be addressing how the business wants to develop or be a truthful representation of what you do now. So, ambition setting goes a little bit like this, ask yourself the 5 key questions before embarking on a new logo design and look at your current logo to see if it’s ‘saying’ what you need it to. Ask yourself, Why are we doing this? Who are we doing this for? How are we different? What is our personality and finally what does our brand do? With these questions answered we, as brand designers can make a start on the logo design. Let’s look at the variables you need to think about when you are in the process of a possible new logo.

Does the symbol have a meaning? Symbolism has a greater power over someone’s decision-making process in this day and age than maybe you realise. If your symbol has meaning and a truth to it you create a relationship between you and your customer. Also with this in mind, if your logo isn’t designed well or isn’t correctly communicating what your offering or service is, then, unfortunately, you could be attracting the wrong customer or even putting people off. Meaning is formed with a symbol and can be traced back to ancient times when people used symbols for entire words to communicate with each other, tapestries were written with symbols, the hieroglyphics, the cave paintings, all symbols mean something. You may have a random logo that does okay, but most of the time you will see successful brands with well constructed and strategic logos that usually tell a tale. Our logo for example (the forward slash) represents the definition of Kaizen, (continuous improvement) which we see as a form of evolution, forward slash = forward thinking. Now, what were we thinking when choosing a forward slash to symbolise evolution? Well, if you have ever seen Stanley Kubrick’s 2001: A Space Odyssey, there is a scene, which involves 2 rival prehistoric man-monkey gangs, amidst a raucous encounter a monolith appears and one of the monkeys touch the monolith and begin using tools, sticks as weapons, evolving them as the triumphant man-monkey tribe. All once again symbolism for evolution, and of course without this great reference we always refer to ‘forward slash – moving forward – evolving.’

Does your typeface convey the correct tone? Have a think about typography for a minute, look around your workplace or home at products or even books and how typography plays a part in the communication. We see bubbly, bold typefaces on children’s products, we see sophisticated serif styles on coffees and teas, we see clean, legible typefaces used on laptops, computer brands. This is all to do with how type creates an emotional connection the same way a symbol can. Achieving logo Valhalla is the perfect balance between the two – a typeface that represents what you are doing as a business and a logo that sums it up, simply. Simplicity is key because if a customer is confused about your brand message they will simply go elsewhere.

Think your business logo needs a refresh? Perhaps it doesn’t convey the tone you think it should? Feel free to call us on 028 9507 2007, email the designers on studio@kaizenbrandevolution.com and book an appointment. Take the next step to evolving your brand today.

United Wines – Brand Identity

Posted on October 10, 2018September 3, 2020 by YBmMqGwLx0

United Wine Merchants approached the brand team at Kaizen Brand Evolution with the objective of repositioning their brand identity and communications to be more in line with their unique service, product and reputation. With over 36 years in business, United Wines have moved with the times in terms of their product portfolio and brand associations, however, their own brand has remained unchanged. Today the company is modern, forward-thinking, and upholds a formidable reputation. With this said it deserved an identity to truly represent them.

In their own words:

United Wine Merchants incorporating HEINEKEN NI is a dedicated Agency led wholesale business within the Licensed Trade servicing the entire On and Off Trade. As a subsidiary of HEINEKEN IRELAND, we are the licensed wholesale company responsible for developing the HEINEKEN portfolio including Orchard Thieves across Northern Ireland. Now in our 34th year of operation, we pride ourselves on our market leading and award-winning portfolio of Beers, Wines, Spirits, and Soft Drinks. Beyond timely supply and reliable delivery, we have got a range of marketing support and an experienced sales team to help you select the right range for your customers. We can design your wine lists, supply POS and provide your staff with product training as our Sales and Marketing team are all WSET qualified.

The team at Kaizen Brand Evolution created 3 unique brand designs for United Wine Merchants, each one exploring separate USP’s and reflections of their current standing in the marketplace. From colour variation, negative space, wine hints and some contemporary type styles we aimed to flex our creative skills in this brand audit, after all, it has been 30 years since the current branding, time for us to show potential. The new, chosen brand mark incorporates modernity, negative space and a clear, focused typestyle. The colour palette is reflective of their current ‘wine palette’ with a great balance of a highlight and base ‘berry purple.’ Each element of the logo represents truthfully the ambition United Wines set us from the outset. You will also notice that the word “merchants’ has been removed from the primary, simply for simplicity. When referring to the company people tend to drop the Merchants, so we dropped it.

Language plays an important role in the new brand direction for United Wines. We put together a language style for the brand to take forward, one which highlights their USP’s but one that has an almost tongue in cheek wordplay. Statements such as ‘from harvest for beer fest’ for ‘forward thinking drink’ set the brand apart from local and national competitors. Setting this tone of voice at the beginning of the new brands journey will pave the way for how the brand communicates on and offline, short and sweet…but engaging. The company and staff at United Wines are extremely personable and friendly so the language guide was set to reflect not only their products and service but their people – something that United Wines pride themselves on.

We directed the artistic and photographic style for the new branding using process, ingredients and the art of creating the products they sell at United Wines – rather that typical product imagery or cheesy stock imagery. The new visual narrative for the company has depth and explores the story of their products.

We are extremely proud of the United Wines rebrand and continue to roll the branding and design out across digital and printed materials. The new United Wines website is under development in the Kaizen Brand Evolution studio as well as the new internal office and vehicle livery which we are excited to see live and kicking. If you feel your business is in need of a rebrand or repositioning to represent your service or product accurately simply get in touch with our award winning brand experts at studio@kaizenbrandevolution.com

The importance of a logo

Posted on October 9, 2018September 15, 2020 by YBmMqGwLx0

A logo is a symbol that is synonymous with your brand, a sign of your business, your seal of approval and more often than not, the key for a consumer’s decision making. In a world that is saturated with branding and symbolism having a logo that not only represents your brand correctly but one that also stands out amongst your competitors can be a challenge, that is where branding agencies (such as Kaizen Brand Evolution) step in. Your logo says a lot about your business, from the typeface to the mark or symbol, the logo you chose to represent your business should do this as truthfully and as tastefully as possible.

A businesses logo depends on the type of business you are in, for example, a village bakery might choose something nice and soft, maybe some texture or handwriting and perhaps even throw in a little ‘established 1946’ in there to make sure everyone knows this is a family business – fantastic. There is and should be a clear difference in choosing logo styles and formats to suit what you do, not saying that there is a right way to create a logo for a bakery, but recognising that distinction that as a consumer we have an idea of what a logo should and should not look like. With this in mind, picture the likes of Facebook or Google with this style of logo. You can’t, as it wouldn’t really happen in that industry landscape – this is important in the understanding the power of a symbol, of a typeface and of course of a colour. Google’s logo is clean, modern, reflects their mission “To organise the world’s information and make it universally accessible and useful.” It is EXTREMELY important to get these elements right when thinking of or designing a logo.

One big difference in getting your logo right is the investment in it, of course for a start-up with no design experience or money, calling upon a family member with a B in GCSE art can seem like the easy option and you have something, anything to get you started, right? – Wrong. Realising that your logo is as important as your product, your workforce, your computer, is a head start that you will have over other new starts in your industry as well as existing competitors. The logo has the power to create intrigue, develop a reputation and make you look perhaps more established than you are, intern making people trust you more. Your logo, done right, by a designer can help you reach your ambition way before you have reached it yourself. Preparing you for your ambition at the start will make selling your product or service a walk in the park because you already look like you are ready for bigger and better things and also you have a strong brand presence at such an early stage.

A logo (abbreviation of the logotype,[4] from Greek: λόγος logos “word” and τύπος typos “imprint”) is a graphic mark, emblem, or symbol used to aid and promote public identification and recognition. It may be of an abstract or figurative design or include the text of the name it represents as in a wordmark. At the level of mass communication and in common usage, a company’s logo is today often synonymous with its trademark or brand.

The power of a logo is undeniable. Easyjet’s name may be written in a weird, gooey orange font, but it’s memorable and friendly. IBM’s stripes have become synonymous with technology. Apple and Shell? They’ve done away with writing their names altogether. That truly is the power of a great logo. – By Michael Johnson

It shouldn’t be a personal taste when having a logo designed, your logo represents a business, no one cares about your favourite football teams colours and you shouldn’t mix these ideas when thinking about your business. Believe it or not, when creating logos in the studio we take the full personal taste out of the scenario when creating logos for businesses. What we do is… well come and talk to us and we’ll show you.

Sports Medicine NI – Branding

Posted on October 3, 2018September 3, 2020 by YBmMqGwLx0

Sports Medicine NI approached Kaizen Brand Evolution wishing to create a new brand to go with their new premises in Windsor Park. In their own words “Sports Medicine NI offers a comprehensive management service for athlete injury and health. Using our in-house sports science and medicine experts, we are able to provide a holistic team approach to guide the athlete on their journey to health and performance. Whether you are an international athlete, a coach, sports club/association or simply someone who enjoys being active, we are able to provide tailored support to recover from injury, regain health and remain healthy to achieve your sporting goals. Our specialists have experience in working with athletes and teams at the highest level and can bring that expertise to address your specific problem in one venue, simplifying the process, increasing the communication and reducing the cost.”

Sports Medicine NI target market is anyone who has been injured through physical activity or someone who takes part in physical activity or competitive sport. Their ideal customer would be a regular gym player or an amateur sports player, coach or schools player. Sports Medicine NI provides expert advice on all athlete injury, illness and performance. The aim of Sports Medicine NI is to get the player back into the game and for them to stay in the game. They specialise in physiotherapy, exercise physiology, sports psychology, sports nutrition, strength and conditioning and sports medicine, with touch points also in radiology, surgery and other specialities.

From this excellent brief from the client we were able to use this terminology for the language and strapline, this came as the key brand pillars of “Injury, Health, Performance”. For the key narrative, “Getting you back in the game” ‘helping you stay in the game’ and ‘succeed in the game’ was thought of as it covers all of the key touch points for the clients ideal market. The positive messaging shows what Sports Medicine NI can do for you throughout your sporting career. This is paired up with an inline font to highlight the words, back and stay and also in keeping with the logo design.

The Sports Medicine NI logo is made up of lines symbolising the many lines on a track or pitch, and an arrow is crafted in the M to show positivity and moving forward. The logo used a friendly soft san serif font – Effra – which is approachable and corporate at the same time. A key element in the rebrand was to have a smaller version of the logo using the SM only which can be used with and without Sports Medicine NI to the right-hand side. The colour scheme used is a cobalt blue, bright yellow and turquoise as the brand colours. The colours are bright, they stand out and are also current, as well as being representative of a sports brand such as Nike and Adidas. Additional colours of navy, pink and red are used to highlight six key sections within the brand. Throughout the brand rollout, the arrow is used in the M in the SM NI logo to denote the forward thinking and moving forward, which is very important in a athletes life, especially if they have suffered from injury.

The photography used within the brand is bright and full of colour, showcasing athletes taking part in their chosen sports, as Sports Medicine NI has clients from all manner of different sports. We have used a diverse range from swimming to karate, as well as the most popular sports such as football, boxing and rugby.

The brand rollout has been visualised on a number of different deliverables including billboards, website and social media, business stationery, flyers, signage and uniform. We enjoyed greatly working on this project and we look forward to continuing working with Sports Medicine NI as their brand rolls out.

How often should you change your logo/brand?

Posted on October 2, 2018September 15, 2020 by YBmMqGwLx0

Changing a business’s logo or brand can bring a number of feelings to the surface. It can spark debate, raise opinion and change feelings amongst staff, clients and competitors alike, this leads us to the question of ‘how often you should change your logo or your brand’. There can be many factors to why change is necessary as well as a number of reasons why a company should re-evaluate or even audit their brand rather than a complete change. Global brands take the Twitter spotlight when a significant logo/brand change is made. Via Twitter or Facebook the public are able to cast there two cents behind a keyboard force field and give a critique on how the logo looked before and what it looks like to them, now – all very black and white with no real focus on the reasons that business decided to make the change.

There can be many factors in making the decision to change an organisations logo/brand. A shift in the marketplace is a common phrase we here in the studio – ‘customers just aren’t the same anymore – our target market has changed’ – this sort of market behaviour can make or break a business and is an element that must be addressed in the branding. For example, if you’re family business has had the same logo or brand identity for 30 plus years and you are about to make a change in how your business operates or even what it sells then its time to re-evaluate how your brand communicates and more importantly who it communicates too. Your logo has the power to do this for you. To follow on if a logo which was designed 30 years ago suited the market at that time, and the market has changed since then, how could a logo still do what you need it to do in today’s climate? To answer the question let a creative brand & design studio look at it for you. If aspects of your business are changing i.e. Your staff, your offering, your USP, your location, your customers, you’re moving online – these are all triggers for when you should consider changing your logo and or your full brand identity. A good analogy is this – Imagine pimping out your car – new wheels, new engine, new leather interior, fancy new stereo with subwoofers in the boot… and leaving the paintwork as it was. The paintwork is what people see and what people think of first – the engine and interiors are irrelevant if there is no first impression or draw from the bodywork. Your logo/brand is what people see first before they look under the hood or sit in your passenger seat. Your logo/brand is what draws people towards you as a business the same way you may be drawn towards the exterior of a Ferrari or Lamborghini. Of course, the engine and interiors are all perfections inside an exotic sports car but without the exterior and that initial sale would you still want to know what was underneath?

How often you should change your logo really depends on what your business is doing. Have you new competition whose offer is the same but the brand communicates more effectively? Have you ambitioned of increasing reputation or profits? We notice that around every 3-5 years its certainly worth evaluating how your brand communicates, whether that be through a brand audit, a change of your logo, or even a complete re-brand. It’s important to keep moving with the times and always communicating correctly to the right type of client if you want more of them.