Month: November 2019

When we think of great website design, we tend to think of the websites that have done something a little (or a lot) different. We tend to think of websites that incorporate a background video, sliding graphics, animations, big and bold images or designs or websites that integrate interactive content like VR or AR. And while making a beautiful and exciting website can work wonders for the brands that do it successfully, it is important to remember that at their foundation, these websites are successful because they follow a few simple rules. So what makes for a great site? Here’s our run-down of the key elements you’ll need to consider to create a great website;

▪️ Always put your customers first

▪️ Don’t put design before functionality

▪️ Reduce clicks

▪️ Do your research

▪️ Plan ahead

▪️ Investigate every single avenue

Always put your customers first

At every step of your website design, you should ask yourself the question. What would our customers want? Whether it’s the navigation in the header of your website, the content of the pages, the tone of voice of the content, or the choice of images, whatever it is, every single decision should be guided by the end-user. 

Don’t put website design before functionality

While there are some great websites out there that can do all kinds of weird and wonderful things, taking advantage of some of the most exciting technology out there, ultimately the good ones remain exceptionally easy to use. Don’t get sucked into trying to out-do your competitors with the latest technology, instead work from the premise of giving the very best user experience possible, and on selling in exactly how your product or service provides value to your customers. 

Reduce clicks on your website

The best possible user experience is one where you can reduce the number of clicks as much as possible for your users to get to the answers that they want. Now, of course, this doesn’t mean just putting all your content on one page in an endless scroll, but what it does mean is reducing the amount of time it takes to fulfil the needs of your customers. Make your content easy to navigate, and intuitive to use, and you’ll be winning in the eyes of your customers. 

Do your research

Putting your customers first doesn’t mean doing what you think they want. Putting your customers first takes in-depth analysis into user behaviour. If you have a website already this means looking at user behaviour on your website in relation to which pages they spend the most time viewing, or which pages they can’t get enough of. If you don’t have a website, this means researching what other successful websites are doing and understanding the key components of web design that help to improve user satisfaction. 

Plan ahead

Once you have done your research, it’s time to start putting the building blocks together in the construction of your website. Any great website starts with great planning. Understanding precisely what you want to achieve from your website, and drawing out an exact framework of how you want your website to work, will save you a great deal of time, money and frustration in the long run. 

Investigate every single avenue

Once you think you’ve got your website all sorted. Go over it again. Get friends, co-workers, focus groups to look over your website plan. Don’t let any stone go unturned. Depending on what it is that you sell, or the service you provide, a website can be an extremely complex beast, so make sure you give it the respect that it deserves. 

If you follow these fundamental rules, then you are halfway there to creating an outstanding website. At Kaizen Brand Evolution, we have a wealth of experience of working with brands to improve their websites. To find out how we can help you, visit our website design page or get in touch via our contact form, or by calling 028 9507 2007.

How to choose colours and fonts that fit your brand

Choosing the right colours and fonts for your brand is about more than just going for something that looks kind of nice and appeals to you personally. And while this might seem like a fairly obvious statement to make, this is often a powerful driver behind why organisations and businesses opt for a particular font or colour. When it comes to what we like and what we don’t like, it can often be hard to get past our preferences and bias when considering the best direction to go in. It is important, however, to take ourselves out of the equation and to try to be as objective as possible when it comes to our brand design. 

Ask the right questions

Before you start any brand project, you should begin by asking some probing questions about what your brand represents and what direction you want to take it in. When considering fonts and colours that fit your brand, you should try to answer the following questions;

▪ Who do you want to appeal to?

▪ What kind of impression do you want to make?

▪ Where does your brand fit in the market?

▪ What makes your brand different or unique?

▪ What makes your brand important?

Once you’ve answered these questions, you can start to piece together a narrative or story behind your brand that can help you to drive branding decisions. 

Come up with some initial ideas

There have been numerous studies on the science and psychology behind how we perceive colours and fonts, and while no one person will perceive a colour or font in the same way as another, there are some definite trends worth considering colours and fonts for your brand. Is your brand exciting and innovative, warm and friendly and all about fun, or authoritative and secure? When choosing your brand colours and fonts, you should be aware of the basics behind audience perceptions and expectations. 

Blues can denote peace and serenity, but they can also represent security and authority. Banks often choose blue to reflect this. Yellow’s and Orange’s tend to be more warm and friendly, while purple is usually associated with a more luxurious product. Similarly, when considering your fonts, a bold straight typeface can reflect sturdiness and confidence, while a font that reflects more of a written word kind of style will come across as more personal, stylised and friendly. Choose a selection of options that you think best reflect the answers to your initial questions and start to draw up some initial ideas. 

Do your research

In order to put your objectivity into practice, you should conduct a thorough analysis of your brand and businesses and organisations that offer similar brands and services. When conducting this research, you should try and think of the merits and faults of your competitors and also how your brand fits into this bigger picture. How does the branding of your competitors and other brands reflect what they have to offer? Once you’ve drawn up some conclusions as to what you like and what you don’t like, you can start to piece together the best way to reflect your brand through the colours and fonts that you opt for. 

Try out a few different options

Being too narrow in your approach can result in narrowing the potential of what you have to offer. While your brand needs to be cohesive and consistent, it isn’t a static or singular entity. Your brand is always moving and changing, and you should be doing the same. Draw up a few different options and provide a rationale behind each option. Once you have a few options available, you can mix and match and getter a better understanding of what works and what doesn’t.  

At Kaizen Brand Evolution we’ve helped numerous brands to come up with colours and fonts that not only look great, and make them stand out from the crowd, but that have also been ideally suited to the brand’s core values and identity. To find out more about how we can help you with your branding you can visit our brand design page, or get in touch by via our contact page or by calling 028 9507 2007.

You’re proud of the work you have produced over the years, and your design portfolio provides a little glimpse into a history of your professional working life. Almost like moving house, or having a clear-out of some of your belongings, it can be hard to let go of some the designs that have helped you clinch work and progress in your design career. However, whether you have been creating design work for two years or twenty, it is always worth regularly looking over your design portfolio and considering whether or not it needs a revamp. 

So how can you tell if your design portfolio needs a revamp? Here’s a quick rundown of questions to consider when deciding whether or not your portfolio could do with a refresh;

▪️How old are the designs in your portfolio?

▪️Is there a single solid narrative or theme to tie your designs together?

▪️Do the designs reflect the kind of work you want to get?

▪️Have your designs moved with the times?

▪️Is the work still relevant?

If the answer to any of these questions, is no, a long time, or I’m not sure, then it may be time to consider revisiting your trusty design portfolio. Here’s our top tips when considering whether or not your design portfolio could do with a revamp.

Have someone else take a look

With so many designs to choose from and with so much personal connection to your own work, it can sometimes be challenging to take a step back and be objective about what to include or leave out of your portfolio. Whether it’s a fellow designer or a friend, it is always worth getting a second opinion as to which work should make it into your design portfolio and what maybe shouldn’t make the cut. 

Take time to think about what you want

Habits can be hard to break. But to keep yourself and your design fresh, you should always try to think about what it is that you want from your work moving forward and how the work you have completed can help you to get where you want to go. If you’ve produced a great piece of design work, but it doesn’t quite fit with your current direction, then don’t be afraid to leave it out. 

Have a look at other design portfolios

While it is never a great idea to simply copy other designers, gathering inspiration is the cornerstone to any design project, and your design portfolio is no different. How does your portfolio match up to others out there? What are the techniques that other design portfolios use? What kinds of designs are they showing off, and what do they focus on? These are the kinds of questions you should be asking yourself when considering whether or not now is for a refresh. 

Could the design of your design portfolio be updated?

As well as the content itself, understanding when the design of your design portfolio needs updating is also critical to ensuring that you are presenting your work to its full potential. The design of your portfolio is in many ways as important as the design work itself. If you have a tired or old looking design portfolio, or if its format is bland or formulaic, then you are missing an opportunity to show off what you can do. 

At Kaizen Brand Evolution, we have worked with numerous brands in helping them revamp their design portfolios. To find out more about how we can help you update your design portfolio, get in touch via our contact page, or by calling 02895072007.

Having a great design portfolio can be the difference between winning and losing at your next pitch. A sharp well thought out, and tailored portfolio will make you stand out from the crowd and can help you put your best foot forward when it comes to clinching that deal. A stale looking portfolio that doesn’t reflect the best of what you do, on the other hand, can be a real turn off for potential clients and investors. So, how do you stand out from the crowd?

Keep up to date

In the world of design and branding, if you aren’t constantly updating your design portfolio and what you have to offer, then you will quickly fall behind. What worked last year, last month, or last week, may not work today, so make sure you are always up to date with the latest design trends. Take inspiration from the great design examples around you and put your spin on your presentation, and you’ll be halfway to producing a fantastic design portfolio. 

Tailor what you have to offer

No one meeting or client pitch is the same. Your portfolio shouldn’t be a catch-all tool. While you’ll want your design portfolio to show the breadth of what you are capable of, you’ll also want to speak the language of your audience. Make sure you include projects that will be of specific interest, and for the projects that may not seem immediately relevant, think of the cross-overs between the projects you have completed and what you can offer that potential investor. 

Push the boundaries

Playing it safe is a sure-fire way to be forgotten in a hurry. Your portfolio is a reflection of the best of you and your craft, so don’t be afraid to put yourself out there and show what you can do. As a designer, you are already aware of what makes for great design, so make sure you don’t miss the opportunity of doing something exciting with your design portfolio. Consider how you might use different images, fonts, layouts or materials to bring that design work to life. 

Do exciting work

Having a nicely designed and professional looking design portfolio is great, but if the work you are presenting doesn’t live up to the smart and creative design of the portfolio itself, then you are unlikely to win your audience over. While finding exciting work to produce a great portfolio may seem like a chicken and egg situation (i.e. you need the portfolio before you can bag the work), there are some creative ways you can build up your portfolio, without actually having one to work with. Consider offering your services at a reduced cost, or free of charge to local charities, or sponsoring the design of your local youth football teams kit. Whatever it is, keep in mind that you also want something great to show off what you can do in return. Document your project, keep all of your design work drafts, and keep a log of everything you do. 

Kaizen Brand Evolution

At Kaizen Brand Evolution, we have worked with numerous organisations and business with their design and brand positioning. We also have an extensive design portfolio of our own, that we use to win over potential clients and use as a point of reference in support of those we work with to help them create their own distinctive design portfolios. If you’d like to find out more about how we can help you create a winning design portfolio, then get in touch via our contact page, or by calling 02895072007. 

Branding can mean the difference between winning over your customers or losing them. It can be the difference between being known and unknown, trusted or put off. But why is branding such a powerful tool for your business?

Here’s our guide to the power of branding;

It reminds customers who you are

It represents your authority in a particular area

It breeds trust in you and your business

It makes a statement about what your business is about

It reminds customers who you are

As consumers, we are bombarded with choice on a daily basis. We can’t possibly remember every single brand that crosses our path, and neither can we recall every single brand when it comes to making purchasing decisions. We are all guilty of making snap purchases, or of buying without considering every angle or side to a story – and we do this for a number of reasons. As consumers;

We are time-poor

We simply don’t have time to research every option of every purchasing decision. We all lead busy lives and so we naturally gravitate towards the brands that will give us the quickest answers – even if that answer is simply whether or not you have heard of the brand in the first place. 

We are lazy

As technology gets more and more advanced, we no longer expect to have to put in any leg work whatsoever, so when it comes to our buying or purchasing decisions we expect only the very best customer experience and nothing less. Your branding is an integral part of that experience. 

We are impatient

If we don’t get what we want when we want it, we quickly become impatient. Your branding is there to remind your customers that you can solve their problems, wants and needs, with your product or services. 

Build a solid and memorable brand and you are halfway there to building a successful business. Whether your audience has never bought from you but are aware of your brand, or they have had contact in some shape or form with you (maybe to buy from you or to spend time in one of your stores), if they remember you, then you will be front of mind when it comes to that next purchasing decision. 

It represents your authority in a particular area

Great branding tells your audience that you are the go-to brand in your industry. It says that when it comes to that thing that you do so well, that you are the bees knees. While being amazing at what you do and having great customers service will of course in itself go a long way, there is nothing quite like a piece of great branding to back that service up and to really make you shine. Similarly, if your audience has never head of you, then they will never have the opportunity to find out how great you are.

It breeds trust in you and your business 

With authority comes trust. As in life, if something is familiar to us, then we are more likely to trust it. Rightly or wrongly, as consumers, we are programmed to take our trust signals from very brief encounters with brands. If you can ensure that you are remembered for all the right reasons then you’ll not only be able to persuade customers to buy from you, but also to trust you and become loyal to your brand. 

It makes a statement about what your business is about

Branding tells the world who you are and why what you do is important. The most powerful branding is uncompromising in its message and bold in its communication. Your branding is your chance to get behind what you do and feel proud about it.

At Kaizen Brand Evolution our team of experts specialise in helping business grow their brand through exceptional design and branding. To find out how we can help you develop your brand you can get in touch via our contact form or by calling 028 9507 2007.