Month: April 2020

Lean Bean – brand identity

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Lean Bean approached us to create a unique brand identity as the business was faced with significant growth across Dublin and Ireland. Lean Bean is a well-established Fresh Food Outlet in the centre of Dublin, serving up some of the tastiest breakfast and lunch time meals on the island. Reputation soon spread of the fast, fresh offering across the city and demand for the product dictated an increase in stores. With this in the pipe-line the owner of Lean Bean realised opportunity to re-define and re-state the brand purpose, look and feel and communications. With the naming already in the mix it was our job to deliver an identity to reflect the reputation and truthfully communicate this forward-thinking delicious offering.

In their own words:

Founded in 2017, Lean Bean is a destination for healthy food served fast. To us healthy means real food made from scratch. Lean Bean was built on the idea that today people are time poor and the food on offer is of low nutritional value. We want to change that by providing real food, real fast at an affordable price. We believe education around food is very important to our success and that people are actively making more health-conscious decisions.

First off was the logo. We created a unique word mark based on a Stencil font which provides a sense of tradition, sophistication and modernity. The way the letters fall in the stacked version of the logo allowed the typography to play over the line ever so slightly to create an interesting, stand out identity. Paired with the traditional stencil style mark we introduced a modern san-serif to bring harmony in the brand across headlines, menus and body copy that was to be used. Clarity between the two typefaces is important as you will see throughout the menu and website, a natural yin and yang balance really elevates the brand and gives it strength to roll out across any medium required. 

Following the craft of the word mark we created a colour scheme to suit the offering and attract the right audience. Numerous concepts were put forward but the pairing of the fresh ‘lemon’ and the strong ‘teal’ working together provided something completely new for the industry landscape. Teal’s of course reflective of the green ingredients with the hint of Lemon to freshen things up across the brand. The completed palette is extremely ‘fresh’ and packs a real punch when placed in front of the fantastic plates, ingredients, drinks and interiors at Lean Bean.

One of Lean Beans mantra’s is sustainability, as seen here:

Sustainability

We are always trying to reduce our carbon footprint. Over 90% of all our packaging is now compostable with some of the remaining being used from either plant based or recycled plant-based material which is 90% less carbon.

This Lean Bean ethos of sustainability sparked an idea for a new style to accompany the word mark and colour palette. With this in mind we created a unique set of bespoke illustrations which are intertwined across brand textures, backgrounds, interiors and the website. The illustrations are hand-sketched and really bring an air of sustainability to the whole brand personality. This in toe we wanted to introduce a strapline to sum this up. Eat Smart was born. Eat smart encompasses once again the brand ethos of Scratch Cooking, Transparency, Healthy Living and great food. We felt it was a much easier was of letting the customer know that ‘we do healthy food’ and encouraging them to join the food revolution. 

Lean Bean very much is a revolution in fast food and we continue to work with them in the brand roll out and evolution of the business.

Westville Hotel – brand identity

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The Westville Hotel is a longstanding boutique hotel situated in the heart of Enniskillen. For many years the Westville has grown in popularity for its diverse range of high spec rooms, service and entertainment, not to mention food outlets across the town. With success comes change and the owners at the Westville realised that now was the time to re-state exactly who the Westville are and what it means to stay there. So they approached Kaizen about doing a new Brand Identity for them.

In their own words:

A Superbly Stylish Boutique Hotel in Fermanagh

Perfectly located in the heart of Enniskillen’s waterside historic quarter, The Westville Hotel is a sophisticated, yet understated, boutique destination – offering everything to the contemporary, discerning guest, including a Terrace restaurant, beautifully spacious and comfortable rooms, a stylish WV Bar matched with the warmest, welcoming service.

A great focus for the Hotel was to attract the Instagram generation, making the boutique experience much more in tune with key experiences across Enniskillen all the while having a hotel where you want to stay in, eat drink and Instagram! This brief for the designers was a dream for some of our keen city breakers and self -proclaimed hipsters within the studio. This was an opportunity to create a really ‘cool’ and unique brand identity for the type of people that, well… we are. Adventure seekers, young professionals with a genuine passion for where they stay and what they do at the weekend, interested in their surroundings, food, drink and experiences.

Language

First-off we re-stated exactly what it was the Westville offered. Through language we we’re able to set the scene on how the brand identity would develop throughout the hotel’s communications. We introduced the line ‘Stay and Explore’ as the overall purpose of the Westville. This strapline opened up a world of visuals both for the hotel and Enniskillen with a lovely link to the tourism opportunity for the area surrounding the Westville, from the caves to the lakes we’ve got this covered.

Typography

The brand identity takes its form from a classic but very modern type family ‘Condor’. With a series of customisations, cuts, raises, kerning and craft in the type we created the unique word mark for the Westville. The type is a natural evolution from their previous logo but completely simplifies the identity for 2020 and beyond, making it a lot more flexible and removing a lot of the previous symbols, stars and even the word ‘hotel’ was removed with the aim of producing a modernised version of the mark. As well as the language we really wanted to introduce a symbol that reflected the strapline and purpose – hence the ‘Westville wave’ was introduced. A simple glyph, taken and customised which sits beautifully above the W. The wave is reflective of the lakes, the water and the fact that Enniskillen is in fact an island locked in by water. This opportunity to tell this story was a no-brainer for the design and roll out of the brand. The wave is utilised as a pattern system throughout the interior, brand assets and marketing as you will see. This symbol also made way for 3 beautifully drawn badges that feature across the brand, all three highlighting the Stay and Explore message. 

Art Direction

Art direction for the Westville was as important as the new brand mark. We introduced a stylised, hipster photography direction and colour palette which pair beautifully with the mark and bring an air of freshness to the brand which is reflected in the interior and brand accents across the hotel. We provided concept across the entire hotel offering, from website to door hangers, bottled water and towels, this project has been a real passion project for the studio and we love to continue to work on the brand as it develops, rolls out and evolves. We love seeing brands we work on out in the wild and cannot recommend enough paying the newly branded Westville.

    At Kaizen Brand Evolution we understand the difficulties that brands face in evolving their brand and in keeping it fresh. If you’d like to find out more about what we can offer you can visit our brand identity page. Alternatively, you can get in touch via our contact form or by calling 028 9507 2007

    Boundary CrossFit – brand identity

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    Understanding the Brand

    The newest player in the CrossFit arena, ‘Boundary CrossFit’ came to us to create create a unique brand identity and system to showcase their brand new high-end facility, to help them prepare it for launch and growth within the industry. Their ambition was to achieve a modern, bold narrative that would pay homage to the raw industrial nature of the sport but also the physical interiors within the gym itself.

      The Logo Build

      The vast majority of us have heard of or have some kind of idea about what CrossFit is. For those who don’t CrossFit in recent years has become much more than just a choice of exercise. The growing CrossFit brand has become a culture amongst likeminded passionate individuals. We felt that this was a primary message we needed to get across through the Boundary Brand Identity Narrative. We needed to pay homage to the people who commit and support these gyms. We wanted to capture the spirit of these individuals and their culture and lifestyle.

      The brandmark was created with the brand name at the soul of its direction. The term ‘ Boundary’ illustrates a conflicting ideology it can reflect a division, a defense mechanism, but also a sense of place, a sense of strength.

      The word itself has such a powerful narrative that it was an organic development that the brand mark would be a strong typographic word mark.

      The logo is set in a modern Flat-Sided san serif typeface, a style also known as ‘gaspipe’. The modular letters evoke modernity and industrialism. The type led brandmark visualises the feeling of the word ‘Boundary’ and encapsulates the narrative of the brand. To further project the narrative of the brand an organic underline was incorporated to bring a softer contrast to the modular typemark. To amalgamate the strength of the word with the raw passion and commitment to the people who belong within it. 

      This notion of a warrior, war paint, the raw grit and dedication associated with the physically experience of the brand. The underline creates a device that can be used throughout the brand roll out as a visual sense of the word ‘bound’ to create metaphors and links through visual assets. The line device also enables ‘Crossfit’ to be neatly combined within the logo but also easily removed when needed and to ensure brand longevity. This strong typographic approach creates a unique typographic identity, which will become a natural association to the ‘Boundary’ brand.

      The strength evoked within the logo helps to resonate with the desired audience of the brand. There is an immediate connection to the name ‘Boundary’ and the visual depiction of the meaning of the word throughout the type. This typographic language that will be used throughout the brand roll out creates a direct and powerful connection to audience the brand is trying to attract. A loyal client base who share like-minded goals, who are passionate about being a part of the ‘Boundary’ culture. 

      Photography

      A creative direction for the photography was developed to further enhance the narrative of the brand. It is people focused to give the audience a true reflection of the ‘Boundary’ culture and to ensure the right people invest in that culture. The imagery depicts loyalty to the brand a common visual trend associated with the sports industry and the nature of the CrossFit community. Promoting through imagery of branded sportswear and to evoke this sense of belonging and passion. To showcase the hard work, dedication and passion valued by the ‘Boundary’ brand. 

      An image treatment has also been developed for the brand to create gritty, high contrast visuals that portray movement and energy. Contrast plays a primary role within the narrative of the ‘Boundary’ brand, with the confident stand alone brandmark the physical experience of the brand needed to be further introduced throughout the brand imagery as a storytelling device to stand out within a crowed industry.

      Brand Colour

      The brand colours will primarily be black and white to reflect a modern and minimal tone of voice. However, to achieve the contrast and successfully reflect the brand values associated with this industry and its audience a warm red palette was introduced as a secondary colour device for the brand to utilise. 

      Red is a strong colour that has a direct cultural connotation to passion and love, but also has conflicting meanings of jeopardy or boundaries, and in this case over coming these physical boundaries the blood, the sweat and the tears reflective of the industry and resonates with the target audience.

      Brand Language

      To further enhance the brand narrative of unity and strength we developed a tagline to define Boundary as its own culture, the unity of the people who experience it ‘Bound by Passion’.

      Typography is one of the main devices used within this brand. The modular san serif typeface that not only gives life to the brandmark, will also encapsulate the entire brand story. The large type family allows us to utilize the typeface throughout. 

      Kaizen Brand Evolution

      At Kaizen Brand Evolution we understand the difficulties that brands face in evolving their brand and in keeping it fresh. If you’d like to find out more about what we can offer you can visit our brand identity page. Alternatively, you can get in touch via our contact form or by calling 028 9507 2007.

      Making sure you have the relevant information on your website

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      Writing content and providing a structure for a website can be a daunting task. There is so much information to include, how do you make sure that you say everything that you need to say? And beyond this, how do you say everything you need to say in the most succinct and user-friendly way possible? The answer is to do your research and follow a clear plan.

      Here’s our guide to ensuring you have all the relevant information you need for your site;

      Bring your whole team into the conversation

      Perhaps your first point of contact when it comes to ensuring your site has all the relevant information is those around you. It is sometimes easy to forget that one of your most valuable resources to completing a task is your fellow team members. It is also easy to omit important information when completing a task on your own. Naturally when completing tasks, we are swayed in one way or another towards our own particular preoccupations, or our own expertise. By opening the conversation out to your team you can help to iron out these omissions by taking advantage of the expertise that you have available to you. 

      Ask your sales team

      In particular you may want to speak with the members of your team that have the most direct contact with customers. Your sales team for instance are likely to be answering questions from customers on a daily basis. If there are any questions which occur repeatedly, then make a note of them. These questions should provide a framework for your website. By resolving as many of these questions as possible you can help to take the strain off of your sales staff and subsequently free up their time to spend on the things you really want them to be doing – i.e. selling!

      Take inspiration from other sites

      While you don’t want to simply copy your competitors it can be helpful to review their sites and what they are doing. As a task, why not do a review of the site of a competitor and make a note of all the elements you like and all the elements you don’t like. What information have they included that you think is good and what have they left out that you think is needed? Beyond this, how well have they communicated this information? Is it easy to read and to navigate? How might this be improved?

      Monitor what your audience are searching

      Asking your colleagues and reviewing competitors are two good ways to gain the insight you are after. But you can also go further than this. When deciding what to include on your website it’s important not to forget your customers. While your fellow team members have an insight into customer behaviour it is still not a completely objective one. The frequently asked questions they are asked may for example be a product of a number of different factors that are specific to you and your brand. Monitoring your audience using analytical tools such as Google Analytics and Google Trends, or social listening tools such as Hootsuite, can help add some objectivity. Having visibility of what your customers are searching for can help to provide a framework for the kind of site that will be useful to them.  

      Survey your customers

      Surveying your customers is another possibility for ensuring that you are providing all the information that they require. Your customers are likely to have opinions about how you can improve their experience, so why not ask them directly? The advantage of surveys is that you can control the questions that you are asking. If you have specific questions that you would like answered, then surveys are one of the most effective ways to achieve this. 

      If you’d like to find out more about how to create the perfect website then visit our website design page or get in touch via our contact form or by calling 02895072007.