Creating a visual brand audit doesn’t need to be a daunting task. I once wrote about how an identity update can be a great confidence booster for you, your business, its employees and customers. But how do you decide whether your identity needs updating?

Not every update needs to be a complete redesign –sometimes a refresh or tidy up, such as a simplification of existing elements or a strategy to broaden your sub-brands, are also good reasons to update your identity. The important thing is to decide what you want to achieve from any brand refresh for an outcome to be successful.

What is a Visual Brand Audit

Why is a Visual Brand Audit Important

It’s a bit like the childhood game of Chinese whispers, with each handling of the logo someone new adds their own erroneous interpretation or ‘improvement’ and in the end nothing makes sense and the end message has been lost. Unless you have a strict set of guidelines you are diluting your brand and any disunity will be evident to your customers.

Time for a review!

Getting Started with your Visual Brand Audit

Working with your designer or marketing expert, collate anything that carries your logo and even those items that don’t. Include past and present documents, brochures, stationery, your website, signage, etc. You may find it useful to print them out, categorise them (eg. stationery, product brochures, electronic, print, corporate, internal and external documents, packaging, etc.) and stick them on large A1 posters.

Review and evaluate your findings and do some market research into how your employees and customers perceive your brand. Look for inconsistencies when viewed collectively:

• Are there too many variations of the logo?
• Has the logo quality been compromised?
• Are the proportions and colours consistent?
• Is the same font being used throughout?
• Are there differences between corporate and retail?
• Where can you maximise exposure?
• Do your customers refer to your business with an initialism or acronym?
• How can you strengthen and improve your exposure?
• Is your product photography or brand imagery consistent?

How Long Should a Visual Brand Audit Take

Use your visual brand audit to convince management that your brand needs some care and attention.

If you haven’t reviewed your identity in the last five years a visual brand audit may just be what your business needs.

Why Should I Update My Brand

Some time ago Paltech contacted Paraph about selling products online. Years prior (2011) Paraph redesigned their previous website as well as revitalised their long standing identity. Four years on and the old site was in need of an update. With an increasing focus on mobile-friendly websites it was imperative that the new site be responsive.

Although primarily a wholesale trade supplier, floor registers have always generated a lot of calls to their office from retail customers interested in replacing or updating their existing registers.

Identifying Reasons to Sell Products Online

This was an opportunity for Paltech to venture into the world of ecommerce and start selling products online (the main reason for the update). Starting with some of their base products, floor registers and downjets, a new strategy was developed that could be extended with additional products if the trial proved successful.

Paltech’s huge floor register colour range has been a strong selling point, generating a lot of ‘off-the-street’ calls that required a lot of time to handle and process as orders for little reward.

Implementing WooCommerce to Sell Online

The site was set up in WordPress and uses WooCommerce for handling sales. Paraph developed the framework and graphics for the new site based on existing brand elements and photography and worked with the client to setup the online store. Being a content management system (CMS) means that the client has much greater control over adding, removing or updating products. We provided initial consultation and assisted the client to set up some sample products so that they could go in and add additional products themselves. This had the advantage of reducing their implementation costs plus the chance to learn to create their own content with our supervision.

Prior to launching we reviewed the client changes and updated the site on the live testing server and the client integrated a PayPal payment system. The final steps were to finish setting up Google analytics and site statistics as well as search engine optimisation for static and product pages. Regular reviews will ensure the right keywords are targeted for future products and updates. The site was then launched with one our secure 4tify Hosting packages that uses scheduled offsite backups and a full site lock-down.

The site has generated a lot of interest since launching in its first week and had clocked up over 2500 views from 550 visitors in 10 days. A number of orders placed and with further promotion the site is on track to be a continuing success.

Check out www.paltech.com.au and discover this comprehensive and effective ecommerce site for yourself.

It has been a busy time for Paraph these last few weeks. After launching a new website for Hexima last week we are now very proud to also announce the launch of the Paracon Group website.

Paracon Group Website

This foray into setting up a company website for the Paracon Group came from the quality projects they have been delivering since starting out on their own and the need to showcase their capabilities.

Hexima has been a client since 2007 and had recently announced a change that would see them focus on a new stage in their research and commercialisation approach.

Hexima’s technology against onychomychosis, or fungal nail infection, had reached an important new stage. The company’s scientists have shown in vitro that one of Hexima’s patented molecules is an effective agent against the pathogens that cause this infection, and have begun to assess the safety of this molecule.

Identifying an Opportunity for Change

Paraph had already commenced on a redesign of the Hexima website and coupled with a recent relocation of Hexima’s head office to La Trobe University, we suggested that now would be a great time to consider a brand refresh. 

With new stationery and business cards required, changing the identity at this stage would be more cost effective than undertaking a refresh later, once they have a sellable product.

A brand refresh can be reflected in a number of ways but in this instance a change of logo and the use of new brand elements such as the typeface and imagery was appropriate. As part of the process Paraph helped establish a brief, from which it was agreed that the previous logo was more reflective of an industrial or chemical company and appeared hard and static.

Key Brand Elements

After conducting a brief Visual Brand Audit and using key elements from the existing logo – the circle, hexagon and corporate colours – Paraph explored options that suggested a more approachable, friendly, flexible and dynamic company without losing the boldness and strength that the previous logo had. The new increased size of the circles within the hexagon shape indicate an upwardly pointing arrow, indicative of the company’s forward thinking and rising momentum.

Ready for the Future

The new Hexima identity and website launch sums up perfectly the Hexima of the future. For an in-depth look at their website head to hexima.com.au.

Yes, Paraph is offering free WordPress hosting with 4tify Hosting to any client that signs up for a new WordPress website.

We created our own WordPress website back in April 2013 – an eternity ago in web development terms. Prior to this web development for us was still a manual process of static design and complex coding and really best left to serious, hard-core nerds who dreamt in tags, scripts and databases. A nightmare for visual people.

Keen to see what all the fuss was about we started to dabble with WordPress template themes and explored the possibility of using these to suit our needs and those of our customers.

Back in those days there were limitations, and templates weren’t as flexible as they are now and our start with this new medium was a little hesitant. Nor were all templates responsive or ‘mobile-friendly’, something that has now become a requirement if you want your site to rank on Google.

What is a WordPress Website?

Simply put, WordPress is a content management system (or CMS) that allows you, the customer, control over your own website content. Similar systems like Drupal and Joomla exist that are variations on the same thing.

Whereas in the past website changes had to go to your web developer – who was most likely too busy to make small changes quickly – with a WordPress website you have the ability to login and make changes yourself.

Why WordPress?

With the number of WordPress installations reportedly as high as 25–30% of all websites worldwide, it is clear to see why we chose to use this popular CMS. Development and support is great and advancing at a very rapid pace with the number of updates being released increasing on a regular basis.

Although not everyone is keen to update the content or functionality of their own website, given its ease-of-use many developers are now opting for a WordPress installation for them to maintain on their clients behalf– in short – it provides enough flexibility for both client and developers.

Is WordPress Safe?

Like any popular system there are issues with security, something we’ve noticed since adopting WordPress. When you have a large enough chunk of the market there are always going to be people looking to exploit vulnerabilities as the collective target is much greater. Why shoot at a lone zebra when you have better odds aiming for the herd?

The best measure in reducing these vulnerabilities is to regularly keep your WordPress core, themes and plugins up-to-date.

That is why we at Paraph developed 4tify Hosting, not only will we design and develop your website for you but we also manage the hosting and maintenance on your behalf through 4tify. For extra security and peace-of-mind we also provide backup and site lock-down for those customers who like a little extra protection and created a way of managing your website spend using packages or plans.

What is a Visual Brand Audit

One thing we’ve learnt is that not all templates are created equal. That’s why we choose to use Elegant Themes for many of the sites we build. We’ve found their premium theme Divi to be the easiest to use for customers and also flexible enough to customise.

If you prefer to create your own site and are looking for a quality theme check them out. Their support is world-class as well.

What About The Free WordPress Hosting?

To launch 4tify we’re offering twelve months of free WordPress Hosting on our recommended 4tify Safehost Hosting package to any customers that has their WordPress website designed by Paraph and signs up to one of our hosting packages. Packages can be continued or upgraded after the twelve month free period has finished.

What is it you do before going to an important meeting, job interview or even a first date to give yourself a confidence boost? Do you get a haircut? Wear your best outfit? Splash on your favourite fragrance? Any of these proven methods will help boost your confidence and make you feel good about yourself.

Who benefits from a make-over?

Signify that you’re making a change and willing to become – or remain – a major player.

Where to start

Just like with your clothes, take stock of what you have in your corporate wardrobe. Lay everything out and see what you can do without and hold on to the things you still love. Now decide whether it’s best to ditch the old altogether and start from scratch or to accessorise with your favourites. 

Simplicity is key.

We’ve written a more in-depth article on ‘How to Create a Visual Brand Audit‘ that you can read here:

One Friday I had an idea for a new website and little did I realise that three days later I had registered a domain, set up social media pages, integrated those pages with a new website and applied the new identity. It was like I was possessed. Sometimes you just get an idea and you need to get it out of your head.

Off course summarising it in a few sentences doesn’t really do the process any justice as there was a lot to consider. But the process certainly runs much smoother when there are no other stakeholders to pull back the reigns.

So what drove me to create Swimfari?

Cue opportunity… knock, knock.

What’s in a name?

So I open the door and realise that the first thing I need to do is think of a catchy name. I always find brainstorming and developing naming options as much fun as doing the creative work. It’s the part that allows me to combine language with the visual world. I explore terms used within a given community or industry, create a play on words or cliche terms, or simply make up nonsense words by combining existing words – which was the case for Swimfari.

It is both frustrating as well as fun. Frustrating because all the good names are almost always already taken and so you spend a lot of time checking the names you’ve come up with only to find that you can’t use them.

One of the basic checks I always do is see if the web address hasn’t already been registered. I prefer to only check for .com or .com.au addresses. I’m not a big fan of .net.au suffixes and only use them as a last resort. In addition to domain names I also check on the most popular social media pages, guaranteed though that if you’ve managed to find a name that hasn’t been registered as a domain, someone has taken it as a username on Twitter or Facebook.

Function Before Form

My reason for creating the website was purely a functional one. I don’t have a monopoly on swim based websites around the globe and anyone can replicate what I’ve done with current web technology. Given more time and an increased budget you could perhaps do it even better. That’s why it was so important to create a brand right from the start. Although the brand was secondary to the functionality of the site, it is still integral to build trust, recognition and eye-candy, we all love eye-candy!

As with the naming, I spent some time working up design options (for two shortlisted names) to see which one looked better and would appeal more to the target market. I explored how they looked using different type faces, experimented with mixing capital letters and font weights, played around with symbols and graphics (yes, even the little location marker made an appearance along the way) as well as textures and colours.

Apart from being enjoyable for me, it also helped steer me more toward a preferred option.

The Value of a Creating Brand Extensions

Summary

As you have just read, setting up a new business, creating a brand and a website can be done in three days. Can I get your business set up just as quick? Probably not.

That’s because we need a brief that highlights your strengths, weaknesses, opportunities and threats (SWOT Analysis). We then need to consider the brief and research your industry, target market, competitors and the visuals used. Yes, you can do some of this work yourself and include it as part of the brief but we need to get our ‘head inside your head’. Understand what makes your business unique and try and present that in a visual way.

A business is not just a logo, it’s a brand driven by a community of users. A successful business understands that community and a successful identity should reflect that, too.

You can check out Swimfari and visit the website at www.swimfari.com or follow Swimfari on Facebook, Twitter or Google+.

Useful Links

• Things to consider before starting a business
• Registering a Business Name
• Intellectual Property Australia (IPAustralia)
• Australian trademark search
• International trademark search

I recently had a conversation with a friend who is also a designer and we got to talking about generating income from logo and identity design. The increasing pressures of competition from local and overseas crowdsourcing websites is making it more difficult to get these types of projects locally.

Free Pitching at its Worst

On these sites ‘designers’ are asked to submit logo designs free of charge in the hope of ‘winning’ – some sites openly say it’s a contest – a poultry sum of money ranging from $300 to $1200. One promotional video even suggested the promise of more work as a result of submitting a winning design – a line heard all too often by many designers. Even I’ve had prospective (and past) clients try to get a design for free with the promise that more work will come of it but then never to be heard of again.

On these same sites I’ve seen projects posted for as little as a few hundred dollars and attract over a hundred designers (some of whom submit more than one design). All are pitching for the same work but only one person will be eligible to receive the money. That means more than 99% (hmmm) of ‘entrants’ won’t get paid for their submission. With odds like that designers are better off going to the casino or buying a ticket for the lotto.

Fair Trade Logos

The justification that a few hundred dollars is worth a lot of money to someone in an impoverished country somehow makes it okay for startups to save hundreds if not thousands creating an identity that will ultimately become their businesses brand.

So next time you sit down for a business breakfast, sipping on your fair trade coffee and eating your free range eggs, consider what implications your decision is having on impoverished nations as well as your local design industry.

A ‘fair trade logo’ will ensure your local design industry remains strong and viable.

So next time you sit down for a business breakfast, sipping on your fair trade coffee and eating your free range eggs, consider what implications your decision is having on impoverished nations as well as your local design industry.

Design is a service based industry and we charge for the time it takes to create a design, whether that’s a logo, stationery, brochure or layout. We take the time to understand our clients needs and markets so that what we create is meaningful and targeted. We also consider the design strategy and make provisional allowances for future growth and brand strategy. Hours are spent nurturing a relationship and researching the client, their market, competitors and design trends within it. Based on previous experience for similar projects we estimate the amount of time it will take to fulfil the brief. Ideas don’t always present themselves as quickly as we hope so there is a certain amount of risk when pitching for work and going over budget is an inevitable reality that we then have to burden.

Forcing out small boutique design studios will see the rise of larger design agencies that charge premium rates for their service.

As long as your business plan is strong and you have a good quality product or service your startup will be successful – regardless of what your identity looks like. But when the time comes to grow further then maybe considering a design and brand strategy may be the way forward.

Useful Links

For more information about the Fair Trade organisation and movement, check out these links:

• Fairtrade Foundation
• Green Plus, Institute for Sustainable Development
• Why Free Pitching is Bad

As designers we’re often asked to create templates for clients in one form or another. The most common templates belong to the Microsoft Office suite of applications (Word, PowerPoint, Excel, etc) but there are plenty of other template systems around. This website is one example of a template driven layout with many social media sites also controlling how a company site looks. Many businesses have learnt to work within these parameters and accept the limitations.

One person’s gain…

For a client having a template created is all about gaining control over company branded documents as well as saving money and speeding up processes. If something has to go out same day and without prior warning chances are your designer may not be able to schedule it in until much later, or charge a rush fee to fit it into the days workflow.

…is another’s loss

Designers on the other hand feel a loss of control. Many hours crafting an identity can quickly be undone by a wayward template. We want to help protect an asset that clients have invested time and money establishing and not have it diminished before or shortly after it’s launched. And like many businesses, designers too want to establish a long-term working relationship through repeat business.

Don’t just create a template, create ownership

Used correctly templates can be of great benefit to a company without loss of brand degradation. The key is to ensure those using the template also accept that they are keepers of your brand image and to take ownership and include them in the design process. If the template design doesn’t take into account a ‘wish list’ from regular users, chances are money spent on developing the template will be wasted because end users were ignored at the start of the design process and therefore refuse to use it or won’t follow brand guidelines.