Online Analysis

Design Feedback

Unleash Your Creativity

Being in small business is more than just selling a product or offering a service. It is a conscious choice to do things your way, make your own decisions, walk your own path, and being the visionary of your brand is an opportunity in creating the identity of your business.

'Design' may not feel like a natural space for you, you may feel like an imposter, but if there's a part of you quietly wishing you could do more creatively, we encourage you to 'have a play' in Canva, then share your creations with us. Our feedback is always educational and empowering.

Understanding Colour!

By understanding a handful of colour theory fundamentals, ideation and experimenting with your branding designs becomes interesting and enjoyable. Our simple video below moves through Primary, Secondary and Tertiary, cool and warm, monochromatic, analogous, complementary, triadic and square colours.

Seen terms like Tint, Hue, Tone and Shade? Think they are interchangeable? Technically, no. See how White, Black and Grey are used in creating depths of colour.

Where to start?

There are many applications in the creative market, but the simplest one we have found is Canva, which is where we create social media tiles, banners, digital commercials and more.

Owned, Earned & Paid Media

Areas of your business that you can control are your 'owned media'. While there are typically upfront costs, these are assets you own and cannot be hindered by third parties. Your website and social media pages are owned media (assuming you pay your domain and web hosting fees, and the platforms remain available for use).

At this time, social media remains free to use and business owners need to take advantage of that. Traditional marketing methods such as print, television and radio are costly and increasingly dated. In fact, these industries of marketing have themselves moved online.

Fonts!

It is suggested that consumers take in up to 70 fonts a day. Fonts help us recognise, categorise, choose and trust, they inform, direct and define, have personality, share a story and set the content tone.

Clients more often than not cannot remember the font they used when creating their initial branding assets. Sometimes we recognise the font, other times a recognition app helps us out, but equally, there are times we have to ask clients if they are okay with bringing in a new font. Take a moment now to jot down your fonts (pop them with your SWOT or PESTLE analysis) and help us save time and you money down the track when your business is ready to up its game.

Different styles of fonts include:

Serif - have what we call tops and tails, but are typically referred to as feet or stands: Times New Roman.
Sans serif ('sans' meaning 'without' in French) - do not have the tops and tails: Arial.
Monospace - use the same amount of space and have a retro feel: example - Courier.
Script - formal, elegant and denote creativity: Benedict.
Display - distinctive attention-grabbers often used for titles or headlines: Gulfs Display Condensed.
Slab - Heavy serifs often used in 19th & 20th century advertising: winner college

Lizzy is setting up a beauty salon, which fonts visually represent them best?

Look this way... pretty PLEASE

What is most important? How do we mix it up so the viewer’s eyes are drawn to where we want them, in an order we want them to see? Type, scale, spacing, colour and contrast, and compositions are the building blocks of visual hierarchy.

In a sea of attention-seeking information, sound and motion play a pivotal role on social media. Think eye-catching, striking, even flamboyant while avoiding seizure trigging flashing imagery.

Interestingly Different

Humans are attracted to uniqueness, things that capture our imagination and inspire, however many people also have an abundance of caution and tend to mingle in familiarity; it's known and comforting. Sure, the many will encourage the few to be reckless, but they are less inclined to put their wellbeing on the line. So, if you're looking to capture and inspire attention, let others warm up to your alternative philosophy.

Commercial Examples

Key considerations when making content for your business and / or a campaign is to be clear on who you are trying to attract. Your target audience may be people just like you, or chalk to your cheese. If the thought of creating content that doesn't reflect the essence of 'you', leaves you sick to your stomach, listen to that. If your target audience are you, then create away, if not, then rethinking your business concept is best done now.

The commercial prototypes below are a classic example. The first reflects the client's intellect and sensitivity while the second intentionally grabs attention, but both seek to engage as many potential buyers as possible across the gender spectrum, generational divides and socio-economic circumstance.

Elegant Prototype

Dynamic Prototype

By understanding your audience, supporting your stakeholders and appreciating your publics, you position your business to achieve its potential.

Talk to us about analysing your online personality, assessing your Strengths Weaknesses Opportunities Threats (SWOT) and Political, Economic, Social, Technology, Legal and Environment (PESTLE) positions, be informed of online language you may not be aware of and help you position your business for intentional success. The adage, failing to plan is planning to fail is all too often true. New business owners are excited to get started demonstrating their skills, or selling their products and miss, or do not appreciate, the work needed behind the scenes to make their business successful. Run your eyes over images, see them in your mind and let ideas bubble into your mind. Jot them down (maybe keep them with your font names!) and have a look at them every month, make sure they remain relative, adjust where needed and keep going!

Let's Chat!

Like our vibe? Let's have a chat about how we can help you!