Design Services
Depending on your particular needs, you may not require all of these services, but it’s worth spending a few minutes to gain an understanding of everything involved before proceeding with your design project.
Please feel free to get in touch if you have any questions – or if you would like to discuss your project in further detail. I’ll be more than happy to help in any way I can – I’ll look forward to hearing from you! 🙂
At its core, your logo should represent your business at a glance, standing for the products and services you provide. It should grab your customers’ attention by speaking to their needs in both form and colour. This can be achieved through the appropriate use of imagery and symbolism, as well as text and well-chosen typefaces, which effectively convey your business’s values, character and ethos.
A great logo brings all these aspects together and presents them in an eye-catching way that can be immediately absorbed by your target audience. Many designers overlook these key requirements, too often producing generic logo designs that inevitably fail to capture the essence of your business, resulting in a missed opportunity to entice your potential customers.
In fact, your logo should be actively working for your business by exciting your audience about the prospect of discovering the perfect solution to their problem.
This is the goal I strive towards when creating logos for my clients, and for which I have developed a simple process of brainstorming and research in order to successfully realise each and every project.
Among other exercises designed to aid the process of coming up with a design concept, I’ll consider the form and styling of your logo, as well as colour options, which kind of font or typeface will be appropriate for the main logo text and your tagline. sending you your 3rd and final full proof.
This process is outlined in my free Logo & Branding Checklist, and further expanded upon in my 67-page eBook which provides an easy-to-follow guide that will walk you through each step from initial concept to final conclusion… and, don’t worry; I’ll be there throughout, to offer advice and support to each and every one of my clients..
Of course, if you prefer, you can hand the reins over to me and, following an in-depth consultation, during which we’ll cover all the salient points. I’ll then produce your logo concept for you and present you with my suggested solution, before going ahead with the execution of your logo design.
As with all the projects I work on, you’ll receive a number of sub-proofs at each stage of the design process. Then I’ll provide you with an initial full proof for you to assess and get back to me with any changes.
You’ll receive an amended second full proof, which you can again consider before asking for further changes, which I’ll apply before sending you your 3rd and final full proof.
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FREE eBook:
I gift to all new clients my Ebook, ‘Logo & Branding Design: 14 Steps to SUCCESS’, which is designed to help you properly prepare logo and branding design concepts for the design process.
It’s the perfect resource for businesses and individuals who aren’t familiar with what needs to be considered when creating a new logo or branding solution, but it also offers a lot of useful information and action sheets for any business owner, even if they’re a seasoned professional.
The eBook is packed with tips and advice from research and brainstorming to selecting the right form, styling, colours and fonts, right up to the moment you hand over all your hard work to your designer.
If you’re not quite ready to jump into the design process just yet, you can still get your hands on a copy my eBook for just £5, which I’ll be happy to knock off the total of your quote when you’re ready to proceed with your project. Just click on the following button:
Where your logo is the focal point of your business’s visual identity, your branding forms the structure behind and around it; the foundation upon which your all-important content is built, with your logo as the capstone. The development of your branding, therefore, has a head start; with your logo leading the way and providing inspiration for everything that follows.
My system of brainstorming and research helps to simplify the creation of your branding by breaking it down into a few easy steps, which can also serve to get your team invested in the creative process, resulting in them having a stronger personal connection with your brand, due to the part they’ll play in its conception. This can be a great team-building exercise, bringing everyone together towards a common goal, resulting in mutual pride in their accomplishment.
In practical terms, when considering the various aspect of your branding, we will cover colour, texture, fonts, imagery and the structural elements commonly employed to properly present your content in a clear and aesthetically pleasing manner. As with your logo design, this process is outlined in my Logo & Branding Checklist, being described in detail in my full-length eBook, which contains exercises, action sheets and a range of handy resources to aid you in the successful completion of each step.
I’ll be actively supporting you and your team through every stage of your project, providing you, the client, with the benefit of my expertise and experience, helping you to make informed decisions and creative choices, leading to a result that everyone can be proud of.
Again, you’re more than welcome to hand off the responsibility of coming up with the branding design concept to me, if you’d prefer not to be quite so closely involved in the creative process – and that’s absolutely fine. In that case, we’ll have a detailed discussion about what you’re looking for, then I’ll present my proposed design concept to you for approval, before pulling the trigger on the actual design phase.
The proofing process for branding design is similar to that of logo design, although it will be multiplied by 5, as I’ll also be designing 5 separate assets. The main difference being that I provide an unlimited number of proofs for the first asset at no extra cost to you, as I want to ensure that you’re 100% happy with that initial design before proceeding onto the remaining 4 assets.
The proofing process for branding design is similar to that of logo design, although it will be multiplied by 5, as I’ll also be designing 5 separate assets.
The main difference being that I provide an unlimited number of proofs for the first asset at no extra cost to you, as I want to ensure that you’re 100% happy with that initial design before proceeding onto the remaining 4 assets.
The creation of marketing assets such as web banners, eFlyers, brochures lead magnets, posters, booklets – and a multitude of other digital and printed marketing materials – is a crucial part of the development of your brand.
Most people – including many designers themselves – view these assets as the final product; the end result of the development chain. However I see them as essential links in that chain, each one providing a key building block in the construction of your brand elements.
Any given asset presents a number of challenges to be met, overcoming each of which results in another component in your branding solution, thereby strengthening and reinforcing your brand and improving the composition of the asset in question, as well as every asset that follows.
The creation of each asset, therefore, plays an important part in the natural evolution of your brand, which will, of course, continue, as more and more assets are produced.
For the purposes of a successful branding design, I find that the production of 5 initial assets is more than sufficient to home in on all the necessary design elements to create a robust branding solution, capable of providing everything needed for the effective production of most conceivable future assets, which is why I include this as part of every branding design project I embark upon.
At the completion of each asset, it is immediately available for you to use as you see fit and, once all 5 assets are complete, so will be your branding design, the details of which can be provided in the form of documents and specifications ready to be applied to all your future assets.
A style guide is an invaluable tool for any business that wants to ensure their brand is instantly recognisable to both their current and prospective customers, maintaining its impact and reliability throughout the lifetime of your business.
This context can be established – in theory – given a lot of time and effort by a 3rd party, but only if they are able to accurately analyse the 5 assets already produced during the branding design process.
The completion of every logo and branding design project results in a collection of loose data, detailing colours, fonts, imagery and styling elements, which are presented in a fairly abstract way, when viewed on their own and out of context.
However this exercise can be extremely time-consuming and is almost always inaccurate and incomplete, resulting in assets which rarely fulfil all the needs of your brand, due to the unavoidable guesswork and often poorly improvised design.
Unfortunately, this means that your assets will invariably fail to reach the standards you may expect, which will have a knock-on effect, negatively impacting the effectiveness of your marketing materials and, therefore, reducing the number of leads and sales you would otherwise have hoped for.
By far the best way to avoid these pitfalls – and the resultant shortfalls in profits – is by producing a comprehensive document, known as a Style Guide. Your Style Guide will present all your brand’s styling data in a clear and understandable format, detailing every aspect of your branding in a series of rules and guidelines.
These guidelines will include all your colours, fonts, imagery and styling elements in a visual format, providing all the technical specifications of your brand. In addition to these essential ‘tech-specs’, your Style Guide will also give details and examples of how to correctly arrange and structure any type of design layout, from documentation to advertising, marketing to packaging.
By following the guidelines detailed in your Style Guide, and utilising the materials that accompany the document, any sufficiently skilled designer or artworker will be able to produce an unlimited number of assets, all of which will reliably adhere to your brand’s styling, ensuring a consistent visual identity across all channels of your future marketing campaigns, without exception.
Something I always bear in mind when producing a new Style Guide, is to allow for the possibility of change and adaptation. If the established rules and guidelines are too strict, this can cause the brand to stagnate, so it’s much better to build in a certain amount of flexibility, in order to enable the brand to evolve over time.
This approach helps to encourage growth, variation and expansion, which avoids the limiting of creativity, especially when it comes to solving new and unexpected obstacles and challenges, which are always to be expected when designing new types of assets or when expanding into previously unforeseen territories or areas of business.
The final document will then be provided, along with all supporting materials, such as fonts, colour charts and references, logos, foreground and background images and textures, etc.
As always, I provide a number of proofs during the Style Guide design process, beginning with a number of sub-proofs, such as a rough structure of the proposed content, number of pages, etc. Once that’s approved, I’ll create a front cover design, then proceed with the full design, sending you an initial full proof. I’ll apply any changes you’d like me to make, supplying a second proof. Any further changes you request will then result in a final full proof.
An ‘asset’ is simply a piece of marketing, used to promote your products and services to your target market. This could be an eFlyer or Ad posted on a social media platform, such as Facebook or Instagram. Or it might be a physical printed Flyer or Leaflet posted through a letterbox or bundled with a free paper. Alternatively, you may want to place an Advertisement in a magazine or put up Posters in a number of bus stops or train stations.
Assets come in all shapes and sizes, from single-sided items, such as Business Stationery, Social Media Covers, Video Splashes and Vehicle Decal Graphics to multi-page Sales Brochures, Technical Manuals, eBooks and Magazines, as well as everything in-between, including Lead Magnets, Food & Drink Menus, Tri-fold Brochures and CD/DVD Booklets.
As previously mentioned, I provide 5 asset designs with every Branding Design package, each of which is immediately available for your use upon completion. However, 5 marketing assets can only take you so far, and soon enough you’ll be needing more in order to continue your various marketing campaigns, so that you can maintain a consistent stream of new leads and new customers, leading to regular sales.
The options for which assets you may need are numerous, but I’ve broken them down into 6 categories, based on the number of pages for each type of asset. In order to keep things simple, I’ve also worked out a standard price for each category, as well as assigning them a certain number of points.
This is where my Marketing Asset Design Plan comes in… I have created a 3 Tier Plan for those businesses who need new assets produced on a regular basis. The Bronze Tier offers up to 5 assets per month, the Silver Tier, up to 10, and the Gold Tier, providing up to 15 unique assets every month.
Whichever Tier you choose, you’ll get a substantial discount of 1/3 off the standard rate for each one of your assets – that’s a minimum saving of £250 every month for the Bronze Tier, a £500 saving at Silver and a whopping saving of £750 per month with the Gold Tier!
I’ve made the Marketing Asset Design Plan as straightforward as possible, implementing the simple points system, which makes it easy to decide which assets you want designed each month. I’ve created a full list of possible asset combinations that make the most of your points each month, that will make the job of selecting which assets you want a breeze!
You can also top-up your points, should you decide you need more assets than you expected during any given month and, if you don’t use up all your points, they’ll rollover to the following month, so you won’t lose out. I’ve even allowed for the possibility of going slightly over your monthly points allowance, so if that happens, those points will be deducted from the following month’s points.
I am, of course, perfectly happy to provide my design services in the production of individual one-off assets. I can design your assets on an ad hoc basis, should you only need the occasional item here and there. Just drop me a line and we’ll arrange a free consultation to discuss your needs.
For a very reasonable monthly sum, the 3 Tiers of my Design Plan is ideal for many different businesses, especially if they require a regular stream of new or updated assets each month. So, it’s certainly worth considering, even if you cancel after the first month or two.
But do bear in mind that my Marketing Asset Design Plan offers a considerable discount and represents a substantial saving in design costs when compared with the design of individual one-off assets.
If you’d like to learn more about the Plan Tiers, please take a look at my Marketing Asset Design Plan page for further details.