Case Study
Creating a Timeless Brand that Reverberates and Celebrates Individuality
The Mission
Something Blue Productions is a new wedding videography company set up by new parents Samantha and Luke. Our mission was to help the business to form meaningful connections with their clients by clearly representing their values visually.
The Impact
We used brand strategy to make informed decisions that would enable the business to connect with their customers. The brand design gives the business a sense of identity and helped the founders to gain clarity of their brand and their business. Hopefully giving them the confidence to talk about or show off their business in a way that some other business owners would feel uncomfortable doing.
The Outcome
We created a unique brand identity that was able to reflect the values and beliefs of the business owners. The identity fits with the business. It is elegant and sophisticated but at the same time it is not classy and elitist. It is inclusive and accepting, and it reflects the imperfections of all of us.
Services
- Brand Strategy
- Brand Identity
- Logo Design
- Illustration
- Print Design
- Style Guide Creation
Meet the Founders
Before I get into this case study, let me introduce you to the business owners, Samantha and Luke. Samantha comes from a big and very close family, and she also has a performing arts background, having studied at multiple performing arts colleges. She has a keen eye for the cinematic and understands just how important family are. She’s also extremely passionate about everything she sets her mind to, so taking a step into something sensitive, like people’s family life, was a perfect step for her. She’s not likely to abuse this power and understands how important family is to everyone.
Luke’s background is in war journalism. He travels the world going to the most dangerous areas filming both conflict and the effects they have on the citizens. Luke has spent years mastering his craft of storytelling through videography, so marrying Luke’s storytelling, with Samantha’s passion for family creates a business that’s truly something special.
The problem for any business comes when trying to show that you’re different from the rest.
This was the first problem I set about tackling. This was the first brand project that I carried out that kickstarted with a discovery session. The session normally lasts between 1-2 hours but can take longer depending on the brand in question, but the session has a few clear goals that help to provide a direction for the brand. It makes sure that we’re all on the same page right from the get-go.
It provides much more clarity than a questionnaire, as it allows me to be there with the client. A lot of the information I got from the discovery session with Samantha and Luke was elements of their business that they didn’t say explicitly. More from deeper meanings that are implied. The discovery session lets me use my experience to help a client if they don’t know the answer to a question and pick up on little things that a business owner might not say, but is still important to their business.
From the discovery session I took a number of key words and messages that Samantha and Luke made clear were important to the brand. I used these keywords to start brainstorming ideas for the design and personality of the brand.
The creative brief I took from the discovery session was clear: the brand needed to reflect the business, it’s owners and it’s customers. It should celebrate uniqueness and individuality, by itself being unique. The brand should find the sweet spot between being whimsical and elegant.
I began my usual process of experimenting with different fonts and layout styles and whilst experimenting with some sketches for decoration I took a shape I had initially planned to use as decoration and turned it into a concept for a symbol.
After very little changes and tweaks I combined the symbol with the word mark and decoration for the logo to get the full lockup for the design.
The symbol is asymmetrical by design to reflect the imperfections of us all. The design has to echo the individuality of both the business and the people it serves.
The next step for the brand design was the colour palette. Obviously the name of the brand, Something Blue Productions, provided a great starting point, and I felt that with the nature of their work likely to be lighter in colour, it made sense for the main logo, and primary brand colour, to be a darker shade of blue. I then fleshed out the colour palette with a lighter and darker blue, and a golden, cream colour as secondary colours and a pastel orange as an accent colour.
Following on from this, making sure to keep the original keywords in mind, I went about creating 10 values from the discussions we had in the discovery session. These values covered the essence of the brand and helped me to continue the brand design work.
I then created and curated a package for Samantha and Luke consisting of the elements mentioned earlier as well as brand fonts, stock photos, illustrations, design badges, business cards, leaflets and patterns that all reflected the message of the brand.
What the Client Said
“Matthew was amazing to work with and very professional. He knew exactly what we wanted and worked above and beyond! He was thoughtful and saw the vision better than we could.”
“Giving feedback was easy, and we’re really pleased with the outcome. We’re still in the development stage of our business, but the branding has really made it all come together and look much more professional”
“If you’re thinking about working with Wilson Design & Marketing, go for it! You won’t regret it!”
Let’s Work Together
Get in touch with us today, and let’s start the conversation. Whether you have questions, ideas, or are ready to kickstart a project, we’re here to listen, assist, and collaborate. Your success begins with a simple message.
matthew.wilson@wilsondesign.net
+44 7982 155970