In 1982 Tim Waterstone was fired from WH Smiths and went onto establish a specialist chain of book Store’s named Waterstones. By 1989 WH Smith took shares in the new book chain and eventually bought the whole company by 1993. 5 years later Waterstones was sold onto the HMV Group who are still the parent company today.

Walking through town, Waterstones stands out against the crowd. A classy and traditional identity encompassing the very stereotype of what a bookshop is or at least used to be. Its not highly modern but it doesn’t have to be because it’s a stylish and prestigious brand dealing in products of the same nature. So what brought on the re-brand?

As HMV found CD & DVD’s sales decline due to MP3 and E-commerce they re-branded as an entertainment retailer rather then a music outlet. Books are now suffering from the same scenerio. Possibly the reasoning behind the re-brand was an attempt to shift into the future.

Out with the old and in with the new, the “W” has gone from an uppercase serif font to a lowercase sans-serif with much more dead space to create a cleaner and contemporary identity. The W itself is now so plain that it looses much of its character, becoming a little mundane. Is it a “W” or something else (looks like the HMV logo upside down). Likewise the typeface is neither here or there leaving it a little confused.

Its clean and simple making it recognisable and easy to use but also just a little generic. To overcome the monotony and extend the brand imagery they’ve done the opposite with marketing literature using various reworked versions of the logo to help add some spice to the brand.

Every business needs to keep ahead of the times but you just can’t help feel nostalgic towards books, bookshops and the Waterstones brand. Since the beginning of time words have been written as fact or fiction, entertainment or reference making them timeless works of text symbolising the very identity that Waterstones previously projected. However! Waterstones.com is a different environment where the logo fits much better.

The intentions behind the re-brand are understandable and the re-design was inevitable. The logo itself is nice but has it lost its soul? Conforming to the rest of the high street shops and now merely blending in with the crowd its become a trend based generic logo for the modern day. In doing so its lost its individuality and represents today’s fashion which will undoubtedly be old tomorrow.

Maybe its a premonition that Waterstones have made and decided to act on early, an attempt to lead the crowd rather then follow it in terms of booksales, a chance to capture a new youth into its target audience with a stronger online presence backed by highstreet shops but will it work. I imagine that people will generally warm to the design as time goes by but at the same time I see this as the first of many re-brands that Waterstones will undertake in the fourth coming years.

Overall its a good design with good intentions but not the best design for Waterstones.

UK owned and Tenerife based, Astliz Estate Agents needed a slight revamp to their marketing materials.  It was a case of capturing the Tenfrife life without being to typical but more improtantly it had to be professional.

We designed new business cards and E-Book covers.

No, this is not a tutorial for MS Word but a review on how to design a REAL invitation. Not just graphic design but taking it back to the ol skool and selecting paperstock, materials and binding processes. The type of invitation sent for a corporate event or wedding.

First step: NO boundaries.
An invite doesn’t have to be a single piece of card in fact that’s probably the most boring type of invite and to make sure you don’t do it you have to realise that there are no boundaries. Look for inspiration all around you.

A book cover, DVD case, CD cover, booklets, flyers, folders, envelopes etc. anything printed. Forget the design and print just look at the way it’s formed, cut and folded. Some have two folds, some have none, some are big some are small, some open like a book and some like curtains.

Step two: Paperstock

Search high and low for paperstock, you can get all sorts if you look properly. The thicker the card the better but keep in mind that thick card 300gsm+ won’t go through your average desktop printer, however 200gsm should do just fine.

Pick what you like, what looks nice but keep colours in mind, what goes together.

Step 3: Other bits

Pick up other bits of materials as well, ribbon, rivets, whatever you want.

Step 4: Sketch out a design. Where will cuts, folds, text go? How will it come together?

Step 5:Typography.
Look at fonts. Find one you like but more importantly one which fits the theme of the design. The invite itself has to create a mood and environment. The font will help to achieve that.

Step 6: Make it!

Printed on shimmering mauve pearlescent card and hand stitched to form a pocket envelope with three inner sheets of thick transulscent plastic.

Printed on a thinner pearlescent stock with a thick, textured, die cut peach stock laid on top. Stitched together to form a large landscape booklet and sealed with a sheer cream ribbon.

Produced with a thick, textured black stock with printed silver, shimmering transculscent stock on the inside and out. Bound with thick silver tassel ribbon.

All designed for Cupids Wedding Invitations.co.uk

Coaches seem to have stepped up the gears in the past years. I’m seeing more of them take a stronger approach to brand, design and marketing. They’re not just setting up shop, their pushing the boat out to make sure that their seen as a unique operator amongst the crowd.

I started creating logos and then went onto complete corporate idenities from web to print but today we’re performing more and more work for coaches with fully interactive websites accompanied with sub-brands, e-shops and more printed material. The new innovative approach is definitely a step in the right direction but is the motive behind the progression the right resolution. Life coaches know they need a brand presence to step out from the crowd but which route should you take?

Problems of a life coach business.

Coaches always make the statement that each of their clients have very different problems. I’ve learnt that so is every life coach. They each have methods for solving problems and its particular compared to the next coach. The average Joe see life coaching as quite generic but each coach has their own twist, style, methods and resources.

This in fact is a unique selling point and possibly the making of your brand. Every life coach sells the same service but its you that makes your company individual. You’re selling yourself as apart of the service and you have to make sure that you portray some of that character in your brand.

When branding a lifecoach business add a little bit of you inside as well.

Your Target Audience:
Most life coaches I come across deal with this problem in a huge way and it takes some time to figure out the answer. The problem is that they’re trying to attract two audiences under one roof, the corporate clientelle and the public.

The first thing to do is split up the groups into three or four because there’s a hidden couple of groups which emerge from the other two. Its not a corporate customer and its not a member of the public, its the self employed or small business owner. They want to focus their career or personal life but their circumstances don’t quite fit into either of the two. This group sits in between making the whole situation a blur. How should you target these groups?

- Should you have 2-3 brands to target each audience?
- One business with 2-3 sub-brands?
- Or a general appeal to all?

Having 2-3 brands is the best idea allowing you to create separate offerings without confusing the groups and not boring the other two audiences. The public don’t want to know about training courses and communication for profit they want to know how it will affect them personally. The corporate clients don’t want to hear about being happy but profitable.

But what about the middle group of professional individuals? They want to know how to do it all but not on a corporate scale, a personal one.
Having separate brands to target each audience provides a specialist and driven strategy allowing you to market the business effectively, drawing a line between the two with no confusion. This is however the costly option requiring most work from you (managing 2-3 brands, 2-3 firms, and 2-3 services).

The second option of having one brand with two sub-brands is the most approachable strategy for you rather then the client. It’s like the above solution except cheaper and manageable allowing your business to develop in your own time, however it must be done strictly keeping a clear indication of what services are offered to the different audiences. It’s 2-3 brands under a motherbrand, an allround solution which is effective but not as clear as the first one.

The third option is the cheapest but not the best as it confuses the audience. It can work but it must be clear and concise. Once you’ve done that it falls under option 2.

Whatever strategy you take, create a clear message to each audience and keep each service individual. Consider your mother-brand and services then break them down into sub-brands.

Design:
Targeting businesses with services is easier then marketing to the public. Businesses want something in-particular, a sense of professionalism, with clear benefits, results and a relation to their business. The public however are attracted by personal attachment and visual results which is hard to do when you don’t know the person or have a product.

The strategy to solve these problems is sub-grouping for your target audience because as large a variety the public are, they still fall into groups and effective design can target that particular group.

Effectively your packaging each solution and directing it at a particular audience, marketing the benefits and results of your sub-brand even though its still available to a wider audience.

Marketing:
With the above design strategy, marketing becomes simpler. Before you had the problem of attracting 2-3 audiences with one piece of communication, neither swinging here or there but with 2-3 brands focusing on 2-3 audiences you can create 2-3 documents, 1 focusing on each for a stronger and specified message to the recipient.

This leads to 2-3 forms of delivery. The previous distribution was sent to both audiences via the same strategy but can now be separated and delivered specifically to reach each target.

The fact is life coaching is not a tradesman, public body or product which offers visual solutions to a problem but it targets the same general public as a service provider.

The strategy of brand, design and marketing for life coaches is an important one which can solve problems and create its own personal niche in the b2b and b2c sector.

John Showell of Product Approvals needed a PDF design of substance.  One that was easy to send, easy to read and easy to print.  On top of that it had to hit a home run to his new U.S. target audience.  Conceptstore carefully crafted a PDF to show a strong bold difference yet one which was professional and classy without being too overbearingwhilst reinforcing teh Approved Products Brand.