‘Clear and simple ideas set brands apart. Design gives a brand creative life. In a visually sophisticated age, with increasing competition and businesses becoming more and more homogenised, design remains the great differentiator. Design is an immensely influential power in creating unique and distinct brands’. Some wise words from Wally Olins book On Brand.
One of my favourite moments of any project is when the designer presents the concept proposals and explains the creative thinking behind them, translating a written brief into something visual and real. It’s like the anticipation of opening a gift; unwrapping the layers to discover something very special inside that matched if not exceeded your expectations. For me design is the key influence in shaping a brand’s personality and building synergy within the business.
THE LOGO:
Working with people with and who you have a good relationship with and understand you and your vision is not only very important it’s crucial. So working with Neil McCall – the incredibly talented owner of Orangepeelcreativejuice – was the only option for me. Having known and worked together on many, many projects for over a decade I knew Neil understood me, would interpret my thoughts and personality and design something I would love. And he did.
Neil’s said: “‘The logo is made up of a series of overlaid criss-crossed lines that create an elegant ‘W’ icon, suggesting direction and collaboration. The ‘W’ that can work as part of the entire logo, or in isolation, has also been designed to work as a continuous decorative pattern, to allow for flexibility of application. The colour palette contains a mix of earthy colours that are just lifted with the accent acid yellow/green. This just feels right to me and seems to fit your personality better than the others. The moment I did it I got quite excited and wanted to send it straight over to get your opinion!
THE IMAGERY:
One of the passions both Charles and I share is for cooking and food. Not always great for the waistline, but we love shopping for great ingredients and then creating delicious dishes that we can share with friends and family.
When he was only a small child he was forced to sit in the kitchen when I was preparing so he could watch and learn and eventually join in. I was determined that he wouldn’t go off to university only being able to open a tin or order a take-away! Well it paid off and he not only learnt to eat well on a budget but also understands the best ingredients and foodstuffs to look out for. So it wasn’t surprising that he became the chef of choice for his housemates who would regularly supply the ingredients if he would cook them.
There is nothing nicer than cooking for friends who appreciate good food and enjoy eating what you make. Simple or complex I love trying out new things and though the advice is never try out something you haven’t cooked before on your friends, I have always adopted the opposite approach. They are your best critics and as long as it’s edible and you are not trying to poison them it’s also great fun! I have 100s of recipe books; they are always so visual and inspiring, every time I pick up a new one I only have to flick through a few pages and I’m hooked. It is not therefore unusual that Neil McCall designed my website with a culinary flavour.
Neil said: “We wanted to design a very elegant and fresh interface that would continue the Wentworth Consultancy brand styling. The aim is to not clutter each page but to give it lots of room to allow simple messages to be easily understood. The Perfect Recipe: We are suggesting an analogy that every business contains all the ingredients for a successful brand, it just depends how these ingredients are used. Wentworth Consultancy uses its seasoned expertise to blend these ingredients together, adding in the right combination of marketing communications, consultancy and a dash of project management to ensure the perfect recipe is created, which each business can then follow to achieve the best results time and time again”.
I also feel this analogy to food reflects the concept behind the logo and one of our main principals – collaboration; the connection being the need for great team work, clear communications, planning and sharing information.
On a more general note we also feel cooking can be a great stress buster for anyone running or managing a business. From the physical chopping, tenderising or kneading bread to the calmer aspects of stirring, folding or rolling out pastry, all have a therapeutic affect and we find with some music on and a glass of something you love it’s a wonderful way of taking your mind off work. Oh and not forgetting the sense of achievement when everyone’s tucking in and applauding you for all your efforts!
So please don’t be surprised to find food related articles popping up here on a regular basis, along with recipes and links to favourite restaurants or like-minded foodies.