In today&rsquo;s hyper-connected, digital-first world, it&rsquo;s not enough to have a good product or service. How you present it, how you communicate its value, and how you connect with your target audience is as crucial, if not more. At the heart of all this lies your brand strategy. But what does a cohesive brand strategy look like and why is it so essential? Let&rsquo;s explore!

1. Why a cohesive brand strategy?

&ldquo;Brand is the story, the perception, the feeling a customer has about a product or service.&rdquo; &ndash; Seth Godin

People resonate with brands that have a clear identity, voice, and message. A cohesive brand strategy ensures consistency, making it easier for customers to recognise, trust, and become loyal to your brand. According to a survey by Lucidpress, consistent branding can increase revenue by up to 33%. That&#39;s a significant leap attributed to simply being consistent!

2. The cornerstones of a cohesive brand strategy

<ul>
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	Purpose: <a href="https://nucreative.co.uk/post/nu-asking-the-brand-questions-you-never-thought-to-ask">Why does your brand exist?</a> Beyond profits, what value or change do you bring to your customers or the world?
	</li>
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	Positioning: How do you stand out from the competition? It&#39;s about carving a unique space in the market and in your customer&#39;s mind.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Promise: What can customers consistently expect from your offerings? This isn&#39;t just about product quality but the overall experience.
	</li>
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	Personality: This is your brand&#39;s human touch. Are you formal or casual? Humorous or serious? Modern or traditional?
	</li>
</ul>

3. Understanding your audience

Brands that resonate deeply understand their audience&#39;s wants, needs, and aspirations.

&ldquo;If you don&rsquo;t give the market the story to talk about, they&rsquo;ll define your brand&rsquo;s story for you.&rdquo; - David Brier

Creating buyer personas can be a game-changer. It helps in tailoring your messages, understanding where your audience hangs out, and what appeals to them.

4. Consistency across touchpoints

From your website to your social media, packaging, and even customer service &ndash; consistency reinforces brand recognition. A report by McKinsey &amp; Company highlighted that businesses providing a consistent customer journey increased their revenue by nearly 10%.

5. Embrace authenticity

Today&#39;s customers are savvy. They can spot inauthentic brands from a mile away and, more importantly, they value authenticity. A study from Cohn &amp; Wolfe found that 64% of consumers said shared values create a trusted brand relationship.

6. Adapt and evolve

While consistency is key, staying rigid can be detrimental. Brands need to adapt to changing markets, trends, and consumer behaviours. However, any change should align with the brand&#39;s core values and essence.

7. Measure, analyse, and refine

Every strategy requires periodic reviews. Utilising tools like Google Analytics, social media insights, or customer feedback can provide valuable data. By understanding what&rsquo;s working and what&rsquo;s not, you can refine your approach.

8. Collaboration is key

Creating a cohesive brand strategy isn&rsquo;t a solo endeavour. A well-rounded strategy is built not only by internal collaboration but also by engaging with external entities. It requires input from various stakeholders &ndash; from marketing and design to sales and customer service. Furthermore, conversations with customers are invaluable as they provide direct insights into what they value and expect. Studying competitors gives a perspective on market trends and potential areas of differentiation. Everyone, both internally and externally, should understand and buy into the brand strategy. This collective approach ensures that your brand remains resonant, relevant, and robust in the marketplace.

9. Continual learning and education

&ldquo;Your brand is a story unfolding across all customer touchpoints.&rdquo; - Jonah Sachs

Staying updated with the latest trends, attending workshops, or even learning from competitors can offer fresh perspectives and insights.

10. Don&rsquo;t forget emotional connections

Humans are emotional beings. According to Harvard professor Gerald Zaltman, 95% of purchasing decisions are subconscious and based on emotions. Crafting stories or campaigns that touch hearts can create deeper brand connections.

11. The power of visual identity

Your brand&#39;s visual identity, from the logo to the colour scheme, plays a vital role in creating immediate recognition. Think of iconic brands like Apple, McDonald&#39;s, or Nike. Their visual elements are instantly recognisable, even without the brand name attached. It&#39;s essential to ensure that your brand&#39;s visual elements are not only appealing but also reflect the essence and ethos of your brand.

12. Storytelling as a branding tool

Narratives have always captivated the human mind. Weaving a compelling brand story can deeply connect with your audience, making them more invested in your brand&#39;s journey. As Maya Angelou once said, &quot;People will forget what you said, people will forget what you did, but people will never forget how you made them feel.&quot; A well-crafted brand story can evoke those lasting emotions.

13. Cultivating brand advocates

Loyal customers can become your brand&#39;s most potent advocates. By consistently delivering on your brand&#39;s promise and exceeding customer expectations, businesses can transform satisfied customers into enthusiastic brand ambassadors. Word-of-mouth and personal recommendations, even in the digital age, hold immense power.

14. Ethical and social responsibility

Today&#39;s consumers are more conscious of the brands they associate with. They appreciate and are loyal to brands that take a stand, contribute to society, and are ethically responsible. Highlighting your brand&#39;s commitment to sustainability, ethical sourcing, or community involvement can differentiate you in a saturated market.

15. Digital presence and engagement

In our digital era, your brand&#39;s online presence is paramount. But it&#39;s not just about being online; it&#39;s about engaging with your audience. Regularly updating content, responding to customer queries, and being active on platforms where your target audience resides can significantly impact brand perception.A cohesive brand strategy isn&#39;t just a fancy term or a buzzword. It&rsquo;s the roadmap that ensures every aspect of your business aligns and resonates with your audience. It&#39;s an ongoing process of learning, adapting, and refining. But, with commitment and clarity, it&#39;s a journey that leads straight to success. And if you&rsquo;re ready to take your brands to new cohesive heights, get in touch today.&nbsp;

Creating a cohesive brand strategy for your business

Have you ever thought about why some people insist on Apple for their tech or Starbucks for their morning coffee? It goes beyond mere logos or advertising. It&rsquo;s all in the branding! It&rsquo;s more than just surface aesthetics, branding delves deep into the essence of a company, carving its identity amidst the market noise.

So, if you&#39;re at the start of a new venture or reinvigorating your established business, diving into the world of branding isn&#39;t just recommended&mdash;it&#39;s actually essential. It&#39;s the magic elixir that can transform your visibility, trust and customer loyalty.&nbsp; 
 
In this article, we look at the 10 cardinal pillars of effective branding, each one crucial in sculpting a business&#39;s reputation and success.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/11/01/internal_blog_7-ux-tips-for-exceptional-user-experiences.jpg" style="height:3493px; width:6206px" />1. Clear brand purpose:&nbsp;

Every great brand has a strong reason behind it. It&#39;s not just about what you&#39;re selling, but why you&#39;re doing it in the first place. It could be to bring something new to the table, to make people&#39;s lives better, or simply to help out. Whatever it is, your &quot;why&quot; should connect with people and show them what your company truly believes in.

For help discovering your why, <a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/post/nu-asking-the-brand-questions-you-never-thought-to-ask">click here</a>.&nbsp;

2. Consistent brand identity:&nbsp;

Your brand identity &ndash; encompassing everything from logos to colour schemes to typography &ndash; should consistently reflect your brand&#39;s ethos across all touchpoints. For instance, think of Apple&#39;s simplistic design approach or Coca-Cola&#39;s unmistakable red&mdash;both are instantly recognisable and are trusted symbols worldwide. Such a consistent visual identity not only builds immediate brand recognition but also establishes a profound sense of trust with your target audience.

3. Memorable brand name and logo:&nbsp;

When people think of your business, the first things that pop up are usually your brand&#39;s name and logo. It should be something that stands out, is easy to say, and reflects your core values or offerings.

4. Engaging brand story:&nbsp;

Every brand has its own story. By talking about where you started, the bumps along the way, the high points, and where you want to go, you can develop a deeper connection with your audience. It&#39;s like giving your brand a human touch so people can see themselves in your story.

5. Authentic voice and tone:&nbsp;

Whether it&#39;s playful, professional, or passionate, your brand&#39;s voice should be consistent across all channels &ndash; from website copy to social media posts. This voice reinforces your brand&#39;s personality and ensures that communications feel genuine. For instance, the quirky tone of Innocent Drinks is consistent from their bottle labels to their tweets.

6. Value proposition:&nbsp;

Why should a customer choose your brand over another? Your value proposition should clearly define the unique benefits and features of your products or services, setting you apart from competitors. For example, Amazon&rsquo;s &#39;Day One&#39; philosophy emphasises innovation and customer-centricity.

7. Brand flexibility:&nbsp;

While consistency is key, flexibility allows your brand to adapt and evolve with market trends. It ensures that your brand remains relevant and appealing to changing customer preferences.

8. Positive brand experience:&nbsp;

Branding extends beyond visuals and voice. It&#39;s about the entire experience a customer has with your brand. From the initial website visit to post-purchase support, every touchpoint should be seamless, positive, and aligned with your brand&#39;s values.

9. Employee advocacy:&nbsp;

Your employees are the front-liners representing your brand, and they play an instrumental role in translating your brand&#39;s values into actionable realities. Internal branding is vital in this aspect. It goes beyond mere training; it&#39;s about immersing your employees in the brand&#39;s ethos, ensuring they not only understand but also live by the brand&#39;s values. By integrating internal branding with employee advocacy, you cultivate a workforce that truly embodies your brand, ensuring consistent brand representation and amplifying overall brand equity.

10. Continuous feedback and evolution:&nbsp;

Lastly, effective branding isn&#39;t static. Regularly solicit feedback, analyse market trends, and adjust accordingly. This iterative process ensures your brand stays at the forefront of your industry. In the ever-evolving marketplace, those who remain static are often left behind.

Why is Branding so essential for businesses?

Branding is the art and science of shaping perceptions. It&#39;s the difference between being just another business in the market and being the preferred choice for customers. A strong brand builds trust, drives customer loyalty, and can even allow for premium pricing because customers believe in the value you offer.

In a world where we&#39;re swamped with choices and information, good branding helps you stand out from the crowd.&nbsp;

How NU Creative can help

Branding can be a bit of a maze. But, don&#39;t worry, that&#39;s where we come in. Our team knows the ropes and will help you nail each part, making sure your brand sticks in people&#39;s minds and makes a real difference. Whether it&#39;s about telling your story or keeping things consistent, we&#39;re here to help. In today&#39;s business environment, branding isn&#39;t a luxury&mdash;it&#39;s essential. It lays the groundwork for sustained success, builds a genuine bond with your audience, and carves out a brand legacy with longevity.

Ready to elevate your brand&#39;s presence and trajectory? Reach out to us, and let&#39;s build a brand that truly resonates.

 
&nbsp;

10 essential elements of effective branding

In the dynamic world of branding, making the right choices can be a complex task. Brand architecture, a system that organises brands, products and services to help the audience access and relate to a brand, is one such decision that can profoundly influence a company&#39;s perception and success. Of the various brand architecture strategies that exist, &#39;hybrid brand architecture&#39; is gaining traction due to its flexibility and adaptability. This article delves into hybrid brand architecture, its advantages and how to effectively implement it for your brand.

Understanding Hybrid Brand Architecture

Brand architecture can essentially be distilled down to two primary types: branded house (monolithic) and house of brands (pluralistic). In a branded house, a single master brand dominates, with all other products or services taking on the main brand&#39;s identity (think Google). Conversely, a house of brands consists of multiple standalone brands, each with its unique identity, under a parent company that often remains in the background (think Procter &amp; Gamble).&nbsp; 
Hybrid brand architecture ingeniously combines these two strategies. It allows some products or services to adopt the parent brand&#39;s identity while others maintain their distinct brands. This combination offers the best of both worlds - the visibility and reputation of the parent brand and the unique market positioning of individual brands.

The Advantages of Hybrid Brand Architecture

Hybrid brand architecture brings an array of benefits to the table:

Flexibility

The primary advantage of a hybrid approach is its flexibility. It allows companies to leverage the strength of the parent brand while maintaining the unique identity and market appeal of individual brands. This flexibility can be particularly beneficial during mergers and acquisitions, where the new entity may wish to retain the equity of the acquired brand.

Market Reach

Hybrid brand architecture facilitates broader market reach. The diversity of brands under the hybrid model allows the parent company to cater to different audience segments, tap into various markets and offer a wide range of products or services without diluting the master brand&#39;s core identity.

Risk Mitigation

By allowing individual brands to operate independently, a hybrid architecture can help insulate the parent brand from potential damage. If a sub-brand faces a crisis, the impact can be largely contained, protecting the parent brand and other sub-brands.

Implementing a Hybrid Brand Architecture

Implementing a hybrid brand architecture necessitates a strategic approach. Here&#39;s how to get started:

Identify Your Goals

First, clarify why you&#39;re considering a hybrid brand architecture. Are you trying to preserve the equity of an acquired brand? Do you want to reach new audience segments without diluting your parent brand? Identifying your goals can guide your decisions about which brands to incorporate into your hybrid architecture.

Assess Your Brands

Evaluate your existing brands. What is their current market position? How much equity do they hold? How do they align with your overall business strategy? The answers to these questions can help you determine which brands should adopt the parent brand&#39;s identity and which should maintain their own.

Design Your Architecture

Design your hybrid architecture in a way that makes sense for your audience. Create clear distinctions between the parent brand and individual brands, while also identifying touchpoints where the parent brand&#39;s equity can benefit the sub-brands. Establish clear brand guidelines to ensure consistency across all brands.

Communicate Your Architecture

Once you&#39;ve designed your hybrid architecture, communicate it clearly to both internal and external audiences. Ensure that your team understands the structure and can articulate it consistently. Externally, use marketing and communication strategies to convey your architecture to your audience.

Monitor and Adjust

Regularly monitor the performance of your hybrid architecture and adjust as necessary. Use market research, customer feedback and brand audits to assess how well your architecture is resonating with your audience and supporting your business goals. Be prepared to make changes as your business evolves.&nbsp;A hybrid brand architecture offers the flexibility, market reach and risk mitigation necessary in today&#39;s rapidly evolving business landscape. Combining the strengths of both branded house and house of brands strategies, it provides a robust and adaptable framework for brand management. 
 
At NU Creative, we help businesses navigate these complexities, designing brand architectures that align with their goals, resonate with their audiences and drive their success. Through a well-implemented hybrid brand architecture, you can ensure your brand portfolio is well-structured, easily understood and built for growth.

Get in touch today and see how we can help your business grow.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Hybrid brand architecture: the best of both worlds for modern brands

In the ever-evolving design and branding industry, Emotional Intelligence (EI) has emerged as a crucial component in creating effective and engaging designs. At NU, we understand the transformative power of EI in design and how it can create a deeper connection between brands and their audiences. In this article, we are going to look into the role of emotional intelligence in design, its benefits and how to leverage it effectively.

What is Emotional Intelligence in Design? 
Emotional Intelligence in design involves recognising and understanding the emotions of your target audience and using this knowledge to guide the design process. It&#39;s about empathy - putting yourself in the user&#39;s shoes, understanding their needs, emotions and motivations and designing solutions that resonate with them on a deeper and more emotional level. 
This approach is particularly significant in branding, where the goal is to develop strong emotional connections between the brand and its consumers. By leveraging EI, designers can create brand experiences that elicit specific emotional responses, leading to more meaningful and memorable interactions.

The Role of Emotional Intelligence in Design 
In design, emotional intelligence plays a vital role in several key areas:

User Experience (UX) 
In UX design, emotional intelligence enables designers to anticipate user needs and design solutions that improve the overall user experience. By understanding the emotions users might experience while interacting with a design&mdash;whether frustration, confusion, joy, or satisfaction&mdash;designers can create experiences that are not only functional and easy to use but also emotionally satisfying.

Branding 
Emotional intelligence is a powerful tool for creating a brand identity that resonates with consumers. By understanding the emotions associated with a brand, designers can craft a brand narrative and visual identity that reflects these feelings, fostering a deeper emotional connection between the brand and its audience.

Visual Design 
In visual design, emotional intelligence can guide the choice of colours, fonts and imagery, all of which can envoke specific emotional responses. Understanding how these visual elements affect emotions can help designers create compelling designs that effectively communicate the intended message and acheive the desired emotional response.

<h2>Why is Emotional Intelligence Important in Design?</h2>

Leveraging emotional intelligence in design offers numerous benefits:

Creating Meaningful Connections 
Emotional intelligence helps create designs that resonate with users on a deeper, emotional level. By understanding and addressing user emotions, designers can create experiences that users find powerful.

Driving User Engagement 
Designs that understand and cater to user emotions are more likely to engage users and encourage interaction. Emotionally engaging designs can boost user engagement, increase dwell time and drive conversions.

Enhancing Brand Perception 
Emotional intelligence can significantly enhance brand perception. Designs that reflect a brand&#39;s emotional values can create a strong emotional connection between the brand and its audience, boosting brand loyalty and advocacy.

How to Leverage Emotional Intelligence in Design 
To effectively leverage emotional intelligence in design, follow these steps:

Empathise with Your Audience 
Understanding your audience&#39;s needs, motivations and emotions is the first step to emotionally intelligent design. Use research methods like surveys, interviews and user testing to gain insights into your audience&#39;s emotional landscape.

Define the Desired Emotional Response 
What emotions do you want your design to evoke? Defining this early in the design process can guide your design decisions. Whether you want users to feel excited, inspired, comforted, or reassured, every aspect of your design should work towards evoking these emotions.

Create Emotionally-Engaging Designs 
Use your understanding of emotions to guide your design decisions. Choose colours, fonts, imagery and other visual elements that align with the emotions you want to evoke. Create user experiences that address user needs and minimise negative emotions like frustration and confusion.

Test and Iterate 
Lastly, use user testing to evaluate whether your design effectively addresses user emotions and evokes the desired emotional response. Use these insights to iterate and improve your design.

Emotional intelligence in design is more than just a trend - it&#39;s a powerful approach that can significantly enhance the effectiveness of your designs. By understanding and addressing user emotions, you can create designs that resonate with your audience, develop emotional connections and ultimately, drive success in your branding efforts. 
 
At NU Creative, we firmly believe in the power of emotional intelligence and consistently integrate it into our design philosophy, creating designs that not only look good but feel right. Get in touch today and see how we can help your brand connect to your audience in a more authentic and deep way.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

emotional intelligence, design, design agency

Emotional intelligence in design: a game-changer in branding

Did you know that there are more than 70 million blogs published per month? So, it just goes to show that massive amounts of content are being created, but it doesn&rsquo;t mean that all of that content is good. Knowing how to craft an article that is engaging, informative, showcases your expertise and builds your brand reputation that captures your audience&#39;s attention, is no easy task. It takes work, time and most importantly experience and skill.&nbsp;

The following guide demonstrates everything that goes into creating a great blog post that audiences will love.&nbsp;

Let&rsquo;s start with the basics of a blog

To get started, let&rsquo;s talk about the elements and stages that make up a blog.&nbsp;

It all begins with research and ideation:

Before diving into writing, we have to spend some time researching your topic. Gathering relevant information ensures that we provide valuable and accurate content. Here&rsquo;s how we do that:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Figuring out and defining your target audience: Understanding their pain points, interests, and preferences
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Identifying trending topics: Using tools like Google Trends, BuzzSumo, or AnswerThePublic to see what people are talking about&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Analysing competitors: See what topics they cover and identify gaps you can fill
	</li>
</ul>

Capture their attention with a compelling title:

The title is the first thing your audience will see, so we have to make it count. A captivating title should:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Be informative, clear, and concise
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Utilise power words or numbers for added impact (e.g., &lsquo;5 Proven Strategies&rsquo; or &lsquo;The Ultimate Guide&rsquo;)
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Address your audience&#39;s needs or pain points.
	</li>
</ul>

Make the first sentence count with an engaging introduction:

The introduction should hook your readers and motivate them to keep reading. Here are some ways this works:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Presenting a problem or question relevant to your audience
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Sharing a relatable story or anecdote
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Offering surprising facts or statistics (Like this post for example)
	</li>
</ul>

Break up your content:

Large blocks of text can be off-putting and difficult to read. Part of creating a narrative is ensuring that the text flows in a pleasing way.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Utilising headings and subheadings: Breaking your content into manageable sections with clear, descriptive headings
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Using bullet points or numbered lists to make key points easy to digest
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Keeping paragraphs short by aiming for 3-5 sentences per paragraph
	</li>
</ul>

Be Informative and accurate:

Content should provide value to your readers. To achieve this:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Support your claims with facts, statistics, or expert opinions
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Link to reputable sources to enhance credibility
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Update old content with the latest information to keep it relevant
	</li>
</ul>

Make it fun to read by incorporating visuals:

Visual elements can considerably improve a blog&#39;s readability and engagement. Some visuals to consider incorporating include:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Relevant images, graphics, infographics, or videos
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Charts and graphs to illustrate data
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Visual breaks, such as block quotes or separators
	</li>
</ul>

Optimise for SEO:

Search engine optimisation (SEO) helps increase your blog&#39;s visibility on search engines. Here are some SEO checks we perform.

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Keyword research: Use tools like AHrefs and SEMrush to find relevant keywords
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Including keywords naturally: Integrating the target keywords in your title, headings, and body content without overstuffing and looking unnatural
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Optimising images: Compress image files, add descriptive file names, and use alt tags
	</li>
</ul>

Include a strong call-to-action (CTA):

It&rsquo;s important to end your blog post with a clear CTA that encourages readers to take a specific action, such as:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Subscribing to your newsletter
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Sharing your content on social media
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Downloading a related resource or guide
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Getting in touch and provide you with their contact details&nbsp;
	</li>
</ul>

Edit and proofread all content:

Before publishing, thoroughly edit and proofread your content to ensure it&#39;s polished and free of errors. There are plenty of tools that we use to ensure accuracies like Hemmingway Editor and Grammarly to name a few.&nbsp;

Promoting your content:

We then need to maximise your blog post&#39;s reach by promoting it through various channels:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Sharing it on your social media platforms
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Adding it to your newsletter&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Adding it to any banners on your homepage
	</li>
</ul>

<h2>Making your content stand out</h2>

The main thing that makes your content stand out, is your voice and brand! Your business personality and voice should shine through. Personalisation is key. Whether that&rsquo;s an expert option or recommendation, a testimonial from clients, or a quote from an industry leader. It has to have a more human approach and showcase the people behind the words, the topic and the industry. The other thing is authenticity, people can see a repurposed post a mile off. It offers the reader nothing new, which is why staying true to your brand voice is essential when the reader is craving honesty.&nbsp;

With so much conversation around Chat GPT-4 recently, it&rsquo;s easy to wonder if it can do as good a job as a human. The reality is no, it can&rsquo;t. It cannot connect with your audience on a human level and it cannot replicate your tone of voice and branding. Content that connects, takes thorough research, time, personalisation and honesty. And that&rsquo;s what your audience wants.

If you need help bringing authentic storytelling to your content, get in touch today and see how we can make your content stand out from the crowd.&nbsp;

 
 
&nbsp;

Discover how we craft a great blog post

As we navigate through the ever-evolving landscape of 2023, one thing has become clear: the world of branding is not what it used to be. Brands are no longer simply logos, slogans, or even products - they&#39;re living, breathing entities that connect with their audiences on a deeply personal level. They&#39;re influencers of culture, drivers of societal change, and innovators in the digital realm. 
That&rsquo;s why understanding the latest trend has become essential, not just to stay relevant, but to lead the charge towards the future. In this comprehensive guide, we delve into the key branding trends that are shaping 2023.

Exploring the shift towards the humanisation and localisation of brands, the importance of sustainability as a core value, the rise of inclusive branding, and the transformation of brands into experiences. We&#39;ll also delve into how digital-first approaches and value-driven storytelling are becoming vital in modern brand strategy.

<ol>
	<li dir="ltr">
	The humanisation of brands:&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

In today&#39;s increasingly digital and competitive landscape, brands are discovering that human connections are their most powerful differentiator. The humanisation of brands, infusing them with relatable, authentic human traits, is a rising trend set to dominate 2023.&nbsp;And we&rsquo;re not talking about mascots or a persona, instead, it&#39;s about embodying your brand as an entity that shares common values and emotions with its audience. It&#39;s about transcending the faceless corporate image and creating a real connection. 
A humanised brand is an oasis of authenticity, cultivating trust, loyalty, and emotional engagement, which is essential for enduring customer relationships.

So, how can brands foster this humanisation?

Behind-the-scenes stories: Sharing the &#39;real&#39; side of your brand, such as the creative process, employees&#39; experiences, or tackling challenges, helps to build connection and transparency. 
Embracing company culture: Showcasing your brand&#39;s culture through events, tours, or employee spotlights reveals its human side, building community among employees and deeper identification with customers. 
Engaging on social media: Genuine engagement with audiences on social media, rather than just promotion, creates human-like interaction. Aim to respond to comments, share user-generated content, and join trending conversations. 
Expressing empathy and social consciousness: Brands that demonstrate understanding and care for their audience&#39;s concerns enhance their human appeal. This could mean taking a stand on social issues, contributing to causes, or expressing empathy in challenging times. 
Using natural language: Say goodbye to corporate jargon and replace it with clear, concise, and conversational language that makes you seem more approachable.

As we advance into the digital age, the humanisation of brands will likely become a cornerstone of brand strategy. Businesses are about people&mdash;those who operate them and those they serve. Embracing this human side could be the key to your brand&#39;s success in 2023 and beyond.

<ol start="2">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Sustainability as a Core Value
	</li>
</ol>

Sustainability is now an expectation, not an option, as consumers align their purchases with their values, favouring brands committed to sustainability and social responsibility. This shift is profoundly reshaping business operations and branding strategies.&nbsp;Sustainability as a core value is more than surface-level &#39;greenwashing&#39;. It signifies a deep commitment to reducing a company&#39;s environmental footprint and enhancing its societal impact, encompassing everything from supply chains and manufacturing to governance and community engagement.

Sustainability&#39;s importance for brands arises from several factors:

Consumer demand: As consumers make eco-conscious buying decisions, they are seeking brands offering quality products and services that align with their environmental and societal values. 
Regulatory pressure: Stricter environmental regulations worldwide mean brands prioritising sustainability are better equipped to comply, avoiding potential penalties or reputational harm. 
Investor expectations: With investors increasingly considering environmental, social, and governance (ESG) factors, businesses committed to sustainability are more likely to attract investment. 
Long-term viability: Brands ignoring sustainability face obsolescence as resources dwindle and environmental concerns intensify. In contrast, those integrating sustainability into their core strategy are better positioned for long-term success.

Brands can incorporate sustainability in several ways:

Sustainable business practices:&nbsp;adopting eco-friendly manufacturing, sourcing sustainably, reducing waste, and conserving energy are tangible actions that underscore a brand&#39;s sustainability commitment. 
Transparent communication:&nbsp;brands should openly share their sustainability goals, progress, and challenges, ensuring authenticity and transparency. This could include sustainability reports, social media updates, or dedicated website sections. 
Sustainable products and services: minimising environmental impact through product design, using recyclable materials, reducing packaging, or offering repair services extend a product&#39;s lifespan and demonstrates commitment. 
Community engagement:&nbsp;contributing to sustainable causes or participating in community initiatives demonstrates a brand&#39;s social responsibility.

Sustainability as a core value will continue to drive brand strategy in 2023 and beyond. Brands embracing this trend will appeal to a growing market of conscious consumers and set themselves up for long-term success in an increasingly sustainability-oriented world.

<ol start="3">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Inclusive branding
	</li>
</ol>

Inclusive branding, a rising trend in the modern branding landscape, goes beyond surface-level diversity initiatives. It&#39;s a comprehensive strategy that involves acknowledging the wide range of consumer backgrounds, experiences, and identities, reflecting these in all aspects of a brand&#39;s operations.

Implementation of inclusive branding includes:

Diverse representation in branding: brands should feature a broad range of experiences and identities in their branding, such as diverse models in advertising campaigns and showcasing varied customer stories. 
Inclusive language and imagery: Inclusive branding uses respectful and acknowledging language and imagery. This involves avoiding gendered language, reflecting diverse body types and abilities in images, and ensuring accessibility for people with disabilities. 
Products and services for a diverse Customer Base: Brands should ensure their offerings cater to diverse customers, such as designing products accessible to people with disabilities, offering multilingual services, or considering cultural aspects in product design.

Inclusive branding is more than a trend&mdash;it&#39;s a commitment to recognising and celebrating audience diversity. As we progress into 2023, brands adopting this holistic approach to inclusivity will be better positioned to drive loyalty and drive growth.

<ol start="4">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Digital-first branding
	</li>
</ol>

As the digital landscape continues to grow and shape our everyday lives, online businesses and e-commerce have become the new norm. Consequently, the approach to branding has seen a substantial shift. Brands are now prioritising a digital-first approach to their branding strategies, underscoring the importance of optimising brand elements for digital platforms before adapting them for traditional media. This digital-first branding trend is fueled by factors such as mobile optimisation, interactive elements, and data-driven customisation.

Understanding digital-first branding

Digital-first branding is a strategy that prioritises the digital landscape when designing and implementing branding elements. It is based on the understanding that an ever-growing number of consumers are interacting with brands first and foremost via digital channels, such as social media, websites, and mobile apps. As such, these digital touchpoints must be the initial focus when creating brand identities, messaging, and experiences.

Mobile optimisation: given the ubiquity of smartphones, mobile optimisation is a key aspect of a digital-first branding strategy. Brands must ensure that their online presence, from their websites to their social media platforms, is fully optimised for mobile viewing. This involves responsive design, easy navigation, fast loading times, and accessible content that is easy to consume on smaller screens. 
Interactive elements: Interactive elements are another fundamental aspect of digital-first branding. This could include features such as clickable infographics, embedded videos, interactive quizzes, and chatbots. Such elements not only enhance user engagement but also provide a more immersive and personalised brand experience for the digital audience. 
Data-driven customisation: The digital-first approach also leverages the power of data for customisation. With the wealth of user data available from digital interactions, brands can personalise their offerings, communication, and user experiences. Whether it&#39;s using browsing history for product recommendations, tailoring email campaigns based on user behaviour, or customising website content for different user segments, data-driven customisation allows brands to create a more personalised and resonant brand experience.

The digital-first approach to branding will continue to gain importance this year. Brands that can effectively optimise their digital presence, engage users with interactive elements and leverage data for customisation will be better positioned to thrive in this digital era.

<ol start="5">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Brands as Experiences
	</li>
</ol>

In the contemporary branding landscape, brands are no longer just providers of products or services; they&#39;re becoming purveyors of experiences. A growing number of brands are focusing on delivering holistic, immersive experiences that encompass not just their products and services, but also their overall brand engagement. This trend reflects the understanding that customers are seeking more than just transactions; they&#39;re seeking memorable, engaging interactions that resonate on a personal level. 
At the heart of this experience-driven approach is the integration of products, services, and branding elements into a seamless and engaging customer journey. Which is why you need to be focusing on every touchpoint, from initial discovery and consideration, through to purchase and post-purchase interactions, ensuring a cohesive and captivating brand experience.

Technology, particularly AR, VR, and AI, is playing a pivotal role in this transformation. AR and VR are being used to create immersive experiences that transport customers into virtual worlds, offering interactive product demonstrations or virtual tours. AI, on the other hand, enables personalised experiences by leveraging data to tailor interactions to individual customer preferences and behaviours.

Brands that can seamlessly integrate their products, services, and branding into captivating, tech-enabled experiences will be at the forefront.

<ol start="6">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Value-driven storytelling
	</li>
</ol>

Storytelling has always been a powerful tool in branding, serving as a conduit for brands to share their journey, vision, and unique selling points. However, in the contemporary branding landscape, the focus of storytelling is shifting. The narratives are no longer just about what the brand does or sells; they&#39;re about what the brand stands for and its impact on the world.&nbsp; 
This is the essence of value-driven storytelling.

Value-driven storytelling is about articulating the brand&#39;s core values and mission through compelling narratives. It&#39;s about creating and sharing stories that exemplify the brand&#39;s commitment to its customers, its principles, and its role in society. These stories could range from the brand&#39;s origin story and its ethical practices to stories about the people it serves or the causes it supports.&nbsp;This approach to storytelling allows brands to form deeper connections with their audience. It appeals to the emotional side of consumers, building a sense of trust and alignment with the brand&#39;s values. In an era where consumers are increasingly conscious of the societal impact of their purchases, value-driven storytelling can be a powerful differentiator.

Branding trends will continue to evolve, driven by changes in technology, society, and consumer behaviour. So if you need help navigating this ever-changing landscape and staying ahead of the curve, get in touch today.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Branding trends for 2023: a deep dive into the future of brand strategy

In today&#39;s world, where consumers are constantly inundated with advertisements, neuromarketing has emerged as an innovative approach to captivate your audience&#39;s attention and forge a deeper connection with them. Neuromarketing combines marketing, psychology, and neuroscience to better understand the consumer&rsquo;s psyche and drive effective marketing strategies.

Understanding the Human Brain in Relation to Marketing

Delving into the realm of neuromarketing necessitates a fundamental understanding of the human brain. Its three integral parts &ndash; the neocortex, limbic system, and reptilian complex &ndash; play vital roles in shaping our behaviours and decisions. The neocortex, our &#39;thinking&#39; brain, processes rational thoughts and logic-based decisions. The limbic system, our &#39;feeling&#39; brain, manages our emotions and memories. The reptilian complex, our &#39;survival&#39; brain, controls instincts and survival-based choices. By understanding these distinct but interconnected systems, marketers can craft strategies that appeal to both the logical and emotional faculties of consumers.

The Science Behind Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing employs scientific methods to gain insights into consumer behaviour. Functional Magnetic Resonance Imaging (fMRI) and Electroencephalogram (EEG) are used to monitor brain activity in response to specific marketing stimuli. Eye-tracking and facial coding techniques decode non-verbal cues, providing insights into a consumer&#39;s engagement and interest levels.&nbsp;The power of neuromarketing was profoundly demonstrated in a study by neuroscientist Read Montague. His experiment, often referred to as the &quot;Pepsi vs. Coca-Cola&quot; study, revealed that participants&#39; brains responded differently to the two drinks depending on whether they knew the brand. This research underscored the psychological impact of branding and highlighted the value neuromarketing could bring to the marketing landscape.

Neuromarketing Strategies in Design and Branding

Understanding neuromarketing enables businesses to design strategies that directly appeal to the subconscious mind of consumers. Visual elements are crucial in this process. Colours can elicit specific emotions, influencing consumers&#39; perceptions about a brand. For instance, blue, often associated with trust and reliability, is widely used by tech companies like Facebook and Twitter. Red, signalling urgency and excitement, is frequently used in clearance sales and fast-food chains like McDonald&#39;s. 
Beyond visual cues, storytelling has emerged as a potent neuromarketing strategy. By weaving a compelling narrative around a brand, marketers can create emotional resonance with consumers. This emotional bond can be far more influential in driving purchase decisions than mere product features or price points. A classic example is TOMS Shoes&#39; One for One campaign, where each purchase supports a person in need. This narrative centred around empathy and responsibility, has helped TOMS create a deeply loyal customer base.

Sensory marketing is another influential neuromarketing strategy. Engaging consumers through various senses can create a more holistic and memorable brand experience. Studies have shown that subtle cues, like a store&#39;s scent, can impact consumer behaviour. For instance, a study found that customers spent more time and money in a store that was scented with vanilla, illustrating how sensory cues can subconsciously influence consumers&#39; perceptions and decisions.

Ethical Considerations in Neuromarketing

Neuromarketing&#39;s potential to sway consumer behaviour raises important ethical considerations. As we continue to unravel the mysteries of the human mind, there&#39;s potential for manipulation. Businesses should approach neuromarketing with an ethical lens, ensuring that it is used to enhance consumer understanding and improve their experience, rather than to manipulate and exploit.

The Future of Neuromarketing in Design and Branding

The future of neuromarketing is rich with possibilities. Emerging technologies like Artificial Intelligence (AI), Virtual Reality (VR), and big data are likely to reshape the landscape of neuromarketing. AI, with its data-crunching capabilities, can analyse vast amounts of consumer data to generate highly personalised marketing strategies. VR can provide an immersive environment for testing and optimising neuromarketing techniques, and big data can track and predict consumer behaviour with higher accuracy. As we continue to advance technologically, the sophistication and effectiveness of neuromarketing strategies will likely increase exponentially.

Neuromarketing represents a new frontier in the marketing world. By understanding and influencing the subconscious mind, businesses can build stronger emotional bonds with consumers, create memorable brand experiences, and drive more effective marketing strategies.

As we stand on the cusp of a promising future, it is imperative to uphold ethical considerations alongside technological advancements. Neuromarketing, when used responsibly, can usher in a new era of consumer-centric marketing that&#39;s not just more effective, but also more empathetic and engaging.

 
&nbsp;

Neuromarketing: persuading the subconscious

As the digital sphere continues to evolve, we are constantly reminded of a timeless fact: the experience we offer to our users matters significantly. It&#39;s a direct reflection of our brand, a telltale sign of our commitment to user satisfaction, and most importantly, it&#39;s a key factor in our digital success. User experience (UX) isn&#39;t just about pretty interfaces or cutting-edge technologies; it&#39;s about empathy, understanding, and designing experiences that resonate deeply with our users. 
Delivering exceptional user experiences isn&#39;t a walk in the park. It demands strategic foresight, relentless empathy for users, a deep understanding of their behaviour, and the continuous iteration and improvement of design elements. However, by setting precise and attainable UX goals, we can systematically create user-centric designs that not only charm the eye but also speak to the heart.

In this article, we will delve deeper into the key UX goals you should set for creating amazing user experiences.

1. Deeply Understand and Empathise with Your Users

User empathy isn&#39;t just the cornerstone of UX design; it&#39;s the bedrock on which every user-centric design is built. The first UX goal that you should set is to deeply understand your users. This includes a thorough comprehension of their needs, motivations, pain points, preferences, and behaviours. Empathise with your users, step into their shoes, and see the world from their perspective. You can leverage tools such as user research, user personas, and user journey maps to achieve this. Understanding your users allows you to create experiences that connect and resonate on a personal level.

2. Accessibility as a Forefront Goal

An exceptional UX design is an inclusive design. Inclusivity should be embedded into the heart of your design process. Your design should be accessible and usable by people of all abilities, ages, and backgrounds. Ensure your website is keyboard-friendly, your content is readable, your images have descriptive alt-text, and the contrast is effectively used for visibility. By setting accessibility as a goal, you are not only complying with legal guidelines but also making a statement about your brand&#39;s commitment to inclusivity.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/07/25/internal_blog_7-ux-tips-for-exceptional-user-experiences.jpg" style="height:3493px; width:6206px" />

3. Usability - The Heart of UX Design

The essence of UX design lies in usability. If your users cannot easily navigate through your site or accomplish their desired tasks, your UX design falls short. To enhance usability, focus on intuitive navigation, clear and concise content, logical site structure, and a clean interface. Simplicity and predictability are your best allies here. Your users should be able to instinctively understand how to interact with your site, reducing their cognitive load and enhancing their overall experience.

4. Building Trust and Credibility

In today&#39;s digital age, data security and privacy concerns are at an all-time high. Users need to trust your brand before they engage with it. Therefore, your UX design should communicate trust and credibility. Make sure your website is secure, clearly state your privacy policies, and be transparent about data usage. Authenticity goes a long way in building trust. Avoid deceptive practices, and ensure your content is accurate, up-to-date, and reliable. Your users are entrusting you with their time and data - honour that trust.

5. Designing Delightful Experiences

Good UX design meets user expectations; great UX design exceeds them. Seek opportunities to surprise and delight your users. This could be anything from a beautifully designed animation, a personalised message, or a thoughtful micro-interaction. Every detail that adds a touch of delight enhances user satisfaction, making your brand memorable and unique.

6. Embrace a Mobile-First Approach

With the exponential increase in smartphone usage, designing for mobile has become paramount. A mobile-first approach ensures that your website is responsive, with a design that&#39;s as aesthetically pleasing and functional on a small screen as it is on a large one. Optimise your content, images, and layout for mobile devices to provide a consistent and enjoyable user experience across all platforms.

7. The Power of Iteration

UX design is an ongoing process. Setting a goal to continuously measure, learn, and iterate your design based on user feedback and data is crucial. Use analytics to understand user behaviour, conduct usability tests, and be open to feedback. Embrace the power of iteration to refine your design and improve user experiences continually.

Creating a robust and great user experience is like weaving a story. Each design decision is a sentence, and each interaction is a chapter. And when they come together, they should tell a compelling story that reflects your brand, resonates with your users, and leaves a lasting impression. Remember, at the core of every exceptional user experience lies empathy. Designing with empathy means understanding your users beyond the surface, immersing yourself in their world, and then building a bridge that connects their needs to your offerings. 
Your website is more than a digital platform; it&#39;s a dialogue between your brand and its users. It&#39;s your first impression, your silent salesperson, your brand ambassador. So let&#39;s make it count. Let&#39;s build experiences that are not just usable, but enjoyable. Experiences that inspire, engage, and delight. Experiences that make a difference. Because in the end, we&#39;re not just designing interfaces; we&#39;re designing connections, memories, and relationships. We&#39;re designing for humans. 
 
If you need help crafting a User Experience like no other, get in touch and see how NU can help you today.&nbsp;

7 UX tips for exceptional User Experiences

There&rsquo;s no getting away from it, we&rsquo;re living in a digital era when it comes to branding and design. It&#39;s now impossible to ignore the transformative power of technology when it comes to managing online content. An exciting buzzword that&#39;s doing the rounds in the industry is a &#39;Headless&rsquo;.&nbsp;

But what is a headless CMS and how do you know if it&#39;s what your brand needs? Let&#39;s demystify this term and see if it&#39;s a good fit for your business.

Understanding the Headless CMS

A CMS or content management&nbsp;system is a software that allows you to create, manage, and modify content on your website without the need for specialised technical knowledge. Traditionally, CMS platforms are &#39;coupled&#39;, meaning the front-end (what the user sees, the &#39;head&#39;) and the back-end (where the content is created and managed, the &#39;body&#39;) are intrinsically linked. This has been the norm for years and works well for straightforward, brochure-style websites.

However, with the ever-evolving digital landscape, new needs are emerging. Brands are no longer serving content only on websites, but also on mobile apps, digital kiosks, smartwatches, and other devices. This variety of channels can be a challenge for a coupled CMS, which is not built for such extensive content distribution.&nbsp;Enter the headless CMS. The &#39;headless&#39; aspect refers to the absence of a front-end layer. A headless CMS is all back-end &ndash; a content repository that facilitates content creation, storage, and delivery to any platform via APIs. This decoupling of the front-end and back-end gives you the freedom to deliver content anywhere, on any device.

So, what are the pros and cons?

The primary advantage of a headless CMS lies in its flexibility. Your content becomes device-agnostic, ready to be published across numerous platforms. This facilitates a seamless omnichannel experience for your audience, which is a massive win in today&rsquo;s digital-first world.&nbsp;A headless CMS also allows for more customisation. Developers now have the freedom to create custom front-end experiences without being tied to the&nbsp;limitations of traditional CMS templates. This can result in more innovative, engaging, and unique brand experiences. 
Plus, a headless CMS can even speed up your website. Without a front-end layer to weigh it down, the back-end can deliver content much quicker, improving your site&#39;s performance.

However, with freedom comes responsibility. A headless CMS requires a higher degree of technical proficiency as your team will have to build and manage the front-end display from scratch. The decoupled architecture can also lead to extra work in previewing content before it goes live.

So, do you need a Headless CMS?

Deciding whether a headless CMS is right for you comes down to your brand&rsquo;s specific needs. If you&#39;re distributing content across multiple platforms and want to ensure a consistent, high-quality experience, a headless CMS is an excellent choice. 
If your branding and design strategy involves creating unique, custom user experiences not catered to by traditional CMS templates, the headless CMS provides the flexibility you need.

However, if your content distribution is mostly via a single website with a straightforward layout and structure, and you don&#39;t have a highly skilled technical team, a traditional CMS will serve your needs just fine. 
A headless CMS represents a significant shift in the way brands manage and deliver content. It offers many advantages, especially in terms of flexibility and the ability to deliver a unified, omnichannel customer experience. However, it&#39;s not for everyone. Understanding your brand&rsquo;s needs and resources is crucial in making the right choice.

Remember, technology serves as a tool to help fulfil your business goals. Choosing the right CMS &ndash; whether headless or not &ndash; is about finding the most effective tool for your unique branding and design journey. After all, every headless body still needs a strategic mind to lead the way.

If you need help deciding which model is best for your brands needs, get in touch today and see how we can help you reach your true potential.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Unravelling the headless CMS: is it right for your brand?

As the world continues to grapple with climate change and its escalating consequences, every industry, from fashion to food, must reassess its role and responsibility. And of course, the digital world is no exception to this. Contrary to popular belief, the internet is not an ethereal entity exempt from environmental impact. In fact, data centres worldwide, account for about 2% of global carbon emissions - which is nearly the same as the aviation industry!

Given the profound impact, it&#39;s clear that creating sustainable, eco-friendly websites is more than a passing trend&mdash;it&#39;s a must. And here&#39;s the thing: going green doesn&#39;t mean you have to compromise on speed and efficiency. In fact, adopting eco-friendly practices can lead to lighter, faster, and more responsive websites, improving the user experience and boosting your brand reputation.

In this blog post, we will explore key strategies to balance speed and sustainability in website development, all while staying true to your brand&#39;s unique voice.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/07/06/our-top-tips-for-building-swift-and-sustainable-eco-friendly-websites-internal-image2_.png" style="height:1029px; width:1367px" />

Optimisation is Key

A well-optimised website is a fast and eco-friendly one. Start by reducing file sizes - this means everything from images, JavaScript, CSS files to fonts. Smaller file sizes mean less data to transfer, leading to faster load times and fewer emissions. Utilise compression tools and techniques, like lazy loading, which only loads elements when they&#39;re needed. A responsive design approach can also be a great help in ensuring your site performs well across different devices and screen sizes.

Think Green Hosting

Green hosting providers are leading the way in reducing the digital carbon footprint. These companies run their servers on renewable energy, offset their emissions, or invest in environmental initiatives. When choosing a green hosting provider, ensure they are transparent about their sustainability efforts and that these align with your brand&#39;s values.

Efficient Coding Practices

A less talked about, but highly impactful method for creating eco-friendly websites is efficient coding. Streamlined, clean code results in lighter pages, faster load times, and less strain on servers. Adopt modern, lightweight frameworks and prioritise front-end performance to enhance the user experience and reduce your website&#39;s environmental impact.

Sustainable UX/UI Design

When it comes to eco-friendly web design, every decision counts. A minimalist design approach not only aligns with current trends but also minimises data use. Removing unnecessary elements, limiting use of heavy multimedia content, and optimising navigation can make your site more accessible, user-friendly, and eco-friendly.

Educate and Inspire

Lastly, use your platform to educate your users about your green initiatives. A sustainability section on your website, regular blog posts, or social media updates on your eco-friendly practices can create transparency, inspire others, and help build a strong, conscious community around your brand.

Building eco-friendly websites might seem like a daunting task, but with small, consistent steps, it becomes an integral part of your web development process. By prioritising speed and sustainability, you&#39;re not just minimising your carbon footprint, but also setting an industry example. Remember, every kilobyte reduced, every renewable energy source utilised, and every user educated about sustainability, makes a difference.

Find out how NU can help you build a site that is more eco-friendly today.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Our Top Tips for Building Swift and Sustainable Eco-Friendly Websites

We&rsquo;ve spoken before about how NU is on a journey to becoming a more sustainable agency. And as we learn about what that involves, we will be documenting what we learn and our progress. 
One of the first things we&rsquo;ve had to do is understand the key terminology that is used when it comes to sustainability in business and when to use them.&nbsp; 
 
Here are some of the most vital environmental terms you need to know and what they mean:

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/06/14/sustainabiliy-terms-explained-internal-image.jpg" style="height:4080px; width:6117px" />

<ol>
	<li dir="ltr">
	B corp
	</li>
</ol>

A B Corp, or Benefit Corporation, is a for-profit company that has been certified by the non-profit organisation B Lab for meeting rigorous social, environmental, and transparency standards. By achieving this certification, B Corps demonstrate a commitment to balancing purpose and profit, focusing on the triple bottom line of people, planet, and profit. This means that in addition to generating profits, they strive to create positive social and environmental impacts for their stakeholders, employees, communities, and the environment, ensuring that their business practices are ethical and sustainable. You must undergo a risk assessment and verify your status every three years, so it&rsquo;s really something that you, as a business, are committing to long term.&nbsp;

<ol start="2">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Biodegradable&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

The meaning of the term biodegradable describes a material that can be broken down by natural processes, such as microorganism activity, into non-toxic components like water, carbon dioxide, and biomass. If you&rsquo;re claiming your product is biodegradable, it must completely break down and return to nature within a year.&nbsp;

<ol start="3">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Carbon neutrality&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

Carbon neutrality refers to achieving a net-zero carbon footprint, where the amount of carbon emissions produced by a business/organisation is balanced by an equivalent amount of carbon removal or offsetting measures. This can be accomplished by reducing emissions, investing in renewable energy, and supporting projects that capture or prevent the release of carbon dioxide, ultimately helping to combat climate change and promote a more sustainable future.

<ol start="4">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Climate action
	</li>
</ol>

Climate action encompasses various efforts and measures aimed at mitigating the effects of climate change, reducing greenhouse gas emissions, and transitioning to a more sustainable, low-carbon economy. It involves diverse strategies, such as adopting renewable energy sources, improving energy efficiency, protecting ecosystems, promoting sustainable agriculture, and raising public awareness. These collective efforts aim to limit global warming and safeguard the environment for future generations.

<ol start="5">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Climate change
	</li>
</ol>

Climate change refers to significant, long-term shifts in global weather patterns and temperatures, largely driven by human activities, such as the burning of fossil fuels and deforestation. These activities increase greenhouse gas concentrations in the atmosphere, causing the Earth to retain more heat. The consequences of climate change include rising sea levels, more frequent and severe weather events, species extinction, and disruptions to ecosystems, agriculture, and human societies.

<ol start="6">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Climate justice&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

Climate justice is the equitable distribution of the benefits and burdens associated with climate change and its solutions. It acknowledges that historically marginalised communities often face disproportionate impacts of climate change, despite contributing less to the problem. Climate justice seeks to address these disparities by prioritising the needs of vulnerable populations, promoting fair access to resources, and ensuring their meaningful participation in decision-making processes related to climate action.

<ol start="7">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Conscious consumerism
	</li>
</ol>

Conscious consumerism is a mindful approach to purchasing, where consumers actively consider the social, environmental, and ethical impacts of the products and services they buy. This includes supporting businesses that prioritise sustainability, fair labour practices, and transparency. By making informed choices, conscious consumers aim to promote positive change, reduce their ecological footprint, and contribute to a more equitable and sustainable economy.

<ol start="8">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Corporate social responsibility (CSR)
	</li>
</ol>

Corporate social responsibility (CSR) is a business approach that emphasises ethical behaviour, social and environmental considerations, and community engagement. Companies with robust CSR practices integrate these values into their core operations, decision-making processes, and relationships with stakeholders. CSR aims to strike a balance between generating profits and creating a positive societal impact, ensuring businesses contribute to a more sustainable and equitable world.

<ol start="9">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Eco-Friendly&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

Eco-friendly describes products, practices, or lifestyles that minimise harm to the environment and reduce the consumption of natural resources. This concept involves using sustainable materials, reducing waste and pollution, conserving energy and water, and promoting recycling and reusability. Adopting eco-friendly habits supports the preservation of ecosystems, combats climate change, and helps create a more sustainable world for future generations.

<ol start="10">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Green&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

A sustainable product is long-lasting, non-toxic, minimally packaged, and has a reduced environmental footprint compared to similar items. However, defining a product as &quot;green&quot; remains contentious, with unclear boundaries. This ambiguity has resulted in misleading marketing tactics, such as greenwashing, which can misrepresent a product&#39;s true environmental impact.

<ol start="11">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Greenwashing&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

Greenwashing is a deceptive marketing practice in which companies exaggerate or falsely claim their products, services, or policies are environmentally friendly. By creating a misleading &quot;green&quot; image, businesses seek to attract eco-conscious consumers and gain a competitive advantage. Greenwashing exploits consumer concerns for the environment, making it difficult for people to identify genuinely sustainable options and undermining efforts to promote environmental responsibility.

<ol start="12">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Net Zero
	</li>
</ol>

Net zero refers to the balance achieved when an entity&#39;s greenhouse gas emissions are counteracted by an equivalent amount of carbon removal or offsetting measures. This can be accomplished through reducing emissions, investing in renewable energy, and supporting carbon capture or emission prevention projects. Reaching net zero helps combat climate change, as it signifies no net increase in atmospheric greenhouse gas concentrations, supporting a more sustainable future.

<ol start="13">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Non-toxic
	</li>
</ol>

Non-toxic refers to substances or materials that do not pose a significant risk to human health, animals, or the environment when used or disposed of appropriately. These products are generally free from harmful chemicals or substances that are known to cause adverse effects or accumulate in ecosystems. By choosing non-toxic alternatives, consumers can minimise negative impacts on their well-being and contribute to a healthier, more sustainable environment.

<ol start="14">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Organic&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

Organic refers to a method of agricultural production that emphasises environmentally sustainable practices and avoids synthetic chemicals, such as pesticides, herbicides, and artificial fertilisers. Organic farming promotes biodiversity, soil health, and ecological balance by using natural processes and inputs, such as compost and biological pest control. Organic products, which can include food, textiles, and personal care items, are typically certified by regulatory agencies to ensure compliance with established standards.

<ol start="15">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Sustainability
	</li>
</ol>

Sustainability is the principle of meeting present needs without compromising the ability of future generations to meet their own needs. It encompasses economic, social, and environmental dimensions, aiming for a harmonious balance. Sustainable practices focus on resource conservation, waste reduction, and minimising negative impacts on the environment and society, ultimately striving for a more equitable, resilient, and healthy planet for all inhabitants.

<ol start="16">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Sustainable business&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

A sustainable business prioritises economic, social, and environmental considerations alongside profitability, integrating these values into its operations and decision-making processes. By adopting sustainable practices, such as resource conservation, waste reduction, and ethical supply chain management, these businesses minimise their negative impacts while maximising long-term value for stakeholders. Sustainable businesses contribute to a more resilient and equitable economy, ensuring a healthier planet for future generations.

This is something we are on a journey to becoming and learning more about. See our latest blog on <a href="https://nucreative.co.uk/post/five-things-a-business-can-do-to-be-more-sustainable">five things a business can do to be more sustainable</a>.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<ol start="17">
	<li dir="ltr">
	&nbsp;Sustainable design&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

A sustainable design business focuses on creating products, services, or spaces that minimise negative environmental and social impacts while maximising functionality and aesthetic appeal. By incorporating principles such as energy efficiency, waste reduction, and the use of eco-friendly materials, sustainable design businesses strive to balance economic success with ecological responsibility. The goal is to create innovative, long-lasting solutions that promote a healthier, more sustainable future.

See our latest blog on Green Graphic Desig and&nbsp;read more about sustainable design and how it can be implemented.&nbsp;

So there you have it, those are the key terms you need to know before starting your sustainability journey.&nbsp;We will keep updating this list as we continue to discover more.&nbsp;Throughout the course of the year, we will be sharing our journey towards getting our B Corp accreditation, and the steps we&rsquo;re taking to make that goal a reality.

Follow us on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/nu-creative-ltd/">LinkedIn</a> for regular updates.

And if you&rsquo;re looking to assess your values, mission statement and branding to follow a more sustainable path, get in touch today to see how NU can help you.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Sustainability Terms Explained

We often see the phrase &lsquo;Content is King&rsquo; being used by businesses. And it&rsquo;s true, but the reality is that we&rsquo;re still not seeing enough time and effort being put into many businesses&#39; content. Over and over, we see rehashed blogs, lacklustre social media posts and lifeless UX copy on websites. 
 
In today&#39;s highly competitive digital landscape, businesses should be seeking innovative ways to stay ahead of the curve. With an overwhelming amount of information available online, it has never been more essential to create a strong online presence that captures and retains the attention of your target audience. And that&#39;s where content creation comes in. Content creation is the backbone of any successful digital marketing strategy and is critical to your business&#39;s growth.&nbsp; 
And we&rsquo;re not talking about 10 posts a week that have been churned out by Chat GPT-4 that are repetitive, unverified and unbranded, but real authentic and personalised content that showcases who you really are as a business.

At NU we believe authenticity matters, so when it comes to content creation, our best advice is to just be you! By doing that, it will feel more real, more engaging and more natural for your audience to connect with your brand.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/06/06/internal_blog_content-creation.jpg" style="height:3812px; width:5708px" /> 
 
So let&rsquo;s look at some of the reasons you should invest in your content creation.&nbsp;

<ol>
	<li dir="ltr">
	It builds brand trust
	</li>
</ol>

Creating authentic content on what your business does and how it helps people, as well as behind-the-scenes and your brand story, builds trust. By educating your customers and potential customers on a particular topic, you will be the go-to brand for all their questions and needs. Even just being there in a fun and humorous way, that they connect with - builds strong loyalty.&nbsp;

<ol start="2">
	<li dir="ltr">
	It defines your brand&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

It takes time to build your brand, and that&rsquo;s exactly why you need consistent content. By crafting captivating content, you&#39;re assembling a collection of visuals and resources that define and identify you as a brand. Each time a user engages with your article or image, you&#39;re impacting your brand recognition. By cultivating a content library that embodies your brand, your creations will become unmistakably yours. Ultimately, when someone seeks a product or service like yours, your brand will be their first thought.

<ol start="3">
	<li dir="ltr">
	It Helps with SEO
	</li>
</ol>

Content creation drives SEO and traffic to your site. Especially if you&rsquo;re using the right keywords and creating genuinely engaging content, that people will want to share and interact with. And it&rsquo;s high-quality content that signals to search engines that your site is valuable, leading to improved rankings. Furthermore, it fosters organic link-building, enhances read times, and encourages repeat visits, all of which contribute to an optimised online presence.

<ol start="4">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Creates leads
	</li>
</ol>

With every new piece of content you share, you are increasing your odds of being seen by a new set of eyes. And with leads coming from content interaction, they will be a lot warmer than any that are cold sourced.&nbsp;

<ol start="5">
	<li dir="ltr">
	Showcase yourself as a leader in your industry&nbsp;
	</li>
</ol>

Showcasing your expertise, insights, and innovative ideas helps your audience recognise&nbsp; you as a leader in the industry. By consistently delivering valuable, informative content, you establish credibility and trust with your audience, positioning your brand as a go-to authority. This thought leadership not only garners respect but also drives customer loyalty and brand preference.

Content creation is essential to any brand that wants to stand out, build a loyal customer base and get sales. The main thing is to be authentic in your storytelling. If you consistently stick to your branding, your brand story, mission and values, you&rsquo;re on the right track. If you need help defining who you are, or with your storytelling, get in touch and let us help you.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

The benefit of content creation

We&rsquo;ve been keeping a little secret, ok a big one! We&rsquo;ve just launched a brand new website that focuses on all things social media and content!

Introducing <a href="https://social.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Social</a>!&nbsp;

Now, we know what you&rsquo;re thinking, &lsquo;haven&rsquo;t we always provided social and content services?&rsquo;&nbsp;

And yes, we have. But, we&rsquo;re going bigger!&nbsp;

We quickly realised that social media was rapidly growing at NU. So with this launch comes an even bigger team with even more resources.&nbsp;

Our dedicated team of social and content specialists create scroll-stopping social content that captivates your audience. Here are some of the services we offer:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Bespoke Social Media Strategies
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Captivating Content Creation
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Seamless Social Media Management
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Targeted Paid Social Advertising
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Impactful Influencer Marketing
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Engaging Email Marketing
	</li>
</ul>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/05/23/introducing-nu-social-internal-image.jpg" style="height:3800px; width:5692px" />

So what makes NU&nbsp;Social different?&nbsp;

Being part of NU Creative means that branding and design will always be at the heart of everything we do. As a result, we strategically create plans and content by looking at your brand values, your mission and your goals in a more holistic way.&nbsp;

By taking a brand-led approach to your social media, we can create content that deeply connects with your audience. And help you showcase who you really are, to connect with like-minded customers who become loyal ambassadors of your brand.&nbsp;

Take a look at our brand new website&nbsp;NU Social <a href="https://social.nucreative.co.uk">here</a>.

We&rsquo;re really excited about this next phase in our journey, and can&rsquo;t wait to help brands take their social media and content to the next level.&nbsp;

Get in touch today to find out more about how we can help elevate your social and content.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

social media, social media agency, content creation

Introducing Nu Social

In today&#39;s competitive business landscape, it&#39;s never been more crucial for brands to stand out and make a lasting impact on their audience. One of the ways to achieve this is by defining and showcasing your company&#39;s purpose or mission. While both concepts share similarities, they also differ in various aspects, and companies might choose one approach over the other to guide their business strategy. In this blog post, we will explore purpose-led and mission-led approaches. To see which one makes more sense for your business. 
Over the years, we&rsquo;ve helped many businesses define who they are and why they&rsquo;re here. And when it comes to &lsquo;purpose&rsquo; vs &lsquo;mission&rsquo; there&rsquo;s no clear winner - it really does depend on the business.&nbsp;

Let&rsquo;s explore what they are and their differences.&nbsp;

Purpose-led vs. Mission-led Companies

A purpose-led company is driven by a broader, long-term goal that goes beyond just making a profit. The purpose is often rooted in creating a positive impact on society, the environment, or the industry. This approach resonates with customers, employees, and stakeholders who share the same values and beliefs. Purpose-led companies are known for fostering strong company culture, higher employee engagement, and long-term customer loyalty. 
On the other hand, a mission-led company focuses on a specific objective or goal that defines its reason for existence. The mission is more practical and short-term, guiding the company&#39;s strategies, operations, and decision-making. Mission-led companies are often admired for their clarity of vision, strong execution, and ability to quickly adapt to market changes.

Why Your Business Needs a Purpose or Mission

<ol>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Differentiation: In a saturated market, having a clear purpose or mission sets you apart from the competition. It helps customers identify with your brand and feel more connected to your products or services.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Employee Engagement: Employees who believe in the company&#39;s purpose or mission are more likely to be engaged and motivated. They are also more likely to stay with the company long-term, reducing turnover and increasing productivity.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Brand Loyalty: Purpose-led and mission-led companies tend to have loyal customers who believe in their values and are willing to support them through purchases and recommendations.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Long-term Strategy: Having a purpose or mission serves as a compass, guiding the company&#39;s decisions and helping it stay on track toward achieving its long-term goals.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Reputation: A company with a strong purpose or mission is often perceived as more credible and trustworthy, which can help attract new customers and partnerships.
	</li>
</ol>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/05/09/internal-blog-image.png" style="height:768px; width:1366px" />

Choosing Between Purpose-led and Mission-led Approaches

There&#39;s no one-size-fits-all answer to whether your business should be purpose-led or mission-led. It largely depends on your industry, target audience, company values, and long-term goals. Here are some factors to consider when making your decision:

<ol>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Industry and Market Trends: Analyse your industry and market trends to determine which approach is more relevant and likely to resonate with your target audience.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Company Culture and Values: Consider your company&#39;s culture and values to determine whether a purpose-led or mission-led approach would be a better fit.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Long-term Goals: Reflect on your long-term goals and whether they are better aligned with a broader purpose or a more specific mission.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Resources: Evaluate the resources available to your company, such as time, talent, and financial investment, to determine which approach is more feasible and sustainable.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Customer Preferences: Understand your customer&#39;s preferences and whether they are more likely to connect with a purpose-led or mission-led brand.
	</li>
</ol>

Defining your business&#39;s purpose or mission is a crucial step in building a strong, recognisable brand that resonates with your target audience. By understanding the differences between purpose-led and mission-led approaches, you can choose the one that best aligns with your company&#39;s values, goals, and industry.

Our CEO and founder Sarah says &ldquo;we often realise during a strategy workshop with clients that a purpose isn&rsquo;t what works for them, and ended up going down the mission-led route. It&rsquo;s only by answering a series of questions that ultimately answers why you exist that you can really know which way to go. It&rsquo;s a case-by-case situation, but an important one nonetheless.&rdquo;

If you need help understanding your brand&#39;s mission or purpose and how to communicate that to your audience, NU can help. Get in touch to find out more.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Does Your Business Need a Purpose? Exploring Purpose-led vs. Mission-led Approaches

Name: Christina&nbsp;

Job Title: Senior Designer

The best part of my job is&hellip;&nbsp; 
&ldquo;Being able to be creative (most days) and get paid for it. It&rsquo;s really nice to be surrounded by like-minded people in the studio who understand the pains and gains of being a designer. I also love that people who don&rsquo;t know Design think that this job is way cooler than it is, haha!&rdquo;

How did you start your career in design?

&ldquo;I started off studying Economics at University and realised very quickly that I would be quite miserable if I ended up in a finance-related job, so I switched over to a Visual Communications / Illustration degree. This led to me researching careers that excited me, and Graphic Design was the one that I happened upon.&rdquo;

What does a typical day look like for you?

&ldquo;Wake up, travel to work, grumble on way to work, get a matcha latte, grumble at work, go home and binge on Netflix whilst drawing on my iPad.&rdquo;

What are the best tools you use?&nbsp;

&ldquo;I love using Procreate to do digital illustrations! It&rsquo;s such a flexible tool, and as I use it on my Ipad, I can do drawings on the go.&rdquo;

What work are you most proud of?

&ldquo;I love doing animation, so anything I&rsquo;ve done that allows me to use that skill and showcases this is usually high on that list. I have also been doing a lot of digital work lately, as I am learning Figma, and I am pretty proud of how far I&rsquo;ve come in this area and can create fully prototyped website mock-ups now.&rdquo;

What excites you about the world of design?

&ldquo;I like that there are so many ways to answer a brief and how design solutions can be limitless.&rdquo;

What do you do to spark inspiration or creativity?

&ldquo;I love browsing other artists&rsquo; work from different industries and other areas of design. You&rsquo;ll find a lot of inspiration that can be translated across mediums, and it really helps when I&rsquo;m having a creative block kind of day. I collect many art books that reflect this, and flicking through these really sparks creativity.&rdquo;

What is the best design book you&rsquo;ve read?

&ldquo;&lsquo;Information is beautiful&rsquo; by David McCandless is not necessarily the best, but it&rsquo;s the most influential design book for me, as I was gifted this early in my career, and it helped to shape my thinking about information and how the ordinary can be made beautiful.&rdquo;

What&rsquo;s your favourite thing to do outside of work?

&ldquo;Play badminton, illustrate, and eat yummy things!&rdquo;

What&rsquo;s your favourite joke?

&ldquo;Trump&rsquo;s presidency.&rdquo;

If you were famous, what would it be for?

&ldquo;Ideally, for creating the most amazing illustrations!&rdquo;

What is your most used emoji?&nbsp;

🤓

Who would play you in a movie about your life?

&ldquo;Rebel Wilson &ndash; Just because she is super funny.&rdquo;

 
&nbsp;

Meet Christina

At NU, we understand that sustainable design is not just a fleeting trend; it&rsquo;s critical to the future and here to stay! This isn&rsquo;t a new concept by any means; after all, we&rsquo;ve been seeing companies promoting digital resources for a long time, such as digital bills, menus and even product catalogues etc. And whilst it was thought that going digital was the key to saving the planet, it seems the digital world could use a bit of a tidy-up.

And that&rsquo;s where Green Graphic Design comes in. Recently, there has been a lot of conversation about sustainable design and how this can help businesses minimise their effect on the planet.

NU is on a journey to becoming a more sustainable business, and whilst we know it will be a challenging journey ahead, we want to share it with you every step of the way. The first step is to understand what a sustainable business is and what that means for a branding and design agency like us. In this article, we explore the ways that Green Graphic Design is the future of business, why it&rsquo;s so important and why your business needs to start implementing it into your branding.

<h2 dir="ltr">What is sustainable green graphic design?</h2>

As the energy demands of digital life keep increasing, incorporating green graphic design principles helps to limit the impact design has on the environment. This type of design focuses on creating visual communication that is environmentally friendly and sustainable. It&rsquo;s the art of incorporating sustainable design principles and practices into the graphic design process to reduce the environmental impact of printed and digital media. 
The whole process involves considering the entire lifecycle of a design project, whether sourcing materials or recycling the finished product, using sustainable materials such as recycled paper, non-toxic inks, and digital formats that minimise waste and pollution.

Accessibility is also hugely important, as it must consider the impact on society and the environment. Ensuring that the design is accessible to all users, including those with disabilities, and using design to raise awareness of environmental issues and promote sustainability.

Factors like the size, colour, shape and printing style that a designer makes all affect the ecological footprint. This is why carefully considered decisions during the process can reduce the environmental impact, resulting in a more efficient use of natural resources and less greenhouse gas emissions.

By getting on board now, businesses can differentiate themselves as being socially and environmentally responsible, while providing their clients with innovative and sustainable solutions. Green graphic design can also help reduce costs by minimising waste and optimising resources.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/04/19/internal-image.png" style="height:1841px; width:2760px" />

<h2 dir="ltr">Why do you need sustainable graphic design?&nbsp;</h2>

Incorporating green design into your branding can help your business reap many benefits. Let&rsquo;s take a look at some of those:&nbsp;

To connect with your eco-conscious customers&nbsp;

Did you know that every action you take as a business showcases your brand values to the world? The same goes for what you don&rsquo;t do. Not only will your eco-conscious customers appreciate it, but it will highlight your company as modern, ethical and progressive. Many people are becoming increasingly eco-conscious in their purchases of products and services, so this is a great way to showcase your values to them. 
Be warned that people can see Greenwashing a mile away, so you need to stick to your values and showcase how you implement them.&nbsp;

To save costs&nbsp;

By implementing sustainable design, you create and design only what is necessary, resulting in cost savings. Moreover, businesses that adopt sustainable practices tend to receive more positive responses from both customers and employees. This, in turn, can lead to increased sales, enhanced brand loyalty, and higher employee retention rates. For consumer brands, in particular, this is massively important as consumers have and are increasingly becoming more environmentally aware. 
According to <a href="https://www2.deloitte.com/uk/en/pages/consumer-business/articles/sustainable-consumer.html">Deloitte</a>, 59% of consumers have decreased their purchases of new products and goods, while 40% intentionally seek out brands with environmentally friendly practices or values.

Social responsibility&nbsp;

We have a responsibility to protect the environment as well as promote ethical business practices. By implementing sustainable designs and effectively communicating brand values and practices, your business can lead the way in sustainability. This not only educates your customers and the industry but also contributes to broader change. 
The significance of sustainable graphic design not only eases the burden on the planet but also upholds ethical business practices, improving the well-being of clients and employees alike. Adopting sustainable practices can enable you to be more conscious of your graphic design choices and aid in safeguarding our planet for future generations.

<h2>How to go green with your graphics</h2>

Here are some tips that you can implement into your green design:&nbsp;

During the briefing process

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	The way you prioritise decisions during the brief as well as during the concept stages will ultimately affect the full design process as well as the environmental effect of the project.&nbsp;
	</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Identify the most critical factors so these can be prioritised.
	</li>
</ul>

During the design process

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Designers should consider the aesthetic style, formatting and impacts during the process. For example, using the space to effectively and efficiently minimise the resources required.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Design with minimal offcuts as well as paper waste during the printing process.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Create designs that are visually impactful whilst using less colour and ink.
	</li>
</ul>

Did you know that many inks create something called Volatile Organic Compounds which is known to contribute to climate change and air pollution?

During the printing process

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Work with a certified printing company or at least one that is environmentally conscious.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	For less environmental impact, non-VOC-based inks (or low ones)&nbsp; such as recycled inks, water, soy-based or even vegetable.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Find an eco-friendly post-press operation solution, like water-based glue for labels and binding. As many post-press processes are stopping finished results from being recyclable.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	You could use Foilco. Foil printing is a solvent-free and dry method of printing. After being transferred onto the substrate, the foil becomes extremely thin, measuring less than 2.5 microns. This implies that it dissolves completely during the re-pulping process. As long as the substrate or material being foiled is recyclable, it can be disposed of in standard recycling bins or normal waste streams.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Minimise packaging.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Waste paper recycling and using recycled paper too.
	</li>
</ul>

There are many fantastic reasons for your business to embrace sustainability, but we understand it&rsquo;s a journey. And you may need help with the process, whether that&rsquo;s realigning your Brand Values and Mission, to redesigning your logo or packaging. 
We are also on our journey to becoming a more sustainable business. Throughout the year, we will be sharing our journey to getting our B Corp accreditation and the steps we&rsquo;re taking to make that goal a reality. Follow us on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/nu-creative-ltd/">LinkedIn</a> for regular updates.&nbsp;

And if you&rsquo;re looking to assess your values, mission statement and branding to follow a more sustainable path, get in touch today to see how NU can help you.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

What is Green Graphic Design?

Name: Nnamdi

Job Title: Midweight Designer

The best part of my job is&hellip;

&ldquo;When everything clicks into place visually. Making everything work harmoniously feels akin to completing a complex puzzle; it&rsquo;s immensely satisfying.&rdquo;

How did you start your career in design?

&ldquo;Like most designers, I took an interest in drawing at a young age, but I really got into spraypaint graffiti around year 9. My art teacher took notice and introduced me to some design books which piqued my interest. Having some highly competitive friends in art and design took me to pursue it as a career. &rdquo;

What does a typical day look like for you?

&ldquo;Over a strong coffee, I browse my Panda 5 browser extension for a quick boast of inspiration before jumping into emails and reading feedback. Once I&rsquo;ve got a concrete list of things to do, I go down based on priority.&rdquo;

What are the best tools you use?

&ldquo;All of the creative cloud suite based on the situation.&rdquo;

What work are you most proud of?

&ldquo;Last year, I built a medical website with a very technically inclined client team with very disparate tastes and was able to make something that pleased all of them whilst ensuring that it was digestible to more laymen customers.&rdquo;

What excites you about the world of design?

&ldquo;It&rsquo;s constant adaptability. Other than just changing trends in design, new technologies or systems always open new gateways for creativity and design. You&rsquo;re rarely bored as a designer.&rdquo;

What do you do to spark inspiration or creativity?&nbsp;

&ldquo;I have a few sites I visit to get the juices following, but if that doesn&rsquo;t work for whatever reason, I run back to Pinterest and rummage through the things I&rsquo;ve seen over the years.&rdquo;

What is the best design book you&rsquo;ve read?&nbsp;

&ldquo;Know your onions, it was a fairly basic book I read when just starting out, but it really laid into me the foundations of things they don&rsquo;t quite teach you when studying.&rdquo;

What&rsquo;s your favourite thing to do outside of work?

&ldquo;I&rsquo;m primarily a socialiser, but I&rsquo;m getting old. Before, it was going to bars and clubs. Now it&rsquo;s going to bars and cafes.&rdquo;

If you were famous, what would it be for?

&ldquo;Well, hopefully not that time when [REDACTED]. But probably [REDACTED].&rdquo;

What is your most used emoji?

&ldquo;Rolling on the floor laughing. I am hilarious, so I laugh at my own jokes a lot.&rdquo;

Who would play you in a movie about your life?

&ldquo;Brain Tyree Henry is older than me but probably a great choice. Winston Duke, if I hit the gym and photoshop enough of my photos.&rdquo;

What&rsquo;s your favourite joke?

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/03/08/asset-1.png" style="height:1000px; width:1000px" />

graphic designer, designer, meet the team

Meet Nnamdi

At NU, we are on a journey to becoming a more sustainable agency. We will be documenting this journey as we go, showing you the real work that goes into it in the most honest and authentic way.&nbsp;To start, we wanted to address what businesses can do to be more sustainable, why it&rsquo;s so important and the types of areas within your company that need to be tackled.

Currently, we are at the beginning of our journey, but we are committed to making changes to the way we work, with our first goal to become a B Corp-certified business. We know it&rsquo;s going to be a difficult thing to achieve but we are dedicated to this period of change for the better.&nbsp;The way consumers spend their money has become more eco-conscious over the years, with many preferring to spend more with brands that are at least trying to become greener. Of course, this is a long process for many companies, but by showcasing your intentions and implementing more responsible decisions and processes, you&rsquo;ll appeal to a much larger audience.&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/02/23/shutterstock_782200498_M3eq1M7.jpg" style="height:3379px; width:5068px" />

Firstly, what is a sustainable business? 
In simple terms, a sustainable business is an organisation that operates in a way that balances economic, social, and environmental considerations.&nbsp;When you think of a sustainable business, often the first thing you think of is the environment. However, this goes beyond environmental factors. Of course, reducing waste and emissions and using renewable resources are incredibly important, but so is socio-economic change, such as corporate culture, promoting diversity and equality, well-being, and ensuring ethical and responsible decision-making.

What can businesses do to be more sustainable? 
The first step is deciding to start the process of becoming a sustainable business.&nbsp;Then consume as much information as possible about what it takes to be sustainable and start introducing measures into the business and setting your longer-term goals. The journey will inevitably take some time, but there are some quick wins that you can start implementing immediately.In this article, we are going to focus on five areas of impact that you should focus on:&nbsp;

<h2>The five areas of impact</h2>

Governance 
This area of impact refers to the systems and processes that ensure a company operates in a responsible and sustainable manner. It involves incorporating sustainability into decision-making, setting sustainability goals, and involving all stakeholders. Effective governance helps prioritise sustainability, build trust with stakeholders, and ensure accountability. It can also include creating specialised roles and committees and regular reporting on sustainability initiatives.

Quick Win: To start, you can update and review your code of ethics. Then make it available publicly on your website. You should also review and update your mission statement.&nbsp;

Employees 
Employee sustainability is the current and future ability of people to stay in the workforce. This is determined by a healthy culture that supports and values its employees. This can be showcased in the following ways:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Creating a culture where employees are engaged, committed and have high job satisfaction.&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	The workforce is diverse and inclusive.&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Wellness initiatives to support physical and mental well-being.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Opportunities to learn and develop.
	</li>
</ul>

Quick Win: The first thing to consider is creating or updating career development opportunities for your employees. Then the next step would be to work on ensuring the well-being of your employees by implementing a wellness programme that works for you.&nbsp;

Environment 
Businesses can be more environmentally sustainable by reducing their waste and emissions, using sustainable materials and practices, and investing in renewable energy sources. This can involve implementing waste reduction programmes, using energy-efficient technologies, and transitioning to renewable energy sources.&nbsp; 
Additionally, businesses can reduce their environmental footprint by using sustainable materials, such as recycled or biodegradable products, and implementing environmentally-friendly practices, such as composting and water conservation. By taking these steps, businesses can minimise their impact on the environment and help create a more sustainable future.

Quick Win: One of the easiest and quickest things you can do as a business is to ensure you are recycling materials as much as possible. You can also check and improve your water, waste and energy usage as a priority.&nbsp;

Community 
There are so many ways that businesses can be more sustainable in their communities. Here are a few things to consider:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Supporting local communities: Working with local organisations and community groups to create positive social and economic impacts within the community.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Encouraging employee engagement: Get everyone involved in community projects and volunteer work to create a positive impact and foster a sense of community.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Promoting sustainable transportation: Such as ride-to-work schemes or public transportation, to help to reduce air pollution and traffic congestion.
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Implementing environmentally-friendly practices: By reducing waste and emissions, using sustainable materials, and investing in renewable energy sources, businesses can minimise their environmental impact and help to create a more sustainable community.
	</li>
</ul>

Businesses can be more sustainable in their communities by considering the impacts of their operations on the local environment and people and by taking steps to create positive social, economic, and environmental outcomes. 
Quick Win: Discover ways to give back to your local community, as well as include the community in your business activities where appropriate.&nbsp;

Customers 
Customer sustainability can help businesses to build trust and increase customer loyalty, as customers are more likely to support companies that align with their values and prioritise sustainability. Ultimately, customer sustainability is about creating a positive impact for people and the planet through responsible and sustainable behaviour.&nbsp;

Quick Win: Reach out to your customers for regular feedback on where you can improve. You should also create a robust complaints process to ensure happy customers and that all feedback is appropriately considered.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/02/23/shutterstock_1304251684.jpg" style="height:3381px; width:5072px" />

Why is it so important? 
Improving things like inequality, business culture, environmental impact, and legal systems is essential for us as a global community to survive. Currently, there is a lot that needs to be &lsquo;fixed&rsquo; within the business world, so now has never been a better time to make the change necessary.&nbsp;

We asked our founder Sarah why becoming a more sustainable agency is so important to her. Here&rsquo;s what she said:&nbsp; 
&ldquo;As I have got older and I have been in business for longer, I have experienced first-hand, how running a business can impact the environment. I&rsquo;ve also witnessed the inequality that people have to suffer (sometimes in silence), the unfair legal systems that we (as SMEs in particular) have to jump through hoops for, whilst larger businesses can avoid them, and most importantly the impact that this has on so many people for their physical and mental health. I have had enough and I want things to change. I recognise that in order for that to happen, I also need to change, and NU Creative needs to change. I&rsquo;m extremely passionate about making positive changes for people and the planet.&rdquo;&nbsp;

Through the course of the year, we will be sharing our journey to getting our B Corp accreditation, and the steps we&rsquo;re taking to make that goal a reality. Follow us on <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/nu-creative-ltd/">LinkedIn</a> for regular updates. 
And if you&rsquo;re looking to assess your values, mission statement and branding to follow a more sustainable path, get in touch today to see how NU can help you.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

Five things a business can do to be more sustainable

Name: Dominika

Job Title: Midweight Designer&nbsp;

The best part of my job is&hellip;

&ldquo;One is that magical feeling towards the end of the project when everything comes together, and you can see the project going live. That&#39;s also always really rewarding. And the second thing I find really fulfilling is after every project you do, you get to see how much you&#39;ve grown and developed.&rdquo;

How did you start your career in design?&nbsp;

&ldquo;I&#39;ve always considered myself very lucky because I knew I wanted to be a creative ever since I was very little. I started by creating posters and small materials for friends and family, and of course, drawing a lot. That enabled me to explore my passion quite early on and then move to UK to pursue a graphic design degree at UAL &rdquo;

What does a typical day look like for you?

&ldquo;I&#39;m lucky to be able to walk to the office. So I always start my day by listening to an episode of the Patagonia podcast and mentally resetting myself before work. I start my workday by going through emails and checking what needs to be done that day. And then, depending on the day, it&#39;s a mix of working on a design project, feedback and brainstorming sessions with the team and client meetings.&rdquo;

What are the best tools you use?

&ldquo;As a multidisciplinary designer, I use all of the Adobe Creative Cloud programmes, but my favourite one is Figma.&rdquo;

What work are you most proud of?

&ldquo;Last year, I got to both design and build a website for a new skyscraper that is being built in the City of London. It was a very challenging and prestigious project. It definitely topped my list of favourite projects of the year.&rdquo;

What excites you about the world of design?

&ldquo;It&#39;s constantly changing and responding in real-time to what&#39;s happening in the world, and there&#39;s never a dull moment. In my spare time, I mentor teenagers who would like to pursue a creative career and love seeing that fresh energy. It makes me excited and hopeful about the future of design&rdquo;

What do you do to spark inspiration or creativity?&nbsp;

&ldquo;My favourite thing is to listen to podcasts, such as Design Matters with Debbie Millman. I also love going to design festivals. They&#39;re always so inspiring, and afterwards, I feel like I&#39;ve kind of emerged a decade into the future, and I can&#39;t wait to use the learnings in my work.&rdquo;

What is the best design book you&rsquo;ve read?&nbsp;

&ldquo;It would be &lsquo;How To&rsquo; it&#39;s a book by my all-time favourite design hero, Michael Bierut.&rdquo;

What&rsquo;s your favourite thing to do outside of work?

&ldquo;I am a huge nature lover, and I love spending my time outside hiking through forests and mountains. I do have an ambitious plan to join my parents during their next expedition to the Himalayan.&rdquo;

What pasta shape would you be?

&ldquo;It would be Farfalle because they are just such a joy.&rdquo;

If you had to eat one meal every day for the rest of your life, what would it be?&nbsp;

&ldquo;That&#39;s easy, pancakes! They have always been my favourite food since I can remember. I eat them a lot, and I still haven&#39;t gotten bored of them.&rdquo;

What&rsquo;s your favourite line from a movie?&nbsp;

&ldquo;That&#39;s a tricky one. I used to watch a lot of Disney movies when I was a kid. And, of course, you know, there wasn&#39;t such a vast amount of streaming content as there is right now. So we ended up re-watching movies and learning the lines by heart.&nbsp; 
So I think my favourite one is from my favourite kid&#39;s movie, Mulan. It&#39;s the part when Mushu says &lsquo;Mushu genius&rsquo;, but it just sounds so much better in Polish.&rdquo;

What is your karaoke song?&nbsp;

&ldquo;I love singing, but I don&#39;t really sing in public, and there&#39;s a reason for that. But I do love singing Disney songs. Mostly when I&#39;m on a road trip. And when I&#39;m stuck in traffic and embarrassingly notice that the person in the car next to me sees me. That&#39;s when I stop.&rdquo;

 
&nbsp;

graphic designer, designer, branding, design

Meet Dominika

We need to talk about the social media platform that&rsquo;s making a big noise right now, BeReal. The fact that it&rsquo;s been downloaded over 73 million times worldwide definitely makes it one to watch. In fact, it was even the number 1 free app on the IOS App Store last July. 
 
So, what is this new social channel, and more importantly, should your business be on it?

In this article, we are going to explain what it is, how brands are using it to their advantage and why being authentic on social media platforms (and even as a brand) is the future.&nbsp;

But first, what exactly is it? 
With over 10 million daily users, this platform allows users to capture what they&rsquo;re doing in real-time. It works by sending a message to its users once randomly during the day, and then you have 2 minutes to capture and post a real-time image. No filters, no videos, just real life. The fact that you have to act so quickly means that there is no time for overthinking; it&rsquo;s all about capturing an authentic moment. It also only lets you interact with your friends if you post, so it encourages everyone to get involved.

How are brands using it? 
It&rsquo;s easy to write off new social platforms as a fad, but BeReal is really making its mark on the social sphere. It has even caught the attention of Instagram and Tik Tok, with the brands launching &lsquo;Candid Stories&rsquo; &amp; &lsquo;TikTok Now&rsquo; as new features. And it&rsquo;s clear that BeReal was the inspiration behind it.&nbsp;But with no ads and no time for lengthy editing or sign-off processes, you must be wondering what place this social channel has for your business.&nbsp;

Here are two brands using BeReal to showcase their unfiltered and authentic selves.

<h2 dir="ltr">Chipotle</h2>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/01/30/chipotle_inner_blog.png" style="height:666px; width:437px" />

Images were taken from Chipotle&#39;s BeReal account

Chipotle was one of the first brands to get on board with BeReal and has been growing a close community over the last year. They use a range of discount codes and announce events as well as competitions to win burritos for a year.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Kiehls</h2>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/01/30/internal_bereal_blog_image.jpg" style="height:683px; width:1366px" />

Images were taken from Kiehl&rsquo;s BeReal account

Kiehl&rsquo;s has used BeReal to give its customers an insight into the life behind the brand. Adopting a brand mascot, &lsquo;Mr Bones&rsquo;, to add some creativity.

Ways your business can use it 
Customers are looking for authenticity in brands more than ever. So BeReal is a great way to connect with your community in a real and honest way. Here are some savvy ways you can incorporate BeReal into your business.

Behind-the-scenes posts 
Show your customers what happens behind the scenes. This can be anything from meetings, office life, events, photoshoots, and sneak peeks. This helps your customers get to know you and build a rapport with your brand.&nbsp;

Build a Gen-Z community 
More and more consumers, particularly Gen Z, are opting to use more authentic community platforms like Discord and Twitch rather than timeline-driven apps like Instagram and Twitter.&nbsp;

Champion authenticity 
BeReal is all about truth and integrity. It&rsquo;s even been labelled an &lsquo;anti-Instagram.&rsquo; As more consumers become aware of the potential mental health issues surrounding highly edited and curated social imagery, it&rsquo;s great to see an app that is as raw as it gets&mdash;for example, showing the less-than-glamorous side of a business and advocating the true reality.&nbsp;

Show that you&rsquo;re relatable and on-trend 
There has been a shift in consumer attitudes, and people are becoming tired of the constant flashy or staged products and services and are craving something relatable. Brands that understand what their customers want and are on the platforms they enjoy give a level of authenticity that people will respond to. 
With so many apps launching daily, it&rsquo;s hard for them to create a big buzz. But with the authenticity, BeReal offers, it&rsquo;s made people take note. Whilst authenticity in social media is not a new concept, in fact, it&rsquo;s a phrase that&rsquo;s been around for some time, with brands posting raw and unfiltered pictures. This is more of an extension of that but in a new and refreshing way. 
Even if BeReal isn&rsquo;t the platform for your business right now, the takeaway is that more and more people are looking for authentic and raw connections with brands. So, posting videos and behind-the-scenes, meet-the-team, unedited product shots helps make you relatable and strengthens your brand community.

Of course, there will always be a need for those curated beautiful shots, but incorporating the personality and people behind the brand is sure to open up your company to new markets as well as create a loyal community for your brand.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

What is BeReal? And should brands be using it?

Even with the best will in the world, it can be hard to stay on top of all the brand terms out there. And it can be intimidating when someone uses branding jargon during a meeting that confuses you and completely throws you off track. The difficulty is that there is always a new term being coined as &lsquo;the next big thing&rsquo; or even businesses creating new terminology to try and seem ahead of the curve.&nbsp; 
But, the question you&rsquo;re left with is, is this useful? Is this a new term for something that is already out there? Or is this utter nonsense?&nbsp;

That&rsquo;s why in this glossary, we are going to explain the complete A-Z of brand terms that you actually need to know to help you grow your business.&nbsp;

So let&rsquo;s get started!&nbsp;

<h2>Brand&nbsp;</h2>

Your brand is your reputation. It&rsquo;s what your customers and employees say you are and, as such, is your one asset that is fundamental to your business that you do not own. Your brand is something that is built, curated and protected through a clearly communicated brand strategy that your customers and employees can buy into and support, and it is expressed through a consistent presentation of this through your visual identity; logo, colours, TOV etc.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand ambassador&nbsp;</h2>

A brand ambassador is anyone who represents your brand or vocally supports your brand. This is EVERYONE who works in your business alongside your biggest fans. The best ambassadors are true believers. People who love your brand for what it does and how it does things are the best kind of ambassadors. They have adopted your brand and want to sing its praises.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand architecture</h2>

Simply put, it&rsquo;s how a set of brands relate to each other. It defines and orders the relationship between brands, products and services. Creating an ecosystem within which brands can thrive independently but still benefit from associations with parent organisations. Good brand architecture helps customers easily navigate product offerings and make decisions.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand assets&nbsp;</h2>

Your brand assets are often considered to be the most recognisable elements that make up your company identity. These can be anything from your logo to your design elements:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Company logo&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Taglines&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Colour palette&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Design elements&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Brand photography or images&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Tone of voice&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Packaging&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Brand Guidelines&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Related songs or sounds&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Typography
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Videos
	</li>
</ul>

While these are important, they are not as important an asset as your brand&rsquo;s reputation.

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand audit</h2>

A brand audit is a deep dive into your business and brand strategy. Assessing your strategy against your business where it is today and against its goals for the future. Businesses change, they grow, stretch their offering; perhaps there is an upstart new competitor stealing your market share? A brand audit with an experienced branding agency will help you outline improvements, goals and even a deeper understanding of who you are as a business. Allowing you to reinforce and strengthen the brand to support those changes and devise strategies to allow your brand to stay relevant and beat the competition.

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand consistency</h2>

Your brand&rsquo;s look, feel and sound needs to be consistent in everything you do and put out. With brand consistency, you will create familiarity with your customers and generate a sense of trust

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand culture&nbsp;</h2>

Brand culture is the cornerstone of building brand reputation. It is an ethical compass which can be defined by your values, that creates the environment in which your employees work and guides the experiences they deliver to your customers. Once you&rsquo;ve established a strong brand strategy, this should spread deeply throughout the business with living, actionable values to guide workplace culture and build an ethos which would be felt by customers, business partners and your wider team.

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand differentiation&nbsp;</h2>

This is something (or many things) that sets your business apart from competitors in the market. There are many aspects of your brand that may set your business apart from the others, including:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Your brand reputation
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Superior product
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Exclusivity&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Innovation&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Exceptional customer experience&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Your price point&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	How it makes the customer feel - is it rebellious? sophisticated?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Your tone of voice or brand language
	</li>
</ul>

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand equity&nbsp;</h2>

This refers to the value a customer attributes to your brand. Essential factors like recognisability, reputation and trust influence as well as how positively the public view your brand or product and will influence how much money the consumer is willing to pay for your product or service over similar products.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/01/12/brand_equity_graphic_gzvpjNa.png" style="height:844px; width:1500px" />

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand experience</h2>

The brand experience is the feelings, thoughts and actions a company evokes. This can be via uncontrolled experiences such as media, comments and communication from customers or controlled experiences such as website journey, customer services, advertising and product or service use.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand extension&nbsp;</h2>

This is when the brand is ready to be launched into new markets or sectors. However, they must first establish brand equity to successfully extend into new offerings and categories.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand guidelines&nbsp;</h2>

Your brand guidelines are one of your most valuable tools. They are the standards and rules a business uses to ensure consistency across all channels. This set of guidelines will define your business&#39;s visual, written and even verbal communication.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand identity&nbsp;</h2>

Brand identity is the way a business presents itself to its customers and wants to be perceived by them. This comprises everything from your logo and general aesthetic to the sounds and experiences the company creates when designing how it will communicate with its audience. All these elements work together to try and build a brand that&rsquo;s relatable and relevant to its desired target audience.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand map</h2>

A visual top-level overview of a brand. This shows everything your organisation has to offer, from pricing, team roles and audience to company goals and mission statements. It&rsquo;s a handy tool to align the entire team at a glance.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand messaging&nbsp;</h2>

This is another term that is incredibly important for your business. It&rsquo;s simply what your brand says and how they say it.&nbsp; Your brand messaging is what communications your company values, your position within the market and aligns your brand voice. With clever brand messaging, you can showcase to your customers what you stand for, what makes you unique and why they should care.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand mission statement&nbsp;</h2>

Your mission statement is a defining statement of where you want your business to be at a fixed time in the future, for example, in 25 years&#39; time. This statement helps you devise short-term goals to help you to achieve your mission.

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand narrative</h2>

Who, what, why and when. This is your brand&#39;s story, which encapsulates who you are, your personality and energy and your dreams. To create a great brand story, it must be authentic, honest and memorable. No one wants to read a list of boring facts; it should be a meaningful story that makes an impression and embodies the spirit of your brand - i.e. the intrepid explorer!&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand personality&nbsp;</h2>

Just like humans, your brand has its own personality. Through brand strategy workshops, it is easy to get under the hood and define your personality - it is already there! Understanding and defining this is key to developing a consistent style of brand communications.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2023/01/12/celebrity-brand-personality.jpg" style="height:598px; width:1277px" />

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand personas&nbsp;</h2>

Who would your brand be if it was a person? It might feel a little strange to think of your business as a person, but working with a brand personal is a great tool to help you define and embed your personality. . It can also make it easier for your team to identify character traits and manners of behaviour and speech that they wish to adopt in developing the customer experience.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<h2>Brand strategy&nbsp;</h2>

This is one of the most important things you&rsquo;ll do for your business. Your brand strategy answers the who, why, what and how of your business and brand. It will align your entire business, providing you with a unifying banner under which your business goals will unite towards a clear objective, allowing all facets of your business to operate with cohesion and clarity for the consumer. If you want to really get to the heart of who you are as a business, you need to <a href="https://nucreative.co.uk/post/nu-asking-the-brand-questions-you-never-thought-to-ask">ask the brand questions you never thought to ask</a>.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Brand value</h2>

This refers to the value of the customer&#39;s perception of your brand and its global reach. awareness. The essential factor is your brand&#39;s reputation - it measures essential factors like recognisability, your distinctive tone and how positively the public view your business which all feeds into your brand equity. The essential factor is your brand&rsquo;s reputation &ndash; it&rsquo;s a measure of trust with consumers. In recent years your brand equity has been attributed a monetary value with organisations, for example,&nbsp; Interbrand and Kantar&rsquo;s &lsquo;Brandz&rsquo; issuing yearly reports on the most valuable brands in that year - tracking the tangible worth of your brand&rsquo;s reputation.

<h2>Brand vision statement&nbsp;</h2>

An aspirational vision of what success looks like in the future. . This vision statement works alongside your mission statement to give the brand a unified of what they are working towards. Like a grand manifesto that inspires and evokes enthusiasm.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Rebranding&nbsp;</h2>

Sometimes, your brand will grow in an unexpected direction, and its brand is no longer fit for purpose. This can mean that your brand strategy and/or identity are no longer serving your business goals, and change is needed. This change can often be subtle, with a shift in tagline and a refreshed visual presentation while keeping your existing logo and colours. However, sometimes your company will grow in a way that requires an entirely new identity which is built upon a revised brand strategy. This can include a new brand name, new logo, and new brand identity. It can be scary to make such a big change, but there are times when it can not just be necessary but crucial to business growth. Understanding the process and implications is important, as is using an impartial branding agency, like NU, who can help you navigate the process and ease the transition supporting your whole organisation through the change.

<h2 dir="ltr">Tagline</h2>

To accompany your logo, many businesses use a short tagline that captures the essence of the brand in a succinct way.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Tone of voice&nbsp;</h2>

This guide showcases how your brand sounds, the words you use, and those you don&#39;t. Your tone of voice should convey the brand personality, so if you&rsquo;re witty, friendly, serious or casual, your tone and voice should reflect that.&nbsp;

<h2 dir="ltr">Visual identity&nbsp;</h2>

Your visual identity is what your brand looks like. So, everything from your font, colour palette, photography, logo variations, elements and animations. You want your brand to be visually unique to you and instantly recognisable.

Understanding the key terms around branding can help simplify the process of understanding how your brand works for you - it is simple at its core. It is also personal, unique to your business and therefore, sometimes hard to see objectively.&nbsp;A brand workshop with an external agency can be what it takes to allow leadership teams to look at their brand objectively and rally around defining answers to who they are, what they do and why their customers should care.&nbsp;We have been helping businesses define their brands for over 18 years, so get in touch today and discover how we can help you grow your business today.

 
&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

brand jargon, brand audit, brand mission, brand personality

Brand jargon: A complete glossary of brand terms explained

Do you really know who you are as a business?&nbsp;There are many agencies that will provide a rebrand. But are they getting to the heart of who you actually are? For example, your proposition values? What you do, and how you say it? 
Many agencies will ask you the basic questions, such as:

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	What is your USP?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Why do clients choose you over others?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	What does your company do?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Who is your biggest competitor?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	What is your biggest asset?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Who is your ideal customer?
	</li>
</ul>

Of course, we cover these too; they are hugely important. But what about the questions that get right under the skin of your company? The questions that you never knew about. The ones that are essential to uncovering the true essence of your brand strategy.&nbsp; 
In today&#39;s world, few businesses can succeed without a profound reason for customers to choose your brand over another. It&rsquo;s not enough to simply tell people about your products and services&mdash;they want to know what you stand for.&nbsp;

The first question is &lsquo;why do you exist?&rsquo;&nbsp;

This is a BIG question, but the first step of any brand strategy is understanding why you are in this business. It all stems from this question. After all, people tend not to buy what you do but instead why you do it. The core of your business messaging not only elevates your brand but gives customers a more meaningful reason to do business with you.&nbsp;If you look at the brand giant Tesla, their why, also known as purpose, is &lsquo;to accelerate the worlds transition to sustainable energy.&rsquo; It&rsquo;s simple, but it&rsquo;s powerful. It provides the brand with a nobility that people can buy into. 
Building on this core statement of why you exist as a company, beyond making money, are clear statements of &lsquo;what you do&rsquo; and how you do it differently and why it matters. By answering these questions, you create a true foundation for your brand.

What comes next?

At NU, we go beyond the basics and dig deeper into your business to help you understand your company in ways you perhaps hadn&rsquo;t thought about before. We take everything we covered above and look at your business goals to develop a set of unique questions that are tailored and specific to you and your business.&nbsp;We help you look beyond tactical responses to problems. Ie. I need more sales = I need a new website. 
We want to know who your audience is, what their needs are, how they gather information and make choices and how you as an organisation can resonate with them and gain their business and win their trust. To do that you need the underpinnings behind your brand, your values, language and proposition.&nbsp;This isn&rsquo;t as simple as just listing some questions from a pre-filled list. We look at your company from a wider angle and drill into the things that make your customers tick.&nbsp;The main answers that need to come out of the process are:&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Why do you exist?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	Who are you?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	How do you do things?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	What do you do?
	</li>
	<li dir="ltr">
	How do you look and sound?
	</li>
</ul>

The outcomes can be hugely unexpected.This highly-detailed and unique approach of research and interviews may take you on an unexpected journey, one you didn&rsquo;t even know you needed to go on. It may even reveal that the thing you thought you needed isn&rsquo;t what you actually need. Every process is tailored to your business because every company is different.&nbsp;In fact, we recently worked with a company that was going through a change in leadership and needed our help to define its growth plans and brand. After an in-depth brand project, they told us that we had in fact, answered the question that they didn&rsquo;t know to ask.

Knowing how to move your brand forward is challenging when you&rsquo;re so close to it. This is why you need an outside perspective, someone who is objective but understands brand fundamentals to guide you towards that lightbulb moment that gets you on track and helps you focus your brand and define your path forward.&nbsp;

Why it&rsquo;s so important

By understanding your core values and business motivation, you will be able to understand and build a better vision for the future and communicate with your customers/clients on a deeper and more emotional level. This differentiates you from companies that focus on simply selling products to turn a profit and leverages you as a leader with purpose.&nbsp;

Simply put, it does the following:&nbsp;

Keeps your brand messaging consistent&nbsp;

By really understanding your brand motivation, values and strategy, you can use this to guide your company in all future plans. This is implemented in every aspect of the organisation, from customer service all the way through to your work culture. It will influence everything, including your correspondence, press, social media, content, advertising, marketing and tone of voice. It&rsquo;s integral to your business.&nbsp;

It gives your business direction

You can establish the future of the brand by asking the right questions. Figuring out your intrinsic purpose means we can craft a clear path that aligns with your business goals.

It helps you stand out

Many companies are all about profits, which is important, but if you want to be a business that leads the way, you need more substance than that. Companies with a purpose are more likely to stand the test of time and build a loyal following with similar values. And over time, as your brand awareness grows, you&rsquo;ll be easily distinguished from the crowd of competitors.

One of the most successful marketers, author Seth Godin, says, &ldquo;The organizations that succeed realize that offering a remarkable product with a great story is more important and more profitable than doing what everyone else is doing just a bit better.&rdquo;&nbsp;

So, we may not have a cut-and-dry list of what questions you need to ask to get to the root of your business brand goals. But hopefully, you see the benefits of using an agency to take you on a brand journey like no other.&nbsp;

We have over 17 years of experience guiding brands in answering the questions they didn&rsquo;t know needed answering. And whilst it may be a daunting experience because you never know where the journey is going to take you. The process and the answers you get from it will be fundamental in helping you with your engagement, alignment, clarity and direction. Your business will be more successful and better for it.

So if you&rsquo;re ready to discover the brand questions you never thought to ask, get in touch today.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

NU: Asking the brand questions you never thought to ask

&#39;It&nbsp;was the week before Christmas, when all through the NU house 
Not a client was stirring, all thinking about turkey and sprouts, 
Tim&rsquo;s cleaning the ceiling, avoiding his calls, 
Whilst Sarah&rsquo;s singing loudly &lsquo;deck the halls&rsquo;

When out of the blue, there arose such a clatter, 
The team sprung from their seats to see what was the matter. 
It wasn&rsquo;t a crash, but a Christmas miracle for all, 
The results were in from our recent website overhaul

Site views were soaring, off the charts, 
And social engagements were full of comments, likes and hearts. 
The rebrand was working, it happened so quick, 
Thiago exclaimed, &lsquo;What will the client do with this much traffic?&rsquo;

Now, Christina! Now, Dominika! Now Sian and Charlie! 
On, Sam! On, Will! On, Molly and Nnamdi! 
The team huddled and finalised a plan, 
With a flurry of ideas, the creation began.

A job well done, the team finalised the work, 
Then Tara&#39;s head turned with a jerk 
&lsquo;Listen up&rsquo; she said with a pose 
&lsquo;Let&rsquo;s go home for Christmas&rsquo;, and up she rose.

The team sprang to the tube, at the sound of the whistle, 
And they grabbed prosecco on the way like the down of a thistle, 
But as they all left, nearly out of sight, 
They all shouted, &lsquo;Happy Christmas to all, and to all a good night.&rsquo;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/12/22/group-shot-2.jpg" style="height:479px; width:872px" />

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<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/12/22/group-shot-3.jpg" style="height:654px; width:872px" />

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<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/12/22/sam_nnamdi_sarah.jpg" style="height:654px; width:872px" />

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The week before Christmas: agency edition

Did you know that naming your brand is much more complex and challenging than you might think? Whilst we&rsquo;ve all heard of somebody who simply &lsquo;came up with the name&rsquo; overnight, it&rsquo;s a much more timely and comprehensive task requiring much thought and consideration. When naming your business, you have to ask yourself the following:

- Is the name protectable? 
- Is it different? 
- Is it easy to say? 
- Does it evoke a positive sentiment?

Naming your brand is one of the most important things you&rsquo;ll do for your business, and it&rsquo;s also one of the most challenging things to do. As experts in naming brands, we love the creative process of narrowing down words and phrases that help a company tell its story and discover a unique name that&rsquo;s so authentically theirs.

But it is a process! 
 
In this article, we will explain the dos and don&rsquo;ts of brand naming and reveal some of our secrets to helping our brands land on a name that works perfectly for them.&nbsp;

The secret is in the process 
We have developed a process that allows us to gather literally hundreds of names built around core themes that mean something to the business we are naming. Then our task is to narrow that list down and make a number of strategic decisions before choosing a name with meaning and a story that makes sense to the brand we&rsquo;re naming.

Our workshop strategy 
Now, here&rsquo;s where it gets exciting. We are going to give you a glimpse into how much work goes into naming a brand &ndash; a name that elevates their brand and reinforces their business objectives.

Here&rsquo;s a look into the creative journey:

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/12/09/shutterstock_327369023_iHfkopZ.jpg" style="height:3684px; width:5520px" />

Step 1

We go into research mode 
This is where all the groundwork happens&mdash;everything from looking at similar brands and ascertaining their tone. We look at the names of these companies and put them into key categories that help the brand define what feeling they want to evoke, such as classic or expressive.&nbsp;

We define your brand personality 
We work with the brand to define the adjectives to describe the brand if your company were a person. For example, you can use adjectives like trustworthy, expert, passionate or witty, to name a few.

Step 2

Now that the groundwork is done, we can start getting creative. We begin by getting you to think outside the box. We conduct several exercises that get you thinking. We ask questions that you definitely hadn&rsquo;t thought of before. We ask you a round of quick-fire questions such as &lsquo;If your brand were a colour, a song or a plant. The more out of the box, the better. 
You&rsquo;d be surprised at how much you&rsquo;ll learn about your brand and how it takes you out of your standard thought process and gets creative.&nbsp;We will come away with many themes that summarise your organisation from this process.

Step 3

The big brainstorm 
Using the themes from the creative exercises, we start to throw out ideas in a series of sprints. No idea is too silly (ok, some are silly), but it&rsquo;s a chance to be creative and free; just see what words trigger a new word until you have hundreds of themes and directions on the page.&nbsp;From this, we will strategically pick our favourite themes and distil them down to names.

<h2 dir="ltr">The Do&rsquo;s and Don&rsquo;ts of Picking a Name&nbsp;</h2>

There are certain rules for the smart naming of your business; here&rsquo;s a few that will help you come up with a brand name that people will remember.

Don&rsquo;t: Be too obvious. For example, the word Sterling which means British money or high quality, is a lovely name for a business. So lovely in fact, 700 UK companies have it in their name. 
Don&rsquo;t: Follow the trends and pick a fashionable name. An example of this would be tech names ending in &lsquo;ly&rsquo; &ndash; this is super popular but may cause confusion through over-saturation within the market. 
Do: Consider the context for the product. For example, avoid names that end in &lsquo;is.&rsquo; The last thing you want is for your brand to sound like a disease or ailment.&nbsp; 
Do: Be careful if you&rsquo;re naming the business after yourself. If you&rsquo;re not well-known or you don&rsquo;t have a unique name, it would be better to come up with something more fitting. 
Do: remember that less is often more. People like short snappy names. You all remember the brand Seven-Up, but do you remember its original name Bib-Libel Lithiated Lemon-Lime Soda? How about Pneumonia CureSalve? Not as popular as its latest name Vicks Vaporub.&nbsp; 
Do: Make sure you can easily pronounce it. And also that it&rsquo;s pleasant to pronounce. 
Don&#39;t: Include a place in your name unless your business is always going to be location specific. 
Do: Make sure there is a story behind the name (our workshops will help you storyboard this.) For example, the iconic Virgin brand was named as such because Richard Branson&rsquo;s team said they were all &lsquo;virgins at business.&rsquo; 
Don&rsquo;t: Let SEO affect your name decision. Google is an ever-changing evolution, so what might be effective in the search engines for now, may not be simple, memorable and reflective of your brand. 
Do: Consider the meaning of your chosen name in other languages. 
Don&rsquo;t: Rule out a more abstract name. Your name should reflect a feeling of what the business is about rather than specifics. A great example is Google, which was taken from the mathematical term googol, which means 10 raised to the power of 100.&nbsp;

As part of the naming journey, we need to ensure that the name is available. Whilst there is a certain level of research you can do, it cannot be done without the use of an IP lawyer. But don&rsquo;t worry; we include this in our naming package.

We are always staying on top of the latest industry trends when it comes to branding and looking for inspiration from our peers. The wonderful Rob Meyerson&#39;s&nbsp;book &lsquo;The Complete Guide to Creating a Name for Your Company, Product, Or Service&rsquo; is a fantastic resource for new ideas and insight.&nbsp;<a href="https://robmeyerson.com/">Rob Meyerson</a> says this on the subject of naming a brand. &ldquo;If you&rsquo;ve come around to the idea that branding will help your business achieve its goals, the importance of brand names is hard to deny. Of all the marketing decisions brand owners make, the name is likely to last the longest. Through all the ad campaigns, website refreshes, and logo redesigns, the brand name remains.

And compared to those other marketing activities, a good name is an inexpensive way to grab attention in a crowded marketplace. Our workshops have been carefully developed at every stage using our 17 years + of brand expertise. Without a workshop like this, it can be near impossible to discover a name for your company that is unique, strategic, legally available and works with your brand strategy.&nbsp;

What you need is someone who can be objective. You can be working on your brand name for months and months (we&rsquo;ve seen it happen), but when it&rsquo;s this personal, you need outside help.&nbsp;Coming up with a company name is a big decision and something that needs to last. So, don&rsquo;t do it alone, let us help you. We&rsquo;ve helped many companies come up with a name that is uniquely them with the story to match. Get in touch and see how we can create your new brand identity today.&nbsp;

 
&nbsp;

brand naming, naming, branding, brand identity

The Do’s and Don’ts of brand naming

The success of any visual composition highly relates to how people perceive it, it&#39;s not just about what you see, but also how your brain processes the information.&nbsp;Although colour tends to be the first thing that people notice in a design, shapes are just as important and by choosing the right shapes, designers can influence the way people perceive a design and respond to it. The science studying the influence of shapes on our psyche is known as the psychology of shapes; it suggests that each shape has a different meaning and triggers a unique response in our minds.

From early art forms to hieroglyphs, shapes have been influential in how we have evolved our non-verbal communication and with that, the symbolism attached to shapes has evolved to the status of archetypes. This basic but powerful language is an important tool for designers to understand and to harness for their subtle influence on human perception.&nbsp;&nbsp;

So, let&rsquo;s get started:

1. Squares and rectangle 
These two shapes are the most used in graphic design layouts. We tend to see straight lines and right angles everywhere on a daily basis, from picture frames to large buildings, and they give people a sense of reliability, security, stability, and balance. 
Companies like Microsoft and American Express use square logos to transmit a sense of order, confidence, and trust. The American Express logo, for example, uses the square to contain and secure the logo and the bold to give off a sense of strength and fortitude.&nbsp;If your brand is connected to finance, or dealing with sensitive information, a square/rectangle element in your branding may be the right one.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/06/07/sqaures.png" style="height:171px; width:596px" />

2. Triangles 
The polygon with three edges and three vertices is an energetic and dynamic shape, always associated with motion and direction, they stand out for their combination of straight lines and sharp angles. The lines are placed in a way that our eyes can move where the direction of the top of the triangle is placed.&nbsp;If you want to represent order, stability, balance, movement, power and energy in your design, triangles are the right shape to use.&nbsp;Triangles can have different meanings and it can change drastically depending on the way they are placed. Upwards-facing triangles can represent balance and stability, whereas the reversed one gives people a sense of risk, danger, and instability.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/06/07/triangles.png" style="height:171px; width:596px" />

3. Circles, Ovals and Ellipses 
Circular shapes like oval and ellipses are some of the most common shapes in design. With no angles, circles feel softer than other shapes. They represent wholeness and infinity giving a feeling of unity, protection, and mystery. Ovals and spheres, with their egg-like appearance are often connected to femininity, conveying birth, nurture, care and fertility, while rings are more frequently used to convey love, and unity between entities...an unbreakable bond.

The Olympics logo offers a perfect example of &lsquo;ringed&rsquo; logo mark. It&rsquo;s five intersecting rings representing the union of the five continents in a spirit of pure competition and celebration of Olympism. The five colours on the white background combined to represent the colours of all the nations of the world without exception (Pierre de Coubertin, Founder of the Olympic Movement), in itself representing community and diversity.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/06/07/circles_TCcUljC.png" style="height:171px; width:596px" />

4. Abstract Shapes 
Abstract shapes tend to be non-geometric, free-form shapes that can be morphed, or moulded from other shapes or even be loose representations of recognisable objects. They play a huge role in all graphic design projects because their flexibility and ability to imply moods, energy or feelings can be highly evocative and useful in a dense visual world.&nbsp;A good example of an abstract shape is the Nike logo, the famous swoosh implies the tick, and therefore quality and approval. The energy implies motivation, speed and the &lsquo;rightness&rsquo; of the brand choice.&nbsp;Whatever shape you choose, geometric, even, unbalanced, non-uniform, soft-edged or hard they speak a primitive language which we understand and most likely use instinctively and form a fundamental building block to the design process.&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/06/07/abstract_Lbtklfw.png" style="height:171px; width:596px" />

psychology of shapes, design, branding, creative agency

Psychology of shapes in design

Anyone who knows me or has worked with me in the past knows I enjoy chatting. I am sociable and a little nosey, and I am somewhat of a perfectionist. This probably annoys my team, but it does mean that I am pretty good at client relationships and it comes quite naturally to me. However, this is not the case for everyone, so I thought I would share some fundamental tips for building relationships with your clients. Although some things are obvious, there are a few you might not immediately think of.

Working back from 10 to 1 of what I consider to be the most important things, here are my top tips:

10. Have their back (and also your teams)

The reason I put this at number 10 is that I consider it a fairly obvious one from the client&#39;s perspective, but maybe not so obvious when considering your team. I am not a fan of a blame culture, and I have worked with large corporate companies for long enough to know that unfortunately it is quite a common theme. Hence, the importance of this tip. Your role is to be supportive, to ensure that the client and your team know the expectations and to be the problem solver. In the end, it is not about who did what or who didn&#39;t do what, but about ensuring that your clients know they have your support as well as supporting your team. If neither the client nor the team feel fully supported and that they can rely on you, you won&#39;t develop good relationships.

9. Exceed expectations

Make sure you don&#39;t oversell and under deliver. As a result, you will always exceed expectations. This also means that you need to set reasonable goals. Don&#39;t paint yourself into a corner because your client relationship will crumble. When going back to a client with a timeline, you have to consider the teams&#39; schedules, other projects, illness, annual leave, and everything else in between. Show them you are efficient and consider their needs and deadlines while remaining realistic.

8. Exude positivity

If you are happy and confident, your client will be too. It&#39;s that easy, but how do you demonstrate you&#39;re happy? It&rsquo;s not about grinning like a Cheshire cat every time you are on a Teams call. It&rsquo;s when there are challenges in a project that it really counts. Have a calm approach, stay optimistic and be solution oriented. Demonstrating you are proactive and showing confidence will mean that it will ease their concerns, and make sure they have faith in you and the business to deliver what they need. Be more duck and less headless chicken.

7. It&#39;s not all about work

If you are involved in client relationship management (or even if you are a team member with client contact) its your responsibility to maintain good customer service. And to do that there needs to be a good rapport. Good and long-lasting client relationships develop and grow over a long period of time so knowing and being interested in the &lsquo;person&rsquo; behind your client is really important. This is where my nosey side has always come in handy, but equally don&rsquo;t be a stalker! People buy from people so knowing them as a person (and therefore elements of their personal life, like kids, hobbies etc) rather than being sales/transaction facilitators will only improve and strengthen the professional relationship you have. No two clients are the same either so make sure you get to know each one on an individual basis.

6. Be authentic (that means honest!)

Being authentic is a big thing in business these days. Gone are the days of being the big &lsquo;I am&rsquo;. Social Media is showing a more vulnerable and accepting side of people, and this is also integral to great client relationships. Being authentic means being upfront and honest. By nature, we are not perfect and this will mean that sometimes things don&rsquo;t go as planned. Don&rsquo;t cover it up. Be upfront about the challenges and I guarantee your client will understand and will show a certain level of tolerance. Of course, if things are consistently wrong then this is an internal issue you need to deal with. Being totally honest, what we offer as an agency isn&rsquo;t delivered through the art of magic. Its skills based and relatively simple so don&rsquo;t bamboozle with industry terms either. Be clear, straight talking and simplify what you do so they really understand. Being authentic will develop longer term relationships between you and your clients.

5. Be responsive

One of the things we all strive for as client relationship managers is loyalty. Having a loyal client base is worth its weight in gold so delivering a high quality service with a close working relationship is essential. Being responsive to your clients needs and wants is integral to building mutual trust and respect. I am not necessarily saying that you are at their beck and call 24/7, but responding to their emails efficiently and answering/returning their calls when they ring you is something you must weave into your busy day. Set a rule around the maximum time by which you reply to emails, and stick to it. This should also apply to the whole team. On top of this, if their request is complex or you don&rsquo;t understand then say so. Saying &lsquo;I don&rsquo;t understand what you mean&rsquo; is a sign of confidence and strength. Just make sure you keep positive (point 8 above).

4. Add value

Being an expert in the service you are delivering to your clients means that you are in a unique position to add value above and beyond the service itself. You are a font of knowledge, and if you are anything like me, you love to talk about what you know. But make sure you listen to your client first. Listen to the problems they are trying to solve, make notes on what their job involves and what the pains and gains are, then work to see what advice, training or knowledge sharing you could give to them. This shows that you really care and understand their individual needs.&nbsp;

3. Communicate, communicate, communicate

Good communication is everything. Drawing on being responsive (point 5 above), being clear and open is a top priority. You need to communicate in a timely and efficient way, and above all, try and make it a natural thing between you and your client. Make sure they know there is more than one way to contact you and, if you are in the middle of a particularly complex or challenging project, aim to be available for expert advice. If there are complications, communicate it to the client straight away, don&rsquo;t try to hide it or sweep it under the carpet because, guaranteed, it will come out! Communicate clearly about schedules, scope changes, deliveries and third-party requirements. If you have discussed something important over the phone, follow it up with an email to clarify everything. It will make sure you are not talking at cross purposes and will ultimately make for a more enjoyable relationship all round.

2. Understand your client&rsquo;s needs

This draws on adding value (point 4 above) but understanding what your client&rsquo;s needs are is essential. Find out how they operate in their role, how the business operates as a whole, and listen. When you start to work with a new client, you need to go on a fact finding mission. Ask questions, make notes, read their brand values, look at their services/products so you can start to better understand them. The more you understand them (as a business and as an individual) the more bespoke and tailored you can make your service for them. This also gives you the opportunity to let them know about new services that might be relevant to them and which might help in areas you currently don&rsquo;t work in with them. Small catch ups, relevant one to one or group knowledge sharing sessions and personal chit chat will have a huge impact on how your client views your service and will foster loyalty for years to come.

1.&nbsp;BE HUMAN!

The most important point on my list has to be about being you. We all know by now that people buy from people. Gone are the days where everything was about what you do and not about who you are. Now, the most important thing to remember about fostering long lasting client relationships is to be yourself. We are all human, so we need to make sure what we do revolves around that. Nothing in life is perfect so let&rsquo;s not pretend it is, but what really matters is how you respond to challenges and difficulties. Show your human side, make it about the relationship you have with them rather than the service you are providing them. They already know you are an expert in your field and that you will deliver what they need and more. Throughout all of my points, I have referenced on more than one occasion about the need for relationship building, honesty, understanding and listening, and the way to do all of that well, is to be empathetic. It is also important for you to show your client that part of being human, is the need to regularly review, so asking for and receiving feedback regularly is essential.&nbsp;

I have great relationships with our clients, and I can honestly say it is always the highlight of my day when I speak to them. I am what I describe and a very &lsquo;human&rsquo; human. Want to know what that means? Feel free to send me an email, drop by the office or pick up the phone.

Being Human – the delicate art of client relationships

World Creativity and Innovation Day is celebrated internationally each year on April 21st. This day was established by the United Nations to value the creative and innovative activities of people around the world. The international feast raises awareness around the importance of creativity and innovation in all aspects of human development and encourages people to let go creative thinking to make the world a better place. 
We asked our team how they nourish their creativity:

Sarah: When I was little, I used to drive my parent nuts because I always asked &quot;Why?&quot; Why was my favourite word, and I just wanted to know &#39;why&#39; about everything...how things worked, why something looked the way it did, why something made something else...on and on I went! It&#39;s only now when I look back that I can see I have taken that annoying question and turned it into something useful. I approach all my creative projects (professional and personal) asking that question: Why? Being creative for me means answering that question and doing it really well. I read up on what I am working on and use that information to deliver my creative project. That is why I love brand strategy so much and why it&#39;s the centre point of my creative passion. On top of that, every waking minute for me is a way to enhance my creativity, to push my ideas further. I take inspiration from the world around me; from the way the light bounces off an office window to the pattern a worm makes in the soil when I am looking at them with my daughter. My children are also a huge source for creativity for me too. They have some amazing ideas that I would never think of on my own. Some are really crazy, but I can still learn and grow from them.

Sian: As a conceptual designer I&rsquo;m constantly soaking up inspiration from the environments I find myself in, whether that be on a weekend stroll exploring local haunts or stepping further afield to other exciting places, both home and abroad. I&rsquo;ve explored my creative streak while dabbling in a mix of hobbies, from screen printing, embroidery, painting and pottery &ndash; some more successfully than others. Whatever you&rsquo;re up to, and whatever you enjoy I find there is always opportunity to nurture a little creativity and see the world through a different lens.

Thiago: I don&#39;t think I ever thought about all the different ways I nourish creativity - but the more I reflect on it, over time I systematically built windows of opportunity that allow me that space, from short daily spurs to longer sessions.The pandemic had undeniable devastating effects but, if I allow one positive thing lockdown has enabled, was starting and keeping a running practice. Now we&#39;re back to the office 3 times per week, I alternate between runs and the walk in my commute. My morning run is the daily vitamin that fuels my creativity. As I breathe, I disconnect - and that headspace helps me build connections where they didn&#39;t exist before. Alternatively when I walk, I ponder about the day ahead and organise my schedule.Visiting different places also gives me input to expand my knowledge and it helps me to think outside the box. Museums and art fairs are where I am most likely to be found.

Karen: Going out to take pictures is a great way for me to nourish my creativity. I like the process of something interesting catching my eye, framing the shot, setting the dials and waiting for the best moment to press click. Walking about and taking pictures isn&rsquo;t just a creative hobby for me, I find it a helpful tool for improving my mental wellbeing. I enjoy doing all manner of crafty and creative things because it simply makes me feel happy.

Jessica: I find that my best opportunity to nourish creativity comes through journaling. Sitting down at a table and putting words on paper helps me open my mind to new ideas and think outside the box and it encourages me to create for the sake of creating and not for a deliverable item. Whenever I feel overwhelmed I love going for a walk as it makes me feel refreshed. Giving myself time for my ideas to simmer and for my batteries to recharge is definitely non-negotiable for me!

Will: To nourish my creativity, I need variety. It could be taking a quick stroll, either to clear my thoughts or to get inspired by my surroundings. I could also be inspired by visiting new exhibitions on topics that could lead to new creative ideas that I can utilise in my design process, or I can simply look through other creative projects and draw inspiration from there.

Sam: Being a developer a lot of my daily life is spent problem solving, and trying to do it a cleanly and creatively as possible! I&rsquo;m always on the lookout for how other people solve problems, what approaches they take and what the pro&rsquo;s and con&rsquo;s of that approach are. I can then draw from all these experiences to craft my own solutions to problems.I love undertaking new challenges and figuring out the best approach for everyone involved. This trickles through to my personal life too where my current nemesis is the Rubik&rsquo;s Cube!

Tara: I grew up in a culture of storytellers and have always been drawn to the imaginary tales of the people I observe around me. This interest in the motivations and passions of everyday people (ok yes, nosiness) has inspired me hugely and has fed my interests in illustration, animation and film. This passion for stories and storytelling has fed all aspects of my professional life as a designer but most especially it affords huge benefits when working organisations on their brand story, where empathy and understanding of who you are talking to is key in framing a strategy for brand growth. I feed this interest through books, films, doodling, wandering and daydreaming and am desperately seeking a sponsor to fund my lifestyle so I no longer need the distraction of work 😇.

Charlie: Creativity fulfils many aspects of my life, from my love for theatre, intrigue in the craft of film, passion for aerial hoop and of course love and appreciation for all things design. Outside of the working day you will find me enjoying a podcast on my walk home, training in aerial arts, catching up on the latest blog on&nbsp;It&rsquo;s Nice That&nbsp;or creating prints for my Etsy shop;&nbsp;Charrleighcreative &ndash;&nbsp;many of which start out as gifts for family and friends.

Tim:&nbsp;I&nbsp;find that my best opportunities to provoke creativity and be inspired, generally come when I&rsquo;m able to step away from the pressures and day to day running of the business. I&rsquo;m an avid reader, not just about design and business, but also plenty of fiction. Stepping into new worlds through works of fiction, is a brilliant way to nourish some creative thinking. I also play the piano. This helps me to relax and free my thoughts, giving me the perfect mindset to be more creative as an individual. Failing that, a good old walk in the park with Molly, our red fox Labrador, is always good for the soul.

Dominika: Being a creative isn&#39;t limited to 9 &ndash; 5, it is a way we see the world and interact with it. Visiting exhibitions, interacting with art or attending design festivals is just one of the many ways to stay inspired as a creative in London. One of my favourite ways to stay connected is by listening to podcasts like&nbsp;Meet the Creatives&nbsp;and&nbsp;Design Matters&nbsp;along with other non design related series like&nbsp;Overheard at Nat Geo&nbsp;and&nbsp;Dirtbag Diaries. I also do personal projects in my spare time, specialising in branding for sustainability and the Design for Change sector, as well as mentoring high school students who want to pursue creative careers. Growing up in Poland I was surrounded by our rich design activism culture and have been using my craft to support causes I believe in, creating protest posters and graphics. As with every part of our life, balance is very important so I try to charge my energy with day hikes whenever I feel too overwhelmed.

World Creativity Day

How much do you know about buyer personas? 
 
If you&#39;ve spent time around a marketing professional, then there&#39;s a good chance you&#39;ve heard of them. Understanding what a buyer persona is and why they matter, is not something to be taken for granted.&nbsp;To ensure your advertising and marketing efforts are not only seen, but have real impact, you can&#39;t afford to ignore their importance. Ultimately, buyer personas should be a major part of any effective inbound marketing strategy. 
 
Let&rsquo;s start from the beginning... 
 
What is a buyer persona? And why they are so important? 
 
A buyer persona depicts a semi-fictional representation of your ideal target customer, based on deep research and data. They help businesses understand who their ideal customers are. From demographic information, behaviour patterns, interests, goals, pain points, to the challenges they face.&nbsp;The process of creating a buyer persona, involves going back over your CRM data to gain a better understanding of what type of customer uses your services or buys your products.&nbsp;By keeping your buyer personas in mind, you will have a better vision of what type of marketing messages are successful and which ones are not. This will help you ensure that all the activities involved in acquiring and serving your customers are tailored to the targeted buyer&rsquo;s needs. While buyer personas represent your ideal customers, the traits of a negative or exclusionary persona helps you identify the customers that may not be a good fit for your business.

How to define your buyer personas

By taking advantage of buyer personas you can start reaching more of the right customer and prevent your marketing campaigns from disappearing into oblivion. 
 
Here&#39;s how you can create your own buyer personas:&nbsp;

1. Gathering data 
The research step is where you will spend most of your time. By putting qualitative and quantitative questions to your existing and potential customers, you can identify important pain points and trends. This will help you to better understand their buying behaviour and provide you with insights into the challenges they face. Knowing your main competitors and their behaviour will also give you more insight into industries or sectors you would like to work in.&nbsp;

2. Segment and build profiles 
By gathering this information, you will be able to see similarities in the data you produce and break regular instances down into common attributes. By comparing the demographic data and behavioural traits together, you will be better able to visualise the goals and challenges of your customers. You can then use this information to create a fictional character of your ideal target customer. This is your buyer or customer persona.

3. Create your strategies 
Using the profiles you have created, you can now quickly identify and target a more relevant audience, helping tailor better sales and marketing communication, KPI&rsquo;s and goals. 
Always remember that you don&#39;t have to complete your buyer persona exercise in one go: we all know the feeling of getting started on something and then realising that you have more to explore. If this happens, don&rsquo;t fear. Just go back through steps 1-3 again until every buyer persona has been fully developed for your new venture. 
 
Good luck!

buyer persona, branding, digital marketing

How to create detailed buyer personas for your business

Trying to build a successful business on social media without an effective strategy, can be&nbsp;detrimental.&nbsp; 
In order to create a memorable experience, brands should focus on seven key tasks before they start creating content. These include researching your audience and setting goals that will help you map out how customers interact with what&#39;s posted. 
Adding the right kind of content on your social channel can drive traffic, build brand awareness, and even increase sales. 
 
In this blog, we will analyse the essence of a successful content strategy:

1. Brand authenticity 
Does your business deliver the values you claim it does?Through social media platforms, brands have the opportunity to authentically talk to their target audience and show them who they truly are as a company, beyond what products or services they provide.&nbsp; 
Nowadays, brand authenticity is more important than ever. When customers are emotionally invested in a brand, they are more likely to maintain loyalty. This is especially true for authentic brands that focus on customer service and satisfaction more than anything else!&nbsp; 
You won&rsquo;t help your customers feel valued and appreciated if you don&#39;t show it with actions or they never hear from you.&nbsp;

2. Brand awareness and recognition 
The first step of building any brand is to get your audience familiar with who you are. You want them to be aware that there is a person behind the product, and it&rsquo;s not just an idea in someone&rsquo;s head. 
To make sure your audience&nbsp; shows interest&nbsp; in what you have to offer, it&rsquo;s crucial to build engagement&nbsp; with your brand. 
The second step is&nbsp; brand recognition, which refers to the ability&nbsp; to identify&nbsp; a brand through components such as the logo, packaging, colours... With the help of a defined social media strategy, you can significantly increase you brand awareness and recognition&nbsp; which will consequently lead to new customers, more sales, and will enhance your brands credibility. 
 
Brand awareness and brand recognition go hand in hand. Once you start to build awareness, you then want to turn it into recognition.&nbsp;

3. Set marketing goals, objectives and KPI&rsquo;s 
The effectiveness of your marketing campaigns relates to the goals you set. If they don&rsquo;t have a clear direction, it will be difficult for them to reach their full potential and produce desired results.&nbsp;A brand is only strong if its objectives and goals can easily translate into actions (for example: drive traffic to the website, increase brand awareness and increase engagement). 
KPI&rsquo;s (Key performance indicators) are measurable values that determine if your activities have been successful or not. A good KPI, by definition, should be measurable and trackable. Without a way to measure progress towards your goals, you can&#39;t make improvements or adjustments.&nbsp;

4. Study and target your audience more effectively 
Why do so many small businesses struggle to get the results they desire from their social media? The answer is simple: being on all channels at once takes too much time and often doesn&rsquo;t produce the desired outcomes. Social Media should be thoughtfully planned out - otherwise you could end up feeling frustrated by unmet expectations or worse yet - lost opportunities!&nbsp; 
Defining a target audience can be one of the most challenging aspects of marketing: what topics interest them the most? What are their biggest challenges? What do they read on a regular basis?&nbsp;Once you know who your target audience is, it will be easier to run relevant campaigns with great results.&nbsp;

5. Community management 
Community management is the process of diving deep into your audience, interacting with them directly, and bringing them together so they can interact with each other.&nbsp; 
This way you will be able to strengthen your brand loyalty. When people feel seen, heard, and appreciated, they are much more likely to share your content with others. 
The rise of social media has made it easy to monitor what people are saying about your company online, which means you need strong community management practices if you want your brand to stand out. &nbsp; 
Words spread fast, and one poor experience can quickly snowball into a reputation loss for your company.&nbsp;Community management helps bring your brand to life online.&nbsp;

6. Stay ahead of the competitors 
Social media is an open book which means you can read and learn from it.&nbsp; 
If your competitors are on social media, you can check their actions and analyse their marketing strategy. If they are not, you have the advantage of being the main player.&nbsp;Competition is something that drives brands to explore new opportunities and new marketing approaches. This is the main reason why it&rsquo;s crucial to track and analyse your competitors&rsquo; marketing strategy. With these strategies, you can increase your brand&#39;s growth and profitability.&nbsp;

7. Create a content calendar 
This stage bridges the gap between strategy and content creation.Content calendars are the place where ideas, topics, events, and launches are stored, to help you focus on your long-term strategy.They are not only a planning tool, but they help you to visualise your strategy over time,&nbsp; across multiple social media platforms.By utilising advanced scheduling, you won&rsquo;t miss the opportunities to leverage your content, events, campaigns, and topics which are important for your audience and will help you get in front of potential customers.&nbsp;Advanced scheduling will ultimate help ensure you never miss a deadline.

To discuss your social media strategy and discover how it can help drive your business forward,&nbsp;please contact&nbsp;<a href="mailto:jessica@nucreative.co.uk" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">jessica@nucreative.co.uk.</a>&nbsp;&nbsp;

Social media, social media strategy, digital marketing, social media manager

Seven reasons why you need a social media strategy

The power of branding is undeniable. From Apple&#39;s iconic &quot;Think different&quot; campaign to the Nike campaign featuring footballer Michael Jordan on its soccer shoes, the importance and effectiveness in creating a strong brand cannot be overstated!&nbsp;

94% of people said they would be highly likely to recommend a brand they were emotionally engaged with. Brand positioning statistics published in 2018 reveal that when a brand establishes a positive emotional connection with its customers, it has successfully positioned itself.&nbsp; 
(source: <a href="https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/branding-statistics/" rel="noreferrer noopener" target="_blank">https://www.smallbizgenius.net/by-the-numbers/branding-statistics/</a>)&nbsp;

Branding Psychology is not just an abstract concept or a catchy marketing term - all businesses can benefit from bringing its psychological impact into their marketing campaigns. 
 
When we think about brands, it is hard not to create a mental image. Stronger brands can change the outcome of a decision in their favour.&nbsp; 
When scientists observed changes to brain activity, they found that consumers made better decisions when given options from familiar companies rather than when exploring new ones. &nbsp; 
If you want your business to stand out from the crowd, it&#39;s essential that every aspect of the branding is on point, from the colours, fonts, graphics to the psychological component. 
Emotions drive consumers to make decisions, which is why businesses have found ways of using emotions for their own gain: from the supermarket strategy of placing produce at front-and back shelves, as well as flowers on either side of the checkout... to retailers that utilise music to make shoppers move faster without reducing sales. 
You can&#39;t be at the forefront of your customers&#39; minds without being present on their subconscious levels too!&nbsp; 
Branding is more than what you choose to show - it is how people perceive you. 
 
Below are some key elements that you should consider when creating your brand or brand implementation:&nbsp; 
 
1.&nbsp;The psychology of colours 
<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/02/22/the-psychology-of-colours_colour-key_v14.png" style="height:171px; width:596px" />

The power of colours has been scientifically proven to have an impact on customer&rsquo;s decision-making.&nbsp;A study conducted by the &ldquo;Institute for Colour Research&rdquo; shows that people make a subconscious judgment about an environment or product within 90 seconds of initial viewing, and between 62% and 90% of that assessment is based on colour alone.&nbsp;

When building your brand, the psychology of colours is key.&nbsp;

<ul>
	<li>
	Blue is considered a calm, trustworthy and stable colour.
	</li>
	<li>
	Red is associated with strong emotions, such as love, passion, and anger. Red is vibrant, stimulating and exciting with a strong link to sexuality and increased appetites.
	</li>
	<li>
	Green is the colour of calm, balance, and harmony.&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li>
	Black is a confident, cold, and striking colour. Black shows sophistication, seriousness, control, and independence.&nbsp;
	</li>
</ul>

<ul>
	<li>
	White is the perfect example of purity, innocence, cleanliness, and peace.&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li>
	Orange is an excitable, attention-grabbing colour. It&rsquo;s the hue of encouragement, optimism, and self-confidence&nbsp;&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li>
	Yellow is bright, energetic and positive. It&rsquo;s the epitome of joy, happiness, cheerfulness, optimism. Anything happy is almost always yellow.&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li>
	Purple is most commonly known for its imagination and spirituality. It possesses the energy and power of red, with the stability and reliability of blue, making it a perfect balance between the physical and spiritual. Purple is often used to show luxury, loyalty, courage, mystery, and magic.&nbsp;
	</li>
	<li>
	Pink is widely deemed an affectionate, welcoming colour; It creates a sense of compassion and unconditional love.&nbsp;
	</li>
</ul>

The design of a logo and branding that are iconic, recognizable, captivating to onlookers through their colour is an absolute must for modern day businesses.&nbsp;

2.&nbsp;Meeting the needs of the customers 
The days of simply reacting to customer expectations are over. Today, businesses have been empowered with the ability not just to satisfy their customers&#39; needs but anticipate them as well - whether you are selling a product or service. Doing this successfully requires an understanding both about what your target market desires from you and how they expect that information will be delivered.&nbsp;

3.&nbsp;Emotional connection 
If you want to keep your customers from straying, you need more than just a good service: you have to be able to work on your customers&rsquo; emotions.&nbsp;They must feel like the brand cares about them, if not their eyes will wander off and find something out there more interesting.&nbsp;

4.&nbsp;Pattern recognition and consistency 
As humans, we are programmed to notice patterns. In terms of branding psychology, it is crucial to be consistent.&nbsp; 
When your brand delivers the same user experience each time with care and attention to detail (includes the same tone of voice, the same colour palette, logo, and imagery) people trust you. And loyalty basis is built on trust.&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/02/22/the-psychology-of-colours_futerners-pattern_v12.png" style="height:448px; width:600px" />

<h4>Brand examples:&nbsp;</h4>

Starbucks 
The Starbucks logo is meant to evoke an atmosphere that is environmentally conscious and connected with natural elements. The deep green colour scheme paired with rough browns creates relaxation, inviting customers into their shops for some coffee drinking pleasure.&nbsp;

Fanta 
Fanta is an example of a brand with great marketing strategies. When you see the label, it is hard not to buy yourself some.&nbsp; 
It has the bright orange colour that attracts people and adds more fun to their drinking experience because they are drawn in by this appealing tone, which also suggests sunshine or happiness for those who drink it!&nbsp;

Apple 
The Apple logo is a simple white apple against the black background. At first glance, it could be any white apple against a black background.&nbsp; 
But this simple design has an underlying sense of sophistication, and cleanliness. It creates an image of technological advancement and cleanliness through its sharpness and simplicity&mdash;two things often associated with modern technology devices such as smartphones or laptops.

As a brand, design and digital agency we can help you assess your brand performance and deliver at every stage of the project.&nbsp;

<a href="mailto:enquiries@nucreative.co.uk">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;

&nbsp;

Branding, psychology, design agency, branding agency

What does branding have to do with psychology?

We recently announced that we&rsquo;re now an official <a href="https://craftcms.com/partners/nu-creative" target="_blank">Craft CMS</a><a href="https://craftcms.com/partners/nu-creative" target="_blank">&nbsp;partner</a>, which gives recognition to the fact our agency&nbsp;has proven itself as an experienced and qualified development team, in building modern and effective Craft websites. Whether it&#39;s one-off changes to an existing build or a new Craft project from start to finish, you can be assured that you&#39;re working with experts who understand how to deliver effective and conversion-driven solutions.

There&#39;s a good chance that if you have a website which you update regularly, you use a content management system (CMS). With WordPress being the global leader, there&rsquo;s an even bigger chance your site might be built with this popular platform. If this is the case, there&rsquo;s probably a high chance that there are things about your CMS that you find incredibly frustrating or might like to change.

Being market leader can be a bit of a double edge sword. Why? Because you have to cater for absolutely everyone. This one-size-fits-all approach whilst understandable, can create huge frustrations as you realise your content has to be built and structured in a certain way. In addition, WordPress can also be extremely vulnerable to security issues if not maintained properly. Afterall, if you want to target a huge number of global website users, you&rsquo;re most likely to start with the market leader, right?

But aside from this, there are some fundamental reasons why Craft CMS is quickly becoming a popular WordPress alternative. In particular, there are some huge benefits centred around usability and performance. Google is hot on user experience these days with it&rsquo;s <a href="https://developers.google.com/search/docs/advanced/experience/page-experience" target="_blank">Core web vitals</a> and page experience metrics. So, creating a site built for usability, performance and speed is more important than ever before.

So, why do we love Craft CMS so much?

Here are 10 reasons why we think you&rsquo;ll love Craft CMS as much as we do:

Live Preview -&nbsp;A feature that clients constantly request is the ability to be able to&nbsp;<a href="https://craftcms.com/features/all#live-preview" target="_blank">live&nbsp;preview</a>&nbsp;the page they are editing before they publish content to the live website. This feature allows you to preview the page before it&rsquo;s publicly visible to users. Craft CMS also saves revisions of the entries so if there is a mistake, you can always roll back to a previous version of your content, making mistakes or issues instantly fixable.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/02/07/live-preview.jpeg" style="height:475px; width:800px" />

Responsive Control Panel&nbsp;-&nbsp;The responsive control panel within Craft is one of our favourite features. It means you can easily update your website and see how changes look across desktop, mobile and tablet, before publishing changes. There is nothing worse than making a change which looks great on a desktop, but completely breaks a mobile layout. This &lsquo;mobile-first&rsquo; thinking really helps you take control of your content. Combined with a super clean interface, the responsive control panel makes working with Craft an absolute dream.

Custom Fields&nbsp;-&nbsp;Craft CMS makes it easy to split up your content and keep things organized. With a wide range of custom fields, you can create custom layouts in no time! There is also a huge library of plugins available too, which give you access to all kinds of integrations and extended features to help make your website best-in-class.

Matrix&nbsp;-&nbsp;There is no better way to create a flexible website than with the Matrix feature within Craft CMS. You can create reusable &lsquo;content blocks&rsquo; which allow you to pick &amp; choose which content types to have on each page. It also provides the ability to reorder these blocks so that your layouts become completely customisable without causing styling issues. This flexibility in content and page structure is absolutely unrivalled by any other CMS platform.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/02/07/matrix-field.jpeg" style="height:582px; width:800px" />

TWIG -&nbsp;One major benefit of Craft is that it comes with its own templating engine -&nbsp;<a href="http://twig.sensiolabs.org/" target="_blank">Twig</a>. Simply put, twig&nbsp;allows us to create more efficient templates using&nbsp;a syntax similar to plain HTML, making it easy to understand and work with. The result is that this simplifies many processes, making it quicker and easier to produce content you&rsquo;ll love.

Multi-site and&nbsp;Locales&nbsp;-&nbsp;Craft&nbsp;CMS comes with the core ability to be&nbsp;<a href="https://craftcms.com/features/all#localization" target="_blank"> multi-regional or multi-lingual</a> and run&nbsp;<a href="https://craftcms.com/features/all#multi-site" target="_blank">multiple sites</a>&nbsp;from the same CMS. You can create multiple entries, globals, assets and pages per location and either have these be unique or identical across multiple websites.

Asset management&nbsp;-&nbsp;Craft CMS has a desktop-class asset management built into its core. You can define volumes and subfolders and view your files in a list or with thumbnails. What&rsquo;s more, you can store all your files in the cloud because Craft is built for speed. Choose whether to connect to Amazon S3, Rackspace Cloud Files, or Google Cloud Storage. When you set up a cloud-based asset source, it shows up alongside your local sources, and you can move folders and files between your local and cloud-based sources. Simple.

Image Editor&nbsp;-&nbsp;Craft 3 now features an Image editor that enables you to adjust your images with ease. Uploading at the wrong size or ratio? No problem! You can crop any image using a brilliant &quot;Focal Point&quot; tool. This helps ensure that what&#39;s most important about each image will always remain visible and in view, regardless of the crop of the image across all your responsive designs.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2022/02/07/asset-image-editor.jpeg" style="height:467px; width:800px" />

Community &amp; Support&nbsp;-&nbsp;A frequent concern when using any new platform is whether there&rsquo;s anyone else to help support you when you hit a brick-wall or come up against a new problem. Craft CMS has a brilliant community over at the&nbsp;<a href="https://craftcms.com/community" target="_blank">Craft CMS Discord group</a>&nbsp;where people just like you are ready and willing to help. There&rsquo;s also an annual conference that you can attend called&nbsp;<a href="http://www.dotall.com/" target="_blank">DotAll</a>, as well as regular meet-ups across the UK (and beyond).

Commerce&nbsp;-&nbsp;<a href="https://craftcms.com/commerce" target="_blank">Craft Commerce</a> is built on top of&nbsp; Craft CMS and brings the ability to create one site which has the perfect combination of content and commerce all seamlessly connected. Craft&rsquo;s content-driven approach to commerce fulfils the need to provide a solution that not only delivers exceptional browsing and buying functionality, but also powerful rich content management functionality. Craft Commerce is flexible and fully customisable so you can build exactly the store you&nbsp;need.

Craft CMS allows us to build modern, lightweight, dynamic and flexible websites. Most importantly, it&rsquo;s fast, secure and easy to maintain. Quite simply, Craft removes the frequent headaches and complaints we see too often with clients using other platforms. We&rsquo;d much rather spend our time working with you to provide engaging and conversion-driving solutions than trouble-shooting problems. 

We love Craft and you will too.

&nbsp;

10 reasons you'll love Craft CMS over WordPress

10 reasons why you'll love Craft CMS

There is no doubt that brand, and all that it encompasses, is a daunting part of business. 
Rebranding your business is not to be taken lightly, but it&rsquo;s a crucial part of making sure you continue to be relevant and recognisable in your marketplace.&nbsp;If you want to show your audience that you are doing something different or the way you look, feel and sound no longer reflects what you stand for, you need to seriously think about rebranding.&nbsp;

Part of the ongoing cycle of business success is to benchmark your brand strategy against your business objectives.&nbsp; A change in your brand represents a shift in direction, which in turn represents a required change in how you present who you are as a company to your target audience.&nbsp;And that in itself can be pretty scary.

You might worry about how to go about it and how your audience will perceive these changes. How can you ensure you make the right changes? Will you alienate existing clients in the pursuit of the new? Will you lose brand recognition?&nbsp;

You are not alone in thinking this, but having an understanding of why you would rebrand and how it might benefit you helps to make the decision more logical.&nbsp;

So, let&rsquo;s start from the beginning.

<h4>What is a rebrand and what does it involve?</h4>

Rebranding is the process of checking back in with your business&rsquo; core purpose and redefining or finessing your strategy (vision, mission, values). Having checked in with yourself as a business, it is important to understand how you are perceived by your target audience and how well your brand is faring against your competitor. The answers to these questions can give rise to obvious reasons for change in your brand identity. This can include addressing your name, tone of voice, logo, visual identity and marketing strategy.&nbsp;

Maintaining relevance in your brand communication and staying one step ahead of the competition are key to business strategy. Speaking from an authentic place drives customer loyalty and builds your brand reputation, in turn attracting new customers. We live in an ever changing world where consumer needs and expectations are constantly shifting. More choice equals harder decision making and the necessity for clear differentiated brand communication has never been more important.&nbsp;

This shift in how you present who you are as a company doesn&rsquo;t happen overnight and it&rsquo;s not an easy process, that&rsquo;s the reason why it shouldn&rsquo;t be made lightly.&nbsp;

Am I making the right choice in order to attract new customers?&nbsp; 
&nbsp; 
Significant change in how you communicate your business does take time and consideration. Businesses fear loss of brand recognition or the alienation of a heritage and loyal customer base. These are understandable concerns. But think about some of the most iconic heritage global brands; Coca-Cola, Apple, Starbucks &ndash; they haven&rsquo;t remained static. They have all evolved in different ways in order to stay relevant to their changing markets. One thing they have done however, is remain authentic and true to their brand purpose.&nbsp;

<h4>Four reasons why rebranding your business is worth the investment&nbsp;</h4>

1. Connect with a new audience 
A key benefit of rebranding is the ability to reach new customers and rekindle&nbsp; interest from your existing customers.&nbsp;Brand research will help you clearly identify your customer personas.&nbsp;

2. Distance yourself from your competitors 
Rebranding your corporate identity&nbsp; with a new voice and look can be the eye-catching element that shows potential clients that your services are unique and differentiated from others in the market.

3. Achieve new goals 
A company rebranding sends the right message to stakeholders, it shows that your business is evolving!&nbsp;

4. Boost the value of your company 
Your brand is a business asset and it adds real, tangible value to your business,. Being a purpose driven brand which nurtures its reputation is proven to accelerate your company&rsquo;s ROI and YoY profitability.&nbsp;

Is your brand strategy reflecting your business goals?&nbsp;Are you differentiated in the market? Do your customers remain loyal to you regardless of price?&nbsp;Always remember that your brand sits at the core of your business, so it&rsquo;s crucial you get your strategy right!&nbsp;

As a brand, design and digital agency we can help you assess your brand performance and deliver at every stage of the project.&nbsp;

<a href="mailto:enquiries@nucreative.co.uk">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;

Branding, Rebrand, Design, Design agency, Nu Creative

Facing the challenge of rebranding

Every January, thousands of companies (particularly public and listed companies) begin the hard slog of pulling together the information for their annual report. Typically, this report is a corporate document disseminated to shareholders (and often the public) that spells out the company&#39;s financial condition and operations over the previous year.

The document is normally split into two very clear, distinct areas: The front part of the report often contains an impressive combination of graphics, photos, and accompanying narrative, all of which set out the company&#39;s activities over the past year and may also make forecasts about the future of the company. The back part of the report contains detailed financial and operational information.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2021/02/10/summary_points.jpg" style="height:1634px; width:3000px" />

The information contained within an annual report is important for several reasons:

<ul>
	<li>Are earnings higher, lower, or the same as the year before? How are sales doing?</li>
	<li>It allows you to find out whether the company is making more money than it is spending.&nbsp;How does the balance sheet look? Are assets higher or lower than the year before? Is debt growing, shrinking, or about the same as the year before?</li>
	<li>It will give you an idea of the strategic plan for the coming year.&nbsp;How will management build on the company&rsquo;s success?</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

So how do you ensure that you engage all of the relevant people?

In days gone by, it was acceptable for these essential reports to be bland, because it was just something that a public or large company was legally obliged to produce.

These days though, an annual report is seen as a huge marketing opportunity to showcase an organisation&rsquo;s identity and brand. The best annual reports help investors and other readers keep the company in mind long after they finish reading it. A great report can boost shareholder confidence and can cause more investors to gravitate towards your company. So, in other words, it&rsquo;s a pretty big deal!

Everything that goes into your annual report is a reflection of your company. So, with this in mind, there are many factors to consider when preparing one. Below is a succinct list of how you can achieve an annual report that reflects who you are as a business, gives the relevant financial information and engages its readers until the very last page.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2021/02/10/a2corporate_report_resized.jpg" style="height:937px; width:1500px" />

1. Content is king 
As an agency that specialises in information design, we understand that the content has the main stage. So, this is something that needs time and consideration. Give yourself plenty of time when planning the content and look at the structure of the report to ensure that that it will maintain the readers interest right through to the financial reporting.

2. Short and sweet 
Whilst saying that content is king, is also important to try to keep your content short and sweet. Readers will have a limited attention span and they may only read your report for a few minutes or so. They don&rsquo;t like reading fluff and will not be impressed with large amounts of copy or confusing &lsquo;industry speak&rsquo;. Limiting the amount of copy you use will help your company make a strong statement in a timely fashion.

3. Reflect the company vision 
Presenting something that is thought out and well presented, in your company brand, will ensure that your company&rsquo;s vision has value. Your whole report should reflect the company&rsquo;s vision. Shareholders and readers want to know where your organisation is heading and how it plans to get there. This should be reflected both in the content that you write and the brand visuals that you use.

&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2021/02/10/smf_gif-slides_v2.gif" style="height:600px; width:750px" />

4. Visualise your data 
With any publication, it is important that you engage your audience. A well-designed annual report will utilise charts, infographics, iconography and pull-out stats to communicate key data quickly and effectively. Use design elements to draw the reader&rsquo;s eye to the information you think is most important. 
These graphics have to fit in with your brand look and feel, as well as be consistent with the theme that you have developed for the particular year. It is important to ensure that your graphics are easy to read and highly engaging. Make sure that if you are highlighting important information in a graph or infographic, that it is readable and easy to interpret.

5.&nbsp;Use compelling visuals 
Alongside the use of graphs, infographics and iconography, compelling visuals should be used. These could take the form or photography (personalised, relevant photography is best) or illustration if a photo shoot is too expensive or difficult to implement, given the current circumstances. These are a great way to tell your company&rsquo;s story. They are also a great way to build your identity and reflect your company vision.

It is important for an annual report to convey what the company is all about. Readers will pay a lot more attention to your report if it looks like your company put a lot of time and care into it and reflects exactly who you are. An engaging and well-designed annual report will not only impress your readers, but it can also strengthen your brand identity.

6.&nbsp;Pull out key facts 
Pulling out key sentences, or statements is a great way to allow the reader to read the result of a page of content, without having to read it in detail. As we said previously, readers have a short attention span, and if there is something you want to draw their attention to or to clarify, pull out text, or quotations is a great way to do this. These can also be highly visual, depending on how you treat that block of text, and where it is placed on the page. They are also a typographical way of alluding to there being less content on the page. Breaking up larger blocks of text like this also allows the reader a visual break, encouraging them to carry on reading to the end.

&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2021/02/10/navigation_resized.jpg" style="height:937px; width:1500px" />

7. Create a great user journey 
In the current climate there may be a propensity to stick to online annual reports whether that be a website or a PDF. Maybe you want to produce a website and a document. The key for both channels is a great user journey (UX). Breadcrumbs that let the reader know where in the document they are, and what else there is of interest to them. A clear, easy to understand navigation within a PDF will help the reader use the document in a non-linear way, allowing them to jump to the sections that most interest them first. UX is incredibly important both on websites and within more traditional annual report formats. Of course, a printed annual report will also benefit from a clear signposted journey through the document.

8. Add a call to action 
As we mentioned at the beginning of this blog, an annual report can have a dual purpose and using this as part of your marketing activity will increase your brands visibility and solidify your company vision. Adding a soft call to action can help to drive traffic to your website or increase the number of inbound calls from potential clients or investors. It&rsquo;s a win-win situation!

Summary 
It is important to produce a professional an effective annual report to target your audience in the right way from the start. We have worked with many companies to do this. A few of our more recent projects are with our friends at <a href="https://nucreative.co.uk/work/a2-dominion">A2 Dominion</a> and <a href="https://nucreative.co.uk/work/social-mobility-foundation">Social Mobility Foundation</a>, both of which you can read about on our case studies page.

If you would like to chat through any thoughts we might have for your annual report and how we could make it stand out from the crowd, please <a href="https://nucreative.co.uk/contact">get in touch</a>.

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2021/02/10/a2customer_resized_DUxMNKx.jpg" style="height:1000px; width:1500px" />

Annual report season is upon us

<img alt="Cosmic Colada" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/12/16/colada_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" />

COSMIC colada (NOT pina) reminds our designer Sian of being on holiday in Bali over Christmas. When she discovered this delectable drink, it was so delicious it made her miss her flight home! So try your luck making these beauties while we are all tucked up at home. We don&rsquo;t have to worry about missing any flights this year!

<a href="http://balimoon.co.id/products/cosmic-colada-creamy-cocktail/#.X7aMRxP7Rtg">balimoon.co.id/products/cosmic-colada-creamy-cocktail</a>

Here you go

<ul>
	<li>Mix vodka, coconut liqueur and pineapple liqueur into a cocktail shaker</li>
	<li>Add coconut cream and pineapple juice, and top-up with crushed ice</li>
	<li>Mix and shake until smooth</li>
	<li>Pour over ice into a tall glass</li>
	<li>Garnish with a wedge of pineapple and a sprig of holly (or whatever festive decorations you fancy!)</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<img alt="Perfect Roasties" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/12/16/roasties_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" />

Roast Potatoes 
The good old classic &lsquo;roasty&rsquo; becomes a primary feature in Will&rsquo;s Christmas dinner. His family have honed a rather fluffy and fabulous tasting take on the roast potato, with honey and rosemary to make it extra special. Do you have a family secret roast.

<a href="https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/best-crispy-roast-potatoes/">https://www.kitchensanctuary.com/best-crispy-roast-potatoes/</a>

<ul>
	<li>Boil the potatoes for 8 mins.</li>
	<li>Cover in goose fat and honey, and sprinkle over crushed garlic.</li>
	<li>Bake for 10 mins.</li>
	<li>Sprinkle over more rosemary and toss in some full garlic cloves.</li>
	<li>Continue to bake until golden brown.</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<img alt="Super simple brown bread ice cream" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/12/16/brownbreadic_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" />

For those of you who aren&rsquo;t into the traditional Xmas pud, this brown-bread ice cream is a wonderful alternative and very simple to make. Sweet, crunchy and creamy, Em finds this recipe the perfect Christmas dessert!

Check link below / in bio for full method.

<a href="https://www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/desserts/brown-bread-ice-cream">www.sainsburysmagazine.co.uk/recipes/desserts/brown-bread-ice-cream</a>

<ul>
	<li>Mix the brown breadcrumbs with sugar, spread out on a tray, bake until crispy and golden.</li>
	<li>Whisk the egg whites until stiff, then fold in the yolks.</li>
	<li>Whisk the cream and icing sugar until &lsquo;peaky&rsquo; then fold in the toasted crumbs and the fluffy egg mix.</li>
	<li>Pour into a container and freeze for a minimum of 4hrs.</li>
	<li>Remove 20 minutes before serving, and sprinkle with the left over crumbs. Enjoy! </li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/12/07/borscht_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" /> 
For this recipe we travel to Poland where our designer Alicja shares her beetroot soup with Mushroom dumplings - &quot;Barszcz z uszkami&quot;. This is a light vegetarian dish, with a perfect combination of delicious flavours. What other countries will your tastebuds travel too?

Soup

<ul>
	<li>Create broth in large pot (1 day ahead)</li>
	<li>Leave to cool then fridge overnight </li>
	<li>Strain and discard vegetables &amp; spices (next day)</li>
</ul>

<a href="https://www.everyday-delicious.com/polish-christmas-eve-beet-soup-recipe/ " target="_blank">https://www.everyday-delicious.com/polish-christmas-eve-beet-soup-recipe/ </a> 

Dumplings 

<ul>
	<li>Cook mushrooms with bayleaves and all spice with water to cover (low heat for 30mins)</li>
	<li>Add butter and fine chopped onions (don&rsquo;t cry) cook a little longer</li>
	<li>Blitz into a paste and scoop into pastry bag</li>
	<li>Roll your dough, cut into square and squeeze on your mushroom filling</li>
	<li>Shape your dumplings and build in salt water for 1-2 mins </li>
</ul>

<a href="https://www.everyday-delicious.com/uszka-little-ears-porcini-filled-polish-dumplings/" target="_blank">https://www.everyday-delicious.com/uszka-little-ears-porcini-filled-polish-dumplings/</a>

Combine

<ul>
	<li>Bring the soup to boil adding some apple cider vinegar</li>
	<li>Serve the Soup and add in the mushroom dumplings</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/12/07/pigs_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" />

All the trimmings are essential components to the Christmas dinner but pigs in blankets are a favourite for our designer James. However, he takes it a step further with triple sausages. Do you have a special twist for yours?

<a href="https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/triple-pigs-blankets" target="_blank">https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/triple-pigs-blankets</a>

<ul>
	<li>Pile the sausages in groups of three (chipolatas are the best choice)</li>
	<li>Wrap each trio with a rasher of bacon</li>
	<li>Arrange on a baking tray and drizzle a little oil on top</li>
	<li>Roast in the oven until the sausages are golden and the bacon is crisp</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/12/07/mulled-wine_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" /> 
Feeling the chill on these cold evenings? Warm yourselves up with one of Nnamdi&rsquo;s favourite winter drinks, mulled wine. It&rsquo;s a classic but too good to miss out on!

<a href="https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mulled-wine" target="_blank">https://www.bbcgoodfood.com/recipes/mulled-wine</a>

<ul>
	<li>Put red wine, cinnamon, star anise, cloves, lemon zest and sugar in a large pan</li>
	<li>Cook on a low heat for 10 mins</li>
	<li>Remove from the heat and leave to cool</li>
	<li>Allow the wine to infuse for about 30 minutes</li>
	<li>To serve, heat without boiling and pour into mugs</li>
</ul>

&nbsp;

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/11/30/camembert-and-cranberry-parcels_blog_nILRfPN.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" />

Little parcels filled with wedges of melted Camembert cheese and sweet cranberry sauce, encased in crispy filo pastry. Perfect for unwrapping your guests taste buds. This delight is a family favourite for our Studio manager Stephanie.

Check link below&nbsp;for full method. 
<a href="https://www.ilovecooking.ie/recipe-items/camembert-cranberry-parcels/" target="_blank">https://www.ilovecooking.ie/recipe-items/camembert-cranberry-parcels/</a>

<ul>
	<li>Slice a wheel of camembert in 18 segments. (Keep them equal!)</li>
	<li>Lay 3 pastry squares on top of each other to form a 12 pointed star.</li>
	<li>Brush the top square with melted butter and place 1 piece of camembert in the centre&nbsp;</li>
	<li>Top with a dollop of cranberry sauce.</li>
	<li>Wrap the pastry and pinch at the top to form the parcel. (Repeat 18 times)</li>
	<li>Bake for 10 mins. (Until crisp and golden brown)</li>
</ul>

<h1><img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/11/30/gin_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" /></h1>

This cranberry gin fizz recipe is Christmas in a glass and bound to delight all of your guests and tickle those tastebuds. This is a must for our Senior designer Karen for that pre-dinner drink.

Check link below&nbsp;for full method. 
<a href="https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/175499716719322151/" target="_blank">https://www.pinterest.co.uk/pin/175499716719322151/</a>

<ul>
	<li>Make cranberry syrup by simmering cranberries, sugar and water in a saucepan (10-12 mins/until sugar dissolves)</li>
	<li>Stir in 4 sprigs of fresh thyme to the syrup then cool to room temperature</li>
	<li>Mix in to a cocktail shaker: Gin, lemon juice, elderflower liquor, your cranberry syrup (strained) over ice and shake</li>
	<li>Strain and Pour into a glass, top with ice and club soda</li>
	<li>Garnish with fresh cranberries and a sprig of thyme</li>
</ul>

<h1><img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/11/30/trifle_blog.jpg" style="height:960px; width:1560px" /></h1>

Christmas dinner under the belt but finding yourself too full for Christmas pud?&hellip; Boozy trifle&rsquo;s the answer. (You can take your teeth out now Nan!)

<ul>
	<li>Soak your sponge in marsala or sherry and layer in a glass bowl</li>
	<li>Top with Jelly &ndash; red&rsquo;s the best</li>
	<li>Layer your fruit into the jelly while it&rsquo;s partially set and allow the jelly to set fully</li>
	<li>Make your custard with egg yolks, vanilla pods, cream, cornflour and sugar (<a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/realpropercustard_65614" target="_blank">https://www.bbc.co.uk/food/recipes/realpropercustard_65614</a>)</li>
	<li>Let the custard cool before topping onto the jelly and allow to set.</li>
	<li>Finally, top with fresh whipped cream and fruit, sprinkles or chocolate flakes.</li>
</ul>

NU Creative Christmas menu

<h3>It&rsquo;s time for scares, screams and survival with our Halloween movie scare-fest, all selected by our very own team. Are you ready to scroll through our terrifying tales?</h3>

<h3>Lock those doors and pay tribute to the film industry.</h3>

Delve into your darkest fears with thought provoking, bone-shaking and teeth-chattering tales. Guaranteed to help keep you on the edge of your seat during this most haunting of seasons!

This year&rsquo;s films being released for Halloween are paying tribute to some of the old classics <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SxEqB--5ToI" target="_blank">&lsquo;The Craft&rsquo;</a>&nbsp;with the <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=J60ueFp-jv8" target="_blank">&lsquo;The Craft: Legacy&rsquo;</a>&nbsp;and staring Anne Hathaway in <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9nlhmJF5FNI" target="_blank">&lsquo;The Witches&rsquo;</a>&nbsp;a remake of the classic Anjelica Huston <a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=d_ZyqaN_XNM" target="_blank">&lsquo;The Witches&rsquo;</a>

<h4>Steph -&nbsp;I Am the Pretty Thing That&nbsp;Lives&nbsp;in the House (2016)</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/pretty.jpg" style="height:288px; width:512px" />

<h5>Available on: Netflix</h5>

For those needing to ease into horror, this movie is beautifully shot and gives your imagination a real work out.

- The composition of each shot seems simple, but is highly calculated and curated, to create an unsettling atmosphere throughout.

- This atmospheric approach forces the spectator to create their own sense of dread and fear based on traditional antics that define the genre. 

- With this movie there is no looking at your phone or getting up to make tea! Give this movie your full attention and immerse yourself in its plot twists and turns &ndash; your imagination will be rewarded with the ride of its life.&nbsp;

- The storyline may initially appear to be slow but this allows the viewer to move away from superficial scares and stereotypical storylines and focus on internal fears and personal projections.

<h4>Will - Alien (1979)</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/alien.jpg" style="height:920px; width:990px" />

- The title typography is shown in stark white, ultra-kerned and futuristic typography, which gives an unsettling vibe alongside the terrifying tagline: &ldquo;In space no one can hear you scream.&rdquo;

- Although a technically simple design, the contrast between the vast depth of black with neon green shows that the simplest of visuals can evoke the greatest of fears.

- The composition of the central &lsquo;cracking egg&rsquo; and pile of bodies below prompts curiosity of the unknown which is a key theme to this franchise and is replicated throughout the sequels.

<h4>Em - Rosemary&#39;s Baby (1968)</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/rosemarys-baby-poster.jpg" style="height:1376px; width:1600px" />

- The overall approach for the movie poster of Roman Polanski&#39;s 1968 mystery Rosemary&#39;s Baby, is simplicity, directness and meaning.

- The composition of the large and looming imagery, paired with smaller text at the bottom, create an unsettling feeling &ndash; true to the themes of the movie.

- The contrast between the giant, and ghostly, Mia Farrow and the tiny shadow of the baby carriage further enhances that uneasy feeling, and a sense of danger.

- In terms of typography, Helvetica Neue Medium was used for the main title, and modified by connecting letters in different stanzas to form a glyph &ndash; symbolic of an umbilical cord.

<h4>James - Final Destination 5</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/logo-final-destination-5-movies-wallpaper-1061898530.jpg" style="height:1060px; width:1920px" />

- A minimal and confident approach showing nothing more than a skull and the number 5. This is a bold statement made by the Final Destination crew; claiming that because they are such a well established name within the horror movie fold they don&rsquo;t even need to mention their own name.

- &ldquo;To-die-for&rdquo; use of typography (literally). This example intertwines the number 5 like a shank through the eyes of the skull letting the viewer know what&rsquo;s in stall at a glance.

- Blockbuster use of creepy colours. Bone white, metallic grey, blood red on an ominous shady black backdrop. Say no more.

<h4>Theo - Jaws</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/jaws.png" style="height:1080px; width:1920px" />

- A very simple and iconic image that perfectly showcases the subject and the horror of the film.

- Very strong and clear typography looking like tight bloody teeth visually weighting heavily on top of the swimmer.

- A nice contrast with the &ldquo;usual&rdquo; horror films posters. The giant white shark, main protagonist (antagonist?) and origin of the terror and fear of the audience is clearly displayed at the centre of the image. Very often, the source of the horror within the movie is a little hidden, mysterious or shown metaphorically on a dark background.

- The fear of what lurks beneath us in the sea is key to the film, and it is perfectly captured through the off-balance image and the size of the shark on this poster. It is rare that a still image so perfectly captures the essence of the film that is essentially moving images and sound.

<h4>Sam - Ghostbusters</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/ghostbusters.jpg" style="height:490px; width:980px" />

- Ghostbusters was the first comedy film to employ expensive special effects.

- Competition for special effects studios among various movies in development at the time meant that part of the budget was used to co-found a new studio under Richard Edlund.

- Using a combination of practical effects, miniatures, and puppets to deliver the ghoulish visuals.

- Use of Iconic locations in New York City and LA, one being a converted firehouse which still stands today.

<h4>Nnamdi - Evil Dead</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/evil-dead.jpeg" style="height:2088px; width:1759px" />

Evil Dead (1981) is a horror movie that follows five friends who decide to spend a weekend at a very dilapidated cabin in rural Tennessee, releasing a legion of demons and evil spirits, leading to demonic possession. Essentially getting what they deserve for agreeing to spend the weekend in rural Tennessee in the first place.

- The angle of the actress and rotting hand are dynamic enough that you feel her desperation.

- The angular copy is sharp and tight adding to the claustrophobia.

- The use of negative space forces you to watch and realise you can do nothing to save her.

- The hand drawn image and washed out colours make it feel real and uncomfortable.

- Zombies are just inherently scary.

<h4>Tara - The Hitcher</h4>

<img src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/10/30/thehitcher1.jpg" style="height:380px; width:500px" />

I&rsquo;ve always been traumatised by this movie. The ultimate living nightmare embodied by the pure fear Rutger Hauer can instil with just his face. He&rsquo;s coming to get you. Classic 1980&rsquo;s horror.

- The illustration style and type is so 80&rsquo;s

- They should have used a photo though. Rutgers real face is scarier!

It’s time for scares, screams and survival with our Halloween movie scare-fest, all selected by our very own team. Are you ready to scroll through our terrifyin

Halloween blog Movie extravaganza

<h3>The current global pandemic has led to the need for very different thinking in the live event and meeting space. With no clear idea of when things might return to &lsquo;normal&rsquo;, many events and meetings are now being postponed indefinitely or cancelled.</h3>

Businesses who rely on or utilise events as an important part of their sales and marketing mix, need to adapt their approach in order to offer new, engaging meeting solutions that can compete on the same level as a live experience.

<h4>Now is the time for the &lsquo;virtual&rsquo; conference.</h4>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/07/16/virtual_symp_15_5_QkGPoe7.gif" style="height:603px; width:1000px" />

Virtual conferences and meetings are not new and they can be very expensive. They often include many third-party plug-ins and iframes which can cause glitches and IT problems. This has led us to create an affordable and completely bespoke solution.

<h4>Our solution</h4>

We can deliver a solution that provides all the functionality you would want or need from a virtual event, already fully-integrated. We can customise the platform to your event branding and designs, whilst keeping entry costs low.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/07/20/our-solution_graphic_v1.gif" style="height:1100px; width:2000px" />

<h4>So what functionality is included?</h4>

<h4><img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/07/16/functionality_graphic_v2_grey.gif" style="height:1800px; width:2000px" /></h4>

<h4>Package costs</h4>

To make things easy, we have developed a package price to get your virtual conference branded and live. This can be done in as little as 2 weeks from initial brief. The platform costs are per month, for as long as you want the platform live and in use, meaning there are no long contracts or license fees to worry about. It&rsquo;s an entirely &lsquo;on-demand&rsquo; solution.&nbsp;

<h4>Fancy a demo?&nbsp;</h4>

Please call or email us (details below) and we can personally show you around our bespoke virtual events solution, to show you what it&rsquo;s capable of.

<a href="mailto:sarah@nucreative.co.uk?subject=I%20would%20like%20a%20virtual%20conferences%20demo!">sarah@nucreative.co.uk </a>or <a href="mailto:tim@nucreative.co.uk?subject=I%20would%20like%20a%20virtual%20conferences%20demo">tim@nucreative.co.uk</a>

Digital, conference, branding, your brand, branded digital symposium, symposium, video conference, webinar, virtual meetings

Making conferences virtual

<h4 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">We know about the importance of brand and storytelling. We work hard every day, helping our clients to communicate their core values, tell their story through their brand architecture and zealously guard their output to make sure it is consistent, meaningful and strong.</h4>

The fact is though, that by doing this, we hardly get the time to look at our own brand. We know this is the same for many of our clients and that&rsquo;s why they come to us in the first place, to help drive this process through.

NU Creative turned 15 this year and since the day Sarah and Tim first opened the doors of their business, we have continued to evolve, nurture talent and build on our expertise to support the ever changing needs of our clients.

As with all stories, ours has changed, and we are not the same company we were 15 years ago. We are more confident and more engaged than ever before in the fine art of brand, design and communication and we felt it was time we had a brand which reflected where we are now and expressed our positivity about the future.

<img alt="Brand storyline animation" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/07/02/storyline_.gif" style="height:625px; width:1000px" />

At the heart of our new brand is our storyline which represents connections&hellip;our humanity, the importance of relationships and our ethos, which is about being transparent and honest. The storyline graphic is a modular device and a core element in our identity which we&nbsp;use&nbsp;to create bespoke artworks through which we can talk about ourselves,&nbsp;the world around us, about our clients and how we work. The expression of the graphic shows our creativity and places relationship and collaboration at the core of our story.

The storyline also represents the creative process in detail and can be put together in almost endless variety which offers flexibility in design and&nbsp;shows our flexibility in our approach to the work we do.

A core part of this function is working and collaborating with the client and the way we can adapt ourselves to fit with the clients&rsquo; needs in order to achieve great work. Therefore, it can be used to talk about relationship, responsiveness, adaptability, creativity and process...all as a part of our journey.

Our vibrant palette shows our confident side with a sophisticated palette of supporting soft shades which gives range and tone to our visual expression enabling us to ramp up and dial down when needed.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/07/03/colour_spread2.jpg" style="float:left; height:1549px; margin:20px 0px; width:3302px" />

We love typography, it&rsquo;s a foundational design element and choosing the right fonts for us&nbsp;has sometimes been a challenge. But the effort and patience involved has been well worth the reward. We are working with Commercial Types&rsquo; beautiful Sanomat font. A wonderful rounded, expressive typeface which says elegance, fun, confidence and sophistication all in one bundle.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/07/02/sanomat2.gif" style="float:left; height:1549px; margin-bottom:20px; margin-top:20px; width:3302px" />

It may seem a strange time to launch a new visual identity and it&rsquo;s a fact that worldwide we are in uncharted territory. But like many other businesses around the world, we need to carry on and be proactive.&nbsp;We recently wrote about the impact of cutting marketing budgets in times of downturn and how this action can impact on your business&rsquo; recovery, which you can&nbsp;<a href="https://www.linkedin.com/pulse/weathering-covid-19-storm-sarah-kloosman/" target="_blank">read here on Linkedin</a>. We are actively encouraging all of our clients to take the opportunity to look inwards, assess their marketing output, address areas which can be improved and refresh materials and messaging which can support them to be fit and healthy as we hopefully start the sprint to recovery as a nation. Many clients have jumped at the opportunity and we are delighted to be showcasing some recent brand launches on our <a href="https://www.instagram.com/nucreative_uk/" target="_blank">Instagram </a>and <a href="https://www.linkedin.com/company/nu-creative-ltd/">Linkedin</a> feeds.&nbsp;

As we move forward as a company, we want to be clear about our messaging and about what we love to do. We love brand, design and communication across all platforms and media, in all of it&rsquo;s multi-faceted glory. In expert hands it has the power to transform businesses and lives for the better.

If you would like to talk to me about your business and how your brand is currently being perceived. Or you have an idea of where you are going but feel held back by your current brand image just drop me a line at <a href="mailto:tara@nucreative.co.uk?subject=Tara%20could%20you%20give%20me%20a%20call%20about%20my%20company%20branding%3F">tara@nucreative.co.uk</a>

&nbsp;

Branding, Design, Digital, Rebrand, NU Creative rebrand, Visual stories, branding, Covid-19, design agency, London,

Rebranding NU Creative – it's all about the story

<h4>Wunderdog Issue 2 has landed! This quarter focusses on fearless females who couldn&rsquo;t turn a blind eye to the suffering of dogs while going to great lengths to try and make a difference. We are proud to continue as Art Directors, working with the <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wunderdog_mag/?hl=en" target="_blank">Editor Nina</a> on such an inspirational magazine.</h4>

We continued to work with some fantastic photographers and illustrators. We featured&nbsp; more illustration this time which has added a whimsical balance throughout. Illustration works well in articles where images can&rsquo;t correctly convey the message of the content &ndash; the piece on cannabis oil for dogs is a great example of this. We worked with illustrator <a href="https://www.instagram.com/michaelkeithchapman/?hl=en" target="_blank">Michael K Chapman</a> to create visuals which were tongue-in-cheek and playfully explained an unusual topic.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/04/22/spreads_6.jpg" style="height:1625px; width:3250px" />

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/04/22/spreads_7.jpg" style="height:1650px; width:2300px" />

Photographic spreads were kept clean and allowed the story to play out visually in each article. One of our personal favourites is the piece on Skiary in Scotland, a technology-free oasis in Scotland where dogs (and people) can roam free and unplug from the everyday hustle and bustle of life. The photography was supplied by <a href="https://www.instagram.com/emily_macinnes/?hl=en" target="_blank">Emily Macinnes</a> and there was strong narrative feeling in the shots taken which worked exceptionally well with the piece.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/04/22/spreads_1_v2.jpg" style="height:2000px; width:3201px" />

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/04/22/spreads_4_v2.jpg" style="height:2000px; width:3201px" />

Much like the slower pace of life in Skiary, we can&rsquo;t help but think that this lockdown affords an opportunity of quiet reflection and contemplation. Independent magazines such as Wunderdog, which champion rescue dogs and charities, are deserving of support and rely on the power of people to survive. Reading is good for the soul and we&rsquo;re sure many of us are finding that we have a bit more time on our hands for relaxing pursuits.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/04/22/spreads_5_v2.jpg" style="height:2000px; width:3201px" />

If you are a dog-lover, we most certainly recommend grabbing yourself a copy of <a href="https://www.instagram.com/wunderdog_mag/?hl=en" target="_blank">Wunderdog</a>. In each issue, there are stories of bravery, hope and triumph which are heartwarming; inspirational charities and useful advice pieces which offer guidance on good dog care. A bonus is the fabulous design of course, along with the contributions of talented photographers and illustrators.

Stay safe and love dogs!

If you haven&rsquo;t already, please check out our case study on <a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/work?slug=wunderdog-magazine" target="_blank">issue 1</a>.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/04/22/spreads_3_v2.jpg" style="height:2000px; width:3201px" />

Designing Wunderdog – the feel-good magazine for rescue dog lovers

Whether your team has been working across multiple locations for a while, or you&rsquo;re still in the process of adjusting to a more remote set-up, there are a wealth of online tools available to make the process smoother and more efficient. We&rsquo;ve put together a collection of our favourite tips and tools to keeping your team, and customers, connected.

<h4>Make use of team chat platforms:</h4>

In-the-moment messaging can be great for instantly updating your team on project updates or company news, or to just keep more informal lines of communication open between team members. Here are a couple of our favourites:

<a href="https://slack.com/intl/en-gb/" target="_blank">Slack</a>: 
Here at Nu Creative and Nu Talent, Slack has been embedded in our way of working for as long as we can remember. It&rsquo;s an instant messaging platform organised into &lsquo;channels&rsquo; (ensuring that team members only receive messages relevant to them). It&rsquo;s a great way for us to share updates (and the occasional animated gif!) across the company as a whole, and also at a project team level. As an added bonus, the free version of slack also offers 1:1 video and voice calls, as well as file sharing and screensharing.&nbsp; &nbsp;

<a href="https://gsuite.google.com/products/chat/" target="_blank">Google hangouts chat</a>: 
If your team already uses Google&rsquo;s &lsquo;G suite&rsquo; for email, then everyone in your team will automatically have access to the hangouts chat function. Instead of the &lsquo;channels&rsquo; approach from slack, Google hangout has created &lsquo;rooms&rsquo;, which you create and invite your team mates to join, keeping your chat focused. As you&rsquo;d expect, it also integrates seamlessly with other G-suite tools, such as Google Docs, Sheets and Slides (automatically updating your sharing permissions for any documents shared in your hangout chats). &nbsp;

<h4>Make time for face-to-face conversations too:</h4>

Whilst emails and messaging platforms are great for communicating quickly, making time for face-to-face conversation, even over video, makes the world of difference to a project&rsquo;s progress (as well as team culture). These conversations allow you, your team-mates, and clients to express smaller (more nuanced) details of information that might not usually make it into emails or instant messages. Here are some of the tools that we&rsquo;ve been taking advantage of:&nbsp; &nbsp;

<a href="https://products.office.com/en-gb/microsoft-teams/group-chat-software" target="_blank">Microsoft Teams</a>: 
MS Teams can be used as an alternative to Slack, providing similar chat and filesharing features that can be easily organised. It also offers video, voice calls or webinars for whole teams or one-on-ones (and can even host live events for up to 10,000 people). It&rsquo;s part of the Office 365 package and integrates easily with the other applications within the suite (like Outlook and Calendar). You can also invite callers to join your meeting, even if they don&rsquo;t have the Teams app, which is very handy! Here at NU Creative, this is how we keep in touch as a team and with our clients.

<a href="https://zoom.us/" target="_blank">Zoom</a>: 
Offers a whole host of video conferencing tools. The most useful of which is the Zoom <a href="https://zoom.us/meetings" target="_blank">Meetings &amp; Chat</a>, for video meetings, voice calls, webinars and chat across teams. The basic package is free (and suitable for small teams, allowing calls up to 45 mins) and you can also record and keep a record of meetings to share with your team or revisit at a later date. &nbsp;

<h4>Getting organised:</h4>

Keeping on top of the day-to-day admin can also be challenging when your team are working remotely. But luckily there are a host of tools to help with collaboration and task management. Here are a few that we&rsquo;ve found useful:

<a href="https://www.google.com/drive/" target="_blank">Google Drive</a>: 
A great cloud-based alternative to MS Office (One Drive). For document creation, storage, sharing and real-time collaboration on text documents, spreadsheets and presentations (amongst other things) &ndash; all for free.

<a href="https://trello.com/" target="_blank">Trello</a>: 
A great visual project management and collaboration tool, that allows you to organise projects from overall phases of work, right down to individual tasks (think digital post-it notes and bulletin boards). Its visual simplicity means it&rsquo;s super easy to learn and use, and suitable for small teams of 2 or 3 up to large organisations of over 250+. &nbsp;

<a href="https://todoist.com/home" target="_blank">Todoist</a>: 
The clue is in the name &ndash; a smart digital to-do list &ndash; with added extra&rsquo;s like the ability to add due dates, priority levels and comments. It also allows you to assign tasks to others, and can be managed across multiple devices, which is handy when your team aren&rsquo;t all under one roof. It also works well as a personal planner as well!

<h4>Staying sane and taking care of yourself:</h4>

Just as important as aiding productivity, we&rsquo;ve also found a number of tools that help take care of the wellbeing of your team if some of them are adjusting to a new remote set-up.&nbsp; &nbsp;

<a href="https://tomighty.github.io/" target="_blank">Tomighty</a>: 
A handy desktop timer influenced by the pomodoro technique (an approach to time management). Whilst it&rsquo;s useful for managing time on work tasks, it can also be used to help remind you to take a break, have a stretch or simply step away from your desk and make a cuppa.

<a href="https://www.noisli.com/" target="_blank">Noisli</a>: 
Working from home can take some adjustment as you get used to working in a space normally associated with your private/ non-work time and can be full of distractions. Noisli is a tool designed to help you drown out distractions (perhaps the noise of other family members, your phone or social media) and help you focus and concentrate. It provides a number of background sounds that you can mix and match, as well as curated playlists to choose from &ndash; all designed to create a calm, distraction free, and productive environment.

<a href="https://houseparty.com/" target="_blank">House party</a>: 
Houseparty allows groups to live video chat but is slightly different to some of the other video calling tools we&rsquo;ve mentioned, in that it&rsquo;s a more casual, spur of the moment approach. You don&rsquo;t need to plan in advance, or send out invites, but can instantly join a group (as long as you&rsquo;re connected to at least one person in the &lsquo;party&rsquo;). The real fun is in the games that are available through the app, including:&nbsp; Heads Up, Trivia, Quick Draw, and more &ndash; they can be played with up to eight people at a time. You can also send &lsquo;facemails&rsquo;, which are video messages which can be left for your friends to see when they open the app. So, if you&rsquo;re looking to have some fun with your friends (from a far) then this is a fun way to do it.

Top tips on effective communication for remote teams (and our favourite tools to help!)

In light of the evolving COVID-19 situation, we are putting in place precautionary measures to ensure all our staff can continue to work safely, as their health is our utmost priority. As we all make sense of these strange new times, NU Creative is guided by two priorities: ensuring health and safety, while minimising disruption to our clients and partners.&nbsp;

Over the last few days, we have been stress testing our work from home delivery mode for the inevitable time when working remotely is the safest option for everyone&rsquo;s health and wellbeing.

From Wednesday 18th March our whole team will be working remotely. We have always been agile and quick to change, and we will embrace this with the same level of adaptability.&nbsp;

We have many ways to stay connected with each other and our clients, including Slack, Outlook and Microsoft Teams. Additionally, we can keep everyone updated via email and social media. Our staff will be connected securely through a private VPN network to ensure security and confidentiality remains our highest priority.

Our remote working tools will mean you can reach us in the same way as normal, through our main phone number, individual DDIs and email.&nbsp;

These measures will help ensure we can continue to deliver our work with a &lsquo;business as usual&rsquo; approach. We remain ready and able to do our work and provide support as needed through this challenging time.

We hope you all stay safe, positive and in good spirits. By working together, we can get through this unprecedented situation.&nbsp;

Please get in touch with us if you have any questions.

NU Creative - <a href="mailto:enquiries@nucreative.co.uk">enquiries@nucreative.co.uk</a> - 0333 240 5800

Coronavirus (COVID-19) Update

<h2>Sam our in-house Web Developer and&nbsp;guru for all things online&nbsp;has outlined 5 ways to help stay safe online.&nbsp;</h2>

<h2>1. Passwords</h2>

Having an insecure password is probably the easiest way of ensuring you&rsquo;re going to get hacked. In data collected from SplashData, for the past 6 years in a row `123456` has been <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/List_of_the_most_common_passwords">the most commonly used password</a> on hacked accounts. In 2019 alone 23.3 million accounts were hacked online with that one password. The next closest being `123456789` with 7.7 million.

I think it&rsquo;s safe to say <a href="https://www.technotification.com/2019/04/ncsc-worlds-most-hacked-passwords.html">we could all do better when picking passwords</a>, the crux of the problem is laziness, people can&rsquo;t be bothered to type in a really long random string of characters every time they want to login somewhere, let alone remember them!

There is an easy solution. Password managers to the rescue! Platforms such as <a href="https://www.lastpass.com/">LastPass</a> and <a href="https://1password.com/">1password</a> can make solve these problems. This is a place where you can securely save all your passwords, this means you can generate 64 character long random characters for each and every account you have. The best bit is you never even need to see these passwords, with full support for Copy and Paste it&rsquo;s never been easier. These platforms even have entry level free pricing tiers so there really is no excuse anymore for having &ldquo;password&rdquo; as your password.

<h2>2. VPNs</h2>

We&rsquo;ve all been in a coffee shop, shopping mall or airport, had no signal and needed to connect to their WiFi to get online on our mobile devices. In theory these are great, they can get you online for free where it was not before possible, but in reality this can be a big risk.

It&rsquo;s becoming easier and easier for someone else to intercept the data you&rsquo;re sending to that public network and save it to their own device, without you even knowing. This is called a man in the middle attack. Essentially this person uses their laptop/phone to pretend to be the public WiFi so that in fact you&rsquo;re actually connecting to their device.

You still have full access to the internet, they can just see everything you&rsquo;re doing. Whether that&rsquo;s checking Facebook or logging in to your online banking.

VPN&rsquo;s work by creating a secured, encrypted, connection between your device and their servers before then routing your requests to the wider web. This will slow down your connection slightly, but is well worth it for peace of mind. The VPN&nbsp;industry is a bit of a minefield but Tech Radar have a great summary of the top providers.

<h2>3. Link Shorteners</h2>

Link shorteners are becoming more and more popular, they&rsquo;re a great way of sharing content in a less obtrusive way, no one likes seeing 2 line long URL links. Marketing professionals use shorteners like <a href="https://app.bitly.com/Bj26adPa6Zf/bitlinks/2O9iI8e">Bitly</a> and <a href="https://tinyurl.com/">TinyURL</a> for addition link tracking statistics, such as how many people clicked a link and on what platform they clicked on.

Unfortunately, this is a blessing and a curse, while these links look better and help with marketing stats, it does initially hide where the link is taking you. So you&rsquo;re putting a lot of trust in clicking these links. While 99% of shortened links are legitimate, it only takes one to send you to a virus riddled web page for your computer to become infected.

Our advice is to only click on shortened links from trusted sources, if you do want to follow a shortened link from a unknown source, it&rsquo;s always worth using a link expander such as <a href="https://checkshorturl.com/">Check Short URL</a> this will take the short link and show you where it will send you too.

<h2>4. Virus Protection</h2>

What happens if you click a bad link? Well virus protection is here to the rescue.

Even the most diligent people can sometimes fall foul to viruses. This is why it&rsquo;s always a good idea to have an anti-virus installed. Operating systems such as windows will have a firewall built-in but it never hurts to have another layer of protection.

Industry leaders such as <a href="https://www.nortonsecurityonline.com/">Norton</a>, <a href="https://www.mcafee.com/en-gb/index.html">McAfee</a>, <a href="https://www.webroot.com/gb/en">Webroot</a> and <a href="https://www.bitdefender.co.uk/">Bitdefender</a> are worth looking at, however make sure to do your research in to different anti-virus solutions to see which meets your needs best.

<h2>5. Be careful what you post online</h2>

It&rsquo;s so easy these days to share every part of your life online, and rightly so. You want to show off to your friends the amazing holiday you&rsquo;re going on or the brand new car you just bought.

But if you don&rsquo;t have the correct privacy settings enabled this can end very badly, you&rsquo;re essentially advertising to the world that your house is currently empty or where a new car will be, ready to be stolen.

Always remember once something is posted online, it&rsquo;s online forever. And the harder you try to get something removed from the internet the more attention it will ultimately get. <a href="https://www.buzzfeed.com/buzzfeedceleb/the-unflattering-photos-beyonces-publicist-doesnt-want-you-t#.cgq7wP1xBv">Just ask Beyonce.</a>

5 Ways to Stay Safe Online

<h4>With every new year, design trends appear and disappear as quickly as you can say &lsquo;Is it March already?&rsquo;.</h4>

Some are so on-trend and popular, they grow and evolve from year to year. You can check out our Graphic Design Trends of the Last Decade for more on that or read on for 6 Design Trends you can expect to see in 2020.

<h3>1. Oversaturation Central</h3>

Recent years have seen brand colours becoming more and more vivid. This started out as a less is more approach with pops of oversaturated colour here and there as an accent tone to lift the design with contrast. Now we are seeing these colours in a much braver approach; using super vibrant colours alongside other crazy vibrant colours. The whole colour spectrum is your playground! Although it&rsquo;s a risky trend, do it wrong and it could make the viewers eyes hurt, but do it right and you&rsquo;ve got yourself a head turning piece. This one is not going anywhere anytime soon!

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/01/15/screenshot-2020-01-15-at-095852.png" style="height:1624px; width:3334px" />

<h3>2. Environmentalism Chic</h3>

A social movement which has been blowing up the headlines in the past year is&hellip; you guessed it, corporate environmentalism! Granted&nbsp;&mdash;&nbsp;this is nothing new, however we have witnessed some compelling events which have supercharged this movement of late&nbsp;&mdash;McDonald&rsquo;s roll out of the paper straw and the controversial antics of Extinction Rebellion to name a few. Design and marketing campaigns for big brands are jumping on the disruptive environmental bandwagon. You can also cross this with the increasing vegan/vegetarian population. Veganuary anyone?

We&rsquo;ll see this influence in design as companies put their foot forward to try and prove they&rsquo;re part of the popular do-gooder crowd. So expect to see leaves, greens and natural textures because Mother Nature has never looked more chic and &lsquo;on trend&rsquo;.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/01/14/co-op-bag_itsnicethat.jpg" style="height:474px; width:724px" />

<h3>3.&nbsp;Minimalist Landing Pages</h3>

 
Minimalist design has been increasing in popularity in the last decade and digital design is pushing it forwards in 2020. A website landing page is often a portal to all your online web content or a one page with all on offer in one place. Presenting this is a minimalist way can be difficult. However, web developers are pushing the consistently popular trend for minimalism with their sleek, low key landing pages. This minimalist landing page for <a href="https://catsanddogs.app">Cats &amp; Dogs The Weather App</a> is a great example of minimalism and UX design, the call&nbsp;to action is clear and the design is striking.

<h3><img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/01/15/screenshot-2020-01-14-at-171101.png" style="height:1760px; width:3330px" /> 
4.&nbsp;Breaking Design Rules</h3>

&ldquo;Learn the rules like a pro, so you can break them like an artist.&rdquo; &mdash; Pablo Picasso&nbsp;

A slightly rebellious attitude can go a long way. Every designer has been asked to make the logo bigger by a client. Landor took this to the extreme in their new packaging range for Kellogg&rsquo;s cereal by spanning it across two faces of the box. This is further complimented by the barcode doing the same. Of course the common practice is to have these two elements tucked neatly in the corner somewhere. Going against this has left Kelloggs something that is truly unique.

Breaking design rules to stand out is something to be embraced within design more and more.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/01/14/landor_kelloggs-6.jpg" style="height:2251px; width:4000px" />

<h3>5.&nbsp;Repetition, Repetition, Repetition, Repetition</h3>

 
Want to really throw your brand in people&rsquo;s faces? The year itself is repetitive&hellip;2020. Repeating elements can be used to create backgrounds, displays and also a practical way to show off variation when using a harmonious colour palette.&nbsp;

Inspired by Andy Warhol Pop Art paintings and patterned sock design, repetition like this can straddle the line between minimalism and a desire to use up blank spaces. 
&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/01/14/beanz-meanz-heinz-jkr-design-prodcts-graphics_dezeen_2364_col_2.jpg" style="height:1754px; width:2364px" />

<h3>6.&nbsp;Continuous animation sequences</h3>

Inspired by seamlessly repeatable Gifs, continuous animation sequences that loop forever are all the rage. Just look at <a href="http://www.nucreative.co.uk" target="_blank">our very own website</a> for an example of how they can give an otherwise minimalist website design, some personality. GIFs have only every increased in popularity and shareability. Social media channels favour video over anything else so it&rsquo;s not wonder designers are turning to this kind of loop-able animation to bridge the gap between the two.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2020/01/15/7ee444d8-d5dd-4f40-88d8-28e44d9cf3f8-1.gif" style="height:930px; width:930px" /> 
&nbsp;

6 Popular Design Trends for 2020

As we welcome a new year - and a new decade - our team of designers have been reflecting on a wonderfully creative 2019, and are full of excitement for all that 2020 has in store.

Love or hate them, New Year&rsquo;s resolutions are the ultimate new year tradition. Tired of making and breaking the same resolutions each year? Take a look at some suggestions from our design team for an inspired, creative and fun 2020. We promise we won&rsquo;t make you feel bad if you don&rsquo;t stick with them all.

<h3 dir="ltr">1. Attend more creative talks and workshops</h3>

Keeping up with the creative community and with the latest trends and technology means taking advantage of all the events, talks and workshops on offer for designers. Here are just a few of the creative events that the team are putting in their calendar:

Karen - &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be trying to make it to Nicer Tuesdays, a monthly event run by It&rsquo;s Nice That. Each month a speaker will share insights from a recent project, showing the ideas and processes behind its making. Fun, candid and ever-eclectic, the talks are a source of inspiration for creative people of all types.&rdquo;&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.itsnicethat.com/nicer-tuesdays">https://www.itsnicethat.com/nicer-tuesdays</a>

Tara - &ldquo;I love the Glug events, and really would like to attend more this year. Based around a series of talks and informal networking, Glug events are a really great chance to connect with other people across all kinds of creative communities. They run all over the country and internationally as well!&rdquo;&nbsp;

<a href="https://glugevents.com/">https://glugevents.com/</a>

Liam - &ldquo;I plan to attend TED Fest in New York in April which is an event of TED Talks with an audience made up of TEDx event organisers from around the world.&rdquo;&nbsp;

To find out what&rsquo;s going on in your city feel free to take a look at Design Calendar:<a href="https://www.designcalendar.io/"> https://www.designcalendar.io/</a>

<h3 dir="ltr">2. Take part in regular design challenges</h3>

There are countless ways to flex your creative muscles outside of a client brief.&nbsp; Here are some of the creative challenges the team will be embarking upon:&nbsp;

Steph - &ldquo;I&rsquo;d really like to contribute to 36 days of type this year! It&rsquo;s a project that invites designers, illustrators and artists to design a letter or number each day! Even if you don&rsquo;t take part, it&rsquo;s worth following the project on instagram to see all the creative ways that people approach each symbol and their endless graphic possibilities!&rdquo;

<a href="http://www.36daysoftype.com/">http://www.36daysoftype.com/</a>

Em - &ldquo;I&rsquo;ve followed poster jam on instagram for a while, but haven&rsquo;t taken part yet. It&rsquo;s a monthly design challenge where designers and artists are asked to create a poster design with a single word given each month as inspiration. It&rsquo;s incredible to see the diversity of creative approaches. My resolution is to try and submit a poster design every month!&rdquo;&nbsp;&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.instagram.com/poster.jam/">https://www.instagram.com/poster.jam/</a>&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr">3. Reach for the design books and magazines</h3>

Seeking inspiration and fresh ideas offline is a great excuse to step away from your desk. And what better way to do this than through the wonderful medium of print.

Here are a few design books and magazines that the team currently have on their eye&rsquo;s on:&nbsp;

Tara - &lsquo;How to use graphic design to sell things, explain things, make things look better, make people laugh, make people cry, and (every once in a while) change the world&rsquo;

<a href="https://designmuseumshop.com/collections/graphic-design/products/how-to-use-graphic-design-to-sell-things-explain-things-make-things-look-better-make-people-laugh-make-people-cry-and-every-once-in-a-while-change-the-world">https://designmuseumshop.com/collections/graphic-design/products/how-to-use-graphic-design-to-sell-things-explain-things-make-things-look-better-make-people-laugh-make-people-cry-and-every-once-in-a-while-change-the-world</a>

Laura - &lsquo;Less is More: Limited Colour Graphics in Design&rsquo; - <a href="https://www.counter-print.co.uk/collections/all-books/products/less-is-more-limited-colour-graphics-in-design">https://www.counter-print.co.uk/collections/all-books/products/less-is-more-limited-colour-graphics-in-design</a>

For some book inspiration feel free to check out some of our favorite design book stores:

<a href="https://www.counter-print.co.uk/">https://www.counter-print.co.uk/</a>

<a href="https://magma-shop.com/">https://magma-shop.com/</a>

<a href="https://designmuseumshop.com/collections/graphic-design">https://designmuseumshop.com/collections/graphic-design</a>

<a href="https://www.artwords.co.uk/">https://www.artwords.co.uk/</a>

<a href="https://libreria.io/">https://libreria.io/</a>

<h3>&nbsp;4. Start (or commit to) a personal project</h3>

Finding the time and motivation to kick-start your side-hustle can be difficult, but the creative rewards and sense of achievement make it all worth it. Here are a couple of side projects that the team plan to get off the ground this year:

Will - &ldquo;This year, I&rsquo;d like to commit (again) to creating cartoon poster artworks&rdquo;

Karen - &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be looking to improve photography skills and attempt a studio shoot&rdquo;&nbsp;

Ryan - &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to work on a series of zines&rdquo;&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr">&nbsp;5. Design blogs to actually keep up to date with</h3>

We&rsquo;re all guilty of signing up to (and ignoring) design blogs and e-news letters! But here are a few design blogs that the team will certainly be keeping a close eye on for design inspiration and trend watching:

&nbsp;Karen - A lovely collection of carefully selected works from around the globe: &nbsp;<a href="https://thedsgnblog.com/tagged/graphic-design">https://thedsgnblog.com/tagged/graphic-design</a>

Alicja - Beautiful and inspiring works across graphic design, web design and video:&nbsp; <a href="https://mindsparklemag.com/">https://mindsparklemag.com/</a>&nbsp;

Will - Established by a group of designers, illustrators, coders who were keen to share the best work they see across the industry. A great resource to see international work, keep up with trends, or just get inspired.

&nbsp;<a href="https://madebyfolk.com/blogs/mbf-journal">https://madebyfolk.com/blogs/mbf-journal</a>

Theo - Lots of illustration and print inspo to be found on the wrap magazine blog: <a href="https://wrapmagazine.tumblr.com/">https://wrapmagazine.tumblr.com/</a> (they have also have a printed edition too!)&nbsp;

<h2>6. Attend design festivals and exhibitions</h2>

2020 looks to be an exciting year for exhibitions and design festivals &ndash; here are a few of our teams highlights:

Em - &ldquo;I&rsquo;d love to get to Doti Festival this year&rdquo;

<a href="https://dotifest.com/">https://dotifest.com/</a>

Liam - &ldquo;I must visit the Steve McQueen exhibition at Tate Modern that starts in February&rdquo;

<a href="https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/steve-mcqueen">https://www.tate.org.uk/whats-on/tate-modern/exhibition/steve-mcqueen</a> 
 
Some other festival highlights:&nbsp;

- Offset (Dublin)

<a href="https://www.iloveoffset.com/">https://www.iloveoffset.com/</a>

- Us By Night (Antwerp)<a href="https://www.usbynight.be/">&nbsp;</a>

<a href="https://www.usbynight.be/">https://www.usbynight.be/</a>

- AIGA Design Conference 2020 (US)<a href="https://designconference.aiga.org/">&nbsp;</a>

<a href="https://designconference.aiga.org/">https://designconference.aiga.org/</a>

- D&amp;AD Festival 2020<a href="https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-creative-advertising-design-festival/">&nbsp;</a>

<a href="https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-creative-advertising-design-festival/">https://www.dandad.org/en/d-ad-creative-advertising-design-festival/</a>

- The London Design Festival

&nbsp;<a href="https://www.londondesignfestival.com/">https://www.londondesignfestival.com/</a>&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr"> 
7. Create the optimal desk environment</h3>

We&rsquo;re lucky enough to be moving to a new studio soon, and we&rsquo;re busy thinking about how to use the space to create the ultimate calm and creative environment. Here are some of the team&#39;s plans for our new home:

Nnamdi - &ldquo;More plants in the new studio will be nice way to decorate the space and bring a sense of calm!&rdquo;&nbsp;

Theo - &ldquo;I&rsquo;d like to hear some new artists on our studio Spotify playlist, I&rsquo;ll be looking for some new music to inspire and energise the team&rdquo;.&nbsp;

Liam - &lsquo;We should have space for a little photo/video studio corner for off the cuff photography and videos of what we&rsquo;re getting up to.&rsquo;

<h3 dir="ltr">8. Listen to more creative podcasts for inspiration:&nbsp;</h3>

Make the most of your morning commute by enjoying some audio inspiration to kick-start your day. Here are a few that have caught our attention:

Nnamdi - Design Matters 
<a href="https://www.designmattersmedia.com/designmatters">https://www.designmattersmedia.com/designmatters</a>

Will - Magic Lessons

<a href="https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/magic-lessons/">https://www.elizabethgilbert.com/magic-lessons/</a>

Karen - TED Talks Daily

<a href="https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/ted-talks/ted-talks-audio">https://www.ted.com/about/programs-initiatives/ted-talks/ted-talks-audio</a>

<h3>9. Step away from our screens more&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>

Taking regular breaks, and stepping away from the computer throughout the day is on the resolutions list for most of the team.

Liam - I&rsquo;ll be taking Molly for lunchtime walks as a way to take a break.&nbsp;

Alicja - Whenever I can, i&rsquo;ll be stepping away from my screen and picking up my pencil and notebook to sketch ideas and layouts.&nbsp;&nbsp;

Em - As we have a gym and a climbing wall just downstairs at our new office, there&rsquo;s no excuse not to step away and get some exercise at lunchtime.&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr">10. Try something new</h3>

No matter how much you know, there&rsquo;s always something new to learn. Weather it&rsquo;s an online tutorial, and evening class, or a personal challenge here are some of the new skills the team are planning to tackle this year.&nbsp;

Steph - &lsquo;This year I&rsquo;m planning to run my first marathon. Wish me luck!&rsquo;&rsquo;

Nnamdi - &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be investing some time to learn Motion design&rdquo; 
Jimmy &ndash; &ldquo;I&rsquo;d really like to start going to Brazilian Jiu Jitsu classes&rdquo;

<h3 dir="ltr">11. See the world</h3>

We&rsquo;re a well-travelled bunch, and for good reason. Traveling to new cities or countries takes us out of comfort zone, stimulates new ways of thinking and brings new inspiration and insights from different cultures. Here are a few of the travel destinations on the team&rsquo;s list:

Liam - &ldquo;In December 2020 I hope to visit &lsquo;the trashiest place on earth&rsquo; Dollywood.&rdquo;

Will - &ldquo;Next year I plan to visit my younger brother out in the US to watch him play football&rdquo;

Karen - &ldquo;I&rsquo;ll be going to Nepal in January and save for a big African adventure for 2021&rdquo;&nbsp;

Em - &ldquo;I have so many places on my travel list, but Helsinki and Alaska are high up on the list&rdquo;

<h3 dir="ltr">12. Do one thing to improve your wellbeing&nbsp;&nbsp;</h3>

The resolution to &lsquo;get healthy&rsquo; is perhaps the most clich&eacute;&rsquo;d of all the resolutions (and the one often most short-lived). But some small changes go a long way, here are some of the team&rsquo;s resolutions to improve overall health and wellbeing:

Jimmy - &ldquo;Start meditating on a daily basis again&rdquo;

Will - &ldquo;Take up a sport again&rdquo;

Karen - &ldquo;Lunch time gym sessions&rdquo;

Ryan - &ldquo;Take up yoga classes again&rdquo;

Have you set creative resolutions for the year ahead? We&rsquo;d love to hear about them.&nbsp;

&nbsp;

NU Year’s Resolutions For Creative People, From Our Designers

It doesn&rsquo;t take a brand enthusiast to see what has happened to the industry throughout the past couple of decades. Not long ago logos wanted to portray themselves as glossy, fresh, loaded with glitz and glamour. This would often be depicted quite literally, in high definition and glorious technicolour!

Then came along the minimalist age which swept across the field. From there it wasn&rsquo;t long until designers worked themselves down to the pure nuts and bolts of the design. Block colours, crisp, clean cut edges combined with a no-nonsense design. These have become the key pillars of thought for most designers as they sit down to undertake a new logo design.

One of the best examples of this maximalism to minimalism transition is Pepsi&rsquo;s 2008 rebrand.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/06/picture1.png" style="height:350px; width:839px" />

The Pepsi logo is an icon. A symbol which can be instantly recognised across the globe. Prior to 2008 Pepsi&rsquo;s logo made a big effort to pop out of the 2D surface it would usually be displayed on, it had texture.

The icon itself features reflection, shadows and even ice condensation, enticing the consumer to knock back a refreshing, icy cold glass of their beverage. Even the wordmark &ndash; the company name - of the logo has an added 3D perspective.

Today, Pepsi&rsquo;s logo takes the same stance as the majority of logos we are used to seeing today. The &ldquo;less is more&rdquo; approach. This can be taken to extreme by even dropping the wordmark from a logo, recently seen in Pentagram&rsquo;s brand refresh for Mastercard.

Mastercard now relies solely on its intersecting red and yellow circles to speak for itself, visually signify &ldquo;Mastercard&rdquo; to their customers. This bold act is clearly only possibly for companies what are the most deeply woven into our society; Nike, Apple, McDonalds to name a few examples.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/06/mastercard_logo_before_after.png" style="height:416px; width:1000px" />

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/06/mastercard_logo0.jpg" style="height:800px; width:1200px" />

With all this in mind something caught my eye the other day that bucked the minimalism trend. Aldi had rebranded. This didn&rsquo;t catch my eye because I am a big fan of Aldi&rsquo;s high quality goods at drop dead prices. It caught my eye because Aldi&rsquo;s new logo looked like one I haven&rsquo;t seen for many years.

Like the pre-2008 Pepsi logo, Aldi&rsquo;s 2017 logo featured strong reflection and shadowing along with heavy use of gradients. I wasn&rsquo;t sure if I should laugh at this logo, or think of it as pure marketing genius. If the pre-minimalist logos were presented in high definition, the new Aldi logo is 4K.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/06/aldi-logo-changes-history.jpg" style="height:794px; width:1256px" />

The world of branding and logos has become over saturated with the same fundamental styling. Aldi have done something that is not only refreshing but also feels nostalgic. Was this accidental? Are Aldi harking back to the logos of old with texture and a luxe look?

Aldi themselves stated that &ldquo;the rebrand aims to give the supermarket a modern appearance&rdquo;. This statement contradicts my observations but maybe we will start seeing large corporations taking a similar route as Aldi, shaping the future trend for brands and trigging a new movement for designers to consider.

Is the minimalist &lsquo;less is more&rsquo; approach to logo design coming to an end?

<hr />
James Nonhebel is a Designer&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design and branding.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their rebranding projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out brands for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you evolve.

Is a minimalist approach to logo design coming to an end?

<h3 dir="ltr">2010</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Design for Digital and Delight</h3>

As our world became more and more digital throughout the 2000s, the start of the 2010s signals another ten years of design being heavily influenced by web and digital design. 2010 marked the end of a teething period when the influence of Web 2.0. and HTML5 meant user friendly web design and visual aesthetics didn&rsquo;t cancel each other out. In 2010 you could have both clear communication and a remarkable design. Spoiler alert - by the end of the decade, this was expected and instantly dated any website that wasn&rsquo;t both easy to navigate and easy on the eyes. No matter what trends influenced the actual design elements, this has remained consistent.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/1.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

<h3>2011</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">G is for Gradient</h3>

Gradients have been so popular in the 2010s, depending on how you look at it, they&rsquo;ve either come in two waves or they&rsquo;ve remained consistently popular. The first wave was early in the decade in line with the trend for flat design. Before people went all the way with pure minimalist designs, gradients were used to add interest and depth but maintain a sense of minimalism. More on gradients later in the decade.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/2.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

<h3 dir="ltr">2012</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Back to Basics</h3>

Graphic design in the early 2000s was very overclocked with as many effects and elements as possible. Ink splatters, funky textures and sun rays were everywhere to be found and it became very noisy, very quickly.&nbsp;

In 2012 however designers began to push back against that and returned to simplified design styles. Designers began paring back extraneous fluff and refocused graphic design back into communicating information as clearly as possible. Stripping out unnecessary elements to leave a neat and clean aesthetic, subtle typography, and fewer but bolder colours.&nbsp;

Of all the trends on this list, this had the largest impact on design to come.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/3.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

<h3> 
2013</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Design Starts to Respond</h3>

2013 was a very competitive year for smartphones. More and more people were using mobile phones as their primary use of internet browsing, with tablets fast becoming the device of choice for people who didn&rsquo;t want to invest in a computer or laptop outside of work.&nbsp;

Designers started to realise that they needed to design for a wider range of experiences and fit their content to different sizes and elements. What was born was responsive design. User experience went to the forefront of digital design importance and and lead to an expansion of what a website could and needed to look like.&nbsp;

Designers not only started to design their sites to look good on both a computer screen but also a wide range of phone screen sizes. What looked good on one screen had to look good on all screens.&nbsp; 
&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/4_lEqJlj4.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

<h3 dir="ltr">2014</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Skeuomorphism Is Dead Long Live Flat Design</h3>

In 2014 digital and UI design took its last steps away from the realistic look of Skeuomorphism. Bevels, drop shadows and detailed illustrations gave way to the flat simple shapes, bold colours and abstract shapes.&nbsp;

Flat design was a breath of fresh air compared to the detailed skeuomorphic design of the past, and the freedom lead to an explosion of varied illustration styles and icon design. Flat design would continue to develop and grow over the rest of the decade.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/5_VWYeMNp.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

<h3>2015</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Duotone</h3>

If you&rsquo;ve ever opened Spotify before, then you&rsquo;ve seen this style. Duotone in 2015 was everything designers loved. Bold colours, bold imagery and minimal elements. A sort of rebirth of colour play, duotones allowed designers to say a lot with a little.&nbsp;

Whilst spotify popularised the look to make bold and loud statements, duotone proved to be much more versatile than expected. Traditional and conservative looks could also be accomplished. The New York Times and Holm Marcher &amp; Co used the look to engage and excite clients whilst still keeping a mature look.&nbsp;

The accustomed designer got to the style, the more complex and creative the designers got with incorporating them with their designs. Leading to Duotone leaking out of web design and making its way to packaging and print.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/6_YPlKLyr.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

<h3>2016</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Brand Simplification&nbsp;</h3>

Branding, much like fashion come in two lanes, those that stay timeless, and those that become dated soon after. But even the most iconic brands need a refresh from time to time. Logos have to go much further now. Not only looking good fully printed on a billboard, but also when shrunk down to 80 pixels on the latest smart watch.&nbsp;

Starting off the year megabrand McDonald&#39;s rolled out it&rsquo;s new packaging design, stripping everything back and in the words of branding agency Boxer, causing function as a &quot;mobile billboard&quot;, and after the success many other brands took notice. Mastercard took a massive leap mid year and partnered with Pentagram to simplify their brand. Isolating their core elements to modernise the company, whose visual look hasn&rsquo;t changed since 1996. And with that the game was afoot, everyone from Airbnb to Dropbox followed suit, refining their brands to work not only in a modern context but for any and every medium the future will bring.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/7_cDNHEzC.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" /> 
&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr">2017</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Design Gets Brutal</h3>

Few design trends split designers much like Brutalism. Depending on who you are, it either looks like some dystopian nightmare or a striking expression that demands to be seen.&nbsp;

Regardless of where you fall, most would agree that Brutalism breaks through the clean and polished design that had become the standard of the decade.Many designers feel for freedom that Brutalism brought to the table. Starker colours, rough typography, but most importantly a youthful feeling of rebellion. It was a style that was hard to do correctly, so didn&rsquo;t become as mainstream as many other trends on this list, but it pierced through just as much. Taking a hold in print and digital web design, breaking every rule while redefining a few along the way.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/8_927An58.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" /> 
&nbsp;

<h3 dir="ltr">2018</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">Gradients Make a Come Back...Again</h3>

With the birth of flat minimalist design, gradients began to make a quiet come back in all forms of design. But 2018 was the year that gradients came back - again - in full force. The energy and vibrancy that came with the attention grabbing look that felt new and unique in ways single colours couldn&rsquo;t replicate, no matter how bold.

While soft gradients resurfered in 2011, what really brought them back in full swing in 2018, was the exoit uses of colour, super saturated hues and tones that allowed for the gradient to almost be the design itself. Sort of a marriage between earlier flat design and the birth of duotone, gradients became complex statements and expressions of emotion that did more than just add a variety of colours, they enhanced mood and emotion whilst adding depth and detail to everything from flat illustrations to bold photography.&nbsp;&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/9.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

<h3 dir="ltr">2019</h3>

<h3 dir="ltr">The Third Dimension</h3>

Design tools advance and change every year, and with that what we as designers can do opens up more and more. 3D design possibilities have elevated everything that came before it this past decade.. Flat illustrations and abstract shapes kept their style but gained depth and perspective that they had never been able to replicate flatly. Minimal colours, gradients and duotones came together and moved forward, creating contrasting complementary palettes on 3D models. Letterforms had new life breathed into them, adding punch and composition to fonts of all styles, serif, sans-serif, script, all can be rendered in 3D.

Most excitingly this move to 3D didn&rsquo;t leave 2D in the dust. 3D elements began getting mixed into traditional 2D design, allowing for not only more flexibility but also a sense of movement.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/12/20/10.jpg" style="height:2245px; width:1587px" />

&nbsp;

Graphic Design Trends of the Last Decade

All Hallows&#39; Eve is upon us once again so we&rsquo;ve tasked our team of creatives to find their favourite marketing campaign from some of the big brands that have creatively blended Halloween iconography with their own branding.

Here are our favourites and some reasons why they caught our eye.

<h4>James -&nbsp;Guiness Ghost Shadow&nbsp;Coasters</h4>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/1.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /> 
- A low budget creative and fun way to dress-up the already spooky coloured beverage to look the part in any halloween event. 
- Curiosity provoking and tangible. 
- Something which can be taken home and re-used.

<h4>Ryan -&nbsp;Marmite Trick or Treat</h4>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/2.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /> 
- Halloween...you either &lsquo;Love it or hate it&rsquo; and to celebrate the season Marmite have released a &lsquo;trick and treat&rsquo; limited edition set of Halloween jars.&nbsp; 
- The labels have been cleverly designed to make the contents look like a potion and poison, adopting green and red colours to emphasise this. 
- The product launch is a play on words and latches onto the well known strapline used by the brand making it a clever PR stunt.&nbsp;

<h4> 
Liam -&nbsp;Burger King&rsquo;s Scary Clown Night</h4>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/3.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /> 
- Clowns come in all shapes and sizes but they&rsquo;re always scary! 
- It&rsquo;s a clever reference to Ronald McDonald who has always been pretty creepy looking. 
- The deal involves free food and we all love free food.

<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=TR6XhtdU6TA">Watch&nbsp;the video here.</a>

<h4>Steph -&nbsp;McDonald&rsquo;s Fries Fangs &amp; Ghostly Burgers</h4>

<h4><img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/4.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /></h4>

- Generally the conceptual look and feel of the whole campaign is refreshing, to have an elegant but scary style utilized within halloween. 
- Innovative ways of using food objects to create the stereotypical halloween shapes. 
- The use of lighting within the campaign to add that extra spooky feel but using the strong brand colours. 
- It is simple but effective - but isn&#39;t simple the hardest thing to master in design?

<h4> 
Milena -&nbsp;Lush Little box of Horrors</h4>

<h4><img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/5.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /></h4>

- Everything you need to look so fresh and so clean before applying your Halloween face paint. 
- It&rsquo;s good to know these products are vegan and cruelty-free when you&rsquo;re about to become a flesh eating zombie. 
- Love the box referencing Little Shop of Horrors and the minimal packaging which is good for the environment.

<h4> 
Karen -&nbsp;Top Shop +&nbsp;Stranger Things In-store&nbsp;Collaboration&nbsp;</h4>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/6.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /> 
- Coincided with the release of season 2 around Halloween. 
- Along with clothing merch, Topshop Oxford Street decorated its store with various interactive set pieces such as Hawkins lab, Will&rsquo;s den and the arcade and played the soundtrack on in the background to create a truly amazing immersive in-store experience. 
- The accessible window display allowed visitors to test their telekinetic powers. 
- Did a well made redesign of the Topshop logo to match the colours and typography of the Stranger Things logo. 
- Website had a cool &lsquo;Strangeify&rsquo; button where the images on the website would be displayed upside down in reflection of the Upside Down world in ST.&nbsp; 
- In all, a very cool example of two brands teaming up to create a fun and spooky shopping experience. &nbsp;

<h4>Nnamdi -&nbsp;Oreo&nbsp;Orange Coloured Creme&nbsp;+ Wizard of Oz</h4>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/7.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /> 
- Simple minimal design that is instantly recognisable with or without seeing the film. 
- Ties perfectly with the design of the witch&rsquo;s leggings and the oreo shape. 
- Smart way to present the brand&rsquo;s seasonal colors/flavours. 
- Always a fan of work that doesn&rsquo;t require much if any copy.

<h4>Theo -&nbsp;M&amp;M&rsquo;s: Millie &amp; Max Interactive Ghost Story</h4>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/10/28/8_Fbuyi4Z.png" style="height:512px; width:1024px" /> 
- Engaging social media content and a reason to talk about the brand. 
- Interactive and people/customers-driven content. 
- The episodic choose-your-own-adventure kept the audience engaged regularly and for a while with a voting system. 
- Easy and cheap as most of the content comes from the audience. 
- Easy way to make sure your customers will be satisfied with the content of your marketing campaign. 
&nbsp;

Halloween Branding Favourites from NU Creative

Have you ever panicked when your designer asks you to send over the .indd file of a project or worse an open-source file? Don&rsquo;t worry, you&rsquo;re not alone.

On the other side, I cannot tell you how many times I have had clients contact me worried that the supplied open-source document is corrupt. It&#39;s not, but files ending in .ai .psd and .indd are just a few of the files designers use to produce the work you have commissioned and can only be opened with a certain type of software.

Different files serve different purposes, each with their own advantages and disadvantages. In addition, each programme a graphic designer uses will have a default file type - some may allow for manipulation, some may not. As a designer, knowing what limitations these different files have is almost like second nature, but we completely understand that for most people it&rsquo;s not.

The infographic below is an introduction to the most common filetypes you may encounter while working with a designer. Knowing how and when to use a specific filetype can save you as the client money and time, and your designer a lot of headaches.

&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/30/filetypecheatsheet.png" style="height:3583px; width:1304px" />

Filetype Cheat Sheet for Clients

<h3 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Creativity in Festival Design</h3>

It&rsquo;s festival season again and fun-loving souls from around the country have been packing their wellies, cramming onto trains and planes, and escaping to the wilderness in search of freedom and liberation. 

Part of what makes a festival so magical and such an escape from normality comes down to so many things, particularly the music, the spirituality, the creativity and the eclectic mix of people who gather. Like minds who come to get lost in a weird-yet-wonderful world of self expression where anything seems to go.

With so much creative thought going into making a festival so captivating, it makes sense that along with the music, spirituality and self expression, so too comes art and design.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/27/1561661177_143003_1561663077_noticia_normal.jpg" style="height:1176px; width:1960px" />

One of the biggest festivals in the UK, Glastonbury, is renowned for its creativity and art. Everything from the menial print materials such as posters, t shirts and programmes to their more elaborate, big scale stage designs, firework productions and beautifully crafted themed areas. Even the bins and the flags have been meticulously and lovingly handmade by a huge team of creatives. It&rsquo;s all of this detail that creates the epic, magical effect that makes Glastonbury what it is. 

From one world-renowned festival to another, one that prides itself on its huge creative output is Burning Man in Nevada, USA. The defining concept behind the event is to experiment with ideas of community, self expression&nbsp;and art.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/27/sporleder-burning-man-2016jpg-1200x853.jpg" style="height:853px; width:1200px" />

The desert based event began its days in 1986 as a bonfire ritual on the summer solstice when a few friends met on a beach and burned a 9-foot wooden man. This idea of burning effigies as a way of self expression soon became synonymous with Burning Man and now participants attend to showcase their own creations. This could be anything from huge art installations and sculptures to performance art or even building their own cars to get around the festival. The end result is a barren landscape filled for one week only, with bizarre, fantastic creations celebrating art, participation and the giving of self expression.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/27/p-tree-roskilde-2.jpg" style="height:446px; width:670px" />

Other, less-known festivals around the world are also putting themselves on the map with innovative design and creativity. Roskilde festival in Denmark&nbsp;came up with&nbsp;an ingenious way to reduce urinating on the ground after thousands of woozy drinkers made their way home from late night partying. These tree-mounted urinals by Dutch designers Aandeboom can connect to either the main sewage system or a tank. Made of mounded plastic and harmless to trees, the P-Wee successfully reduced public peeing during the festival, without having to take away that all important &lsquo;free&rsquo; feeling!&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/27/4f4f7f270128175635f68a373e3.jpeg" style="height:1080px; width:1920px" />

In Switzerland, Noise festival, which had its final event last year, impressed with their abstract campaign design based on the concept of sound. The&nbsp;event started out as a&nbsp;rock festival in the early 90s but over the years its line-up diversified and they wanted to shout about it. Swiss designer, Alexandre Pietra created these striking, visual representations of songs played at the festival by putting blue paint on top of a loud speaker playing the song. The slower songs created fluid, smooth shapes in the paint whereas the heavier rock songs produced frantic peaks and messy lines. Yet another great piece of festival design.

So, whether it be a production team&rsquo;s planned vision or the spontaneous creative outbursts of the festival participants, design continues to play a huge role in festival creativity. And with new festivals popping up every year and endless design talent emerging, they can only go on to become bigger, better and more beautiful than ever.

<hr />
Laura Lidstone is Lead&nbsp;Designer&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design and branding.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their rebranding projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out brands for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you evolve.

Creativity in Festival Design

<h3>It&rsquo;s always exciting when you get a call from a client for an interesting new job.</h3>

Then it hits home that you didn&#39;t receive or ask for all of the info you need to produce the creative deliverables on brand, budget and to schedule.

Similarly, clients who are ill-prepared going into briefing meetings can also come away feeling like the designer didn&rsquo;t quite understand what was being asked, which can often be down to ineffective communication around the company and scope of the project.

A client putting together a well-rounded brief, and equally a creative team asking the right questions, can be the difference between a successful and less than great project outcome.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/08/05/shutterstock_590149199-1024x683.jpg" style="height:683px; width:1024px" />

Following the below points will give you the information you need to ensure you&rsquo;ve got it covered:

<h2>Knowing the business</h2>

Is this a new client? Or the first time you&rsquo;ve worked with this creative business or agency? It&rsquo;s important to share and gain information on the who, what, why and importantly for who. For clients, giving an overview of the business will help the creative team to understand the history of the company, the industry it resides in and its competitors.

<h2>Target audience</h2>

Understanding the key audience or customer is important in gaining knowledge into what creative ideas will work for the project. Ask for a description of an individual within this audience &ndash; their demographic, gender, location, income, likes and dislikes. If the project is steered towards a younger audience, visually engaging infographics and illustrations, teamed with easy to read content will be a successful approach over a text heavy document.

<h2>Scope of the project and specifications</h2>

A clear project scope is beneficial to both parties &ndash; it means the creative team can put together an accurate budget based on your specifications, and the client won&rsquo;t be surprised by any last-minute costs for deliverables that were not covered in the brief. This information will also allow creative teams to manage their time effectively, and produce designs that meet the client&rsquo;s needs.

<h2>Providing / asking for the following information is crucial to any project:</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Digital, print or both? Interactivity or animation?</li>
	<li>What deliverables are required?</li>
	<li>Will they be printed? If so what are the specifications?</li>
	<li>Do they need design concepts or will the work be based around current branding or an established style?</li>
	<li>Size and format</li>
	<li>Page count</li>
	<li>Are there any charts, graphs, diagrams or maps that will need to be redrawn?</li>
	<li>Will images be provided? If not does the client have a budget for images? Does the client hold an account to any image libraries?</li>
	<li>Is anyone else working on other materials within the project</li>
</ul>

<h2>Objectives and goals of the new design</h2>

<ul>
	<li>Are the deliverables a redesign, reworking of existing artwork or brand new?</li>
	<li>What are the clients tastes, likes and dislikes and definite &ldquo;do nots&rdquo;</li>
	<li>Client to share examples of similar work they like</li>
</ul>

<h2>Budget and schedule</h2>

Perhaps one of the biggest misconceptions about creative teams asking for a client to disclose a budget, is that the client will be overcharged. It is really important for the client to understand that this is so the services can be tailored to the budget. The famous venn diagram below shows this perfectly.

Creative teams &ndash; make it clear at the beginning of the project how long each stage will take. Explain that good design takes time, and similarly if there is no movement on a tight deadline, the quality will be jeopardized.

Clients &ndash; communicate your key milestones and deadlines to the creative team. Informing the designer of an &lsquo;ideal deadline&rsquo; and not the real deadline may mean that there is no allocated time to work on the project past this date. This can cause major issues at the key stage in the process, right when you need support the most.

Discuss how the amends and approval process will play out. Will you need to allow more time at the clients end for reviews, or will decisions only be made by one or two people? Creative teams should be clear about how long each amends stage will take early on in the project, and communicate any changes to this at each round of amends.

Formalise the schedule for the project to solidify your agreement. This clearly lays out key milestones that both parties are expected to meet in order for the end deadline to be reached.

The success of a project is not only great creative, but great communication!

<hr />
Tara Cloak is Creative Director&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design and branding.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their creative&nbsp;projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out brands for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you evolve.

what makes for a good creative design brief

What makes a good creative brief?

<h3 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">50 Years of Pride - The History of the Rainbow Flag</h3>

To mark the last week of world Pride month, the 50th anniversary of the Stonewall Riots (28th June 1969) and Pride in London which concludes with the iconic parade across London on Saturday 6th July, we have created a rainbow NU logo.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/26/nu-pride-logo.png" style="height:600px; width:600px" />

&nbsp;

Many people don&rsquo;t know the design history of the pride flag so we&rsquo;ve rounded up some research resources for you. A little Pride history lesson courtesy of NU Creative Marketing Manager Liam and&nbsp;the internet.

<h3 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">How much do you know about the Pride flag design we all know and love today?</h3>

The original rainbow pride flag dates back to 1978, when <a href="http://www.huffingtonpost.co.uk/entry/rainbow-pride-flag-history_n_5b193aafe4b0599bc6e124a0">it was created by San Francisco-based queer artist Gilbert Baker</a> for a mere $1,000.

<a href="https://www.theguardian.com/world/2018/nov/27/harvey-milk-40-years-on-legacy-san-francisco-lgbtq">Harvey Milk</a> was the first openly gay elected official in the history of California and he urged Gilbert Baker to create a &#39;symbol of the community&#39;. The original 8 colour&nbsp;rainbow flag was the result.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/27/2091.jpg" style="height:640px; width:1280px" />

Allegedly inspired by Judy Garland&#39;s &#39;Somewhere Over The Rainbow&#39; from the Queer classic film The Wizard of Oz, <a href="https://gilbertbaker.com/rainblow-flag-color-meanings/">each colour had a particular meaning</a>&nbsp;behind it.

When Harvey Milk was assassinated, demand for the rainbow flag&nbsp;went through the roof and due to production challenges&nbsp;a rainbow flag with fewer colours was created. It was reduced to 7 and then 6 colours.&nbsp;This is the origin of the rainbow flag design we know and love today.

<h3 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Are there other pride flags?</h3>

The rainbow flag is the most well known LGBT+ flag and symbol of Pride, however over the years <a href="https://www.pride.com/pride/2018/6/13/complete-guide-queer-pride-flags-0#media-gallery-media-0">more flags that&nbsp;represent&nbsp;different parts of the overall community</a> have been created.&nbsp;

Arguably the most well known of the other flags are&nbsp;the ones that represent&nbsp;the transgender and bisexual communities.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/27/transgender-flag.png" style="height:312px; width:820px" />

<h3 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">What was the symbol of pride pre-rainbow flag?</h3>

The only alternative&nbsp;symbol of pride similar to the rainbow flag is the pink triangle, often seen pointing downwards or inverted. The triangle <a href="https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Pink_triangle">has its origins as a symbol of &#39;homosexual&#39;&nbsp;holocaust victims</a>&nbsp;and later became more widely used as a symbol <a href="https://hiskind.com/how-the-pink-triangle-became-a-symbol-of-queer-resistance/">of the victimisation of the community as a whole</a>. The pink triangle was seen widely at protests, a symbol of &#39;queer resistance&#39;.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/27/pride-blog-pink-triangle.png" style="height:312px; width:820px" />

The pink triangle still has a place in&nbsp;the LGBT+ community and Pride events across the globe,&nbsp;however the rainbow flag shifted the focused toward Pride as both a celebration and a protest.

<h3 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">When did &#39;pride&#39; begin?</h3>

The Stonewall Riots&nbsp;on 28th June 1969 were not the first time the queer community protested and fought&nbsp;for their rights, however it created a ripple of rebellion amongst New York City queer residents. It&nbsp;showed that gay rights needed to be more aggressively fought for, they were not just going to be handed to people.

There are many untruths about what actually happened at the Stonewall Inn that night, however&nbsp;<a href="https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=S7jnzOMxb14">this is a great video featuring people who were there</a> debunking some of the myths.&nbsp;

The rainbow flag was created almost 10 years later and the LGBT+ community had a recognisabe symbol to go along with their protests and celebrations.

How is the rainbow flag used today?

The iconic rainbow flag is now used across&nbsp;the world to celebrate Pride and the LGBT+ community,&nbsp;fighting for rights in parts of the world where progress still needs to be made. The flag is so recognisable its presence can <a href="https://www.telegraph.co.uk/news/2017/07/07/parliament-lit-rainbow-colours-celebrate-london-pride/">bring communities together</a>, <a href="https://nypost.com/2019/06/12/new-york-city-to-unveil-largest-rainbow-pride-flag-in-citys-history/">break records</a> and&nbsp;<a href="https://edition.cnn.com/2019/06/11/politics/mike-pence-lgbt-flag-embassies-pride-month/index.html">cause&nbsp;controversy</a>. It&#39;s now <a href="https://www.newsweek.com/these-30-brands-are-celebrating-pride-giving-back-lgbt-community-1441707">used by many brands and companies</a> to show their solidarity with the community and&nbsp;raise money for charity.&nbsp;

<h3 style="margin-left:0cm; margin-right:0cm">Could the rainbow flag change again?</h3>

Manchester Pride caused a stir in 2019 <a href="https://www.pinknews.co.uk/2019/01/10/manchester-pride-flag-black-brown/">by&nbsp;unveiling their use of a rainbow flag with two additional colours</a>, brown and black, to represent the often underrepresented BAME (black, Asian and minority ethnic people)&nbsp;in&nbsp;the&nbsp;LGBT+ community. The decision <a href="https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/newsbeat-46860693">divided people</a>. Could this be the Pride flag of the future? Time will tell.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/28/rainbow-flag.jpg" style="height:742px; width:1800px" />

There you have it, a brief history of the pride rainbow flag. Whatever way&nbsp;you plan to celebrate 50 years since the Stonewall Riots and pride this year, remember how the pride flag came to be. A symbol of protest,&nbsp;adversity, hope and diversity.

50 Years of Pride - The History of the Rainbow Flag

<h2 dir="ltr">There&#39;s more to a font than you may realise.</h2>

When it comes to fonts, there isn&rsquo;t an instructional manual that outlines the do&rsquo;s and don&rsquo;ts. In fact, a lot of time people just toss fonts aside, thinking they&rsquo;re interchangeable. However, in the world of design, fonts are so much more than just a way to show how your letters look on paper. They are a feeling, a statement, and a way to affirm a message. If you&rsquo;re not using fonts in these ways, then you&rsquo;re probably not making the most of your font decisions. Regardless, there&rsquo;s more to fonts than you may realize.

<h3 dir="ltr">Sometimes less is more</h3>

<img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/mQI4s9rc6tdXD9U4KwLqEMCH8FZe2WLsl5nMK0Clz3j0g5sx7koYs8JkeofRpqiTK3xINLeug8sEzuJgL2b262rTk_8qI7KUxmOkqFurH3NgBWm650cwxc2InNGxEHV2CiTh68h0" />

We all used those display fonts at some point in our life to make a friend&rsquo;s birthday banner or card in Microsoft Word, however in the business world you&rsquo;re looking for a much different effect. Even if your business is fun and unique, a loud font can overpower your message. In fact, in most cases you don&rsquo;t notice a font at all. When a customer lands on a nice website, they aren&rsquo;t commenting on the font. They look past the font and read the information, without knowing the font is actually influencing the message they&rsquo;re receiving. So next time you&rsquo;re looking for the boldest or quirkiest font you can find, maybe take a second look.

<h3 dir="ltr">Know you&rsquo;re message</h3>

<h2 dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh6.googleusercontent.com/77ZO6j1DtH51jBSO49KZ2mFiKfnQ0MSKdPezvIAQZXi7bzFU_bAPESj_OYEF39D5Us_5wT89JklvM846rkDP1HZOJgX0Clo65IMNphhGdfWr_4YWj6-feuHD7eG2UEATtCSsi-vf" /></h2>

Fonts aren&rsquo;t just there to look pretty, although it&rsquo;s hard not to admire a well chosen font. Think of fonts as the vehicle to transport the message. Imagine you have an important meeting tomorrow morning, but no way to get there. That&rsquo;s a slight problem. The way you get to the meeting is just as important as the meeting, how you look, and what time you arrive at. I&rsquo;d argue almost more important, since the rest isn&rsquo;t possible if you can&rsquo;t get there!

Now think of the different methods of transportation. There&rsquo;s walking, biking, driving, taking the train, taking a bus, or taking a plane. Even within driving you have a ton of options including whether someone is driving you or you&rsquo;re driving yourself. There&rsquo;s uber and there&rsquo;s a limo. We base our decision off of many factors including convenience, status, independence, financial means, and location. Down to the means of transportation, a message is being sent.

A limo driver holding a sign with your name in the airport shows classiness, status, and privilege. The driver wears a suit, drives a fancy black car, and the inside is always clean. Now, think if the limo driver wore a fancy suit, held a sign with your name on it, and then led you to an old, beat up car. Wouldn&rsquo;t you be confused?

Fonts are the vehicle to your information. If your message catered to a specific type of audience, then your font should reflect that as well. Think who are the readers, how do you want them to feel, and then choose a font that best shows that.

<h3>Pair fonts correctly</h3>

<h2 dir="ltr"><img src="https://lh4.googleusercontent.com/A5uitjpuiNPdk_kNfEXnbDEdLqTh8rllQS7vzE_GoaLkzTTeCCWM-gDzHr-_xsNCXlHjJtUnauLkPGie35Itg5KjkyUhuxdC7GIU_UQS3rrC3mD8_LaFiHIkFayZOaIcXYqCu6FD" /></h2>

One font is hard enough, but add another font and it seems like game over. Yet, that&rsquo;s not the case! Pairing fonts is about finding balance. You don&rsquo;t want one font to overpower the other, making information hard to take in for the readers. It&rsquo;s like the yin and yang of design - serifs pair well with sans serif fonts.

The best way to go pairing though, is to use a <a href="https://www.boldwebdesign.com.au/font-combinations-for-web-designers.html">font pairing tool</a>, like this one from <a href="https://www.boldwebdesign.com.au/">Bold Web Design</a>. This makes it easy, knowing you have two fonts that work well together. All you do is choose one font you think best fits your message and audience, and the tool will generate a font that works best with it. Test it out!

From website to eBook, or really any project, fonts might be best to pick at the last step. It may be most important, but it&rsquo;s definitely the hardest step. Sometimes it&rsquo;s the little things that matter the most!

<hr />
<h4 dir="ltr">Author Bio</h4>

A creative jack of all trades, Kelsey from <a href="https://www.boldwebdesign.com.au/">Bold Web Design</a> brings tasteful wit to each article she writes. With experience in the world of design, she understands the struggles of choosing fine details, like fonts, that put the cherry on top.

There's more to a font than you may realise

<h2>Does your website need an SSL Certificate?</h2>

Quick answer, yes! Every website should have a valid SSL Certificate. <a href="https://motherboard.vice.com/en_us/article/google-will-soon-shame-all-websites-that-are-unencrypted-chrome-https">Google announced</a> they&nbsp;penalise&nbsp;sites that don&rsquo;t have a valid certificate and dropping them down SEO rankings. Making your website harder for people to find and your competitors easier to find.

<h3>What is SSL?</h3>

An SSL Certificate is proof of ownership. Once a website has a SSL Certificate installed it shows who owns the site, and then allows that site to send data securely in the form of HTTPS. HTTPS traffic is encrypted making it a lot safer to send information across the web, especially when dealing with private information such as bank details.

To see if a site you&rsquo;re visiting has a SSL Certificate there should be a green padlock to the left of the address bar and the URL should start with HTTPS.

<h3>What are the effects of not having a certificate?</h3>

Ever been on a website and had the error message &ldquo;Your connection is not secure&rdquo;. All of us have. This doesn&rsquo;t always mean that the site you&rsquo;re visiting is unsecure and going to steal your information. A lot of the time this is just down to the fact the certificate has expired and they haven&rsquo;t renewed it or they didn&rsquo;t have one to begin with.

In the past, this wasn&rsquo;t such a big deal but all of that is about to change. Many of the top technology companies in the world are pushing for every website in the public domain to communicate via HTTPS. So much so that soon Google will start to shame sites that don&rsquo;t have a SSL certificate by explicitly saying the site is not secure.

This may not seem like such a huge deal, but consider this. You&rsquo;re about to purchase a product online and have entered your bank details and home address or you&rsquo;ve signed up to a site using the same password you have used 90% of the time. Then you see a large red &nbsp;&ldquo;NOT SECURE&rdquo; text in your address bar, how likely are you now to type that sensitive information in to their site?

Good news though, as of January 2017 over 50% of web traffic using Firefox as a web browser uses HTTPS. <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/stats/">https://letsencrypt.org/stats/</a>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/newplot_gcUnbJv.png" style="height:450px; width:940px" />

<h3>How do you get a SSL Certificate?</h3>

This may all sound very confusing and complicated, but it doesn&rsquo;t need to be. Many hosting solutions will offer SSL Certificates as Add On&rsquo;s and you can get one in a few clicks. The prices can vary depending on your hosting provider and the size of your website.

If your hosting provider doesn&rsquo;t offer SSL certificates or the price seems a little steep, you can also acquire a certificate from <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/">Let&rsquo;s Encrypt</a>. They offer free, automated and open certificates. Let&rsquo;s Encrypt have some big hitting sponsors including, Mozilla, Google, Cisco, Facebook and Squarespace, just to name a few. Using Let&rsquo;s Encrypt does require a bit more setting up than getting your certificate through your hosting provider, but they do have extremely well documented <a href="https://letsencrypt.org/getting-started/">tutorials</a> to help you through the process. Alternatively, please get in touch with NU Creative if you would like help protecting your site with SSL.

<hr />
Sam Roberts is a Digital&nbsp;Designer&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in digital&nbsp;design.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their digital design projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out digital solutions&nbsp;for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you.

Does your website need an SSL Certificate?

<h2>There are a lot of sources on the internet about rebranding. Industries have been created and people who understand it&rsquo;s value, are sought after, to share their&nbsp;expertise&nbsp;with&nbsp;businesses and industries whose expertise is other. &nbsp;</h2>

The subject of branding and rebranding is huge and a year of blogs would probably not cover it. So I am looking at it in its simplest capacity and to me, that&rsquo;s rooted in common sense.

Corporations are like people, the name derives from the Latin&nbsp;corporare&nbsp;&lsquo;combine in one body&rsquo;&nbsp;and as such they are treated as a single entity in the business world. As &lsquo;people&rsquo;, corporations survive and grow through their relationships with other people, just as individuals do.&nbsp;There is no single person in the world who doesn&rsquo;t change over time and no couple whose relationship doesn&rsquo;t have to evolve in order to survive and thrive throughout these changes.

Companies grow, increase their expertise and the way in which they operate, and throughout&nbsp;this process, relationships change. Some clients and companies evolve alongside them, some move off in other directions, new client organisations partner up as your offering more closely fits their needs. Rebranding is a way of communicating these changes in your organisation and offers an opportunity to engage with your current clients about how you&rsquo;ve changed. It also gives a fresh momentum to an organisation, giving them the opportunity to reach out to new clients. It is a refreshing and powerful process and in no way starts or stops with a change of colour palette or logo.

Over the course of the modern marketing age there have been many successes and failures in the translation of a company&rsquo;s evolution to its consumers. Success seems to be built on integral company / product changes which are meaningful to their consumers alongside a marketing / brand campaign which successfully communicates those changes to their existing and new client bases. A few time old success-classics include the original cocaine based Coca-Cola which, without a name or logo change, rebranded over time to become a de-facto family-fun soft drink.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/coca-cola.jpeg" style="height:791px; width:928px" /><img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/coke.png" style="height:515px; width:1023px" />

Other great successes are the likes of Apple who at one time tagged its branding onto the strength of IBM&rsquo;s &lsquo;I think therefore IBM&rsquo; with their own &lsquo;Think Different&rsquo;, thus rooting themselves in the tech market while marking themselves out as a new direction in computing. Burberry is another brand who has successfully navigated the changing tides of consumer culture. Once synonymous with well-heeled gentility it moved through a troubling reinvention in the early 2000&rsquo;s. A sudden injection of cool alongside resulted in downgrading the&nbsp;brand leaving it exposed to a plethora&nbsp;of cheap imitations. Burberry cleverly moved forward, retelling it&rsquo;s historical story from Victorian times to the present in an intricate digital space, with live streamed fashion shows and intense social media engagement.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/rebrand-1024x551.jpg" style="height:551px; width:1024px" />

So, why did we rebrand? After 12 years in business and a team growth of around 500%, we&rsquo;ve changed.&nbsp;Our team&nbsp;now consists of leading strategists, project managers, designers,&nbsp;illustrators, animators and developers. Together we create&nbsp;compelling&nbsp;brand identities, winning bids and tenders and innovative digital and print solutions.&nbsp;Our old brand no longer reflected our confidence&nbsp;and&nbsp;abilities, or accurately described who we are.&nbsp;So we needed bold new mark with which we could communicate our evolving story.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/nu_creative.png" style="height:630px; width:1200px" />

<hr />
Tara Cloak is Creative Director&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design and branding.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their creative&nbsp;projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out brands for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you evolve.

Why rebrand?

<h3>When&nbsp;I was studying graphic design at the Academy of Fine Arts I was introduced to programming by one of my teachers.</h3>

From that moment on I developed a passion for it&nbsp;but my studies were more focused on graphic design (I <a href="http://nu.nucreativetesting.co.uk/the-benefit-of-being-a-developer-with-a-graphic-design-background/">wrote a post</a> about the benefits of being a web developer with a graphic design background). So, I decided to dedicate some of my free time to&nbsp;learning programming from various websites that were offering online courses.

This was a couple of years ago and, as for today, the number of websites offering online courses has tripled. I am still subscribed to some of them and I really love how they are always kept up to date. Some require a monthly (or yearly) subscription, while others let you offer the option to buy individual courses.

Below is a list of the top 3 websites to learn programming. My colleague Sam also <a href="http://nu.nucreativetesting.co.uk/could-i-be-a-developer/">wrote a blog post</a> that gives an insight into web development and all the information that you need if you want to become one.

<div>
<hr /></div>

<h2><a href="https://teamtreehouse.com/home">TreeHouse</a></h2>

Treehouse is one of the best websites&nbsp;to learn programming. It offers both&nbsp;project-oriented and language-oriented courses, so it&rsquo;s perfect for a novice programmer with a planned purpose or for anyone&nbsp;looking to learn a specific programming language. Every course has its own teacher and, after a video or two, you can practice yourself with exercises and quizzes. There is always an interactive workspace available that you can launch to follow along with the&nbsp;teacher and to experiment with the code yourself. 
What I really love are tracks. You can follow a track and stick to it until completion. Tracks usually start from the basic concepts of the language to&nbsp;the more advanced and complex ones.

The basic account costs $25/mo. The pro account costs $49/mo and includes conference videos, bonus content and the ability to download the videos. There is also a Techdegree account which costs $199/mo and gives you&nbsp;Treehouse Certification to showcase on your resume,&nbsp;personalised feedback on your code and one-on-one video mentoring sessions with a certified Treehouse Mentor.

DIFFICULTY: easy &ndash; intermediate -&nbsp;hard 
PRICE: basic $25/mo, pro $49/mo or techdegree $199/mo

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/treehouse.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1600px" />

<a href="https://www.codecademy.com/learn">CodeCademy</a>: this is the first site that I have used to learn the basics of programming. The clean interface helps you find the right course for you. Upon choosing a course, the lesson will start and you will receive textual instructions on the left panel&nbsp;while you will write your&nbsp;code on the right panel. In case you make a mistake, you will be warned and a&nbsp;hint will be provided. Codecademy is free but they recently added a PRO version, which costs $19.99 monthly. This includes a personalised learning plan, access to quizzes, real world projects and help from advisors.

DIFFICULTY: easy &ndash; intermediate 
PRICE:&nbsp;free, pro $19,99/mo

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/codecademy-1.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1600px" />

<a href="https://www.udemy.com">Udemy</a>: the first thing that you will notice about Udemy is the huge amount of courses available (not only about programming!). You&nbsp;really can find anything that you need. The only downside is that you will need to individually buy each course. Before you buy it, I strongly suggest that you read the reviews from people who have taken the course. 
On the other hand, what is really great, is that most of the time there are huge discounts on the courses (from 30% to 70% off during promotional periods). Once you buy it, the course will be yours forever and you can access it at any time.

DIFFICULTY: easy &ndash; intermediate - hard 
PRICE: each course has his own price

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/06/03/development.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1600px" />

Don&#39;t be intimidated from all of the names and concepts: 
Html, Css and Javascript (don&#39;t confuse this with Java) are the core basics if you aim to be a front-end developer. 
Php, Ruby and Python are good to learn if you want to become a back-end developer. 
Java, Android&nbsp;and IOS are the courses for you if you want to focus on mobile/app development.

<hr />
Michele Cocuccio&nbsp;is a Digital&nbsp;Designer&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in digital&nbsp;design.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their digital design projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out digital solutions&nbsp;for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you.

Top 3 Websites to Learn Programming

<h3>Studio Manager, Account Manager, Project Manager, Traffic Manager&nbsp;are all fairly similar in role description when it comes to a creative agency.</h3>

Each is an integral part of any client-facing business, whether it be a small agency that only requires one or two of these roles or a large company that requires multiple individuals in each area of creative and resource management.

Can you study to be a Studio Manager? It depends on which direction you want to take. If you are more creative and want to be hands-on in the creative process you can study Graphic Design and work your way up the ladder into Studio Management, Art Direction or a Senior Designer role depending on a company&rsquo;s needs. Design management courses provide skills on how to foster great client relationships, creating and implementing workflow management processes and setting and maintaining budgets. Bite the bullet and get yourself a bit of both on the CV, it will benefit you in your understanding of design and processes and will give you that edge towards the job success victory dance.

<h4>Here&rsquo;s a general rundown of what a Studio Manager gets up to:</h4>

<ul>
	<li>Managing a project from briefing to completion &ndash; taking client briefs, consolidating clients needs, assigning designers to a project, managing outputs and ensuring deadlines are met. No matter what.</li>
	<li>Creating and implementing workflow and project management processes to make for a smooth, efficient project lifecycle</li>
	<li>Reviewing daily resource and workload schedules and booking freelancers when it gets a little crazy busy</li>
	<li>Creating estimates for studio time, printing and print management</li>
	<li>Keeping everyone up to date on the status of a project &ndash; stakeholders, clients and the team</li>
	<li>Quality control &ndash; does the design adhere to the client brief? A must.</li>
	<li>Proofreading &ndash; double, triple checking of documents before they fly out of the inbox</li>
	<li>Assessment and debrief management &ndash; celebrating the wins and booing the losses, but discussing solutions to improve for next time</li>
	<li>Administration &ndash; archiving and backing up the back up (do it, you won&rsquo;t regret it), file management and ensuring a steady flow of social media content (when you don&rsquo;t have an SM manager)</li>
	<li>Keeping things in line &ndash; managing the team&rsquo;s feedback, annual leave requests, birthday cakes, dishes&hellip; anything that&rsquo;s needed around the office!</li>
	<li>
	Design and Creative Direction &ndash; if you come from a design background and the structure of a company requires it, you may also work on the creative side assisting with design and providing creative direction.
	</li>
</ul>

Most importantly, the Studio Manager provides support to the team and a point of call to funnel information between client and studio. Without this integral role, much of the management of a project falls on a designers&rsquo; shoulders, allowing less time for the creative design and artworking itself. Being a personable character is also an important trait of a Studio Manager. Does the team want to work with an unsupportive task manager with zero empathy and a chip on their shoulder? No. It&rsquo;s about teamwork in creative, and a happy studio makes for an enjoyable work environment, increased productivity and an all-round warm fuzzy feeling.

Of course, as with any role, there are challenges &ndash; learning to say &lsquo;no&rsquo; but providing an alternative, understanding and navigating client team politics, and balancing individuals wants and needs on a professional and personal level. There are by no means a single set of rules or best practices that project and studio managers can whip out and refer to. It all comes down to communication, respect and teamwork, constantly re-evaluating processes and learning how to balance constraints and freedoms to achieve the best end result.

<hr />
Stephanie Leak is Studio Manager at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design and branding.

NU Creative have been supporting people like HIREWORKS, Enfield Council and Ed Broking with their design projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out designs for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you evolve.

&nbsp;

&nbsp;

The Role of a Studio Manager

<h3>A brand is so much more than just a logo. It&rsquo;s the voice you portray on social media, how you interact with your clients and what image you set out to your audience.</h3>

It is the total impression on how your clients see you. Therefore, it&rsquo;s important that your brand reflects your company, your mission statement, and your products!

There will come a time when you look at your company branding and you think &ndash; this is just not me/us anymore. Don&rsquo;t worry though, you&rsquo;re not alone in outgrowing your own branding. It&rsquo;s completely normal! Rebranding or even refreshing your company branding can help you reach a wider audience, bring in new clients and just remind your current consumers that you are still on top on the market.

A lot of times clients come to us wanting to rebrand but unsure if it&rsquo;s the right time. These are a few of the questions you should ask yourself before you embark upon the process of rebranding.

<h4>1. Does your brand name reflect your brand vision?</h4>

Does your brand name reflect your brand vision?Although changing your brand name can be scary, it&rsquo;s worth considering if what you are trying to say is completely different from your brand name. What seemed like a great name when you first started may no longer represent what your brand is about. Sometimes the company outgrows the name, sometimes the name outgrows the brand. Whichever it may be, make sure your brand name isn&rsquo;t dragging down the brand itself.

<h4>2. Are you differentiating yourself from the competition?</h4>

When it comes down to it, branding is all about standing out from your competitors. (In a good way!) You need to ask yourself, does your brand get lost in the sea of competitors or does it stand out like an eyesore? Neither is good, and it&rsquo;s important to find that fine balance between the two. Repositioning yourself and capitalising on your brands unique values can ensure your brand is more visible to your target audience when searching for your product. Here at NUCreative, we offer brand placement analysis to establish where there&rsquo;s a gap in the market, offering you the best design strategy. Your business was founded by your drive to make an impact; therefore, your branding should reflect that same passion for the industry you are positioned within.

<h4>3. Has your business model or strategy changed?</h4>

Has your business model or strategy has changed? So 15 years ago when you started up your business model was X, now it&rsquo;s looking more like A and the strategic objectives that you founded your company on no longer correlate with your market. That&rsquo;s ok, it&rsquo;s completely normal! In fact, it&rsquo;s kind of great cause it means your company is growing and adapting to fit the market. However, when your business changes, so must your brand. Your companies brand should always align with the way it operates behind the scenes. How else will consumers know what you are offering? You need a branding that depicts who you are as a company!

<h4>4. Are you reaching all potential consumers?</h4>

Times change, as will your consumers. To make sure you are always reaching your target audience a rebrand is often needed. It will allow you to redefine yourself and reach new, untapped audiences while keeping you on top of a potential demographic shift. People love passion and emotion when they buy into a brand or product. If your design lacks passion and an emotional connection with its&rsquo; audience, it&rsquo;s time for a rebrand! Helping not only keep your current consumers, but reach out to a new, wider audience.

<hr />
Laura Lidstone is Lead&nbsp;Designer&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design and branding.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their rebranding projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out brands for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you evolve.

A brand is so much more than just a logo. It’s the voice you portray on social media, how you interact with your clients and what image you set out to your audi

Signs It's Time To Rebrand

<h3>The Feminist movement has been a pillar in the fight for women&rsquo;s rights over the past half-century, proving resistance can lead to change.</h3>

As seen throughout history, no resistance exists without the emergence of art, representing the collective and essence of a movement.

The first wave of the feminist movement emerged from the suffrage and the women&rsquo;s right to vote during the mid-nineteenth century. Photography became the sole art form to represent this time, with black and white photos of women&rsquo;s rights activists becoming the iconic imagery of the times.

Advocacy and involvement in the movement took a back seat between the 1920&rsquo;s and 1960&rsquo;s, as advertising continued to shape the women&rsquo;s role as housewife and caregiver. It wasn&rsquo;t until the late 1960s that the second wave of the feminist movement emerged alongside LGBTQ rights, civil rights and anti-war protests, following decades of repression and inequality. Various mediums were taken on by the feminist art movement including conceptual art, performance art and alternative media as a rebellion against the historically male dominated art forms of portraiture and landscape painting. Artist Suzanne Lacy famously coined the reasoning behind art existing in the feminist movement as a way to &ldquo;influence cultural attitudes and transform stereotypes&rdquo;.

By the early 21st century, momentum and support for the movement had declined, with second and third-wave artists arguing that women were once more being positioned in the mass media as sexual objects.

Women&rsquo;s rights have since returned to the forefront of societal issues over the last five years, seeing a revival of the feminist art movement, with artists fighting inequality with bold, unapologetic works.

These are just a handful of the iconic artists that have shaped the feminist art movement throughout history.

&nbsp;

<h4>1960&rsquo;s &ndash; Valie Export</h4>

Born from the negativity towards women based on Nazi ideology, Valie Export has created some of the most iconic performance art in history. It was her fearless and unapologetic performances, using the body to defy social norms, that gave women the confidence to have their own voice and to question perceptions around the female body and their role in society.

&nbsp;

<h4>1970&rsquo;s &ndash; See Red Women&rsquo;s Workshop</h4>

A collaboration between a group of women from various backgrounds, the See Red Women&rsquo;s Workshop was founded in 1974 to address the constant sexualisation of women in images, and to create positive and challenging alternatives. The group commissioned posters for radical groups and campaigns, as well as producing their own screen-prints which exude power and energy. Their work remains extremely relevant today, and the approach the women took to give legs to their art is inspiring for any feminist. Gutsy, powerful and confrontational, it is hard to deny the effect these pieces have on a viewer.

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/feminism11.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1399px" />

<h4>1980&rsquo;s &ndash; Guerrilla Girls</h4>

The Guerrilla Girls are just that. Founded in New York in 1985, the Guerrilla Girls launched out of a desire to fight sexism and racism within the art world consisting of seven anonymous, radical feminists donning guerrilla masks. The group was founded following the Museum of Modern Art&rsquo;s exhibition &ldquo;An International Survey of Recent Painting and Sculpture&rdquo; of which 13 women of 165 artists were listed. The Guerrilla Girls devised a new strategy to bring change following what they believed were unsuccessful protests and marches of the 1970&rsquo;s, by masking their identities. They felt this necessary so that neither their personalities nor personal work would draw focus from their mission. The group took a bold approach to their art, producing protest posters that combined facts and statistics with humorous and often embarrassing imagery. The crude works gained worldwide attention for slogans such as &ldquo;Do women have to be naked to get into the Met. Museum?&rdquo;. They also showed no tolerance to artists supporting inequality, outing famous sculptors Bruce Nauman and Richard Serra in a poster asking &ldquo;What do these artists have in common? They allow their work to be shown in galleries that show no more than 10% of women or none at all&rdquo;. The Guerrilla Girls continue their mission today through the motto &ldquo;Reinventing the &lsquo;F&rsquo; word: Feminism!&rdquo; producing events, billboards and protest art.

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/feminism8.jpg" style="height:264px; width:675px" />

<h4>&nbsp;1990&rsquo;s &ndash; Sarah Lucas and the YBA</h4>

Sarah Lucas is an English artist who emerged during the 1990&rsquo;s. Her work is humorous and highlights the absurdity of everyday life, through the female body and voyeurism. Lucas&rsquo; most famous work&nbsp;&lsquo;Two Fried Eggs and Kebab&rsquo;&nbsp;draws similarities between itself and&nbsp;The Dinner Party, an installation by feminist artist Judy Chicago comprising of &lsquo;39 elaborate place settings arranged along a triangular table for 39 mythical and historical famous women&rsquo;. While Lucas doesn&rsquo;t explicitly portray sexuality within her work, she explores the constructions of gender roles through humour and fantasy.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/sarahlucas.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1323px" />

<h4>Recent Times</h4>

The Women&rsquo;s March on Washington in January 2017 was the largest single-day protest in US history, and has spurred a revival in advocacy of women&rsquo;s rights issues, seeing an emergence of new artists celebrating diversity, equality and freedom of religion. Partnering with the Amplifier Foundation, the march organisers invited artists to submit posters to be the official imagery of the protest. What was produced was a series of powerful art representing the fourth wave of the feminist movement including my favourite&nbsp;Hear our Voice&nbsp;by Liza Donovan showing strength and unity prevailing.

&nbsp;<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/feminism3.jpeg" style="height:1284px; width:970px" /><img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/feminismposters.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1404px" /><img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/feminismposters2.jpg" style="height:900px; width:1332px" />

<hr />
Tara Cloak is Creative Director&nbsp;at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design and branding.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like HIREWORKS, CHaL&nbsp;and Gerald Edelman&nbsp;with their creative&nbsp;projects. We are passionate about creating truly stand out brands for our clients.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;to find out how we can help you evolve.

The Feminist movement has been a pillar in the fight for women’s rights over the past half-century, proving resistance can lead to change.

Art in the Feminist Movement

<h3>Stuck in a creative rut?</h3>

Most designers have known the feeling at one point or another. When you&rsquo;ve been working on one project for a long period of time or when you&rsquo;ve been tasked to produce a particularly inventive concept, it can be a struggle to keep your mind fresh or to know where to look for inspiration. Thankfully we live in the age of the internet, and there are endless sources that can help get your creative juices flowing and keep you on the cutting edge of design.

There are, of course, the well-known heavy hitters of creative inspiration:

<a href="http://designspiration.net/">Designspiration</a>

Design + Inspiration...Designspriation lives up to the name. It has a Pinterest or Instagram visual heavy, yet simple design.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-111339.png" style="height:1490px; width:3158px" />&nbsp;

<a href="https://www.pinterest.com/">Pinterest</a>

Speaking of Pinterest. This is probably one of the most&nbsp;well-known platforms for gathering inspiration. The USP of Pinterest has always been that you can literally gather things that inspire you together, or &#39;pin&#39; them to your virtual pinboard.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/pinterest-board.jpg" style="height:780px; width:1320px" />

<a href="http://www.thisiscolossal.com/">Colossal</a>

Called the &ldquo;Tate Modern of the Internet,&rdquo; Colossal is an international platform for contemporary art and visual expression that explores a vast range of creative disciplines.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-112307.png" style="height:1658px; width:2830px" />

<a href="https://www.awwwards.com/">Awwwards</a>

Awwwards is a professional web design and development competition platform. It aims to recognise and promote the best of innovative web design. It is a website competition that developers can submit directly to.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-113602.png" style="height:1614px; width:3314px" />

<a href="https://www.dezeen.com/">Dezeen</a>

Dezeen is the world&#39;s most popular and influential architecture and design magazine, and the winner of numerous awards for journalism and publishing.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-113703.png" style="height:1634px; width:2442px" />

<a href="https://www.behance.net/">Behance</a>

Behance is an online platform - owned by Adobe -&nbsp;to showcase &amp; discover creative work.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-114450.png" style="height:1704px; width:3340px" />

&nbsp;

And these sites &ndash; which may be very well-known to some &ndash; have been perused by myself and my colleagues many, many times:

<a href="http://www.itsnicethat.com/">It&rsquo;s Nice That</a>

It&rsquo;s Nice That believes passionately that creative inspiration is for everyone and by championing the most exciting and engaging work online, in print and through our events programme, we want to open up this world to the widest possible audience.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-114715.png" style="height:1746px; width:2370px" />

<a href="https://www.grafik.net/">Grafik</a>

Grafik.net is a home for the world&#39;s most inspiring graphic design. Building on their 20-year heritage in print as Grafik magazine, they&nbsp;tap into the brilliant designers, curators, critics and image-makers who shape visual culture.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-120349.png" style="height:1690px; width:3316px" />

<a href="https://www.canva.com">Canva</a>

Canva is a graphic-design tool website, founded in 2012. It uses a drag-and-drop format and provides access to over a million photographs, graphics, and fonts. It is used by non-designers as well as professionals.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-120620.png" style="height:1692px; width:2780px" />

<a href="http://www.fromupnorth.com/">From Up North</a>

From up North is an online magazine that curates the creative web to deliver you the best and latest news from the creative industry. Sharing inspiration while showcasing amazing creatives across the globe.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-120818.png" style="height:1756px; width:2166px" />

<a href="http://www.lostateminor.com/">Lost at E Minor</a>

Lost At E Minor is an Australian-based, global culture site. Since 2005, they&#39;ve curated visually inspiring content for creative people, so they can live a life more inspired. We can all get on board with that.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/fireshot-capture-17-lost-at-e-minor_-for-creative-people-http___wwwlostateminorcom_-e1499789287109.png" style="height:455px; width:600px" />

<a href="http://abduzeedo.com/">Abduzeedo</a>

Abduzeedo is a collective of individual writers sharing articles about design, photography, and UX as well as tutorials for Photoshop and other tools.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-124108.png" style="height:1662px; width:3168px" />

<a href="http://thedsgnblog.com/">The Design Blog</a>

Founded, designed and curated by Ena Baćanović - a designer based in Zagreb - Croatia, The Design Blog brings you carefully picked high-quality inspiration, featuring works of designers and design studios from all over the world, with the main focus on young designers/ students.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-124214.png" style="height:1702px; width:2184px" />

<a href="https://www.creativereview.co.uk/">Creative Review</a>

Creative Review is a bimonthly print and online magazine. The magazine focuses on commercial creativity, covering design, advertising, photography, branding, digital products, film and gaming.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-124312.png" style="height:1710px; width:2786px" />

<a href="http://www.underconsideration.com/artofthemenu/">Under Consideration &ndash; Art of the Menu</a>

Art of the Menu, is a division of UnderConsideration, cataloguing the underrated creativity of menus from around the world.<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-140702.png" style="height:1750px; width:2220px" />

<a href="http://readdd.com/">Readdd</a>

<img alt="https://i1.wp.com/www.nucreative.co.uk/app/uploads/2017/07/FireShot-Capture-23-Readdd-http___readdd.com_-e1499789377682.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=600%2C455&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i1.wp.com/www.nucreative.co.uk/app/uploads/2017/07/FireShot-Capture-23-Readdd-http___readdd.com_-e1499789377682.png?zoom=2&amp;resize=600%2C455&amp;ssl=1" />

<a href="http://designmadeinjapan.com/">Design Made in Japan</a>

DMIJ (Design Made in Japan) is an attempt to map the design landscape in Japan with the help of designers, bloggers/writers or otherwise design interested individuals either living in Japan or abroad. Its aim is to become a central resource and platform on Japan design topics.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-142106.png" style="height:1526px; width:2864px" />

<a href="http://www.creativebloq.com/">Creative Bloq</a>

Daily inspiration for creative people. Fresh thinking, expert tips and tutorials to supercharge your creative muscles.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-143506.png" style="height:1762px; width:2708px" />

<a href="http://www.swiss-miss.com/">Swissmiss</a>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-143823.png" style="height:1288px; width:1760px" />

<a href="https://fontsinuse.com/blog">Fonts in Use</a>

Fonts In Use is a public archive of typography indexed by typeface, format, industry, and period.&nbsp;

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-143904.png" style="height:1648px; width:2978px" />

<a href="http://weandthecolor.com/">WE AND THE COLOR</a>

WE AND THE COLOR is a web magazine for your daily art and design inspiration.

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/23/screenshot-2019-04-23-at-144016.png" style="height:1596px; width:2280px" />

Happy browsing!

21 Sites to Help Cure the Creative Block

<h3>What does &lsquo;Bid Innovation&rsquo; really mean?</h3>

Innovation is a word that&rsquo;s banded around far too often in my opinion.

Whether you call it &lsquo;work winning&rsquo; or &lsquo;pursuits&rsquo; we all know the pressures that exist in this space to provide innovation when delivering a bid.

<h3>What does it really mean?</h3>

It&rsquo;s a buzzword which many people love to hate and is often truly confusing. People frequently find it difficult to define, but generally it&rsquo;s accepted that innovation is to&nbsp;&lsquo;execute an idea which addresses a specific challenge and achieves value for both the company and the prospective customer&rsquo;.

Businesses regularly make common mistakes when thinking about innovation, which include;

<ul>
	<li>Failure to put in the required support and resources</li>
	<li>Innovating for innovation sake without considering value to the customer</li>
	<li>Emphasising the &lsquo;idea&rsquo; with no clue how to execute it</li>
	<li>Believing innovation is about technology or a product when it&rsquo;s often a process</li>
</ul>

Once a business truly grasps what innovation means to their business and their potential customers, it can then understand why innovation is critically important in things such as the bid lifecycle or as part of the wider marketing function. Simply put, bid innovation is about&nbsp;staying relevant.

Companies absolutely have to adapt and evolve to meet the ever-changing needs of their prospective clients. With bids, this means not focussing on the &lsquo;big idea&rsquo; but instead focusing on the right questions.

<ul>
	<li>What are your prospects goals?</li>
	<li>How can you execute and deliver change?</li>
	<li>What value can you bring?</li>
</ul>

<h3>Are there really opportunities to innovate on a time sensitive bid?</h3>

Where the margin between winning and losing has becoming ever closer, we&rsquo;ve seen an explosion in the standard of bids where clients are working hard to increase the quality of their responses. Providing high-end, innovative responses is the only way to stand out and find those few extra percentage points. Your bid must be of the highest quality across all areas. Using a multi-pronged approach, you can generally manage this by exploiting three key areas;

<ol>
	<li>Client Intelligence</li>
	<li>Quality of content</li>
	<li>Visual impact</li>
</ol>

Our experience shows us that businesses are generally good at tackling one or two of these areas, but rarely all three. They will undertake in-depth client analysis to understand their prospect but won&rsquo;t apply it to their messaging or content. They might write knowledgeably and show technical prowess but fail to understand what their prospect is actually asking or looking for. Or they&rsquo;ll do both of these well but won&rsquo;t craft a document that helps their prospect to navigate the bid and take away from it the right message, or be creative enough to soar above the competition.

For understandable reasons, businesses generally focus on the bid response itself, but the life-cycle of a bid presents many opportunities for innovation and creating memorable experiences.

As an agency we will look at all the available &lsquo;touch points&rsquo; through the project life-cycle from pre-proposal, to the bid itself, right through to the pitch presentation. All stages provide opportunities to innovate, to provide and execute exciting ideas which address a specific challenge or provide real and relevant value.

<img alt="https://i2.wp.com/www.nucreative.co.uk/app/uploads/2018/07/Innovation_img2.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" src="https://i2.wp.com/www.nucreative.co.uk/app/uploads/2018/07/Innovation_img2.jpg?resize=1024%2C683&amp;ssl=1" />

<h3>What does bid innovation look like?</h3>

What innovation might look like often depends on the sector as well as the businesses involved. Let&rsquo;s be frank, some sectors are naturally far more innovative or provide more opportunities for innovation than others. I&rsquo;m not going to go into specifics or show anything confidential but there are two key areas which as an agency we believe are fundamental to innovation through 2018 and beyond. These are personalisation and data.

<h3>Personalisation</h3>

Pursuit marketing philosophies have demonstrated the benefits of surrounding the buyer with messaging that is highly relevant, is 100% in line with the company&rsquo;s goals and will resonate with the decision makers and influencers. The key thing here is to appreciate that&nbsp;people buy from people. Stop selling to a faceless company and start aligning your messaging with goals and needs of individuals. That may often mean crafting different messages for different people and may involve understanding the personal traits of your customers as well as their business goals.

<h3>Data</h3>

Data is king in 2018 and the more effectively a company can leverage this information and make it meaningful and digestible the more likely you are to resonate with your prospective client. Using infographics to break up wordy content or using data visualisation to make complex or technical processes easier to digest will give you a leg up over your competitors.

Nobody likes to feel stupid, so my message is to simply SIMPLIFY.

How do we instil innovation in our bid process?

We say to all our clients, quite simply, it&rsquo;s about&nbsp;early engagement.

We like to be involved in the bid process at the initial stages to ensure we can have the greatest impact. If you&rsquo;re leaving things to the last minute, you&rsquo;ve already lost the battle.

<hr />
<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/team/">Tim Lindsay</a>&nbsp;is a Director at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in innovation across the work winning process.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/">PWC</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aon.com/unitedkingdom/default.jsp">AON</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jll.co.uk/">Jones Lang LaSalle</a>&nbsp;with their bid delivery for over a decade. We are passionate about creating truly memorable experiences for our client&rsquo;s prospects.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;if you think NU Creative could help you evolve.

What does ‘Bid Innovation’ really mean?

<h3>You may be looking to start your graphic design career or change your career to design, but what does a Junior Designer actually do?</h3>

<h4>Is the role entry level?</h4>

Junior Designer &ndash; as the name suggests &ndash; sounds entry level but many designers start their careers as Intern Designers or Junior Designer Interns. A junior is expected to have between 1 &ndash; 2 years of professional experience. An intern could get the role with non-professional experience alone. Some Junior Designers have enough talent and non-professional experience to jump straight into the role.

<h4>What can I expect to be&nbsp;doing day to day?</h4>

You will work with experienced graphic designers, therefore the role of the junior is to support and learn from their experience. Initially, you should expect to be given the least complicated parts of a project or to work on in-house design projects. There will be a certain level of support or admin involved while you gain experience and build your skills to work on projects by yourself.

<h4>Am I really supposed to just make tea and coffee?</h4>

In many industries, juniors spend time doing everything but what the job title suggests. In this case, you might be expected to make tea, fetch coffee, photocopy and run errands and do very little designing. Fortunately, the Graphic Design industry is not like this. Should you find yourself in that situation, you should ask to get more involved in projects to gain as much experience as possible.

<h4>What specific skills do I need?</h4>

As well as a strong understanding of design trends and concepts, you should have experience using programmes such as&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop.html?promoid=PC1PQQ5T&amp;mv=other">Adobe Photoshop CC</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/indesign.html">InDesign CC</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.adobe.com/uk/products/photoshop-lightroom.html?promoid=PLHRQGPR&amp;mv=other">Illustrator CC</a>.&nbsp;

Don&rsquo;t worry if you&rsquo;re not the most competent person at everyone, every designer is learning new things on a daily basis,&nbsp;especially with this constantly updating, specialist.

Your unique skills are what will set you apart from other people. A design agency may be looking for their Junior Designer to have a specific skill that no-one else in their agency has. These skills may not specifically relate to design, you might be an awesome photographer, confident public speaker or networker extraordinaire.

<h4>Do I need good people skills?</h4>

Yes! A common misconception is that graphic designers sit in front of computers and don&rsquo;t need to talk to anyone.&nbsp;Design is always a collaborative process, strong teamwork skills are essential.

The reality is, most graphic design is created for a third party &ndash; a client. The client could be the company you work for and this would be considered in-house design, however, the vast majority of design is created for an external person.&nbsp;

You may have created the most amazing work of art but you will also need to learn how to communicate your concepts to multiple people.

<h4>What is a typical junior designer salary?</h4>

If you&rsquo;ve looked at any job website, you will see that salaries for all jobs vary greatly. Design roles are the same. Starting salary for a Junior Designer in the UK is anywhere between &pound;20,000 and &pound;25,000. This will vary depending on the company, recruiter and geographical location. For example, roles in central London pay a little more than roles outside of the M25. Check out&nbsp;<a href="https://www.payscale.com/research/UK/Country=United_Kingdom/Salary">PayScale</a>&nbsp;for an idea of salary in your area.

<h4>How could my career progress?</h4>

A Junior Designer can expect to progress to a mid-weight design role followed by&nbsp;a senior designer role within 3 &ndash; 5 years. After this you could progress to a Creative Director, Art Director or other management positions.

<h4>Personal Experiences</h4>

We&rsquo;ve asked some of the&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/team/">NU Creative designers</a>&nbsp;about their first junior roles.

&lsquo;I was fortunate enough to land my first Junior Graphic Design role as soon as I finished university. I remember the job specification stated that I was to &ldquo;support the Senior Graphic Designer&rdquo; but thankfully this did not include making him tea or replying to his emails for him. The first couple of months were slow, picking up odd ends here and there in predominately art working based projects. However, as I gained the trust from my peers this quickly ramped up to the point where I would be taking on projects from concept through to completion. It felt amazing to put the skills I had honed over years of education to use in live commercial projects!

The first steps into the industry were certainly nerve-wracking. No one wants to make a mistake, especially when you&rsquo;re responsible for producing projects with thousands of pounds riding on them. With this in mind, I had a senior designer to fall back on who would keep a vigilant eye on any big projects I was working on. I also took full advantage of this. If I was even only 1% unsure of something I would ask the senior designer to not only protect my back if something went wrong but to also learn as much from him as I can. Every day was a learning day but it doesn&rsquo;t take long to stop feeling like just a junior and to start to feel like a fully competent member of the team.&rsquo;

<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/team/">James Nonhebel</a>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/15/james.jpg" />

&lsquo;After a few internship stints, my first proper Junior Designer role was here at NU Creative. I&rsquo;m still here to this day so it hasn&rsquo;t been all that bad!

I was keen to work for an agency rather than in-house as I liked the idea of doing work for multiple brands. It was a steep learning curve coming from college to doing real work with real deadlines. I was totally prepared to do all the grunt work and be chief tea maker whilst I was learning the ropes. Going from learning to doing was a relatively quick transition and was helped by the fact that I listened carefully to my seniors and creative director and didn&rsquo;t get disheartened by constructive criticism. It&rsquo;s very easy to feel overwhelmed in the beginning as there is a lot to learn but listening and learning go a long way and the experience you gain from early setbacks helps shape you to be a better designer.&rsquo;

<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/team/">Karen Jamieson</a>

<img alt="" src="/media/blog-uploads/2019/04/15/karen.jpg" />

<hr />
Sarah Kloosman&nbsp;is Client Services Director at&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/">NU Creative</a>, specialists in design with a world class team of designers at all levels.

NU Creative have been supporting companies like&nbsp;<a href="https://www.pwc.co.uk/">PWC</a>,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.aon.com/unitedkingdom/default.jsp">AON</a>&nbsp;and&nbsp;<a href="https://www.jll.co.uk/">Jones Lang LaSalle</a>&nbsp;with their design for over a decade. We are passionate about creating truly memorable designs.&nbsp;<a href="https://www.nucreative.co.uk/contact/">Get in touch</a>&nbsp;if you think NU Creative could help you evolve.

The Role of the Junior Designer

IBM tells us, &ldquo;Every day, we create 2.5 quintillion bytes of data &mdash; so much that 90% of the data in the world today has been created in the last two years alone. This data comes from everywhere: sensors used to gather climate information, posts to social media sites, digital pictures and videos, purchase transaction records, and cell phone GPS signals to name a few.&rdquo;

With so much data flying around our modern world, it can be difficult to sift through and comprehend vast amounts of information. This is where data visualisation and infographics come in handy. We designers are often asked to find striking ways of visually presenting data, making information more clear and easier to digest at a glance. Infographics can do just this, and five artists around the world have taken data visualisation to the next level.

<h3>Annual report props</h3>

Annual reports are a great way to showcase your company and brand. They are often filled to the brim with charts and statistics, so how to keep your data from looking stale? This report from Ablynx combined photography and props to create their own unique solution. Check out the full report&nbsp;<a href="http://www.ablynx.com/uploads/pub/a57f1474-bf61-401e-bb2f-0fc205992544-ablynx-annualreport2014-eng.pdf">here</a>.

<h3>Pi</h3>

For the visual learners out there, mathematics can be tricky to comprehend without a little help. An urban mural project in Brooklyn is aiming to connect students with their community and their understanding of Pi. Colourful representations of Pi, painted by the students, are popping up on city buildings as a way to visualise the concept and beautify their neighbourhood. The latest from Visualize Pi can be found&nbsp;<a href="http://visualizepi.tumblr.com/">here</a>.

<h3>Smartphone gestures</h3>

Have you ever looked down at your phone in disgust at all the smudgy fingerprints covering your screen? Artist&nbsp;<a href="http://www.evan-roth.com/work/multi-touch-finger-paintings/">Evan Roth</a>&nbsp;did, and also noticed the patterns generated by common gestures used while navigating a mobile device. He combined these movements with ink to create a series of paintings titled according to gesture.

<h3>Unusual objects</h3>

Data visualisation and infographics are often associated with creative iconography and typography. These are great ways to graphically represent data, but sometimes certain projects call for a different approach: objects. Visual News explores instances like this in their article,&nbsp;<a href="https://www.visualnews.com/2015/08/14/gumballs-and-pencils-7-data-visualization-projects-made-with-unusual-objects/">Gumballs and Pencils: 7 Data Visualisation Projects Made with Unusual Objects</a>. Why objects? &ldquo;Objects in the real world are intrinsically relatable &mdash; we can literally reach out and touch them. And because all of these examples were physically constructed and photographed, they give their numbers an especially tangible (and thus assessable) quality impossible to achieve with other methods.&rdquo; This approach puts the information in its own context, adding another level of clarity.

<h3>Life in perspective</h3>

Time is a particularly difficult concept to grasp for most humans, and at risk of triggering an existential crisis, a website called&nbsp;<a href="http://hereistoday.com/">Here is Today</a>&nbsp;hopes to give some perspective on daily life in the largest and smallest contexts of the universe.

5 Creative and Unusual Examples of Data Visualisation

On 8/30/2019 - By Stephanie Leak

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