Successful branding is almost always down to preparation and detail; very seldom is a logo or emblem plucked out of thin air. Before a Logo can be specified, a brief is required, and before a proper design brief is written, you need a detailed and well-considered Brand Profile. The Brand Profile sets down on paper all the necessary descriptive words and abstracts which fully represent the identity and personality of your brand. To get the best possible quality of results, you need to engage in ...
Branding is forever a full-time and a fully 360° vocation. It’s about seeing all the angles and dealing with them in a scientific and progressive manner. As with many task-oriented disciplines, consideration is everything, and every tiny detail can make a difference.
As both a University and Advertising Industry educated Marketing and Brand Specialist, I will always put the teachings of Abraham Maslow above those of Philip Kotler. The essence of Marketing is discerning and ...
There are several dimensions to marketing, and much like when you apply a paint brush to canvas, you use a variety of nuances in technique, touch, texture and detail to get your vision across fully dynamically. In marketing we talk about ’Push’ and ’Pull’, ’Leadership’ and ’Influence’. The classic push variety is a bold and brassy advertisement which hopefully visually punches the target audience right between the eyes - to make maximum impact. ...
As part of our Brand Profile exercise, I encourage our Clients to visualise their customers’ ecosystems - both their working and home environments and what influencers may be active in their lives. It typically falls under the ’Brand Relatives’ part of the process, but when considering a Target Audience, one must always consider the immediate environment/s they are active within. Both in terms of what touchpoints they access regularly, and also how these may instruct and ...
There’s over a billion websites in the world, shared by near enough 3 billion internet / digital media users - whether on desktop, laptop, tablet or smartphone. With such an incredible mass of properties, it is more important than ever to be able to stand out from the crowd. The transition to responsive design imposes certain limits on the framework of your interface, which means that your Logo / Brand-look-and-feel becomes more significant than ever before.
We see far too many ...
Here above is a collection of some of my favourite book publisher / imprint logos. Some of these have been nipped and tucked and evolved over the years - like the Ladybird Books logo, while others have been pretty much constant since their inception. I feel all the logos featured are great examples of how logos can really work for your business - both as a mark of quality, as well as a mark of category.
The first three idents - Ladybird | Usborne | Walker Books - are all Children&rsquo...
A big part of our daily operation involves design - designing logos, icons, screens, applications, infographics and interfaces. We spend many hours browsing through image, video, sound and font libraries - all in pursuit of the best possible results. The trickiest thing about design though is the language of communication and reference, maintaining objectivity and overcoming the challenges of singular perspective and personal bias. There is a subjective component to design for sure, but we try ...
Affino in name was born at the start of the year 2000. The platform it was made to represent started off a little earlier (1998) with a working name of ’Sunrise’. It was decided in 2000 to formalise ’Sunrise’ into a modular platform, whose main virtues were its comprehensiveness, interactivity and hands-on management and configuration abilities. You can read about the origins of Affino in my earlier blog post about its ’Pedigree and Provenance’.
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The perfect logos for me are the ones distilled down to the simplest forms, using the fewest of brush-strokes, and conveying exactly the right sort of meaning to the intended target audience. I have selected 25 of the best examples of this, where the brand values, history, mission statement etc. is perfectly encapsulated and communicated in a single symbol. Some of the symbols on this page are nigh on perfect, some only work fully within certain contexts, and others suffer a little from scaling...
Hieroglyphs, Pictograms and Insignia have been with us in some form from the earliest of our sapient ancestors, as featured in some of the earliest recorded cave paintings. They are an essential part of communication, used for marking territory and in the running of this modern world. We encounter them as a sometimes subtle, though typically an overt and constant barrage of marks, instructions, labels and alerts.
A cursory glance over the above sets of icons reveals a multitude of ...
"Affino worked with Briefing Media to deliver the new responsive-design FG-Insight digital business. The forward evolution of Farmers Guardian matches the increasingly important role technology plays in modern farming."
"Whilst we have always been able to see which articles have been the most popular, the new Article Report functionality allows us to instantly see which types of audiences are reading a particular article without setting up conversion events. To retrospectively interrogate this data has been a godsend and has given us a more detailed view of audience engagement with absolute ease."
"Working with Affino has been instrumental in creating the very best environment for us to engage fully with our readership.”
"Icelandair Cargo has been with Affino since 2005. Our internal customer web based on the Affino platform is well received and widely used by our customers and interacts via webservices with our Cargo Systems. The web has been upgraded throughout the years both technically and with more functionality added. Affino always delivers professionally and as promised."
"We worked with Affino for almost two years on a major website build and platform migration. It was an extremely complex project involving many bespoke elements. Affino were thoroughly responsive and communicated well throughout and their team were friendly and willing to help us achieve our ambitious goals. We’re very pleased with the modern and professional look and feel of the new website and users have been similarly impressed. Several of the bespoke elements added to the database platform have enhanced our ability to analyse our data and the platform works smoothly and reliably. Affino’s work has helped us to scale up our operations as well as grow and strengthen our brand."
"A very easy to use and highly functional experience, the new site looks fantastic - we've ended up with a great final product after a really positive and smooth running operation. Affino's support was highly responsive and always there when we needed it. And it was heartening to be on the receiving end of so much positivity from the readership"
"Affino always delivers on budget and on time!"
"Setting up AI with Markus and Chris was simple and gave me a clear understanding of how the Affino system works. Within hours, it was giving good answers and even generating its own questions within articles. It’s a game-changer for site search, helping users find valuable content that might otherwise be missed. A big plus is that the AI only uses our own content, so we know exactly what it's working with."
"I really appreciated the care Affino gave throughout the rollout. Going live can feel intense with the pace and adjustments needed, but if you stay the course, it’s absolutely worth it."
"Having a virtual trainer on hand through Affino’s AI support has been invaluable. It’s helped me learn fast, with instant, clear answers to any question. And when the AI can’t assist, the Affino team is always quick to step in and guide me through."
"Having all content and e-commerce functionality on one platform is proving highly successful. For the reader, they have a better all-round experience and more immersive engagement, where they never need to re-enter details already provided at registration."
"We're Very, Very, Very, Very Happy with our Branding and Website and really appreciate how it just all works super smoothly and efficiently all of the time."
"Affino worked with Drewry to deliver on an uncompromising and complex brief - which covered responsive CMS, fully integrated CRM, messaging, product fulfilment and subscription management. We have been impressed with the solution which has helped transform our approach to marketing and business development."
"Affino worked with TTG to deliver its new responsive-design digital business. The new solution gives TTG a more dynamic edge in an increasingly competitive environment."
"Affino worked with Briefing Media to deliver the new responsive-design FG-Insight digital business. The forward evolution of Farmers Guardian matches the increasingly important role technology plays in modern farming."
"Whilst we have always been able to see which articles have been the most popular, the new Article Report functionality allows us to instantly see which types of audiences are reading a particular article without setting up conversion events. To retrospectively interrogate this data has been a godsend and has given us a more detailed view of audience engagement with absolute ease."
"Working with Affino has been instrumental in creating the very best environment for us to engage fully with our readership.”
"Icelandair Cargo has been with Affino since 2005. Our internal customer web based on the Affino platform is well received and widely used by our customers and interacts via webservices with our Cargo Systems. The web has been upgraded throughout the years both technically and with more functionality added. Affino always delivers professionally and as promised."
"We worked with Affino for almost two years on a major website build and platform migration. It was an extremely complex project involving many bespoke elements. Affino were thoroughly responsive and communicated well throughout and their team were friendly and willing to help us achieve our ambitious goals. We’re very pleased with the modern and professional look and feel of the new website and users have been similarly impressed. Several of the bespoke elements added to the database platform have enhanced our ability to analyse our data and the platform works smoothly and reliably. Affino’s work has helped us to scale up our operations as well as grow and strengthen our brand."
"A very easy to use and highly functional experience, the new site looks fantastic - we've ended up with a great final product after a really positive and smooth running operation. Affino's support was highly responsive and always there when we needed it. And it was heartening to be on the receiving end of so much positivity from the readership"
"Affino always delivers on budget and on time!"
"Setting up AI with Markus and Chris was simple and gave me a clear understanding of how the Affino system works. Within hours, it was giving good answers and even generating its own questions within articles. It’s a game-changer for site search, helping users find valuable content that might otherwise be missed. A big plus is that the AI only uses our own content, so we know exactly what it's working with."
"I really appreciated the care Affino gave throughout the rollout. Going live can feel intense with the pace and adjustments needed, but if you stay the course, it’s absolutely worth it."
"Having a virtual trainer on hand through Affino’s AI support has been invaluable. It’s helped me learn fast, with instant, clear answers to any question. And when the AI can’t assist, the Affino team is always quick to step in and guide me through."
"Having all content and e-commerce functionality on one platform is proving highly successful. For the reader, they have a better all-round experience and more immersive engagement, where they never need to re-enter details already provided at registration."
"We're Very, Very, Very, Very Happy with our Branding and Website and really appreciate how it just all works super smoothly and efficiently all of the time."
"Affino worked with Drewry to deliver on an uncompromising and complex brief - which covered responsive CMS, fully integrated CRM, messaging, product fulfilment and subscription management. We have been impressed with the solution which has helped transform our approach to marketing and business development."
"Affino worked with TTG to deliver its new responsive-design digital business. The new solution gives TTG a more dynamic edge in an increasingly competitive environment."
"Affino worked with Briefing Media to deliver the new responsive-design FG-Insight digital business. The forward evolution of Farmers Guardian matches the increasingly important role technology plays in modern farming."
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