You know you’ve become a professional designer who loves their work when;

1. You have developed a shiny patch on your mouse hand where you hand rubs over the desk about a zillion times a day.

2. The corresponding patch below your mouse is worn away on the desk.
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Are you ready to put your logo design and website url everywhere? Do you put it everywhere?
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Eighty One Graphic Design recently blogged about being inspired by a foray into the retail world (shopping), and I commented that indeed I too am extremely inspired by what I see when out and about and often take photos with my new super fab mobile phone camera.

So talking of retail inspiration, I was wowed when in Boots on Saturday and saw this beautiful bit of product packaging by No.17 cosmetics brand. Called ‘The Vintage Collection’, apparently for the 40th anniversary of the 17 brand.

Now what is really interesting though is how this design relates to a beauty brand design I created in July last year…..
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As the credit crunch forces businesses to tighten their belts across the country, ask yourself before you tighten your own belt if what your business needs right now is less marketing and less promotion?

During a downturn it’s common for marketing budgets to be cut, however there are other ways of reducing your spending during a difficult time than cutting your spending where you actually need it the most.

It’s also not uncommon for businesses to fold during a downturn - don’t become one of those businesses, you can tough it out and when the other firms are folding around you, watch your own brand become stronger as you gain an even greater share of the market!

Here are some tips to keep your head above the water…
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The OGC (Office of Government Commerce) rebranded and launched their new £14,000 identity to staff by plastering it all over office mousemats, pens and more, only to face ridicule when within seconds staff spotted a rather innuendos ’slant’ to the design when viewed on it’s side.
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Concerned about what your customers think of you? You should be - and Stationery Direct printing service can help improve that all important company image.
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I opened my fridge the other day searching for things I shouldn’t be eating, and saw these beauties above inside - I actually gasped in joy at their design when I set eyes on them.

These cans where purchased by my husband and when quizzed on his purchase motives he replied;
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Well, well, look at Naturessence ….fame and fortune sitting in a tree K I S S I N G…..well maybe not quite yet, but on their way

Only a year has passed since I created their brand design, products labels and such, and now they are sitting in an internationally distributed magazine, side by side with non other than brands like Body Shop and Origins.

Sublime magazine took a fancy to Naturessence for their piece on Vintage Glamour;

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Big thanks to The Urban Kitchen today who sent me these very delightful gifts to thank me for my assistance over the years since they started their business.

The Urban Kitchen approached Truly Ace in 2004 to design a brand image for their gourmet catering business.

The Urban Kitchen not only offer corporate catering, and catering for events such as birthdays, wedding and hen parties, but also very popular cookery classes at two different London area locations.

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Which comes first? The logo or the brand?

Best practice tells us that the brand should come first. A new company from the outset must first decide on it’s ethos, it’s intended behaviour, it’s target market, how it’s going to reach that market and with what marketing messages (ie it’s brand) before even thinking about designing an image to match said brand.

However it doesn’t always happen that way in practice, even with the ‘big boys’…

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