WIN a new logo and visual identity with Netra

Enter the draw to win a Kick Start branding package – worth $1450!

Kick Start Package includes:
Logo design – includes 3 concepts with 3 rounds of changes (all digital files included as EPS Vector in colour, B&W, greyscale and pantone as required)

including complimentary:
Business Card - 2 layout options with 2 rounds of changes (supplied as print-ready PDF)
Postcard OR DL Flyer - 2 layout options with 2 rounds of changes (supplied as print-ready PDF)

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To enter:

1. go to www.Facebook.com/NetraChetty post your current logo to my wall and tell me what collaborating with me will mean for your brand. (f you don’t have a logo, just link to your blog/website)
2. leave a comment under this post stating which one of the logos designed by me in the logo gallery (link above) is your favourite and why.

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Winner will be decided by random draw based on the comment number on the blog. Decision of the winning entry is final.
If you do not require a logo or rebrand for your business, you may exchange your kick-start package for 15hours of design work instead.

Competition closes 10th November midnight, Australian Eastern Daylight Savings Time.
Prize cannot be used in conjunction with any other offer and is not transferable or redeemable for cash.
Prize must be redeemed (kicked off) before 31 March 2012.

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I had been asked to design an interior wall mural for one of RMHC houses and I was pretty excited. RMHC had joined forces with HP to produce this project on a big scale. HP have developed a new PVC-free wallpaper that was going to be ideal for this use. The wallpaper is ideal for photographic prints, is odour free, applies to the wall surfaces with water (which activates the glue) complies with a huge range of Australian standards, flame retardant AND lasts 20 years! You can read more about this amazing product here – View datasheet (pdf, EN only).

The final mural was close to 5m long. That may be one of the largest prints I’ve done to date! One of the things I had to take into consideration was the sheer size and the fact that most times for large posters or murals, they are meant to be viewed from far away, however in this instance, viewers would be sitting fairly close to the wall so we had to present the information comfortably at a height that was easy to read and also not overwhelming in the space.

Also, given that families might be staying for a while and may have to see this over and over again, we wanted to be able to keep it evolving. So the bottom half includes a series of blanks bricks so that families can add messages of support and hope to the wall, add their ‘mark’ so that future families can read those messages of inspiration and encouragement.

So here it is, the final mural. I have yet to see it in person – but I can’t wait!

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If you have been following this blog over the past few posts you will know I have been on a journey of self-discovery. Or perhaps that should be ‘rediscovery’. Part of this was moving out of my dedicated home office, and into a commercial space. Part of it was reflecting on the journey to date, what I bring to my clients and who and where I want to be in five, ten and twenty years. Another part of it was the realisation of working for myself, means I can actually be myself without feeling that I need to conform to what I thought a corporate in-house designer should be.

And it’s the small things. Small things like the colours in my logo. The posts below explain it all, so I don’t need to harp on about it again. But here it is. My new look and logo. It’s red, its vibrant, its passionate and exciting and I love it.

My old logo was a series of rings expanding from each other. This logo is three simple rings coming together. No dotted or dashed lines, only solid linework. No shades or transparent colours, they are all solid. No random expansion and growth, it’s all focussed. It’s an evolution of the old logo, but it’s a visual representation of who I am and what I want to do going forward.

As much as the logo represents focus, it also represents vision. The same way you can look through a camera, or telescope, or microscope or any other instrument of vision, there is a dial that makes all the fuzzy bits clear – that’s what I want to do with the clients who come to me with a tangle of ideas in their heads. I want to help people focus and achieve their visions of their business and brand.

In terms of vision and focus there is a much more personal meaning layered under all of that as well. It’s essentially my name. I love my name – granted I have never ever found it on a keychain, or a mug – but I love how unique and unusual it sounds. I also love it’s meaning – as a word it means ‘eyes’ in Hindi and Thai (so I’ve been told). Within the last 2 weeks as I’ve googled, I have also discovered that as a name it can also mean ‘vision’, or a ‘guide’ (to be the eyes for another person). That has been a lovely way to be able to articulate all the hope that I have for the exciting journey ahead.

Stay tuned for upcoming posts with photos from my launch party. But for now, here is the new look.

In coming weeks, as things are completed, I will be posting more about the brand roll out. For now I thought I would share some images of a recent conference in Chicago for which I designed the stand graphics. This was the RMHC Global Conference and this stand represented countries in Africa, Middle East and Asia Pacific Region where RMHC runs their programs. Each panel represented one of the 14 member countries and the words “you & us” in the respective language. The curved welcome desk below said welcome or hello in all the languages of the member countries as well. It was such a fun project to be a part of!

This was a very quick turnaround job, collating imagery from countries all over the world was a challenge, but I am SO pleased with the result!

The one that stands out in my mind was when we were discussing the relative heights of two letters in a word. I said they were even. Sarah said they were not. Kim was wisely silent. I insisted. So did Sarah. Kim was already in the underground shelter. So I zoomed into 300% and was about to draw a whopping red line to PROVE that the letters were even, when I choked on a mouthful of humble pie. Sarah was right!

Much abashed, I mailed her back and admitted my error and she very graciously has never brought it up again. I love that story. I love that my clients are just as pedantic (or even more so!) than I am. I love that we can have an email exchange about the relative letter heights of two letters, because you see, it shows they are as passionate about the logo, brand and design as I am.  I would much rather a client who looked at every single detail of the design and double checked me on 100 things, than one who might say, “yeah, whatever, that will do…”.

But I digress! This post is about Sarah’s new brand! Sarah had been throwing around some ideas for her brand but finding a few challenges along the way. She wanted to create the brand around the idea of a story, a fairytale with the photographer as the teller of the magical stories in each family she photographed. Sarah came to me with a font she’d fallen in love with so naturally that was an easy place to start.

It was when I was looking at the brief that I realised that Sarah Black and Story Book  have common initials. The idea involved a cheeky and hidden play on the words by putting her initials into a story book and using it as a logo. It’s clean and subtle, sophisticated but edgy, literal but contains a secret meaning and I love it! I felt the brand was so emotive and evocative that a quote or proverb would work quite well with it. Imagine my surprise when googling “quotes about fairytales” yielded a beautiful snippet from the story master himself Hans Christian Anderson so of course I had to include it in the proposal to Sarah. It’s really struck a chord in her too and she has some great plans to integrate it further into her brand, but my lips are sealed!

The image Sarah has used on her cards is one of my favourite images of all time. With two girls myself, the image (as I said to Sarah) represents so much of how I think their childhood should be. It encourages them to grow up with an imagination, to dream big dreams, to believe that anything is possible. I want my girls to live in a world where you can wear sparkly red shoes every single day, regardless of your age and its totally ok.

Make sure to visit Sarah’s website and check out her amazing and inspirational work.

I submitted my proposal and waited a few nervous days before I found out that it had come down to the wire, but I had won the project. It was huge. The scope included developing the logo for the conference, extending this to a visual identity and branding that could be adapted across many different promotional pieces, and then the design of those pieces as well!

It’s always SUCH a pleasure and relief to be able to take a branding project from the logo right through to the end design. It let’s the designer really do what they are supposed to, and enjoy the process, work with the brand like a nervous mother might hover over their own toddler, and finally waving it off into the big wide world.

There are still a few bit and pieces left for this project before the conference at the end of October. But for now, here is the logo (complete with blocks to step up and concentric rings expanding and reaching out like a broadcast message) and the icons we developed to identify the key themes of the conference (community, innovation, discussion & support).

There is also the first couple of pages of the Sponsorship Prospectus hat was done as a print and interactive document, the 24pg Conference Proceedings and Registration booklet  (I especially love the form on the last page – I have a thing about making all forms look like tax forms) as well as the banner for the web page.

Make sure to check out the Step Up, Reach Out website and also make sure to have a look at the program.

Just wanted to say thank you for the marvellous work you have done with the design on our international conference materials. The conference program arrived from the printer today and looks fab. We are now at 620 delegates and I think that is of course due to the FABULOUS promotion we have done! I really have enjoyed working with you and thank you for all the weird hours you’ve had to put in. There will be many more projects to come so I’m sure you’ll hear from me again soon!
- Susan Greenbank, National Marketing Manager, Australian Breastfeeding Association

The scope of the project included an RSVP card, a save-the-date card and magnet. We have just finished producing the conference agenda on a lanyard insert, gate-folded to slip into attendees lanyard to keep handy at all times.

We were very lucky to find a stock art image of the Opera House that was close to the corporate blue of PCCA, so with a bit of a boost to the levels in Photoshop, we were able to bring the image in line with the brand colours.

Once that was done we started rolling out the new logo on her material. With a business that sells party and homewares, gift and event styling options, there was a phenomenal range of imagery to choose from – and everything was just so gorgeous! So far we’ve done a couple of adverts (keep an eye out for the Sweet Little Birdy advert in the upcoming issue of Donna Hay Kids) and postcard, flyers are just about done as well.

I just love having a strong identity that carries through all the accompanying material. When you take a step back and see it as a whole, you really get a sense that this is a business that has things together. Its looks so professional and I hope this really helps Tara take her business to the next level.

Make sure to stop by www.sweetlittlebirdy.com.au and check out her products – they are just fabulous!