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)

.

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.

 .

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.

.

OR to download the Expression of Interest Form CLICK HERE

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!

.

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.

For those of you who may not have heard, last week I moved into an office. A real-life, honest-to-goodness office and I am excited and thrilled to be taking these steps with my little biz.

When I first started my business, I developed an identity that I was happy with at the time. The logo consisted of a number of interconnecting circles. It represented my business in that it was made up of a number of parts that were working together in a system – lots of little facets, lots of little parts. I initially designed it in shades of grey but within a short space of time caved to peer pressure from a handful of friendly creative voices and added a couple of bright colours. It was – I was told – silly for a creative person to have a B&W logo. At the time I really wanted to use red in my branding but red is not a flexible colour. Red is a warning, a red flag, a risk. So I regretfully shelved the red and branded with purple and lime green (some questions are better left unasked).

This move to new premises had been a long time in the planning. It’s it not with a small amount of trepidation that I put pen to paper and signed that lease, but once I did I felt like I’d stepped into a whole new version of the old me. I feel like this is what I am meant to be doing right now. I feel revitalised, I feel focussed and rejuvenated. It’s all kinds of awesome!

When I look at the logo now, I see that it did more than represent my business at the time – it represented my mindset as well. I had a great deal going on in the business - I wasn’t entirely clear on my direction, I was growing and expanding in all directions and not focussed on one. The colours have never been me. The logo was adequate then, but I’ve outgrown it. Like a comfortable jacket one wears for years, sometimes the time just feels right for something new.

And so, I am coming home to my beloved red. It may be a little off-beat, a little dangerous, a little wicked and a little luscious, but I’ll take that!

I’ve decided it’s time to REDefine what I am doing and REDesign my branding and goodness gracious am I having fun doing it! Part of the task I set myself was to explain how inherently red just creeps into every aspect of my life without me even noticing. I must give credit here to the inspirational Narrelle from NJoy the Moment Photography whose love of orange has eclipsed all else in my head so now I cannot even look at the colour without thinking of Narrelle. She encouraged me to embrace my love affair with Red. And so here I am.

To illustrate my point, I decided one evening to walk around my house and take a photo of all the red things I could see. I didn’t open any cupboards or drawers, just the red things in my kitchen, office and bedroom that were lying around. When I put it all together it felt like it was a storyboard of me – and here it is…

From left to right starting at the top:

1. Random single earrings without partners.
2. Pair of baby shoes given to me just before I had Kyra by an ex-client Paula Dawson from when she visited The Forbidden City.
3. The sleeve of my jacket hanging off my whiteboard.
4. The wheely chair at my second workstation.
5. The Adobe logo on the Creative Suite box.
6. Red beads in a beaded necklace made in South Africa where I was born.
7. Wool stuck with crochet hooks and a knitting needle. Unfinished project.
8. My heart rate monitor watch.
9. A photo of my aunt with me when I was about 1. Please note the colour of my dress in the photo.
10. More wool, another unfinished personal endeavour.
11. A slice of a geode that has been stained. I bought this on our trip to Canada last year at a geological fair.
12. A pantone cookie jar given to me for Christmas by my cousin and his wife who welcomed their baby last week – congrats guys xx.
13. Adhesive mounting squares and my box for my 24mm canon lens.
14. Decorative willow in the corner of my office. They were once red, but 8 years has seen them change a bit.
15. Another red jacket.
16. The door snake to keep the cold air from creeping under the front door.
17. The pump device on two bottles of anti bacterial handsoap.
18. A scarf and bit of a necklace peeping through on my dresser.
19. Another red earring. This on the earring organiser supposed to help me organise my earrings…
20. Nail polish and lip sticks.
21. Our wedding favours from our wedding in 2000. Decks of cards for the menfolk.
22. My business cards from 2002 when I was Creative Director of The Fridge at UNSW.
23. Red beads in another necklace from South Africa.
24. Two empty washing baskets stacked one in the other.
25. Another red jacket, this time hung in the walk in robe over an evening dress.
26. My reading pillow the kids got me last year so I could red comfortably in bed.
27. Red luggage with a red luggage tag.
28. Lia sitting on the office wheely chair, and she was wearing red stripey top and red leggings. Look at those cute feet and toes!
29. A red wooden bead bracelet a friend bought me for my birthday. It is one of my favourite things.
30. Random objects on the counter – cupcake baking cups, glue stick, Kyra’s bug catcher, and the handle of  screwdriver we’d just used to assemble my new office furniture.
31. The hood of another red jacket – but this one is Kyras.
32. The Wii remote.
33. The Wii remote again.
34. The smile Lia drew on my face in her portrait of me.
35. A drinks holder my brother gave me.
36. My everyday mug sitting in the dish rack.
37. A couple of mugs my mother gave me. They sit on a shelf and I’ve never used them but I can’t get rid of them – they’re red.
38. Red plastic glasses that I bought for the kids.
39. The Canadian flag.
40. A plaster bird magnet Kyra made and painted for me.
41. A recipe pack of Chrismas cocktails. Unopened.
42. My EOS book spine.
43. My EOS book spine again.
44. Aussie Post box that I sending to my in-laws in Canada. It is packed with tim tams, photos of the kids and chocolate covered macadamias.
45. My folder of paid bills.
46. The cover of my android phone.
47. A dream-catcher I bought on Manitoulin Island in Canada last year. The spaces in the circles let the bad dreams through. The web catches only good dreams, that then flow down the feathers towards you.
48. A clay lamp usually lit in the Hindu festival Diwali also known as the Festival of Lights.
49. A photo of my grandmother who lived with us when I was little. We shared a bed room for many years. She passed away just before Kyra was born.

For those of you who are not familiar with Heartfelt, I’ve copied this from their website:

“Heartfelt is a volunteer organisation of professional photographers from all over Australia dedicated to giving the gift of photographic memories to families that have experienced stillbirths, premature and ill infants and children in the Neonatal Intensive Care Units of their local hospitals, as well as children with serious and terminal illnesses.

Heartfelt is dedicated to providing this gift to families in a caring, compassionate manner. All services are provided free of charge.”

I designed and produced the first Heartfelt Exhibition in 2009 in Sydney, and this year was very lucky to be asked to be involved with the exhibition panels and catalogue again. The exhibition was on in March this year, but better late then never… here it is.

Please make sure to go to the website and familiarise yourself with the service and what the organisation does. You can also find Heartfelt on Facebook, like the page and help spread awareness of the service. It is my hope that you and all those around you never, ever have to call.

If you are a photographer or retoucher and would like to join Heartfelt. You can apply online at www.heartfelt.org.au.

The last image here on the right is an image I captured during a Heartfelt session of baby Noor who had already passed away when the image was captured. In this image, he is holding onto his father’s thumb.

What Debbie didn’t know, was that in a previous life I used to put together stands for shows exactly like these 12 times a year. I put together a basic floor plan and perspective drawing to give her an idea of how to set things up. Tonight she posted images of her stand before the launch of the show tomorrow and I am so ridiculously happy that she had taken everything I had suggested on board, right down to the green rug and pink gerberas!!!

It’s so wonderful to see the vision in head come alive in this way. You cna head over to her website http://www.littlefaces.com.au/ to check her out.

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.