Branding - Coffee Creative Studio

What the font?

The Influence of Fonts on Perception and Design

There are over half a million fonts in the world. Like other design elements, fonts influence how readers perceive the text, a product, or even the entire website. Everything we read on a screen, book, magazine, or packaging label sparks our subconscious cognition. Font psychology taps into the connection between the appearance of words and how our brain processes, retains, and makes associations with them.

Typeface vs. Font – Understanding the Difference

First things first, what’s the difference between a typeface and a font? Fonts are variations within a typeface, like italics or bold. So, 12-point Helvetica is a font, and 10-point Helvetica Bold is a separate font within the same typeface.

The Impact on Human Emotions and Perception

Typography is an essential aspect of visual communication, influencing the way we perceive and interpret information. Font psychology is the study of how different typefaces impact human emotions and perception. The main psychological factor in typography is the deep cultural cues ingrained in the letters’ forms and shapes. Thousands of years of history and the evolution of language are ingrained in all the fonts we use today.

Therefore, proper font choices fuel your user experience and ultimately affect the design side of your conversion rate optimization. Fonts, typography, and letters tell stories and transmit feelings and emotions. They aren’t just an add-on to a visual in a design; they are part of the overall story.

Take a look at the two shapes below. Now pick which one you associate with the word “Kiki” and which one with the word “Bouba.” Most of you probably chose the pointy shape for “Kiki” and the bubbly shape for “Bouba.” The word “Kiki” sounds pointy and sharp, while “Bouba” is round and feels like a bubble. In the psychology of shapes, triangles represent motion and hierarchy, while circles are completion, comfort, and endless cycles. The shapes, sounds, and cultural associations, all together, inspire emotions and feelings in the viewer.

Typography in History and Human Evolution

Fonts, or typography in general, have evolved through history alongside humanity — changing, transforming, and adapting to the consequences. In fact, the first typeface was a Blackletter variety used by Johannes Gutenberg on the first printing press, starting in 1440. This typeface design was created to mimic the calligraphic handwriting used by monks to hand-transcribe manuscripts prior to the invention of the printing press. What we know of typography and fonts now is a rich combination of everything humans have experienced since we could capture information into shapes that others could understand.

Understanding the Personality of Typefaces

A typeface consists of various distinguishable parts, such as serif, sans-serif, aperture, ascender, baseline, cap height, descender, leading, letter spacing, stem, stroke, and x-height.

When you think about serif fonts, you might think of them as smartly dressed people in button-up shirts with collars and fancy shoes. Words you could think of to describe these fonts are elegant and authoritarian. Serif typefaces scored the highest on traits such as “stable, practical, mature, and formal”.

A sans serif is easy-going, upbeat and wears loose and casual clothing. There are different nuances to sans serif fonts; some feel very circular, while others are thin and elongated. Most brands use sans serif fonts to feel more relatable and approachable to their consumers. Sans-serifs did not score extremely high or low on any of the personality traits listed, which makes them both natural and all-purpose in a sense.

Handwritten fonts are youthful and informal. They’re like your neighbour coming over for a casual drink. They can come across as uncomplicated if used in the correct way and they can be great for human connection.

Script fonts are varied – they can be elegant or casual. You can think of them as ballet dancers and contemporary performers. Script fonts were seen as youthful, happy, creative, rebellious, feminine, casual, and cuddly in this study.

Think of decorative and novelty fonts as the rebels, the cool kids of the bunch. You could say they are the least subtle of the typeface families because they wear their hearts on their sleeves and tell a story immediately.

The Software Usability Research Laboratory (SURL) at Wichita State University tried to understand how people perceive typefaces. They asked participants to complete a questionnaire detailing which characteristics describe and resonate with different fonts, in their opinion.

Serif Fonts: Smart, Elegant, and Authoritative

Sans-serif Fonts: Easy-going and Approachable

Handwritten Fonts: Youthful and Informal

Script Fonts: Varied, Elegant, or Casual

Decorative and Novelty Fonts: Bold and Expressive

The Importance of Fonts in User Interface Design

Typeface psychology plays a significant role in User Interface (UI) design, impacting users’ interactions and impressions. The choice of typeface is crucial for creating an attractive UI design that triggers user engagement. Alongside other graphic elements, the typeface contributes to the overall design concept. For example, when designing a food application, a simple yet playful typeface with colours like red or yellow can evoke hunger, supplemented by a geometric or sans-serif typeface to enhance attractiveness. Making the right decision in typeface selection can drive users to interact more with the design.

Additionally, typeface design influences user perception and legibility, allowing designers to enhance user belief in the design. Typefaces can also help express personality within a design, creating a distinct characteristic that sets it apart. The script logo of Coca-Cola serves as a prime example, embodying the brand’s recognition and awareness through its calligraphic script logo with unique slants.

“Choosing the right font for your brand is so much more than something that looks good. It’s the tone and feel you want to send out, and with that, the people you want your business to attract. Imagine it like this – all fonts are milkshakes, it’s a delicious treat that can go with a meal or stand alone. Then the font type is your milkshake flavour, completely transforming the milkshake – you can have a fun, playful bubblegum shake, a classic, minimal vanilla shake, or a sophisticated, chic salted caramel gourmet shake. If your business is ‘the yard’ – it’s about choosing the correct flavour to bring all the ‘right people’ to your yard.” – Tam Locke, Art Director at Coffee Creative Studio

Fonts are more than just aesthetic choices in design. They hold the power to influence perception, evoke emotions, and enhance user experiences. From the elegant authority of serif fonts to the approachable nature of sans-serif fonts, each typeface has its own distinct characteristics. By making thoughtful typeface selections, designers can create visually appealing user interfaces that trigger engagement and convey brand personalities.

The Power of Colour Psychology: Revealing the Emotions Behind Brand Colours

Colour Perception

Subconsciously, colour shapes our perception of the world around us. Our brains process visual signals, enabling us to distinguish and assign meaning to different colours. But have you ever wondered what occurs in your brain when you encounter colour? How do various colours influence your emotions and behaviour? Consider the iconic Coca-Cola brand. Its timeless red hue has become synonymous with positivity, fun, and energy. This example highlights the profound impact that brand colours can have on evoking specific emotions and associations.

Colour psychology delves into how colours influence our perception of the world. Colours possess a remarkable ability to impact our emotions, subsequently shaping our behaviours as consumers. Astonishingly, WGSN reports that up to 90% of snap judgments made about products are solely based on colour.

The Rise of Digital Lavender

In recent news, Digital Lavender has been crowned the colour of the year for 2023 by WGSN. This captivating shade is linked to calmness and serenity, making it a prominent choice since people are regaining their freedom after lockdown, and consumers prioritise their health and well-being. Not only is this colour going to become popular in fashion and technology, you might notice how it becomes a positive association in our minds and synonymous with something good. This is a clear example of how colour and trends play an important role in our decision-making process.

The Influence of Culture on Colour

It’s fascinating to note that the effects of colour on mood and behaviour can vary depending on individual differences and cultural context. For instance, Western cultures often associate black with mourning and sadness, while in some Eastern cultures, it represents power and elegance. Similarly, white signifies purity and innocence in Western cultures, but it symbolises death and mourning in certain Eastern cultures.

Providing Memorable Brand Experiences

Because of this, colour psychology provides an invaluable framework for understanding how we interact with the brands that shape our lives. It is a potent tool that enables the creation of more meaningful and unforgettable brand experiences. Research even suggests that colour can enhance brand recognition by an impressive 80%.

When choosing what colours you want for your brand, there are key things you need to consider. As discussed above, presenting yourself in a way that your consumer’s resonate with and relate to is everything, and that means carefully selecting the right colours that communicate your message without saying anything at all. Let’s run through some important factors to remember:

Authenticity: Choose colours that align authentically with your brand. While stepping outside of expectations can be beneficial for challenging the status quo, it’s crucial to remain mindful of your audience’s preferences and expectations. An example of a brand choosing colours that align authentically with their brand is Patagonia. Patagonia, an outdoor clothing and gear company, uses earthy and nature-inspired colours like greens, browns, and blues. These colours reflect their commitment to environmental sustainability and their connection to outdoor adventures.

Reflecting Brand Personality: Your brand personality is the aspect of your brand that audiences connect with on a human level. When selecting colours, consider how they embody your brand’s unique personality traits. Referencing the same example as above, Coca-Cola is a brand that effectively reflects its personality through their choice of colours. Their vibrant colours reflect a bold, dynamic personality that encourages a fullness of life.

Resonating with Your Audience: Customer research is an indispensable tool for understanding those you serve. Building a buyer persona can help you identify which colours are likely to resonate with your target audience and evoke a positive response.

Starbucks is a brand that has chosen colours to resonate with its audience. The brand predominantly uses shades of green in its logo, store design, and packaging. Green is associated with nature, freshness, and sustainability, which aligns with Starbucks’ focus on sourcing ethical and sustainable coffee. Additionally, the green colour evokes a sense of relaxation and comfort, creating a welcoming environment for customers to enjoy their coffee. By selecting green as their primary colour, Starbucks appeals to their target audience of coffee lovers who value quality, sustainability, and a cosy atmosphere.

Ultimately, the power of colour psychology in branding cannot be underestimated. Colour has a profound impact on our emotions, perceptions, and behaviours as consumers. It plays a crucial role in shaping brand personality, resonating with target audiences, and creating memorable brand experiences. Understanding the authentic alignment between your brand and colours is essential, as it allows you to communicate your message effectively while considering your audience’s expectations.

At Coffee Creative Studio, we understand the significance of selecting the right colours for your brand. Contact us today to get in touch and discover how we can assist you in creating a powerful visual identity for your brand.

We Built a Brand to Sell. And That’s Just What Happened

If you’ve ever wanted tangible proof that hard work and brilliant brand building pays off big, here it is.

Coffee Creative Studio is proud to announce that Echo Life, a new CBD lifestyle brand that we built and marketed from the ground up, has been acquired by Labat Africa Group, a South African black-owned fully integrated cannabis business with a focus on healthcare and wellness.

Echo Life was founded by USA-based Jason Graaff and Johan van Wyk and our very own Coffee Creative Studio. These bold entrepreneurs identified a gap in the South African market for CBD-infused wellness products that have been hitting global store shelves and gaining popularity by health-conscious consumers by the millions.

The Echo Life brand building process began just over 18 months ago. After weeks of in-depth research, SWOT analysis and refining ideas for the nth time, we developed a cool brand CI. This included crafting a brand name; designing the logo, look and feel and product packaging; as well as establishing a brand voice and tone. From there, a detailed marketing strategy was executed that included expansive elements for web, social media and offline marketing.

Brand Marketing

Prior to its acquisition, the Echo Life product spectrum held five impressive offerings. This included lab-tested Echo Effect CBD-infused oil tinctures, topical creams and pain sticks; an Echo Aura beauty range, Echo Beverages, Echo Bars and Echo Life for Pets.

“It was important for Labat to ensure that supply could keep up with demand, as bringing the benefits of CBD to a wider market is part of our mission. In Echo Life, we found a company that would support the achievement of this goal,” said Brian Van Rooyen, CEO of Labat. “We were equally impressed with Echo Life’s offering and brand presence, as well as their roadmap and innovation expansion plans for 2022, which lend greatly to Labat’s own business growth endeavours.”

“I am incredibly proud of the outstanding work that our team at Coffee Creative Studio have done to make Echo Life a reality,” said CEO, Chris Micklewood. Our goal was to build a 21st-century brand that would flourish within the wellness market and had the highest chance of attracting potential buyers of the product – and the business. The acquisition of Echo Life by Labat is evidence to the value that well-planned and well-executed marketing can achieve. We set out to build a brand to sell and that’s just what happened.”

A Logo Is a Logo. It Is Not Your Brand.

Think of any famous brand for just a second. What’s the first thing that popped into your head? We’d bet 100 to 1 that you just thought of that brand’s logo. Most people would. When someone says the word, “Nike”, your mind’s eye immediately sees its famous check mark swoosh. For “McDonald’s” you’d probably think golden arches and then start craving a Big Mac.

While logos are an important part of branding, they are not your brand. Simply put, a logo is a symbol or other small design that a business (or person) adopts to be identifiable and distinguishable. Logos include elements like typography, lines, symbols, shapes, colours and styling to create an emblem that aids and promotes public recognition. A brand, however, is the sum experience of every touchpoint a customer has with your company. It is ALL things associated with your business. Let’s take a look at some of what that means.

Your Brand is The Way It Speaks:

In marketing, we call this “copy”. These are the words that help to create the kind of personality you want your brand to reflect, as well as how you promote your products and services via messaging. Language includes tone, cadence, rhythm, the kinds of words you use, and how you use them. You can be quirky, serious, direct, playful, use wordplay, industry jargon, be sesquipedalian (use big words), satirical or academic. Whether written or spoken, your language forms part of your identity and overall brand.

Your Brand Is Its Imagery:

People make snap judgments. It takes only 1/10th of a second to form a first impression, thus the visuals used become part of your brand. Imagery is your appearance that communicates what your brand represents, who it’s for, what it does and conjures specific feelings about your brand. In addition to your logo, it includes colours, font styles, packaging design, photography and the people/things reflected in those photos.

Your Brand Is Its Products/Services:

Most “About Us” pages on websites that promote a product or service will usually read a little something like this: We are a soft drink beverage company… We are an architectural design group… or like our very own website reads. “we are a young branding, web development and digital marketing studio with big dreams.” Your offering lets audiences know the industry you operate in and what it does for them. That’s your brand.

Your Brand Is It’s Quality and Price:

Who hasn’t used the phrases: “That’s an expensive brand” or “That’s a cheap quality brand” when referring to a company’s products? The cost and quality of your offering determine how your brand is positioned within the marketplace, and how it is categorised from a consumer value point of view. It also helps to determine its customer group. Louis Vuitton for instance is known for its opulence, quality and higher price points, which is part of what has defined the brand.

Your Brand Is Its Values:

You are what you stand for. Like people, businesses are defined by their beliefs, philosophies and principles. Values serve as the cornerstones of “who you are”.

Your Brand Is Its Perceptions:

This is arguably the most important characteristic of all, as perception is determined by all touchpoints of your brand. It includes how you define yourself, but also how you are defined by others. For example: if your business defines itself as cool, current, young and quality-driven, and everything about it meets those definitions in the public eye, then that will be its perception. But if your brand does not meet those descriptors, and appears outdated, boring, and your products break easily, then the perception will be different. This presents a further challenge as your brand will be considered inconsistent or false. Thus perception is your brand as it determines what people consider it to be, whether true or not.

Other elements such as Colour Palette, Strategy, People, Facilities, Technology, Interactions, and Location to name a few are all part of your brand, just like your logo. But a logo itself, is not a brand.

Embracing Instagram Reels in Business Marketing

Instagram has come a long way since its 2010 debut when the app offered just a few basic filters to give single-post photos a little glow up. One of its newest features is Instagram Reels, and it’s a cool way to record 15-30 second multi-reel video clips set to music on the platform. Like TikTok, you can add music (your own or songs by established recording artists), audio, text, special effects and stickers, then share them with your followers, or if your account is public, make your content available to the wider IG community.

Incorporating Instagram Reels into brand marketing can be one of the smartest ways to attract more followers and increase your business page’s engagement.

How it Works

Reels can be created from your Story creation screen, or by selecting Reels at the bottom of the Instagram camera. Thereafter, a variety of creative editing tools appear on the left of the screen that can be added to your reel. Enhancing video speed, adding time-synced captions and transition overlays are among the Coffee Creative Studio team’s favourite features as they add dimension and bring unexpected surprises to content viewing.

Reels can be recorded in a series of clips (one at a time), all at once, or using video uploads from your gallery. Once a Reel has been created, you’re free to start sharing. Options exist for sharing reels via direct messages, on Stories or to a dedicated space on the Explore page; where people who don’t even follow you will be able to view your reels.

Benefits for Brands

As mentioned, Reels offers every brand the chance to reach new audiences on a global stage, along with several other key benefits, when incorporated into a business marketing strategy. These benefits include:

Authenticity – create content that is 100% original that resonates with audiences. This is a fantastic way to show the human side of your brand.
Impact bottom lines – increase sales by using reels to demonstrate your business offering.
Product/Service awareness – bring your brand offering to the awareness of more consumers without the need for additional marketing spend.
Share educational content – use reels to teach your followers something new, how you can save them money, how to wear a dress 5 ways and so forth. The only limit is your imagination.
Inspire content mimicry – Invite audiences to participate in challenges by recreating your video content and sharing it with their followers. In so doing, opportunities for going viral increase.
Partnerships – work with influencers to expand brand reach and progress your business evolution by partnering with socially relevant people who are tapped into trends and the pulse of the now.

Like the creative possibilities of Instagram Reels, opportunities to grow your brand with this tool, are endless. If upping your brand game is a business goal you’ve set for 2021, get in touch with us and let’s talk about improving your social media content and overall platforms presence.

Your Company Profile + Our Microsite = A Winning Online Presence

When you consider all the iconic duos that the world has come to know and love, it’s easy to see why they say the best things come in pairs. Think peanut butter and jam… snakes and ladders… Sylvester and Tweety… fingers and smartphones, to name a few.

Because we’re always creatively innovating, Coffee has come up with a fresh, winning combination of our own. One that’s good for YOUR business – the company profile and microsite merger!

As the name suggests, a microsite is a miniature website made up of a single, dynamic webpage, with multi-dimensional functionalities. It is simple, cost-efficient and a visually appealing platform with which to deliver snack-sized, but relevant, information about a business, product or service.

When we marry one with your company profile, it becomes a powerful tool with which to market your business online.

Our company profile microsites help you to establish an online presence fast, so that prospective clients and investors can find you in the digital space. You can include titbits of information related to your company history, products and services, vision and mission, track record and what differentiates you in the market – all the info that helps people decide that you’re a good entity to do business with.

We can also incorporate SEO and mobile-friendly functionality, making your business easier to find, and contactable on the go! Sure, the name may have ‘micro’ in it, but the rewards of our microsites are macro in nature!

If you already have an existing company profile that you feel is bang on the money… great! You’re halfway there. We can make that into a website. Let’s get started! Give us a call or drop us a mail to set up a meeting for a chat about how we can help you!

Get Your Brand Building On

Building a successful brand isn’t only about having a cool logo. It’s important, yes, but that’s just the tip of the iceberg.

There are so many aspects to a brand, from the website, copy, taglines, marketing materials and advertisements, to corporate culture and how employees conduct themselves. These all form a vital part of a brand’s DNA.

Now, with this in mind, we’ve compiled a checklist to help you along as you build your brand.

Side note, if you’re reading this and realise that you can’t check one of these points off the list, then come and visit our Studio and let’s get that sorted!

A Mission Statement
Never underestimate the importance of a mission statement. It provides a framework and a vision for your brand, defining your company, its objectives and its approach to reaching those objectives.What is your company most passionate about? Why does your company exist? Who does your company exist for? Your company’s mission statement needs to sum all this up in a clear and concise sentence or two.Essentially, your brand stems from your mission statement, so your logo, your tagline, voice, messaging and brand personality should reflect your mission.Don’t be vague. Customers want transparency.
One Phrase to Rule them All
Creating the perfect tagline is tricky. First, figure out how you want to be perceived and what emotional reaction you’d like your audience to feel. This helps to develop the right kind of words, tone and meaning that you would like to communicate through your tagline.Remember that once you’ve decided on a tagline, it’ll pretty much go on everything, so don’t hurry this step!
A Logo
First things first – hire a professional designer or agency with branding and identity design experience to help you build your brand’s logo!Don’t try and do it yourself. Microsoft Paint is not an acceptable medium for design. Professional designers will also develop brand guidelines to make sure that your brand look and feel is consistent.
You Do You
Stand out from the crowd, be unique! Don’t be a carbon copy of your competitors. Find interesting ways to communicate with your audience and speak (write) in your unique voice.Then, once you’ve found your style, be consistent!Ask yourself, “What am I trying to say to my customers?”
“What personality would my brand have if it were a person?” (e.g. approachable, humble, or bold and loud?)
“What do I want my customers to take away from interactions with me?”Then, before you rush off and write a whole lot of content in your new-found voice, listen. Listen to your customers. Are they Chatty Cathys or are they formal with a stiff upper lip?
When you know who your audience are, you know how to talk to them.Consumers and potential clients want to feel like you understand, genuinely care, and aren’t just jumping on bandwagons, so communicate and be YOU!“When you write like everyone else, you’re saying, ‘Our products are like everyone else’s.’ Would you go to a dinner party and repeat what the person to the right of you is saying all night long? Would that be interesting to anybody? Why are so many businesses saying the same things at the biggest party on the planet — the marketplace?” – Jason Fried
Keep Calm (and Call Coffee Creative Studio)
Patience is key. Rome wasn’t built in a day and your brand won’t be either. It can take years to carefully cultivate a strong brand presence. It takes time to build trust, but once your reputation has been established, you’re golden!*Disclaimer: you will run into problems, you will make mistakes, you will mess up a project, but that’s ok. You’ll learn from all of that, but most importantly, it’s how you deal with the hiccups that will make or break your growth. When mistakes are made, figure out a process or solution you can put in place to avoid making the same one again.
Spread the Love
Developing a company culture is core to developing a strong brand. People talk, right? You want them to say wonderful things about your brand. So, this leads us to our final point, put people first! Your brand is much more than the company – it’s the team of employees.That age-old saying is true: “People don’t do business with companies, people do business with people.” If your brand is built on strong relationships its overall reputation will be positive.Let’s be honest, your brand is defined by your customer’s overall perception of you, and if you’ve worked to build a positive image, they will have a positive perception.

Brand building is a part of our DNA here at Coffee, and we’re passionate about it. We get excited about this stuff and we love to figure out how we can make a brand stand out from the rest.

If your brand needs some oomph or a clear strategy, we really would love to help. So, pop us a mail, come visit us and let’s get creative!

2018 Is Looking Bright!

2017 was quite a year! Donald Trump was elected the 45th president of the United States, 90’s fashion made a comeback, Beyoncé popped twins, 140 million hours were watched on Netflix every day, Greenery was the Pantone colour of the year, and Salt Bae caused a stir on social media as he flamboyantly sprinkled salt on carved steaks.

Over here, at Coffee Creative Studio, 2017 brought not one, not two, but three engagements, some very exciting new projects and one epic Christmas Party! We began 2017 with a Coffee Bean count of ten and ended the year with twenty-two! We’ve even gone international! Vito Feremans joined us from Belgium, and he’ll be with us for the next six months, or we may just have to keep him here… forever.

So far, 2018 has been incredible and we pretty much hit the ground running after the Christmas break, (hence the very overdue blog post), but it’s totally been worth the madness!

It’s already March and the year, as always, is flying by. As we look ahead, there are many more exciting things to come (including three Coffee babies – yay) and of course, we’ve got some great new projects lined up.

A definite highlight and achievement already this year has been launching The Sharks digital magazine, ‘Sharks Uncaged’ – go and check it out Sharks Uncaged. Blood, sweat and tears (almost) went into creating this publication and we’re insanely proud of our Beans! Our dev team, especially, spent many a late night (and weekend) at the Studio – so major shout-out to them!

As we head into the rest of the year, things are looking bright! We’ve got a bunch of epic e-commerce websites on the go, one of which is for a Chocolatier based in London (what are the chances of chocolate samples making the Atlantic crossing by mail?), we’re about to launch the new Hollywoodbets Dolphins website and we’ll be working on another collaboration with The SPAR Group developing their customer service campaign!

So, you certainly are keeping us busy – and we love it! So whatever your requirements this year, be it website, social media, or design, we’re here to be your preferred creative partner and help you achieve your business goals!

Give us a shout, let’s get together, have a chat and enjoy a good cuppa!

Our Coffee Products and Packages Are Made Espressily For You!

At Coffee Creative Studio, we’re committed to the challenge of helping you achieve your business goals, big or small.

So, to help you turn your business dreams into a reality, we’ve carefully enhanced our services, products and packages to best suit your needs!

In fact, we’re so proud of our new and improved services that we want to shout it from the rooftops, but, being the social media experts, we know we’d be more successful if we told you about them here!

So, without further ado, here they are!

Graphic Design
Website Design and Development
Brand Strategy and Consulting
Copywriting and Content Creation
Online Communications Services

Graphic Design
From logo, corporate identity, website, brochure or poster design, we do it all! We carefully consider every project so that your design is unique and not only builds a strong and identifiable brand image, but also resonates with your company ethos, mission and vision.

We’re not afraid to push the boundaries of design, and we’d describe ourselves as fresh, innovative and being able to think outside of the box!

Website Design and Development
We all know that in this day and age, an online presence is everything! One of the first things people do when they hear about your brand is a Google search for your website. If they find nothing – that doesn’t bode well for you.

We’re really passionate about website development, design and maintenance and, not to boast or anything, but our developers have mad skills and are pretty epic!

Our website packages range from:

A template-based Landing Page, ideal for a start-up business
A Mini-Site with a little more functionality
A fully customised and designed Micro-Site with some serious pizazz
An E-commerce package that’ll have your customers shop ‘til they drop and
A Customised Website package, which is the most comprehensive of our website offerings and has all the bells and whistles!

Check out the design and website development we did for https://wearefood.co.za/ and https://silkbydesign.co.za/

Brand Strategy and Consulting
“Behind every successful business is a unique and hardworking brand strategy!”

There are literally hundreds of ways to market your business and deciding where to spend your money is vital! With a solid brand strategy in place, we’ll help you develop a clear plan of action, and once you have that, it’s easier to know which marketing campaign will work best for you!

With years of experience, our strategists will unpack your brand and help you lay the foundations you need to establish a clear brand strategy.

Copywriting and Content Creation
We’ve all heard that age-old saying, “content is king” and it really is! Clever copywriting attracts people rather than interrupts them, and in this busy world we live in, that’s more important than ever.

Our copywriters strive to keep their work charming and creative so that whatever your brand objective is, they’ll make it sound awesome. There’s no topic they can’t write about and trust us, they’ve had to write about some weird and wonderful topics.

Our content services include the following:

Concept Development
Content Creation
Content Editing

Online Communication Services
The newest and coolest kids on the block are our social media packages! We’ve spent months cultivating and roasting them to perfection to best suit our clients’ needs, and we’ve got to say, we’re super proud of them!

Our bespoke social media packages are as follows:

Instant Coffee
Green Bean
Light Roast
Medium Roast
Dark Roast

These packages vary in social media offerings so that we have a flavour to suit each clients’ needs and budget requirements. But, whether you take our smallest Instant Coffee or our biggest Dark Roast package, each has been carefully roasted to ensure they communicate your brand’s personality and take your social media to the next level.

In addition to these social packages, our online offerings extend to e-newsletters and SMS services, so no matter your social desires; we’ve got you covered!

If any of our services have tickled your fancy, pop us a mail and come visit our Studio for a cuppa and a chat

Cultivating Creativity

Where do creatives find their creativity and inspiration?

Well, if you look up the meaning of inspiration in the dictionary, it’ll definite it as “the process of being mentally stimulated to do or feel something, especially to do something creative.”

In theory, this is wonderful, and it certainly sounds simple enough, but, let’s be honest, inspiration doesn’t always come easy, especially in the fast-paced, demanding world we find ourselves in.

Most of the greatest artists, musicians, songwriters, and poets all drew their inspiration from somewhere or someone. Back in a time where life passed by at a slower rate, and one couldn’t log onto Facebook and, consequently, disappear down a social media wormhole.

William Wordsmith found his inspiration in nature, Jane Austen found hers in other successful female authors of her time, and Leonardo da Vinci drew his brilliance from architecture and science.

Fast forward a couple of years and Vincent van Gogh relocated to Pairs for inspiration, Rock N Roll legend, Elvis Presley was inspired by Gospel music and J.K Rowling’s inspiration for Harry Potter came to her in the most peculiar of settings – while delayed on a train travelling from Manchester to London’s Kings Cross Station. Steve Jobs began his Apple dream after being inspired by Edwin H. Land, the genius behind the Polaroid Corporation and inventor of instant photography and ironically, Richard Branson was inspired by a quote from Steve Jobs.

“The ones who are crazy enough to think that they can change the world, are the ones who do.” – Steve Jobs

So, in this world of non-stop advertising, instant gratification, fast food, 2-minute noodles, traffic and noise, what inspires you? What conjures up that sudden, brilliant and timely idea?

We asked a couple of our creatives in the studio to sum in a straightforward sentence what inspires them and here’s what some of them had to say;

Designer, Mel said she’s inspired by Spanish and Moroccan architecture, fabrics and mammoth D.I.Y projects.

Developer, Scott, is most inspired by innovation, automation (particularly classic cars) and old school electronics/components made by hand and not machines.

Salesman and sports enthusiast, Kyle said he’s inspired and motivated by successful entrepreneurs, like Mark Zuckerberg, Steve Jobs, Richard Branson, a hard work ethic and other people’s successes.

And copywriter, Jess is most inspired when she’s venturing to new countries, art galleries or disappearing into the African bush, with no cell phone signal or other distractions of everyday life.

So, get off the couch, venture outdoors, travel, draw, doodle, read, talk to people, find out their stories and challenge yourself, because, in essence, inspiration is everywhere and it can come from weird and wonderful places.

Get In Touch

Category: Branding