The ForestLink
Brand + website package for start up micro business
Forester and sustainability expert Shauna Matkovich approached az.design for support launching her new business, The ForestLink, online. She needed branding and a website that captured its ethos and her expertise in the field. With a quick turnaround (4-6 weeks) our Micro Brand+Web Presence package was the perfect solution for her at an early stage in business.
WORK CARRIED OUT
Logo design
Visual identity
Brand guidelines
3-page website design+build
The brief
Shauna had a really clear idea of what she wanted: a professional logo, guidance on branding and visual identity and an easy-to-use website that clearly communicated the what, who and how of her services. This fitted perfectly with our Micro Brand+Web Presence package, which is designed to be done on a quick turnaround, targeted specifically to meet the needs of start-ups and small businesses in the first year or so of their lifecycle.
Strategy
All Micro Brand+Web Presence packages begin with a brand questionnaire and briefing meeting. We sat down with Shauna to establish exactly what she needed from us and what we needed from her (for example, copy and content for the website needs to be supplied by the client). As part of the briefing and brand questionnaire process, we established six key words to describe the personality of the brand: credible, creative, inspirational, practical, impactful, professional. We then worked on the visual identity, sharing concepts for sign off, before applying them to the website design and build.
Results
The whole project was completed within 4 weeks, which was ideal for Shauna as it meant she could launch a beautiful website without months of back and forth.
The brand and website were launched to a lot of positive feedback, and new business connections on the first day alone.
She has been proudly promoting her business on LinkedIn, confident that the visual identity and functionality of the website is professional and on-brand.
Since working together, Shauna has been so busy with client enquiries and work that she has filled her schedule, and is looking to hire a virtual assistant to help her put together proposals and reports.
Angela is extremely talented, efficient, and so friendly to work with – a perfect combination in my view. I have already received so much positive feedback on my website, and it just launched yesterday. I’m so impressed with how she has been able to reflect my ethos into my brand and website. I look forward to working together again in the future!
– SHAUNA MATKOVICH
Design deliverables
Logo design + visual identity
Our Micro Brand+Web Presence package includes a fully responsive typographic logo to work across all print and digital platforms (supplied in jpg, png, svg & ai formats.) For The ForestLink, we opted for a leaf inspired design with interlinking sections representing the business’ expertise in forest-linked, nature-based solutions.
A brand is not just a logo. Your visual identity includes colour palette, typography and pattern or graphic device. Fresh greens anchor the colour palette amongst stock imagery of nature and a paler ecru shade for easy readability across print and digital media. We chose Barlow as the one and only font because of its clean, modern form and flexibility in weight options. The leaf indent is used as a container for imagery and also repeated to create a pattern effect. Simple icons were also created with the leaf element.
Brand guidelines
A mini brand guidelines document to help Shauna create a strong, consistent brand to increase client trust was created as part of the package. Supplied as a PDF, it includes colour palette with RGB/CMYK/# breakdowns, typography and icons, plus pattern examples. This means that any designers, social media managers or virtual assistants she works with in the future will have a clear point of reference from the get-go.
3-page website design + build
Shauna needed a simple website that was easy to navigate, comprising Home, About, Contact + Blog. Our Micro Brand+Web Presence sites are all built on WordPress and include on-page SEO. Shauna also opted to include stock imagery in her design, which incurred a small additional cost. The sites use a theme builder to make updating text and content simple for clients moving forward. An hour of training is an optional add on to learn how to add blogs and manage the wordpress site.
