IF YOU BUILD IT WILL THEY COME? …REALLY?
I can assure you the answer is NO. Just because you start a business and even if it offers a unique product or service that could be in demand, people will not magically appear lining up to buy it from you.
You need to first let them know you and the product/service exists. A website is not enough, neither is a logo or a social media page on its own.
You first need to create your brand voice and brand image, then show your target audience how what you offer can benefit them and then shout it out in all the appropriate platforms to get their attention…
…this is where we come in!
n. design is a multi-award winning graphic design company that specializes in branding. We focus our design services to three primary categories: Website Design; Logo Design and Complete Brand Development.
When you engage with n. design to help you develop your complete brand, we can help you transform your business from an idea to a successful brand.
Book a free Zoom call with Norm here to learn more about what we do and how we can help your business build a successful brand.
At n. design we have all been touched in some way or form by the efforts of Sick Kids Hospital. Several members within my extended family and many of my friends have children that wouldn’t be here today if not for Sick Kids Hospital. My designer Katlyn and one of my intern designers Lindsay would not be here today if it weren’t for the efforts of Sick Kids Hospital.
When you choose to work with n. design, you are not only supporting a local business, you are working with an award winning graphic design and branding team who are excited and passionate about helping you develop your brand and company brand - you are also contributing to Sick Kids Hospital as we donate a percentage of our earnings every month to this amazing organization.
n. design is also a proud supporter of many other community charities and organizations. We’ve donated both our time and contributed financially to organizations and charities like Feed The Need Durham, Brooklyn VS, Samaritan’s Purse, Love Boxes, Wounded Warriors, Oshawa Generals just to name a few.
SOCIALIMPACT
Creating is in our DNA… it is what we were born to do! At n. design we have taken our passion to create, our training as graphic designers along with over thirty years of award winning graphic design work and brand experience, combined that with our unique process that we continue to refine and hone to develop complete brands that we feel truly reflect the individual personalities of each of our customers.
OURWHY
At n. design we provide leading-edge creative direction and graphic design. We deliver this by first asking the right questions and listening to our customer responses. We follow that up with thorough market research to then clearly communicate effective, targeted brand messaging specific to our clients needs.
OURPROMISE
At n. design we vitalize your company's brand identity integrating what your company has to offer, what your company stands for and how it will meet the desired expectations and objectives to engage your market audience. We develop creative solutions to elevate the strength of your brand as well as your brand's presence and perceived value in the market.
OURPROCESS
Your company’s brand is your most powerful tool for instilling client loyalty. n. design will help you communicate your corporate culture to your clients.
We establish what differentiates you from your competitors and demonstrate within your brand identity what makes you unique.
OURSTRATEGY
To establish an effective brand identity with maximum exposure and impact for our clients, with a set of standards providing a consistent application of the brand across all corporate and marketing materials we design and implement according to the strategy we've developed.
OURMISSION
To create clear and consistent, powerful and effective brand messaging that reflects your brand personality and appeals to your target audience. We do this by asking the right questions and listening to your responses combined with market research and award-winning creative.
With our innovative design, sound market research and award-winning creative, we help you elevate your brand.
OURVISION
OURBRANDVOICE
OURVALUES
OURWORKPROCESS
LOGOCREATION
01
When we develop a logo for a client we feel it should be a reflection of the personality and experiences of the main people behind the business. When your customers see your logo and then meet you for the first time it should all make sense and feel right. This is why we have a thorough process to the development of each logo we create which involves meeting with the customer, asking specific questions in an endeavour to get to know them a little better before we even start developing ideas for the logo design. Each logo should be unique and specific to the client, no automated logo generators or clip art here. With that said, we are also not your $99 logo shop, we put the time in with you to ensure we properly build you a custom logo that will work for your business in all areas that it will be needed.
We offer two types of logo builds – The first we label as a “Basic Logo” and in this scenario we are working with a client that knows pretty much what they want with their logo and they simply need us to make their vision reality. So for example you might be a salon and you want a butterfly for your logo and you have a rough sketch displaying more or less what that should look like along with how you would like the text to sit alongside the graphic. The second we label as an “Advanced Logo Development” and in this scenario you simply have your company name determined and you would like us to come up with something for you. Here we have a questionnaire that you would fill out and supply back to us and while you are doing that we will be researching your industry, looking at your local competitors as well as the larger businesses in your industry, determining what each are doing, what is working and what isn’t. Then between the info we get from you both from our meetings and the questionnaire combined with the research we’ve done, we start to develop your custom logo for you.
With our Basic Logo Development we will supply you with 2 variations of your concept for you to consider, the Advanced Logo Development we will supply you with 3 concepts to consider. With either option once we’ve finalized the design and it’s approved by you, we will supply you your logo in the needed layout formats, in all the standard file formats you will need for your business. We will also supply you with a single page PDF displaying the basic logo guidelines for your new logo to ensure you maintain a consistent use of your logo throughout your corporate and marketing materials.
WEBSITEDESIGN
02
We build pretty much all our websites these days in WIX. We used to do custom programmed sites and WordPress sites but we feel that the technology that WIX has developed with their platform has surpassed the capabilities of WordPress or the need to go full custom. We have been working in WIX for almost 10 years now and watched the enhancements and evolution of the platform. We are able to build beautiful websites with amazing leading edge functionality and capabilities and if we do need anything custom coded for specific requirements, WIX can accommodate that as well.
Our favourite part about WIX is that it has put the design capabilities completely back in the hands of the designers. This is huge as it has allowed trained graphic designers to now properly and completely build websites for customers without needing programmers or developers in the mix which is where the integrity of the design concept seems to almost always get lost because most simply do not have an eye for design along with the proper training and fundamental skills to design. With WIX working directly with Google, the search ability of WIX sites and the functionality of WIX apps and features is better than ever with full Google integrations to calendars, email and SEO.
Like all projects we meet with the client prior to starting the design and get an idea of what they are looking to achieve with their website and how they would like the site to both look and function by again asking the right specific questions. We also supply a fillable PDF checklist worksheet to the client to ensure they are supplying us everything we will need to completely design and build their website at the start of the project to avoid the site build stalling out while we wait for required content that the client hasn’t supplied to us yet. These processes have been put in place from years of experience building hundreds of websites.
Once the site design is complete and approved, we will host the site for our clients in our WIX Partner Portal offering two types of hosting with four levels of hosting packages depending on the type of site being built and the clients needs. We also have companies and people we’ve partnered with to offer email hosting for your business, SEO optimization and online advertising as well as legal writing to help write your Terms & Conditions or Terms of Service and Privacy Policies/Cookies Policies which are required now for all websites.
03
COMPLETEBRANDS
When we develop a complete brand we are working with you on another level, we are not just creating a logo and website. We are helping you determine and work out your Brand Voice and planning out your brand look and feel that will roll out across all your corporate and marketing materials. The goal is to create a strategy that will seamlessly interweave your Brand Voice with your Brand Visuals to establish a personality for your company and create a corporate culture that your target audience can connect and align with.
With your Brand Voice we can help you determine your Vision, Values, Mission, Purpose, Social Impact as well as your company name if that hasn’t already been determined. We would work with you and advise you as you develop these but we don’t write these for you, most business owners write this themselves with our guidance and advice. If you need someone to write them for you then we would bring a copywriter in to work with us on the development of your brand voice. Once we’ve established your brand voice, we will then look at how we’ll strategically integrate these messages into both your corporate and marketing materials. This written content is what sets the stage for your customer experience and expectations, helps establish your brand personality and corporate culture. This is how your customers will be able to connect and emotionally align with you on a deeper level than the initial attraction that the brand visuals achieve for you.
Visually we typically start with your logo but if that is in place then we will next work out the look and feel for your corporate and marketing materials, establish some standards for both your logo (if that hasn’t been done) along with these materials as we begin to develop them and roll them out. We’ll determine a look and feel for corporate pieces like your letterhead, business cards, office signage, forms, internal documents, invoices etc… as well as your marketing pieces like brochures, flyers, presentation folders, website, social media, vehicle graphics, store front windows, trade show booths, rollup banners, feather flags etc…
Your Brand Visuals are important to get your potential customers initial attention and create the attraction to your brand so your Brand Voice can take over and solidify their desire to want to work with you or buy from you and ultimately stay with you moving forward creating a long term repeat customer. You need both and they need to work together if you truly want a successful brand for your business. You don’t own your brand, that is decided by your audience and every business has a brand whether you put the effort in to create yours or not. Your audience will judge you and decide if they want to buy from you even if you haven’t made any strategic effort with your branding. When you do put the effort in to strategically developing your Brand Voice & Visuals, you are determining how your stage is set for your customers and now influencing how they see you and what they feel about you. You have a much better chance for success with creating a long term relationship with your potential customers when you’ve properly developed your companies branding.
OURPROGRAMS
"We needed a website fast when we made an unexpected change to our company. n. design was able to create a website that far exceeded our expectations in our tight timeline. From our first meeting it was clear that they understood our vision and brand for our company."
Denise Laframbroise
LaframboiseMortgage.ca
OURWORK
"I recently launched a new division for my contracting company. For the past few years I have been inundated with calls from people who would like small projects done around their home. In the past I was too busy for the small jobs. Now I decided to focus on small jobs only but was unsure how to market myself."
Doug Davis
DDC General Contracting
Your brand is the perception of your company to your audience. What people think and feel about you. You don't own your brand, your customers do… but you can shape the perception of your brand to your audience through your branding and marketing, establishing a differentiated presence in the market to attract and retain loyal customers!
Your Brand Voice strategically positioned throughout your Brand Visuals, developed with a level of continuity and purpose will help you connect with your audience on a deeper more personable level. It will help to establish a personality for your company that your audience can relate to.
Give us a call at our studio 905 434 4473 any time Monday thru Friday between 9AM & 5PM EST and one of our design team would be happy to assist you with any questions you might have. Or contact us by email by filling out our contact form.
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