You don’t have to be a rocket scientist to know that at Mzuri we do love a bit of cake! So, you can imagine the squeals of delight when the lovely Aleshia from for the love of cakes recently arrived for a meeting at our office with a beautiful box of a dozen freshly baked cupcakes decorated with fresh fruit (see above for just how gorgeous they were!).

Fast forward (about 2 minutes) and everyone had carefully selected their chosen cupcake: Kate went for the jam filled cupcake with the glazed strawberry on top, Phil for the raspberry, and Zoë and I selected the gorgeous ‘three fruit’ option. A cup of tea was quickly made and we settled down to the serious business of eating.

I really can’t overstate how amazing these cupcakes were! The whole team agreed that they were everything you want from a cupcake: light and fluffy melt-in-the mouth cake, topped with a generous (but not overwhelming), beautifully crafted helping of perfectly smooth icing and, in this case, topped with fresh fruit. Plus zero fat and zero calories (ok, only joking about the last bit, but a girl can hope!). Simply delicious.

Aleshia’s talents don’t stop at cupcakes, just check out the fabulous cakes she produces. We’re so excited to have found her and have already booked her for a number of special occasions this year. If you need fabulous cake in your life (and who doesn’t) we highly, highly recommend her.

Aleshia Harrison: www.for-tlc.co.uk

Our greatest pleasure is working with clients over the long term and helping them evolve and grow their business. We pride ourselves on being really flexible and adaptable, able to tailor our services and technical solutions to the exact specification of our clients.

Whether starting out in business for the first time, or looking to uplift their marketing, clients often have a wish list as long as their arm, but which, by their own admission, isn’t always realistic budget or time wise to achieve in its entirety. As experienced marketers, we help clients focus on the priorities to build an off and online presence that will give their business the foundation it needs to grow on.

One client that we have been on this journey with is Karen Jackson of www.didlaw.com, a niche employment law boutique. We started working with Karen back in 2009 and created her brand with her, including a website. Didlaw has gone from strength to strength and is now established as the go-to firm for employees and employers handling disability and illness discrimination issues in the workplace. Karen is in high demand and is also widely quoted in on and offline media. A fabulous success story that we are honoured to be part of.

Karen’s vision for her business, and her drive and determination in achieving this, is inspirational and we recently started work on a number of new projects to take the brand to the next level.  These include marketing consultancy, design for print, social media, PR, client communications and an updated website.

We always say to clients that our websites can grow as they do, and this is definitely true with www.didlaw.com. We have retained the core design and structure as it has worked so well for the firm, and was a cornerstone of the brand, and have developed it by adding additional content, new pages and functionality and ‘tweaking’ the design to ring the changes. It is now a really comprehensive resource for employees and employers, and clearly defines the range of services that didlaw now provide. It really was a question of ‘let’s take what’s worked really well, and make it even better’.

The new site went live this week and we are very proud not only of the website, but of the feedback that Karen has given us about her experience of working with Mzuri. We are all walking around with rather large grins on our faces and looking forward to the next wave of projects with didlaw.

Check out the new, improved didlaw website here: www.didlaw.com and read Karen’s feedback on the didlaw blog here.

Sharing is a word that has taken on new resonance in recent times with the advent and phenomenal rise of social media platforms such as Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. Previously, in my house, the concept of sharing was something introduced (without much success) to resolve fights over who’s turn it is to play with Buzz Lightyear! Now there is a whole new meaning to the term.

Sharing online is fast becoming a major part of the marketeers arsenal in an attempt to keep pace with the fast moving digital world, and the opportunities for businesses to use these social platforms to promote their products and services as well as their ethos and personality are expanding with equal rapidity.

The speed and immediacy of online sharing through social media enables marketing messages to be disseminated quickly and effectively (both in terms of cost and time) but also allows those messages to be fluid, changing as needed to match or address current affairs, social events and news. Brands are able to communicate visually, sometimes without the need for any form of written message by aligning themselves with concepts, styles, specific desirable lifestyles and achievements.

This change in the way that businesses communicate with their target audiences is informing changes in the way that advertising and promotion is approached. For example, it might be difficult to see how a bicycle spares company (for illustration purposes!) might use Twitter or Pinterest to promote itself. However, by aligning itself and its posts, tweets and pins with images of healthy lifestyles, attractive people cycle riding in beautiful surroundings, charitable cycle events etc. the brand can adopt and use those postitive visual messages. The target audience buys into those attractive concepts and automatically aligns that business brand with them.

The sheer size and range of the audiences accessible online via these platforms is mind boggling which explains why so many businesses are now realising that social media is not something that they can afford to dismiss. When you consider the infinate connections available from your immediate audience to their friends and contacts, to their friends and contacts and so on it becomes clear that social media offers access to targeted audience volumes previously only matched by television advertising. That old saying about there being just six degrees of separation between each person on the planet has never been so true.

You may have come across sharing buttons on website that you have visited – in fact we have just installed a range on our lovely client Jo Lindsay’s website www.lindsayinteriors.co.uk. Each product page now has the functionality to allow visitors to share that product image and details online through Facebook, Twitter, Pinterest and Google+. Once an image has been shared there is really no end to how far it could reach through repins, further sharing, likes and retweets.

So, how do you get involved? It’s not as difficult as you might think and, as ever, we are here to offer our support in whatever way you might need. If you’d like more information or think social media and sharing might be the next step for your business, please just get in touch.

If you have had any work done on your house in the past few years, you will probably be familiar with www.checkatrade.com, a website set up to help protect people against ‘cowboy builders’. The website currently has 7,198 trades and services registered on their site who are constantly monitored, so it is clearly a scheme with wide appeal. Now the scheme is being extended with the launch of www.checkaprofessional.com, aimed at professional service companies, but also more widely a range of business services, including software companies, consultants, technicians, database analysts, systems engineers, strategic planning and management consultants to name but a few.

I am intrigued to know what you feel about this and whether you would use such a resource? I know a huge proportion of our business comes from word-of-mouth recommendations from happy customers, and while I’m not sure I would turn to CheckaProfessional as a sole source in finding a supplier, I can see it growing into an additional way of ‘checking people out’ before committing to giving them your business, in the same way that I use websites, social media and conversations with their current customers to source our suppliers. I’m happy to stand corrected though.

Zoë spotted the news of the CheckaProfessional launch recently and we just thought it might be of interest. The cost of membership on the site is reduced at the moment, so if this is something that interests you now is the time to act to bag a bargain.

Our understanding is that registered businesses are able to download reports on feedback left about them and also contact those people who left feedback. Listing can include text, images, vdeo and URL links including social media. Searches are made by business name/industry or area/postcode and to register companies need to provide a variety of evidence and references.

So, there we have it, for you information, just in case it is of interest.

There’s a running joke in our office that Kate, Zoë and I are frustrated designers. Which is kind of true, but let me explain why we are not afraid of sharpening our pencils and getting the creative juices flowing. As account managers, Kate, Zoë and I often meet most regularly with clients to talk about and progress all the projects we’re working on with them and taking briefs for new design, web and marketing projects. We then digest all this information into a concise brief for the various deliverables that we then oversee with our creative whizzes Phil and Lara, and our clever web developer, Paul.

Our briefs invariable include our ‘thoughts’ on what would make a good solution to the problem – in the form of a wonderful (well, at least we think so) sketch or two! ‘We’re not saying it should look exactly like this’ we quip, but really we’re hoping they will take on board some of our creative input!

But joking aside, at the heart of our sketches is the desire to get the best results for our clients. We understand the value of a visual brief in addition to a written and verbal one. Often during the course of meetings or conversations with clients we sketch, mind map, doodle and list information relevant to projects, whether the designers are present or not. It’s by understanding all the little nuances in the information that we can deliver a really brilliant project, and since we’re all perfectionists (for our sins) we aim to do that for each and every project we work on. A few off the cuff client comments in a meeting can sometimes form the essence of the brief.

Visual tools also help us to complete our job more effectively. Sketching out a rough idea of an email newsletter, for instance, helps us steer the copy that we write for it and the ordering of the key messages. Mocking up a brochure and jotting down key themes and images to be used, helps us create a workable order for the information and provide the best possible chance of getting the right result, as well as informing conversations with the designers and clients about the best format for the brochure so we can ensure that the project is achievable in budget. We never charge straight in to the design, but instead spend the right amount of time planning with the designers so when they do put pencil to paper or mouse to screen they are heading in the right direction. The old phrase ‘failing to plan is planning to fail’ is certainly true with what we do.

We’re not the only ones who sketch – we often have a few ‘back of the envelope’ sketches from clients to help them articulate what they need and its really helpful, even if, as in the cases with some of our sketches, they bear no resemblance visually to what the designers come up with (which is, thankfully, always better than our efforts!). It’s the thought processes and key messages displayed in the sketches which is the bit that the designers latch on to.

So, if you’re putting a design brief together, my advice is not to feel restricted by the written word. Take a big blank sheet of paper and just write down and sketch everything that comes to mind. Add to that magazine cuttings, fabric swatches or computer parts (yes, really – this happened recently) and you’ll have a really useful starting point for the project, a mood board if you will. Our job is to decipher your musings and distil them into a fabulous, effective piece of creative. And that’s what we absolutely love doing.

I know Katherine blogged a while back about the importance of feedback but an email we received from a client recently really highlighted to us how our service is perceived and valued.

Sometimes it’s hard to articulate exactly what we do outside the more easily defined projects such as design and ecommerce websites but the feedback from Jo Lindsay of Lindsay Interiors (below) spelt out what she felt she received from us outside of the obvious design and website development services.

‘Hi Zoe, I just wanted to let you know the most important aspect that Mzuri played in Lindsay Interiors creation and subsequent success from my perspective and which I think people “starting out” would be particularly interested in. 

When I phoned and made my first appointment to see Katherine back in May 2010, I had no idea what I was doing or more importantly the way to go about it all, I arrived with a woolly idea about buying and selling nice stuff for the home.  I had no idea what to expect at that meeting, I’d not spoken to anyone else professionally about my idea but thought I might see a raised eyebrow when mentioning the fact that I had absolutely no experience in retail or setting up a business.  I didn’t get that at all, what I got was gentle guidance on all the areas that make up a successful ecommerce site, imagery, design and perception. A detailed quote was delivered promptly, a second meeting was held to discuss in more detail and  Lindsay Interiors was born, I signed up not only for a beautifully designed ecommerce site but also the creation of the Lindsay Interiors brand including our logo and all the necessary stationery such as business cards, letterhead, labels etc.  Mzuri Design essentially became a one-stop shop for me which was great because I really didn’t have the time at that time, to look for different suppliers for all those different areas.  The only area Mzuri couldn’t help with was providing merchant account services but once we had done our research and signed up with our provider,  Mzuri very easily integrated the payment solution into our rapidly progressing site.  Mzuri Designs direction was exactly what I needed, they would ask a question which would prompt me to think about that particular area and how I wanted it to work, I was in a position where I didn’t know what I didn’t know and Mzuri helped bring the creation of Lindsay Interiors together.

18 months later, Lindsay Interiors has become successful enough to enable me to leave my full time job.  I have continued to work with Mzuri on additional aspects of Lindsay Interiors such as the creation of extra categories, a search function, and gift vouchers.  Additionally I have a long list of new features to be worked on at some point in the near future such as wishlist and wedding list functions and customer reviews options.  I know that Mzuri will deliver consistently high results from the smallest request to the largest,  I can speak to anyone on the Mzuri team and get good advice, friendly service and beautiful design.

 If I were to go through it all again with another idea or concept I wouldn’t hesitate to use Mzuri Design.’

The really illuminating part of the feedback from Jo for us was that she placed such great value on the planning and exploration part of the project that to us is a natural part of the project development process, after all, that is what we do.

If we can be of help to you at any stage of your project, from initial thought and planning right through to the finishing touches, why not give us a call, we’d be delighted to talk it through with you.

One of the favourite Christmas presents in our household last year was a book called ‘Information is Beautiful’ by David McCandless.  A wide ranging collection of facts and theories presented as wonderful graphics.

It really is quite amazing to look at topics, which if written in figures would have the potential to bore you to tears, that become fascinating and intriguing represented as shapes and intricate flow diagrams.  The other advantage is that my 7 year old became obsessed with learning all the facts on every page showing that, when teaching people, young or old, about a new subject sometimes presenting it slightly differently can really pay dividends.

Why not have a think about how you present information about your company, and whether the graphic touch could help get the message across in a more beautiful way!

You can buy the book here

Our local community is important to us, and we have long admired the Liphook in Bloom team of volunteers for their dedication and hard work in making Liphook look so wonderful with the plant displays around the village. To offer our support to the team, we have re-refreshed the logo for ‘Liphook in Bloom’ and assisted them with the roll out of the new logo across all their marketing and display materials.

This is a classic case of the importance of being flexible in your approach to brands requiring an update. Some brands, it is true, just don’t work for the organisation (they may have done once, but not in every case) and no amount of re-jigging, font changes, layout changes, motif updates and other design tricks, will help improve the situation. That signals a time to draw a line under the old and build a clear brief for the new. This isn’t always the case; sometimes we’re approached by companies who have the essence of a good brand – it just needs some TLC to make it sing.

That was the case with the Liphook in Bloom logo – as a community based scheme, the logo style needed to reflect that. So, we first set about work on trying to improve what was there already to see if this took the logo to the right place. As you can see below we re-created and updated all the elements of the logo (the font, the watering can, the water drops and the flowers), and used a subtle ‘brush stroke’ to frame the letters softly, and finally removed the detail within the letters which we felt was distracting, instead opting for a solid colours in a varied pallette across the lettering.

Carolyn from the Liphook in Bloom team had this to say: “It was a great surprise when Mzuri Design contacted Liphook in Bloom with an offer to refresh our logo and ‘brand’, but it has been a delight to work with them through the various stages.  They have shown great originality and patience, and the final product is wonderful.”

So, the moral of the story? Take a critical look at your logo and see if it is something that can be built on, adapted and updated to more accurately reflect where your business is now, or whether it has had its day and it’s time to start from scratch. If you’re unsure and looking for inspiration, why not contact us to get a copy of our ‘brand identity questionnaire’ – designed to get the creative juices flowing and help you in your decision making process!

Email me for your copy.

Now we are actually sitting in 2012, it almost seems surreal as everyone had been talking about this particular year for so long.  It was way back in 2005, when IOC president Jacques Rogge made the announcement that the Olympics would be held in Britain, for the first time since 1948.

As we approach the summer the inevitable marketing of pretty much everything we buy and do will think to feature some reference to the Olympics.  However as a business there are some pretty stringent rules to adhere to before you start sticking the Olympic rings on your marketing collateral.  IPC media have recently sent a very informative email about the restrictions, given that they have had to reject adverts submitted to them featuring references to the Games.

Below I have included their links to the London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) website pdfs so that you can read all about it in detail if you need to.

The Facts from IPC Media:

It is important to be aware that explicit or implied reference to the Olympic Games or the athletes is governed by specially enacted laws and regulations that are very restrictive to anyone but official sponsors. These Olympic Association laws go well beyond and are much stricter than what would otherwise be permitted by the CAP code  (Committee of Advertising Practice) or any other relevant advertising law.

The London Organising Committee for the Olympic Games (LOCOG) have indicated that they will be very vigilant in enforcing violations of the Olympic association laws particularly as the games approach. A basic summary of how these laws may affect your business can be found here:

http://www.london2012.com/documents/brand-guidelines/guidelines-for-business-use.pdf

More detailed guidance here:

http://www.london2012.com/documents/brand-guidelines/statutory-marketing-rights.pdf

And for those companies that have supplied the Olympics, Team GB or any other official British team competing in these games the supplier protocol must be adhered to – this effectively prevents suppliers from making references to the fact that they are a supplier in their ad copy:

http://www.london2012.com/documents/oda-publications/no-marketing-rights-suppliers-protocol-dec-2007.pdf

In accordance with the Olympic Symbol Protection Act and the London Olympic and Paralympic Games Act, any ad promoting an item of Olympic erchandise must feature an officially licensed product approved by LOCOG and must carry the official merchandise hologram.

Happy reading!

I’m a firm believer in feedback. The positive gives just reward for a job well done, the negative gives you opportunity to improve.

We’ve received some really fabulous feedback over the years (as well as been told about areas we haven’t been so great at and which I hope we have now improved accordingly), and I just wanted to highlight the testimonial below, re-discovered after a recent review of client feedback, that really summed up what we hope to achieve for our clients.

‘I would like to extend my thanks to Katherine and the Mzuri Design team for their speed and professionalism in delivering a brand and supporting corporate literature that set the tone and positioning of my wife’s newly launched Reiki Practice.

In today’s massively competitive market place many brands have flooded the Health Care sector promising the world but in reality often delivering very little of value. Much more attention is now being focused on the natural benefits offered by Complementary Medicines/Services and so in order to appropriately differentiate these offerings it was critical to adopt a brand position and ‘look’ that captures all the elements that go into providing the ‘holistic experience’ clients look for when choosing alternative medical solutions.

‘Soul healing with feeling’ verbally sums up what the various treatments provide, but it is through the use of the natural, earthy and balanced colours of the brand identity that the business card visually sets the appropriate level of professionalism, allowing this to then be taken into the corporate brochure where the client’s desire to learn and understand is satisfied by fluid copy that ticks all the boxes.

The result so far has been that appointments are being booked in direct relation to the number of corporate brochures picked up from the Centre of Complementary Medicine, a testimony to the instant impact of the brand.

Thank you Mzuri for taking the time to get this right.’
Nick Hawkins

If you have any feedback on the service we provide, positive or negative, I would love to hear from you. As an organisation we are always changing and evolving and so we are open to ways we can be better. Email me on katherineb@mzuridesign.co.uk If you would like to know what your clients’ think about you, have you considered an online survey? We have run several for client’s recently with some really interesting results. Somehow the beginning of a new year seems to be a great time to take stock.