Here’s an opportunity to evaluate how you are looking after your business brand.

1. If design is not your profession, hire a professional.
2. Review your brand and it’s purpose regularly (every 6 months).
3. Apply brand rules across ALL aspects of your business.
4. Apply brand rules ALL the time.
5. Be consistent and stick to a single solution.

Call us NOW to apply these tips, and more to your business.

Or email us, or see our website for more info and tools to help you.

Brian
Creative Director
Luxgraphicus Design Agency

If you relate to these, and want to know more, call us now to make an appointment.

Comments and opinions also most welcome, don’t be shy.

7 tips on why branding?

1. Your client’s perception of your business is based on how they see you.
2. They “see” you at every contact point with your business.
3. This impression is created in a second.
4. Their perception is often unconscious.
5. This perception is often not a considered decision.
6. To your client, their perception IS reality.
7. When this perception is positive, potential sales become clients, and clients become advocates.

Why are the best businesses watching their branding?

Again, call us now for an opportunity to discover how your brand is working for your business.

Brian Miller
Creative Director
Luxgraphcius Design Agency

iconic to the identity of the city

The topic came up from an article in the local press about preserving the valuable iconic street trees around Canberra. The need to audit, manage, understand and maintain the resource, as the critical identity of the city, struck a cord with me.

In business, the identity of the business is a critical resource which is often neglected. Not through a deliberate act, but as the result of a lack of process. How can the identity be looked after?

Like the trees of the city!

Through a process of audit, manage, understand and maintain. A process driven by an expert in the field.

Does the expert need to water and prune the trees? Not really.

They may be needed in cases of emergency or particularly tricky or unusual circumstance. But generally they should be the ones auditing and recommending approaches.

Some expert work will need to be done at certain stages, but much of the process is maintenance. Routine stuff, which will make sure the resource is looked after.

But which is routine and which requires the critical input of the expert?

The process should prescribe this. The audits, recommendations and understanding of the expert will set up a system which can be followed.

Luxgraphicus has such a system for business. It allows for the management of the critical resource, the identity of the business.

Through audits, understanding and management, the identity is looked after. Sometimes by the expert designers at Luxgraphicus, but always by the business itself.

how are you looking after your iconic resource?

And this is not a one off action. It is a process. Continuously and regularly applied.

This ongoing nature of the process means that the best way to offer this service is by an ongoing subscription. And now, Luxgraphicus clients can subscribe to “Unity”, our brand management service, on a quarterly subscription basis.

The best businesses are watching their branding.

Make it an easy process by subscribing to “Unity” with Luxgraphicus.

Brian.

Green light on a great brand

Most small and medium businesses don’t have in-house design departments. Why would they need one?

They need one because a casual relationship with a designer or design studio, or swapping from one designer to another will result in mis-managed and inconsistent application of vital visual branding.

Confused messages mean confused clients and customers.

But how to afford your own designer or in-house design department?

Luxgraphicus managed design services!

You might be looking to re-brand or create a new brand.

You might want to keep your current brand fresh and working for you.

You might need your website and email marketing looked after.

You’ll probably like to have all your printing managed by experts.

And, you’d expect to be be looked after as a valued client, by getting the best value for your money for ongoing design requirements.

Luxgraphicus managed services will manage your corporate identity, including provision of licensing and copyright assurance. We’ll keep your business looking fabulous and your messages consistent. No more confused clients!

We will look after your website to make sure it is upto date and working as a valuable tool for your business. You don’t need to be a technical expert and you can get on with the business of running your business.

Your email marketing will be managed and maintained, and be visual consistent with all your other marketing material.

Printing of your marketing material will happen seamlessly. With the finished product delivered to your office, or offices.

And, now that you have decided that using Luxgraphicus as your own in-house design consultant is a great idea, as our valued client, you’ll receive bundle discounts on any ongoing design projects.

No more confused messages or confused clients. No more inconsistent branding. Confidence around licensing and copyright issues. Logos and artwork looked after and managed for you. Fixed pricing and regular invoicing. Access to your own, consultant designer. Regular audits and ongoing service.

All small and medium businesses will benefit from Luxgraphicus managed design services.

Brian. (Creative Director, Luxgraphicus Design Agency)

unity for small business

Good morning all…
Brian Miller, Luxgraphicus, Design Agency

This week I’d like to talk about managed services.

We might be more used to hearing about managed services in the IT, or logistics industries.

But now, small business can take advantage of Luxgraphicus systems to have their own managed design services. Effectively, their own personal design consultancy.

Managed identity creation and licensing.

Ongoing brand management.

Email marketing and website management.

And, when these services are bundled together, great value discounts on all ongoing design services and products.

So a good referral for us this week is a business which wants to have their own expert design consultant, working with their business to keep them looking fabulous.

“Luxgraphicus”, it’s Latin for… managed design services.

Brian

This weeks BNI 60 sec infomercial

If something isn’t shiny, then I like to make it shiny. It doesn’t need to be shiny, it just can be shiny.

Recently I polished the floorboards in our lounge room after ripping up the awful old carpet. I really enjoyed the process. The filling of holes and cracks, the sanding, the numerous coats of varnish with more sanding between each.

Shiny floor

It’s now shiny! It looks great. People like to come into the room and walk on the floor. It adds amenity to the space and value too. The floor isn’t a better floor now. I haven’t made it stronger, or more useful as a floor. But people perceive it’s value as greater.

Why? Because it’s shiny!

I’ve also just made some wooden boxes to hold camping gear. (holiday activities you might notice) I’m very keen to add some more unnecessary coats of varnish to these too. It is sure to give them added value, plus I like sanding and varnishing, and looking at shiny things.

Making things look and feel shiny, or more polished, or professional, or targeted, or appropriate, or even just easier to read, gives the underlying material more value. Our old lounge room floor was just as good a floor before its makeover. It stopped us falling through to the dirt underneath. We could walk on it, put our chairs and TV on it, but it wasn’t as valuable. We didn’t enjoy walking on it. We didn’t want to show it to our friends. Others didn’t comment on how good it looked, wished they had one just like it, or contemplate doing the same themselves.

Designers like to make things shiny. The basic content, the marketing messages, the delivery method, they may all be created by others and be just as strong, but when a designer polishes them into a beautiful shiny thing, people want to look at it, they want to have one too and they want to show it to others.

Make your stuff shiny too and others will want one just like it.

I’m off to put the next coat of varnish on my wooden camping boxes.

Brian.

So lets look at how we might re-brand that icon of the Christmas season which seems to have been taken over by the corporate and commercial world that is modern Christmas, Santa Clause.

Lots of opportunity here to fiddle with looks, colours, and audience perception.

Lets try for a different audience, hipper, young adults. They buy lots of expensive, hi tech stuff at Christmas. They want a cooler, tougher, Santa. One who doesn’t pander to little kids pathetic whims. A rebel the audience can connect and identify with…

Enter, hard rocking, hard drinking, Santa!

Hard rocking, hard drinking Santa

What about looking from a different angle? Teenage and early twenties males, older men in mid-life crisis mode, aspiring females (this is a perverse angle, true). What would attract this audience?

Enter, sexy Santa!

Sexy Santa

Or, then there is always the safe option. Family friendly, good for the young kids, traditional, big audience acceptance here…

Yes, it’s fat and friendly Santa Clause!

Friendly and fat Santa

And, for this year especially! How about we take up the most influential brand currently on the planet. Huge audience appeal, trend setter to the biggest market in the world …

Of course it’s, Oprah Clause!

Oprah Santa

Which Santa would you choose to take the brand into the next century?

Clearly there are pitfalls in several options. But is staying put therefore the best option?

Branding, and even more so, re-branding, are critical business decisions which need to be carefully thought through, planned and implemented.

To stand still could well mean irrelevancy and ultimately, failure. But make sure the change is done well and make use of professionals to guide you through the potential pitfalls.

I think Santa is safe for the time being, although Oprah does seem quite friendly and, if I’m not mistaken, seems to be getting fatter too!

Brian.

Have you had a light bulb moment lately?

Last week I was asked  – “what would a business person be saying that would indicate that they might need a new business identity or re-branding?”

Chances are that those most in need of new or re-branded identities wouldn’t be saying anything about it at all! Those who would interest a designer as a potential client however might be talking about their marketing plan, or plans they have for growing their business, or entering  a new market. They would be giving off clues that they were proactively taking their business on a path towards success.

I answered a research survey from a personal development coach today. By completing the survey and returning it I identified myself as their target audience. I was clearly ready to begin to accept the help of a coach in my development. All people would benefit from these services but it is vital that they, themselves see that they need and are ready for this help. Like the light bulb which can be changed by the single psychiatrist, so long as it wants to change, I was accepting that I too was ready to be helped. The questionaire survey raised several issues which swayed me in the direction of the coaching help, but just by taking the time and effort to start the survey rather than dump it in the bin, was evidence enough that I was ready to take the first steps with the coach. We could all do well by working with a development coach, but we have to want to. In fact it is often those who most need the help that are most unready to accept that help.

Similarly, all business could do well by working with a designer on the audit and review of their existing visual identity. Ongoing management of its application and access to its components for operational and marketing activities will ensure a consistent message delivery. This involvement can also identify areas for improvement and potential need to re-brand or re-fresh the existing branding details.

Those businesses in most need of this service will probably not place any value on it. They will dismiss the effort and resources required as unnecessary or wasteful. They are not ready for the change. They are not the audience of the designer. The designers audience are managing their business towards success. They have plans and they are carrying out those plans. A marketing plan will be key amongst those plans and the delivery of its messages will rely on visual design.

The business person may not know they have need for new design, but they will accept that doing an audit of their visual material is a worthwhile process, and one which could help them on their path towards success. Like the coach’s questionaire, accepting that doing the audit is not a waste of time is the first step in working with a designer to drive the success of the business.

It only takes one good designer to create a fabulous business identity, but the business has to want a fabulous identity!

Brian.

This week we are we are making like a franchise.

Anyone who has read, or even talked to someone who has read, the E-Myth, will understand the need for systems in their business.

Even if you don’t plan to turn your business into a franchised operation, setting it up as if you were going to places you in a strong position to succeed.

This applies as much to aspects like branding and controlling the image of your business, as it does to operational processes in your business.

Big business wont let the whim of individuals set the tone for the image or brand of the company, they prescribe a set of rules to follow whenever anything is created or used which visually represents the business.

Luxgraphicus can help small business do exactly this too.

Visit our website at www.luxgraphicus.com to access tools to help you do it yourself, and services and systems which will create, apply and mange your business identity for you in a professional manner.

“Luxgraphicus”, this week it’s Latin for Make like a franchise.

Brian. (Start to this weeks BNI 10 minute talk)

Luxgraphicus systems – click to enlarge

Show off your colours!

We are looking to engage with and capture the spirit and essence of the business community in Canberra with an exciting photographic project – Canberra Business in Colour

Naturally we will need business people to work with us to bring this to realisation.

Our process will involve some time with you the business person, in gathering background information, developing a creative concept for an image, and then in the actual taking of the image. This may take around an hour of your time.

We plan to base the imagery on our own creative concepts, rather than your own business marketing messages, so we can’t promise glossy advertising images for you!

We can promise a friendly and flexible approach however, and nothing you are too uncomfortable doing of course. And we will provide an A4 glossy print and web sized file of your image in return.

If it turns out you’d like to use our final image for marketing of your business we will be happy to discuss a license fee for this purpose.

Long term, we plan to mount an exhibition of the images, and use this as cross promotion of all the businesses involved and Luxgraphicus.

Keen to be involved, or find out more?

Register your interest with our survey here.

or call or email us to discuss things.

Brian.