Laban Brown Design

Our work for Adecco Recruitment

2011-10-20T17:16:00.000+01:00

For many years we were the lead Design Agency for the huge international recruitment company Adecco. During those early years for us we worked alongside some amazing Marketing people, many whom we continue to work with in other companies.

Our role covered many aspects of the Adecco business both nationally and internationally - small internal comms projects to branch refurbishment graphics.

Whilst recently looking for something completely different on our backups we discovered a whole heap of creative work that we created for Adecco over those early days in our history and we thought it would be nice to both remind ourselves of all that hard work and to also share here on our blog.

So, here's a first random batch of images, designs and visuals for all things Adecco spanning many years of creativity. In a testament to their success many of these designs are still being used today!

More to follow... in the meantime you can see more examples on our website.

Branch graphics

Vodafone recruitment campaign

Adecco Sales Recruitment branding and literature range

AdeccoWeb branding and support literature

Adecco Education Services - sub-branding, sales literature,
terms of business, advertising, displays...

Adecco Catering & Hospitality - sub-branding, sales literature,
terms of business, advertising, displays...

Davis Cup sponsorship - advertising, support graphics, literature, tickets...

Adecco desk calendar(s) - design and production of a range of sub-branded versions:
Alfred Marks, Jonathan Wren, Roevin, Computer People...

Tesco 'wise men and women' Christmas recruitment campaign -
in-store posters, leaflets and hanging graphics

New work, new clients

2011-10-17T17:26:00.000+01:00

We've been very busy lately in our Design Agency in Essex but have made time to update the Laban Brown Design Website. There's another 4 main clients added to the client list page along with examples of work.

It's a difficult task to choose a varied range of client work to present to potential new clients, student visitors and of course the competition who regularly visit our site to see what's happening.

The revised site pages showcase some great new work for brilliant clients: Digital Online projects for Teletext holidays, Literature and Sponsorship projects for the Trading Standards Institute, Corporate Identity, Branding, Packaging and Website design for the start up business Love to Eat Deli and a range of Branding, Literature & Marketing Design tools for Commercial Property Specialists SBH Page & Read.

We receive a large number of hits per day, are perfectly placed at position 1 on page 1 of Google results for 4 out of our 5 keyword selections and receive a healthy amount of new business enquiries directly from our site. This all proves that a well designed Website that presents relevant information to a targeted audience and that works hand-in-hand with great SEO brings results. Of course part of that process is keeping the site up-to-date!

Click on the name links above or go directly to our client list and check them out. Let us know if you have any thoughts or questions about what you find there.

Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Website

2011-08-19T14:19:00.000+01:00

We've been working on the new Walt Disney Carolwood Pacific Railroad website for some time and we're proud to announce that it's now live!

The new website design follows the brand styling that we've been developing with the Carolwood team - reflecting the overall new 'Carolwood' look and feel.

You can find out more about Walt's Railroad at the official Walt Disney Family Museum website.

Have a look at the new site for yourself at www.carolwood.com

Don't forget to become a friend of Laban Brown Design on Facebook.

Designing for Walt Disney's Carolwood Pacific Railroad

2011-05-10T12:50:00.009+01:00

The effects of our work really does reach far and wide. From our Design Agency in Essex to as far as Los Angeles California.

Since Spring 2010 we have been proudly working for the Walt Disney Family Foundation's Carolwood Pacific Historical Society in LA.

It's clear today when you visit Disneyland, Walt Disney World or any of the other Disney Parks around the World that trains play a part in their DNA. Walt Disney had a lifelong love of trains which was started in his childhood when he spent time as a news butcher on the Missouri Pacific Railroad.

In 1949 Walt had a miniature railroad built in his own backyard at his home in Beverly Hills - situated on Carolwood Drive - which he named 'The Carolwood Pacific Railroad'. Walt's pride and joy served as a much needed distraction to his busy days at the Disney Studios where after the massive success of Snow White and the downtime of war brought even more pressure to make the next animated film a hit.

From his backyard Red Barn Walt would build parts for his train by hand. It is believed that this Red Barn was the birthplace of Imagineering - a creative sandbox where Walt's imagination and future plans were formed into what we see and enjoy at the Disney Theme Parks today.

When the railroad was completed, in typical creative fashion, Walt created a logo (an early exercise in brand identity) for his railroad along with stationery and boarding passes. A number of famous visitors rode Walt's train in including Kirk Douglas and artist Salvador Dali.

We have been working with CPHS on a number of very exciting projects including a branding 'look and feel' update, the famous Carolwood Chronicle Magazine, Exclusive Collectors Pins, Packaging, Fundraising Certificates and an impressive new Website design.

We've designed a number of prized Collectors Pins and Collectors Packages which reflect the quality and uniqueness of the CPRR history and its links to the Disneyland Park in California.

As part of fundraising events we have designed a range of Certificates - from opportunities to purchase one of a kind collectibles to visits to exclusive locations such as Walt Disney Imagineering and Walt Disney Feature Animation in Burbank.

The Carolwood Chronicle is a quarterly publication that is delivered to all Members including Walt's daughter Diane Disney Miller and the Head of Pixar and creator of Toy Story John Lasseter. It'll also be available through the new Website for downloading.

The new CPRR Website was fully designed by us at Laban Brown Design and then handed to Carolwood's web developers of choice located in Los Angeles - a little closer to home.

We'll post a link to the new Website as soon as it's live.

We've been very busy!

2011-02-21T12:00:00.001Z

We've been very busy lately so it has been a while since we last posted.

There's a lot of exciting things and projects happening at the moment, many of which we'll share shortly. In the meantime we can tell you about a great project that we're progressing for a new client - the Trading Standards Institute.

In essence we've been briefed to design a Direct Mail literature piece that aligns the TSI with brand leaders such as Levi, Sony and Nintendo. It's a difficult project in that the Mailer must not only make a impact but communicate the complex nature of their offering. With some clever copywriting and strong branding of course that won't be a problem to us!

The project is very much in progression but the Client has been very impressed so far. In fact they've already given us a Strategy Brochure Project on the back of our creative solutions and service.

Here are a couple of examples of part one of the two part mailing - a 6 page A5 design. We'll post all of the designs when they are completed and live.

We'll be back soon with more project updates and news from behind the scenes at Laban Brown Design.

Developing a professional brand identity for a local business

2011-01-05T10:12:00.000Z

As we start a new year we find that it's a great time to reflect on some of the ongoing work that we've been developing for our clients.

We've been working closely with a local Estate Agents business for a number of years, building on their established identity and developing a strong brand identity that is continually being rolled out across a range of marketing materials.

When we started working with Sheen's they already had a strong colour palette which we adopted and refined, helping to give them a bold visual look. These colours have been applied to all materials including their main Brochure and Location Map Brochure which we have recently redesigned for them.

The brand identity structure is built around a confident visual tone of voice which is also reflected in the use of typography where oversized text plays a big role in communicating key messages. These messages are designed to not only get across information quickly but to also reflect the clarity of the way the client conducts its business.

Our new Website design follows the same thinking in its visual and simple structure. The site size itself isn't huge as much of the usability is built around the Vebra Property Database where searches for both properties for sale and properties to let are drawn into our styled results pages. www.sheens.co.uk

The 'home' page displays a ticker message where the client has admin access, enabling them to change the text on the fly. As an added benefit we've also introduced a 'featured property' panel which displays a feed to a client selected property that they have chosen to highlight.

Purposefully simple, incredibly effective.

Other newly designed and branded elements include stationery and newspaper advertising along with sales and letting boards which we've designed to make the most of the strong colour palette to ensure they stand out on any busy street.

The client has also recently opened an additional office in a new location which features our brand styling. For this project we adapted the colour palette slightly, darkening the colours to reflect a higher quality since the office location and market is prestigious and properties command a much higher value. We know the power of colour can't be underestimated.

Revisiting our Corporate Identity and Branding for the ASA

2010-11-22T13:08:00.000Z

Back in 2008 we were approached by our long-standing client the ASA (see examples here) to develop a new corporate identity and brand styling. Their business model and thinking had changed and research had suggested that the use of the word 'amateur' in their name Amateur Swimming Association was seen as having a negative effect on their business.

Through a series of Brand Workshops which gathered a group of employees from across the business, we established clear objectives that the new identity and brand should aim to achieve.

The brief required us to represent the five core aquatic disciplines within the identity itself which would then be developed into individual brand identities in their own right.

Amongst our initial designs were these two suggestions which already showed elements that we would later develop into the final identity design.

As the identity designs took shape we drilled down with refinement that lead us to a final design - shown here in the various colourways -

Once we had the new identity established and approved we were able to develop the brand styling that would be applied across a wide range of marketing and promotional materials -

The identity is two years old now it is still as fresh today as when we created it. The identity has since been applied across a huge range of applications from printed literature of all kinds and websites and even to Kellogg's breakfast cereal packs.

With this umbrella identity firmly in place, we later went on to design and develop a range of exciting sub and product brands that followed the same graphic visual language.

Sapphire Brochure takes a giant leap

2010-10-06T11:25:00.000+01:00

Our work on the new Sapphire Coach Holidays Brochure has made some great strides in production in the last couple of weeks.

Because the holiday market is so competitive it was exceptionally important that our brochure was launched before the competition get their product to market - and that's just what we've done! By pulling out all of the stops the team at Laban Brown have designed and produced the 40 page brochure and it's already in the shops.

The process from scribbles and layouts to the finished printed brochure was typically swift and efficient. Building on the firm brand foundations that we created a year ago for the launch of the company, the 2011 brochure is colourful, engaging and aimed squarely at the target audience.

As with any fast moving project there was a healthy mix of project management and creative skills needed to achieve the deadlines we'd agreed with the client. Of course we have the years of experience behind us and a smart team that enables us to handle a project like this without any trouble.

With the brochure launched and out there, it won't be long before we start receiving the sales numbers generated from it which of course is the acid test. The client is as confident as us and based on the results of our efforts last year they should be excellent.

New project - Sapphire Coach Holidays 2011 Brochure

2010-09-20T21:44:00.000+01:00

Well here we are at the second in our 'behind the scenes' blog entries.

We have proudly been working with our client 'Sapphire Coach Holidays' for two years now and have already developed their corporate identity, brand styling, 2010 brochure and mailing broadsheet. We are currently in the initial planning and design stages of the 2011 brochure - the main marketing tool for taking their holiday offerings to market.

The first step in our design process is to evolve the brand style into initial layouts of the brochure cover and typical spreads - all of which we'll share with you here in the coming weeks.

Love to Eat Website

2010-09-13T16:33:00.000+01:00

We've now completed the Love to Eat website and it's live and working nicely - have a look at http://www.lovetoeat-mmm.com

The design follows our branding style closely with use of fonts, colour palette and graphic design. It's a small site, purposefully simple to reflect the culture and positioning of the clients business.

We started the process as we would with any website design - scribbles and and a overall site plan. From there we created initial design visuals that we presented to the client for feedback. The visuals are created to ensure that our vision matches what the client has in mind, at the same time guiding them to be sure messages are on target for the right audience.

Once we had a go-ahead on the design visuals we pushed forward with laying out the entire site, setting text and positioning images so that the client would be able to understand how the site would look once completed.

Behind the scenes the site was created in html with just a few elements of javascript applied for elements such as the small image gallery and navigation rollovers. Simplicity was the key. This ethos carried over to the 'Daily Specials' page which the client had requested to have the ability to update themselves. This called for a simple CMS system to be applied to just that page - offering the flexibility the client required without the hassle of 'too much technology' getting in the way.

Once all of the files were created and the graphics refined, we went through the entire site and added some SEO with keywords, meta tags and page headers. The domain was submitted to all of the largest search engines to be picked up in their listings and we uploaded sitemaps to ensure every page was easily found and indexed.

It's always interesting to create an identity and brand from scratch for a new company and then apply it across a range of materials and elements within a short timeframe - a challenge we have undertaken many times over. Of course the results are always 'tasty'!

The chosen Identity design and how we're putting it to work

2010-08-18T13:26:00.000+01:00

After presenting 3 identity design routes a preferred solution was chosen. The design is friendly, bold and reflected the client's brand values perfectly. In fact the design was so strong that we had no refining or evolution versions to work up.

Along with the new identity we created a simple 'from shop - to oven - to plate' icon to be used on signage, web and literature. To further reflect the brand values we added a friendly and defining 'mmm' to the domain name (www.LoveToEat-mmm.com) which will also be used as a secondary strapline.

With the retail launch fast approaching we concentrated on designing a simple menu leaflet and various packaging elements.

We're currently busy working on developing layouts for the Love to Eat website, final shop signage and advertising layouts. It's good to know that our creative work has been very well received so far!

Love to Eat Mood Boards

2010-08-02T18:19:00.000+01:00

Here are the four initial 'mood boards' which have been created to judge our client's thoughts on the 'look and feel' of their brand before we go about developing our ideas for the identity itself.

The client originally gave us 'Laura Ashley' as a brand positioning style which, after research and presentation of the mood boards, proved to not actually be what suited their vision after all.

Next up - we'll set about creating 3 initial identity routes. With a launch deadline looming our progress is going to have to be quick.

A new blog, a new client...

2010-07-31T12:04:00.000+01:00

We've landed a great new client who will be the first of our 'behind the scenes' features on this blog.

The client is a retail startup company 'We Love Food' who asked us for our help in creating a corporate identity, brand identity, signage, brochures and a website. We'll be kicking things off with research and producing initial 'mood boards' to establish an overall look and feel and ensure that we're all aiming at a common and fitting visual goal.

We should have these initial boards to post for you in the next few days when we present to our client and then we'll be brainstorming identity ideas which we'll be posting over the coming weeks too.