Trafford Youth Trust Branding
Creating a Brand Identity for The Trafford Youth Trust Project.
As a newly formed CIC, invested in by Trafford council. the Trafford Youth Trust needed to establish a brand identity. So, they came to us.
With this branding exercise we explored a lot of ideas, but we were clear on one thing. We really wanted this to have an appeal to young people, and almost make it look like a label. so this was our approach.
Designing for Trafford Youth Trust
The client had an existing although temporary logo as a starting point. What we wanted to create was radically different so we had to take our client on a journey to show our thought process.
The starting point.
shown here at the top is what they already had. It didn’t appeal to the older youth demographic. 16+ Largely because of the childlike typeface.
The second design in this image works with the existing logo but tries to give it a fresher look.
Here are a few more ideas we explored. Trafford Youth Trust had given us examples of many other youth programmes, and we looked around for inspiration. What worked well and what didn’t.
To continue, we went wild with the letters TYT to see what we could derive from them. At this point we could see the beginnings of a bit of a cool symbol starting to form so we explored this idea further and came up with our final concept.
We wanted to create a brand that looked almost like a clothing line
The final logo is shown here. the overall brand is still very much in development, with voice and message.
About Us
Made By Factory are an award winning digital agency. We are builders of high quality web sites and web applications, marketeers of business, designers and creators of beautiful brands.
If you would love some beautiful branding, why not visit our Manchester Graphic Design Studio and talk to us about your project?
Brand and Web Presence for Just BU
Just BU are a Community Interest project based in Greater Manchester. Founder Justin Fellowes has a mission. To specialising in the care and personal development of adults with learning and physical disabilities. Just BU as the name suggests encourages people to just get out there and be themselves. Just BU asked us to create them a brand new website
Challenges with the Just BU Website
Just BU provides many enjoyable activities for adults with physical and learning disabilities. One of which, is computer and web based training. So the website needed to be highly accessible and simple to navigate, to ensure it was usable by any of their user base.
How we rose to the challenge
The most striking visual feature of this website is its super simple navigation. One tap on the menu and it uncollapses, revealing ultra large and simplified tap targets. This works especially well on mobile and tablet devices.
Each page on the website has a clear visual at the top stating which page you are on.
Features
Another cool feature with this site is the ability to create simple user accounts. So, Justin wanted to allow multiple authors as part of his activity led training. We allowed web users to create an easy profile and Bio that resembles creating a social media account, by asking the user questions.
Get out there and Just Be You!
Brand and Graphic Design
The overall brand is a bold choice of red. Whilst this is used as a primary colour, we used a variety of colours for the various activities available by the organisation. For example, the kitchen is yellow and horticulture is green.
The overall theme contains stick men and bold lettering. This iconography carries through the site and also any literature. It gives a fun look to the brand too!
Finally, we created these Downloadable PDF Flyers you see below to advertise the many activities you can be involved in!
Made by factory are a digital marketing agency in Greater Manchester. We create beautiful brand and websites, and also advise on and implement digital campaigns. Ran by Ex Googler Ben Tennant & Design Extroadinaire, Andi Wilkinson.
TLH Auctioneers Branding
Giving TLH Auctioneers a retail style brand identity.
We were tasked with creating a new brand identity for Manchester Auction House, TLH Auctioneers. The brief asked for a design that made the auctioneers appeal to everyday retail buyers. Additionally they wanted to look more corporate to their usual trade clients.
Creating the TLH Logo
“As I was driving home from North Wales on a Sunday evening I had this whole mapped out. I just needed to get it on screen. I went to sleep with it fixed firmly in my head. On Monday afternoon and evening was spent getting the first idea down.
I couldn’t get punchy Helvetica out of my mind, even though some now feel it’s highly ubiquitous and even cliché, it happens to just work here and since so many famous brands use it, it has that familiar shape that we have come to love and trust. I saw orange, black, white, helvetica and a gavel. Here is what it translated to. I saw it being white on orange signage and being on t shirts, mugs, pens, the back wall of the office and so on, I had a vision. I spent a good four hours playing about with this”
– Andi Wilkinson, Creative Director.
We have given the TLH Brand over 60 million impressions since developing the new identity.
We set to work designing a logo that would do that. Although we know Helvetica is highly ubiquitous, it still works beautifully. A typeface that considers its use of negative space just as much as the glyphs it contains, means the logotype works well alone due to its bold geometric appearance. You can find an extensive post about creating this logo here
The gavel element works as a standalone graphic and has become locally recognisable as the TLH Auctioneers brand.
What Our Client Said
Our work with Made By Factory aimed to completely overhaul the entire corporate website, evolve the TLH brand and the way we market our business to both new and existing customers.
The team at Factory spent time to get to know us as a business. We were happy to have our hands held and guided through all these exciting changes.
The outcome of this relationship with the Factory team has resulted in successful high growth for our company. I am looking forward to continue to work with them in the future
Made By Factory
Made By Factory are an award winning digital agency. We are builders of high quality web sites and web applications, marketeers of business, designers and creators of beautiful brands.
If you would love some beautiful branding, why not visit our Manchester Graphic Design Studio and talk to us about your project?
Branding Customer Involvement: First Choice Homes Oldham
Creating a new sub brand for the customer involvement department at First Choice Homes Oldham.
Made By Factory tasked with creating a new sub brand for the customer involvement department at First Choice Homes Oldham. The community involvement team were looking for a more personal way to involve their service users.
First Choice Homes have a variety of ways customers can be involved. From participating in customer forums to volunteering in a counsel capacity, there are several things to choose from. Therefore we needed to create some designs that could appeal to specific users
Choosing a Design
Working with FCHO, our aim was to appeal to a wide customer base and a variety of ability skillset. The housing demographic is difficult. it encompasses everyone. There is no real differentiation between people renting their homes in terms of skill, education, ethnicity, age or religion. It’s a wide mix. A mix which represents a subset of the demographic of the Oldham borough.
We decided to make an array of characters and match them to particular skills or abilities. The matches were completely random however, we had used a young character to appeal to young people and so forth. Some of our characters were touting social skills, IT skills, planning, mystery shopping and a variety of other things.
First Choice Homes mission is to create thriving and independent communities
Putting It All Together.
We found inspiration in Google’s Material Design principles and also their material colour palette. Material Design has become synonymous with a great deal of mobile centric user design because of it’s simplicity. As such it has a great deal of familiarity.
Creating our First Choice Homes Posters
Firstly, we created our characters. We created Tim, Andi, Dipesh, Avril and Suzi to start with. Four characters were for the initial customer involvement posters and in addition, any subsequent ones were used in other creatives. We also matched each character with a task. Andi was our VIP Superstar. Tim was our neighbourhood planner. Suzi was our mystery shopper and Dipesh, our digital champion.
Finally, we matched our characters with a material colour palette background and appropriate wording. The result is these colourful and eyecatching designs!
What Our Client Said
We love the bright and colourful designs created by Andi and Jess & we are sure that they will go a long way in helping our customer involvement campaign.
Made By Factory
Made By Factory are an award winning digital agency. We are also builders of high quality web sites and web applications, marketeers of business, designers and creators of beautiful brands.
So, do you have a custom project that needs a high level of digital illustration expertise? Why not contact us at our Manchester Creative Agency, and see what we can do for your business?
A Mascot for WordCamp Manchester
WordCamp and The Manchester Wapuubee!
Many of our clients projects are proudly powered by WordPress. For many websites, its an obvious and fitting choice of content management system. WordPress currently powers over 25% of new websites launched. It’s the most popular CMS on the market. Many people don’t know that WordPress is a whole community of people. People dedicated to keeping its design and code up to date. So, that’s what WordCamp Manchester is all about. Read the post about the event here
So, the WordPress community love to get together at WordCamps. WordCamps are run completely by volunteers from the WordPress Community. We volunteered to help with the design and branding. As Mancunians, what is more fitting than a bee? Did you know that the worker bee represents the hardworking spirit of the industrial North. You can find it on our lamp posts and all around the city. It’s even on the town hall floor!
Our Humble Wapuu is based on the iconic Manchester Worker Bee, representing the hard work of the industrial North.
Why do we have a Wapuu?
Now, many WordCamps love to use Wapuu as their mascot. Originally coined in Japan by Kazuko Kaneuchi for Wordcamp Fukuoka. The flumpy little creature sports a variety of mascots all over the world. Our Manchester Bee is still a favourite and is a collectible pin. So why not look at what’s happening in your own community and get yourself along to a WordCamp? We have attended a few now and learn new stuff every time!
Made By Factory are an award winning digital agency. We are builders of high quality web sites and web applications, marketeers of business, designers and creators of beautiful brands.
If you would love some beautiful branding, why not visit our Manchester Graphic Design Studio and talk to us about your project?
Branding for Hexalutions
Do you really want to yurt me?
Hexawho? Hexayurt! I dragged a reluctant Danny off to his first networking event. Molesworth’s Business Breakfast over at Hopwood Hall College in Rochdale. He shuffled in muttering, and came out all fired up like he does. That morning we listened to a talk about Open Source and how to create a business that would survive a zombie apocalypse in 30 days. Dylan Leighton gave the talk and his answer was the Hexayurt. Namely Hexalutions. Intriguing. Afterward, we approached Dylan and told him of our recent fame in Rochdale. (Shhh we lied, we aren’t famous.)
What the hex is a hexayurt?
What Our Client Said
Working with Factory has been a very positive experience, right from the start. They have the three key ingredients of talent, professionalism and integrity, and you always get the feeling that you are really important to them. I highly recommend this company for your digital marketing needs.
Made By Factory are an award winning digital agency. We are also builders of high quality web sites and web applications, marketeers of business, designers and creators of beautiful brands.
Do you have a custom project that needs a skilled graphic designer? Why not contact us at our Manchester Creative Agency, and see what we can do for your business?
Branding for Lock Stock & Apparel
A victorian inspired hand drawn brand identity.
We created this old school hand drawn branding for a Lock Stock and Apparel with the first inklings of an idea. The client was a young and aspiring fashion student, with a notion of a clothing line and a name. She asked if we could help with an identity. Our client wanted to convey androgynous style but in a kind of vintage way.
Creating our Design
We set to work with good old pen and ink. Next we created something that looked like a cameo, based both on the clothing style and the designer herself. We matched up a good old Roman Typeface and an oversized ampersand. The overall result was worthy of the high street!
Androgony, Typography and Steampunk ‘Ography
What Our Client Said
Thanks so much Andi, I love the logo. It’s so creative & quirky.
Made By Factory are an award winning digital agency. We are builders of high quality web sites and web applications, marketeers of business, designers and creators of beautiful brands.
For more examples of branding why not check out TLH Auctioneers, Matthew James, Trafford Youth Trust, Hexalutions and First Choice Homes
If you would love some beautiful branding, why not visit our Manchester Graphic Design Studio and talk to us about your project?
Beautiful Branding for Matthew James
A creative brand for Matthew James Site Services. Logo Design.
We work with a lot with companies in the engineering and manufacturing sectors. So, we know that being wildly creative can sometimes present a challenge. We rose to it gladly for maintenance company Matthew James Site Services. We created a gorgeous colourful brand identity that retained a professional look and feel.
Creating the Matthew James Branding.
The letters MJSS subtly form the colourful vector shape that makes up the graphic element of the design. Incidentally as well as having a background in construction, our client was a skilled photographer, and wished to offer this service as part of his site work. Construction imagery can often be difficult to hire for, due to the safety constraints around sites so this was a great skill mix.
Use of colour
The colours pertain the different areas of services from MJSS. We were mindful of the colour scheme for a later digital presence. As shown below, it also translates beautifully to stitching.
Typography
The logotype uses Gotham. a robust geometric sans that works beautifully in this sector. Overall we love this design. Its simple but especially eye-catching.
What Our Client Said
I really love this colourful design. As a lone worker, it’s really given me the appearance of a well established brand. Thank you Made By Factory.
Made By Factory are an award winning digital agency. We are builders of high quality web sites and web applications, marketeers of business, designers and creators of beautiful brands.
If you would love some beautiful branding, why not visit our Manchester Graphic Design Studio and talk to us about your project?