Branding

Trust is the ‘thing’ that the best relationships are built on. As a small Norfolk business, it’s essential for us to maintain healthy relationships with all our clients. However, what does this actually look like and mean?

Working with a creative agency can be a leap of faith. As designers, we often produce work that, although underpinned and steered by strategic direction and thinking, is a look and feel that can be very subjective and sometimes bold or brave.

As with all relationships in life, it is a journey of discovery. It’s meant to be exciting and interesting, not demanding or controlling. We need to treat each other with respect and understanding. The best relationships thrive on very open and honest communication. There are no guidelines or frameworks; it’s about building something natural, sometimes intangible, but creating a situation that breeds confidence and joy.

We’re lucky as designers that we can create the ‘WOW’ factor—the feeling you get when you’ve nailed that brief. However, as mentioned earlier, without the groundwork put in at the start, design can end up being superficial, samey, or even a bit boring. Our job in positioning companies is to get that visual tone of voice spot on.

One of the best examples of this recently is a brand refresh we worked on for PDC, a civil engineering company that has recently shifted its base from Attleborough to Snetterton.

We have worked with PDC (formerly Plandescil) in the past, but they came to us with a very specific challenge. Generating new business wasn’t the issue; recruiting engineering talent was. We had to pivot from looking like other civil engineers to becoming the organisation that young engineering talent would want to work for—one that could help develop and nurture their careers.

This wasn’t just about offering a job; it was about taking people on a journey. PDC is a very people-focused organization, owned by its staff rather than a couple of shareholders. From the moment we met, through to the initial workshop findings, we could sense an energy and buzz. It was our job to translate that into words and images that would tell the PDC story.

We wanted to be brave and create the excitement we felt during the initial meetings. Not only did we want to refresh the logo, but we also wanted to tell the story of a journey—your career journey. Instead of presenting just clever brand identity designs, we pitched a brand video with accompanying music. It told a story, and the words used in the story could then be cut into headline statements. The music was original and distinctive, setting the tone. The logo, based around the ellipsis ‘…’, alluded to a journey and moving on to the next phase.

This was a brave move and one where we needed the trust of a client who could have easily told us to refine it. But because we had done the groundwork (sorry about the pun), we could demonstrate why our thinking and positioning worked.

This is just one example of how trusting your agency to create something magical and ‘WOW’ can give you the confidence and belief to present to your customers.

See for yourself here