Case Studies – Get Set Swim

Swimming School Operating out of the North East of England

Owner: Liam Hibbits

The Job

After splitting from his business partner Liam Hibbitts of Get Set Swim came to North East Design Consultants to develop not only and new website but a whole new corporate identity.

His first website was a simple brochure site “just like a business card,” says Liam. In October 20011 “I decided – right we have got to make something happen here.”

Liam started researching, setting himself strict criteria:

• A clean, minimalist look, modern with bold colours
• Ease of use for both customers
• New branding including logo, letterheads, leaflets, business cards, folders and website
• People finding Get Set Swim in the search engines
• More client usability and functionality
• A small shop selling swimming lesson related products
• The ability to be able to update his own site content

The Design Process

NEDC’s first starting point was the logo. Senior designer Richard Young explains, “There is a natural progression in any design work, things flow from A to B etc. With a job like this, which is effectively a blank canvas the natural starting point is the logo. This determines the style and the colour scheme for the whole branding package”.

Starting with a sheet of half a dozen designs NEDC presented Liam with their initial ideas. Liam liked elements of various designs that he asked to see amalgamated into one. Once this was done Liam was then shown the final result. At this stage he was invited into the NEDC offices to refine the design and get the look that he wanted.

“There was the danger that we would spend weeks going backwards and forwards with minor tweaks, or ideas for colours that would ultimately be abandoned. This way the client was involved in a very personal way, working with the designer to make sure that his vision was what he ended up with. It also meant that something that could be a very long and drawn out process was finalised just a few hours”

The Website Build

Once the logo was signed off the next job was to design and build the website. Again, Liam was involved every step of the way, seeing visuals, making suggestions and improvements that would ensure his business was presented the way that he wanted it.

The site was built using the Word Press platform. One of Liam’s requirements was that his clients had an area that they could log into as members so they could interact with Liam on a one-to-one basis, read feedback and post questions based on that week’s lesson, download homework tasks and interact with other members through a forum. The area developed met all of Liam’s requirements and was available through a system that allowed a user to create their own account BUT then had to be verified by Liam. “This was done specifically with safety and security in mind.” says Richard Young, “We could have developed a fully automated system so that people could log on, but with the client base being children we wanted to make sure that only Liam’s clients were accepted and could use the members area”.

The site was a 4 week build with a deadline for Christmas 2011. Liam wanted the site available to launch to new clients as part of a big marketing push commencing in January. The site was officially launched one week before and has met with very favourable feedback from his clients, commending the look and ease of use.

Business Stationary

The final stage was developing a set of blank leaflet templates, letterheads, business cards and folders for promotion. NEDC came up with the idea the a set of BLANK branded A5 leaflets would be more cost effective for Liam than having a set of pre-printed ones. His way Liam is able to create his own promotional flyers to the quantity that he requires rather than being subjected to printers minimum runs, and thus potentially wasting a volume of unused leaflets. The second cost saving idea was that NEDC create a letterhead template that Liam could complete in Microsoft Word and then EMAIL as a PDF to new and existing clients. Not only does this save money in terms of printing costs, but also saves money with postage. It also has the added benefit that Liam can make sure that his clients get invoices and information immediately rather than relying on the postal system.

Finally a set of business cards were designed and printed, again, with Liam’s full involvement to ensure that the design and content was correct. The business cards were printed with a matt lamination with a Spot UV varnish highlighting the logo.

As a final courtesy, Liam was invited into the NEDC office for training on how to manage and maintain his website.

Of our service, Liam writes:

“After meeting with a number of web designers I was sure that NEDC were the company that I wanted to go with and I was not disappointed. Richard Young was upfront and honest from our very first meeting advising on each aspect of the site, ensuring that I received value for money.

 NEDC have delivered a high standard of service throughout the design of our website and the finished result is great. Richard Young has been extremely flexible throughout and never more than a phone call away if I needed to discuss any aspect of the site with him, changes to the site from the initial design have been carried out quickly and effectively. I now have a professional website that can be continually developed to enhance my business.

I have also had new company logo and stationary designed with NEDC, again Richard was very helpful throughout. I was part of the design process throughout which ensured that I ended up with the branding I felt was right for the company.

I would highly recommend NEDC to any perspective clients, friendly, reliable, high quality service.”

Case Studies – Angel Property Management

Letting Agent based in Chester-Le-Street

Owner: G.H. Young

The Job

An established company with an outstanding reputation, Angel Property Management had been trading for a number of years with their old branding and website. Deciding that the imagery was starting to look tired, Gayle Young approached North East Design Consultants with a view to freshening up the logo and branding.

Gayle’s requirements were:

• A clean, yet striking new logo, modern with bold colours – an updating of the original
• Application of new logo to Business Stationary and website

The Design Process

NEDC’s main task was in modernising the logo while keeping it recognisably Angel Property Management. The existing logo was quite flat and not as bold as wanted. Using the original as a starting point NEDC developed a number of ideas based on discussions with Gayle. From these design ideas Gayle picked the one she liked and this was worked up into what was eventually used.

Taking the logo this was then applied to letterheads, compliment slips and business cards. The deadline for the whole job was tight, it was required in under a week. NEDC were able to meet the deadline comfortably.

The Web Site

Issues arose when we came to apply the new logo to the existing site. “It’s sticks out to much – it doesn’t really go with the site”, Gayle noted. Being aware that cost was an issue, NEDC developed a strategy that would enable Angel Property Management to have a new web site, that was more than competitive, developed quickly and followed the new logo and business stationary.

NEDC was able to design, build, develop and launch the new site within 2 weeks, thus ensuring that the branding was kept consistent between printed and on-line marketing materials.

It’s worth noting that at the time Angel Property Management was using a an 3^rd party system for adding and maintaining properties on their site. Being beyond what Gayle needed in terms on what it could do, Gayle decided that she would no longer use the system if we could develop something that she could use to maintain her own site. NEDC were able to do this within the budget assigned to the website development. It also meant that Gayle was able to save money in the long run as she no longer had a monthly subscription to pay for the 3^rd party software.

Being more than happy with the quality of the work produced, Gayle has since come back to NEDC wanting her information packs re-vamping.