Branding Tips with hello Hello Studio
I chatted with Hello Hello Studio the Sydney-based design and branding studio that created the beautiful new branding and website for my wedding and editorial photography business.
We spoke about what's important when it comes to branding and what you can do if you only have a small budget among other things. Watch the full interview above and scroll down for their main points.
What's your process of taking a client's vision and bringing it to life through design?
We put a lot of emphasis on getting to know our clients really well, learning and extracting what the brand means to the client. Finding out what is important to them, what they want to say with the brand, who they’re trying to reach. That work, in the beginning, to really important for us to learn about the client’s vision, and sometimes the client is discovering these things for the first time too. This initial time we put in is the main focus of our whole brand journey. And then it's about working out how to translate all of that information visually.
What's your favourite part of the design process/area of design?
It's the moment when we realise that we've got the brand done. When we have brought all of the elements together and we think, “Oh yes, that's it,” the aha moment. And then equal to that is when we present to the clients and they love it too.
There's definitely, there's a really big battle internally that happens before that “aha moment” for any designer, and there being two of us it can just be this like overwhelming mess, and then all of a sudden it's like, “Oh my gosh, that's it.” And that's a really cool feeling.
What are the current branding/web design trends?
I guess we're attracted to certain designs and aethetics. Our style has developed. For example, the colors that we like to use have gone from pastels to more neutrals and naturals. But it really does depend on the client.
We try and we stick to our baseline which is minimal design and do something with a little bit of difference, something that we find interesting and that gives it that elegant feel.
When it comes to particular trends? It really is dictated by the client and where they are wanting to position themselves in the market.
In terms of what were probably influenced by like, I think you definitely do get influenced because there is more and more work being produced. And especially if it's in your style, e.g. minimal, then you are attracted to that. At the moment, we’re more attracted to things that are more elegant using neutral colours. But there's also this wave of people doing really, really edgy, like even like nineties, computer looking like little GIF style designs that are really out there and crazy. So that's a trend but it’s not one we have interacted with as much.
Plus with anything people are always in the pursuit of something new. And so when you’ve been doing something for a little while you get a little bit itchy and you want to do something a little bit new. And I think that that is like the butterfly effect, it affects this and that and this and that.
It's cool to even just take some inspiration from different places. For example, if you see something interesting within the nineties vibe you can take a little bit of it and put it into a brand that perhaps is more elegant or refined. So it's quite cool to have just this whole big design world that you can really get kind of lost in. If you look at our Pinterest though, there is definitely a more minimal style to our work. But we also love to play. So when clients come to us and they have something that they want to do that's different we really enjoy playing with that.
If someone wanted to do their own branding/website what advice do you have?
We’d say that one of the main things would be just really figure out what it is that you want to say. And then try and choose those things that resonate with you and keep things really simple. The temptation is when you're designing something and you don't feel confident in your skills then you try and overdo it, but often the aim is always to try and take elements away. So if you're trying to do your own thing, try just keep it simple.
In terms of a logo, keep it really simple. There are platforms, like Squarespace, where you can use one of the base templates, and don't mess around with it too much as they're pretty good to start off with. Like we love customising those templates and making them epic, but to begin with, they're actually a really good base.
Get your idea out there, get yourself out there. That's what’s more important. At the start get that momentum and then once you start to get some momentum, then you can kind of look to upskill or up upgrade your brand if that makes sense.
Tip 1: Keep things very, very simple.
Tip 2: Use a base template such as Squarespace
Tip 3: Get your idea out there, get yourself out there.
Where do you find inspiration for your work?
Pinterest mainly, it’s a really good spot. But also just little things that we pick up from around the place. We might be going past like a shop display and like the way that they've arranged beautiful products, signage or packaging.
When we've traveled we remember when we went to this really cool restaurant/bar in Bali and they had like super bright, super awesome screen printed business cards and also match stick boxes. We took some of those because they’re awesome to reference later.
It's really cool to see someone doing something differently. Something that stands out.
What areas of brand design are often overlooked?
That first discovery phase, as we mentioned in the first question, the bit where we met, that time in-between where you haven't got the brand designed yet, you're just trying to figure out who the brand is, what it is, what its aim is. People can skip over that part a bit too quickly and just go straight into creating a brand. Doing that foundational work at the start really helps build confidence in the brand long-term.
That foundational work helps us as designers to be able to build a really broad and cohesive brand where all of the touchpoints are telling the same story. Whereas if you just have less information, then you are kind of doing a bit more guesswork and it’s just not as ideal.
What sets Your design studio apart from others?
We worked out pretty early on in our business that we really care and we are interested and we couldn't help ourselves from asking a lot of questions and really wanting to find out about the client and wanting the best results for them.
What's the most important part of branding?
If the client has a lot of confidence with the brand and they really resonate with it, and their target market resonates with it, they're going to go on with confidence in the rest of their business as well. If it looks good and they're proud of it, they will do everything else in their business with more energy and with more pride.
What is one (or three) thing anyone reading this could do to improve their branding or website design (if they only have a small budget)?
Think about your website like a brochure or an elevator pitch. Very few people will read every single word on your website so what you would say to someone if you had 30 seconds in an elevator? Make sure at least your homepage is what you would say to someone in that 30 seconds. What are some things that you think will grab their attention, help them to investigate and browse more? Choose your headlines carefully, or maybe make the size of the important things like a headline bigger, and then have the supportive type smaller. Don’t put too much in, keep your website light.
Moving platforms can help. If you are on a platform where it's really complicated, you don't actually understand it and it’s really clunky, just moving to something like Squarespace could make it a lot easier for when you end up with a result that looks more impressive and is easier for you to manage.
Design your website for people, not robots. SEO is really important but we find that if a website is easy to use then people are visiting because they're interested and it looks really beautiful. Thinking through how much you want to say in which environment (e.g. on your website, social media, blog etc) and where people are coming from is really helpful in determining where and what you should put on your website and how much you should put. The homepage is more of an overview then you can use other pages to go into more depth or write blog posts when you want to give more details.
What was your favourite part of working on Lei Lei Clavey Photography branding and website design?
Jarrad: Man, there are so many. For me it was working with you was my favorite part of it. It was really lovely making a friend was really nice. And that's always the thing that we love. We probably should have said that earlier. I guess if our clients become friends, which happens often, we really enjoy that aspect of every process. And then triple bonus is if they love what we've done as well. Probably the, my favorite part was when we showed you the brand for the first time and you were smitten.
Hayley: Adding onto that, I loved being able to play with the typography and to give it that little bit of customisation and developing that icon. Those little details of the brand that I really fell in love with. It was really fun, fun to create,
Lei Lei: I am overwhelmingly pleased with my brand. I'm so proud and I feel like already just the little glimpses that I've given people, I feel like it's taken my business to where I potentially would have achieved maybe in five years, maybe in 10 years. The look, the desirability. People who have been following me recently and they're like, you're so inspiring. I'm like, I literally just started, it's all the brand! It's boosted my confidence in what I'm done with what you've created.
Thank you to Hayley and Jarrad for taking the time to chat with me!
I hope you get something out of this interview and if you would like to enquire with them about their services get in touch!
