Busy as AB

Coaching is a very broad area of business, there are many skills, disciplines and services covered by a one catch all term that’s descriptive and non-descriptive in equal measure. When I was asked to develop the identity for AFS my priority was to find out more about Tania (the owner of the business). This is a highly competitive sector, I felt that we needed a name for the brand that would stand out from the crowd but also connect with what a coach can help you achieve.

I spoke at length with Tania, learning more about her background and her passions in life. It quickly became clear that food and hospitality were big parts of her daily life and passions that she had followed for a long time. This gave me an idea…I believe one of the most important aspects of any brand is the human connection – expressing quickly and clearly what that business does in a human way. Having a ‘appetite for success’ just felt right. It connected Tania’s passions with the business and expressed what good coaching can achieve.

Strong branding requires 3 key elements – a clear, understandable name (already covered above), a unique visual icon or mark and a positioning line. We had the name, now we needed to visually express it and reinforce the role of the business with a tag line. I’m a firm believer in not over thinking things, simple, honest, straight forward messages work best in my opinion. In this instance ‘a recipe for life’ just felt like the right expression to confirm exactly what service this business is providing.

Next step…how would this present visually? Here there was only one stipulation from the client…Cambridge blue. It should feature somewhere in the brand, Tania is proud to be based in Cambridge and wanted something that expressed the location.

The book icon was developed as a result of lots of visual research and development. I wanted a visual metaphor for the appetite and recipe elements, recipe books just felt natural and right for the audience. But I wanted more from the visual expression of the brand. I’m a huge fan of less is more and I love playing visual tricks. The type of things that you look at once and see one thing, then look another and see something more. It’s probably best explained and explored in ‘A smile in mind’ by Beryl McAlhone and David Stuart.

So I developed the book shapes, the shape needed to be a instantly recognizable A, but I also wanted a shape that shows support for one another. Big and smaller working together to achieve great things, this can work either way, where AFS is both supporter and leader for different clients and businesses.

What’s really nice is the added personal connection for Tania, I knew from my conversations that she used to work in book publishing, adding this extra layer, a strong personal connection to the brand enables any client to feel comfortable wearing the new badge. It’s like wearing new clothes, you just feel great.

Having pride in your business identity is a huge confidence boost that will influence everything you say and the work you produce, your body language, how you interact with others and how they interact with you. First Impressions count, so make a good one.

Thanks for your time, if you’d like to know more about what I do, check out the rest of this site and my social media channels. Time to buzz off! See ya.