Thursday 31 May 2012

A luxury exterior for Luxe Interiors



www.luxe-interior.com

Leading commercial interior design consultancy Luxe Interiors approached us to update its existing website, which whilst functional, didn’t reflect the high end creativity and professionalism that Luxe brings to all of its projects or its brand positioning. Luxe wanted to unveil the new website at an industry conference the following month, which meant the clock was ticking.

Having looked at the existing site we realised the best plan was to scrap the old site and start again, which meant creating a completely new design and CMS, not easy in less than a month. Well, we do like a challenge…

A key part of the brief was to keep the site simple so that Luxe could easily update content as and when necessary, along with creating a simple image gallery to showcase the wide range of projects and sectors that Luxe works across. We opted for a Wordpress site due to its ease of use and flexible layout, which allowed us to show images at a good size and quality.





In conjunction with the new website we also refreshed Luxe’s logo, to ensure it was more in keeping with the more prestigious and contemporary website, using a typographic approach with a simple, stylish execution.



Finally, to complement the refreshed identity and website, we’ve also produced a 55mm x 90mm concertina brochure featuring plenty of images and a company overview. Luxe wanted marketing collateral that was engaging, informative and able to convey the breadth of its work, yet small enough to carry. Designed to fit into a wallet or pocket, our concertina brochure fits the bill perfectly.

A rich history for new housing


We’ve worked with developer Richardsons Capital LLP and Carillion on a number of projects and, as such, we were the natural choice to create the naming and identity for their latest residential development – a joint venture with Gleeson Homes – in Thanet, Kent.

The development’s location was key to our naming and branding approach, as it has great historical significance. For any history geeks out there, the local area of Richborough is thought to be the landing site of the Roman Invasion of Britain in AD43 and went on to become the formal entrance to Roman Britain.


The Roman port was marked by a huge arch, so we used this for inspiration and came up with Richborough Gate. Playing again with the historical connotations, we created a simple, elegant logo, featuring a representation of a wrought iron gate in a light lime green on a dark blue/grey background to illustrate the coastal link. The Garamond font used for the logo reinforces the area’s links with the past, whilst the modern graphic approach keeps the identity contemporary and fitting for the new residential development.

We’re also in the process of creating a microsite for the Richborough Gate development, which will act as a portal to direct potential buyers to the associated marketing agencies. We’ll update you once this is finished, so watch this space.

Wednesday 30 May 2012

Give us a glue

The art of origami and pretty paper plants aside, understanding paper folds is essential for designers and clients alike. Whether designing a leaflet or pop-up children’s book, paper folds are as important to design as typefaces, formatting and illustrations. There’s a lot more to it than just folding a piece of paper in half or half again (in a ‘here’s one I made earlier’ kind of way) and believe it or not, paper folding is considered an art form.

Choosing the right layout, and therefore folding, reinforces the message of your document, engages the reader, makes you stand out from the crowd and lets you control the way the message is revealed – all pretty powerful stuff.

Paper can be folded into some downright crazy shapes, most of which you’ll never need, so for now we’ve just covered the basics in our handy guide, along with bindings and their typical applications. So whether you’re looking for a concertina, standard or parallel map fold, we’ve got it covered here.

» download our PDF guide