I hope you had a good May - did you ‘no mow’? Not mowing grass during May is a great way to help insects and biodiversity. You may not have heard of ‘Let It Bloom In June’. Founders Plantlife encourage us to have different types and lengths of grass to encourage wildflowers which are an important source of nectar.
You may wonder what this has to do with design! It's been a busy few weeks since I last wrote and enjoying the outdoors, even if that's just been a cup of tea in the garden whilst my dog, Lady Molly Lickalot, potters about, has been good for my soul. I've also been:
Watching Race Across The World, I was inspired by all the teams and fascinated by the team who brought it to our screens.
Also loving Keith Brymer Jones and his partner Marj Hogarth restoring a gigantic chapel in Wales, and enjoying how they are connecting with the community including other potters and creators. I have one of his typewriter mugs - it's perfect for a large brew.
Read on for more design advice and as ever you'll find myGorgeous Guides online with helpful creative and business advice. I welcome your connections, shares and follows on social media, let's keep in touch!
Thank you for reading.
Asda Rebrand
When a supermarket giant like Asda rebrands, it has to be perfect. It's one of the biggest chains in the UK and any mistakes on a new brand could be costly.
Advertising agency Havas London won the creative account for Asda two years ago. Like many businesses, the brand had not evolved with the offerings so there was a visual disparity. Bear in mind that it's not only groceries. Asda also offers in-store pharmacies, a mobile phone service, photo printing, fuel and George, a clothing brand.
All of this is visible in store and on multiple digital platforms. As the world of tech continues to evolve, established brands such as Asda need to evolve too. Let’s start with one of the biggest changes – the typography.
The most notable change to the existing brand is the new typography, designed with Colophon (a UK foundry who also designed Canva Sans). The font for the headline is called Asda Headline, which mixes up uppercase and lower case to provide a playful and contemporary look. Lorenzo Fruzza, Chief Design Officer at Havas, explains that they wanted to bring “some of the beautiful cursive quality of lowercase into bold cap height prominence.” This reminds me of some of the hand written price stickers on markets where the use of lower and uppercase is down to whoever wrote the prices that day.
It's worth noting that Havas carried out an extensive brand audit and exploration ensuring they created a design that chimed with Asda’s audience. They embarked on the font creation after the audit which enabled them to commission two display fonts and two text fonts. An audit can feel like a big investment but pays back in clarity.
Asda’s choice of typography is inspired by traditional greengrocers with a nod to hand-painted signage. This helps the supermarket convey a more personable experience.
Love them or loath them - Asda has extensive ethical issues to resolve - their customers value one element that hasn't changed in 60 years which is the ‘Asda Green’. As those of you who attended my Accessible Design Workshop last week learned, iconic colours may need a freshen up to comply with use on digital platforms. Havas have introduced a higher contrast primary green and paired it with a new dark green as a secondary colour.
Look at this historic shop front in Stirling. This work of art was created through funding from The Stirling Heritage Trust, and leads with a friendly feel. Notice the use of green and the illustrations! It might be a small business but the same process of research and design can apply at any scale and in this instance, Ginger Roots were also looking to history for a modern look.
What do you think? Has Asda got it right? Would this a process that works for your business or product? There's more about the critical review in The Drum.
Five design takeaways from Asda's rebrand that you can use
Involve your consumers, team and community in an audit to make sure they feel included, and provide a different perspective.
Asda knew that green was important because the research told them so. Don't discard the past completely, try an edit instead.
Popular opinion is that we designers don't touch Canva and I've been open on social media that I have concerns. Canva will publish the good, bad, ugly, grammatically awful and inaccessible (thereby excluding people with sight issues). I also have concerns about sustainability as it's tempting to create endless versions of designs but each file has a carbon footprint. Eco-friendly practice is very important in printing too. Paper sourcing, transportation, use of ink, packaging and how a press is powered all impact the planet. It's been unclear if Canva's chosen print partners were sustainable and I'm not so sure from the latest updates either.
Typically a client will ask me to create bespoke design for branding or a book. I do this with hand draw illustrations that I digitise or specialist design software that may include programs from Adobe Creative Cloud, Figma, or Sketch. From this they may commission me to create social media templates on Canva or Adobe Express.
I love that they do as I can aid with version control and create a design that's on brand but bespoke and enough to get them started. That's where Canva or Adobe Express can empower people and that's great.
Canva's sharing has always been clunky for those of us who have to join our clients teams. It looks like some of those issues have been addressed in the 2024 updates which I've summarised below.
A complete overhaul of the Canva platform is designed specifically to be an all-in-one solution for workplaces. This includes a brand new editor, a revamped homepage for easier access to projects and resources, and improved collaboration features
Geared towards businesses, Canva Enterprise is a new subscription tier offering additional features for managing brand assets, security, and administrative controls.
Canva Work Kits provides easy access to pre-approved brand assets, templates, and fonts to ensure consistent brand messaging across teams.
Canva announced a partnership with its Canva Print suppliers to co-fund a community solar facility, demonstrating their commitment to sustainability.
Canva is also adding in AI with Magic Grab, Draw tools, Image Variations, Workflows and Magic Write.
This all sounds interesting, but I will go back to my first observation, Canva will publish anything you ask it to. If Canva Work Kit compels you to appoint someone in your team to design, check they have the knowledge to do that as it can be overwhelming and unclear. And if they don't have the skills, let's have chat and empower them, and you.
Allyship is an action. I reflected on why being an ally matters always, not only during Pride month on Medium.
I love keeping in touch with clients. Susan Holliday asked me to update her website last month to include links to a growing library of articles and essays. It was good to catch up with her and make improvements to her site. Robert Nurden, author of ‘I Always Wanted To Be A Dad: Men Without Children’ which I designed and project managed, emailed to say he's going to be on ITV on 11 June talking about childless men and Father's Day. He reports that the book is selling well and it's great to see it amplifying voices almost a year after publication. Robert is passionate about his book and puts a lot of work into promoting it. He's asked me to work on his next title! If we've collaborated together and you have news, drop me a line and I'll include it here.
Every Monday I post what I'm up on LinkedIn, I explain what I'm working on for my clients, my business, the planet and myself. I was delighted to read that it's an inspiration to others. Does it inspire you, feel free to connect! Let's find out.
I created the website for author and speaker Lauren Hug, her inspiring book Digital Kindness will be celebrating its 5th birthday with a free download from 28th June. It's a liberating read about online behaviours.
I am 800 words from submitting my last assignment for my University of Cambridge coaching certification, and to be honest it's been a lot of work as it should be - people give so much of themselves to coaches and good practice is critical. Alongside the assignments, I have completed 25 hours of coaching practice. I'm in no doubt that it'll benefit Hello Lovely through wholesome, safe and supportive conversations in your design journey with me. A huge thanks to those who have cheered me along.
Design can be inclusive, education and inspirational.Design can invite protest, encourage reflection, make us think, and learn complex information in an accessible way.
If you would like to elevate your creative and get gorgeous with Hello Lovely, you can reply to me - let's have a conversation, I'd love to hear from you. I'm taking bookings from July 2024. If you need a quick job completing, or would like a chat please hit reply and let's see what we can do.
You can ask me about website design, book cover and inside page design, logos and branding, plus marketing design including Canva and Adobe Express. I also offer power hours to help you untangle a problem.
If you enjoyed this month's issue, I'd love to know. You can tag me on social media and I'll be sure to reply.
