Original Spirit Design

When Julie approached me from Qualitative Quarter she felt it was time for a rebrand and wanted to break out more into the market place. Qualitative Quarter already has some well known clients like Microsoft, Proctor and Gamble, Ellerines and many others. So Julie wanted to keep her corporate clients but also open her doors to the more creative types that wanted a space to brainstorm and have focus groups in a relaxing, fun environment.

With this in mind I began the process…

Questionaire

In order to understand more about Qual Quarter I sent through a form with some questions after which I got together with Julie at her venue to chat and discover what the strong and weak points were.

The weak points
The problem was the original look was too homely and looked more like a bed and breakfast then a Market Research company. The colours of the setting were very earthy and had the “african” feel to it which had already been overdone. 

The strong points
The Venue has a big boardroom which lends itself to hold many different types of functions, from focus groups to cocktail parties. The boardroom leads out onto a big garden which can be used for functions as well.

The Plan
In order to attract the right clientele Qualitative Quarter needed to be noticed, to stand out from the crowd and offer something different. Qual Quarter’s USP is that they are a venue where you can relax and feel comfortable : “an office away from the office”. Using the garden to give the venue an inside-outside feel so that if you wanted to go sit in the garden and brainstorm you could.

The Implementation
Firstly because the main offering of Qual Quarter is their venue this needed to be spruced up and given that extra edge so that people walk in they go “Wow!” After much discussion the following 3 colours were decided on Fuscia, Green and Brown. Because the venue has such a big beautiful garden we wanted to bring in some natural colours (green and brown) so that it gave the venue an inside-outside feel to it.

Before the rebranding

After the rebranding

At the same time as the venue was being painted I was working on the corporate identity. The first ideas that came to mind was “square pegs in a round hole” and “thinking out of the box”. The fact that this venue is connected to the house means that it doesn’t have the same corporate feel as it’s competitors, so we had to look at it standing out from the normal corporate look and say something different. I gave Julie some options and after some revisions this logo was decided on. The 3D effect was to give the logo some depth to give it that feel of being out of the box and not so “flat”.

Before the rebranding

After the rebranding

From there I moved onto designing the business cards and letterheads. The idea behind these was to subtly bring through some of the services that Qual Quarter offers on the stationery so that people would understand what the company does straight away.

Corporate Identity

Once Julie was happy with that we brainstormed on the idea of designing catalogues to give out to potential clients to let them know about Qual Quarter as well as giving them a calendar to schedule in their next visit to the venue.
Due to the fact that Julie wanted the venue to be multifaceted and appeal to both corporates and creatives, I designed 2 brochures with different text and slightly different designs so that corporates didn’t feel to overwhelmed and creatives weren’t bored.

Agency Brochure

Corporate Brochure

Once that was sent to print I then began on the design for the website, keeping inline with the colours and design of the pamphlet, and wanting to make the website stick out.

Before the rebranding

New Website Design

Feedback

Hi Lara
This is just to say thank you for all the time, effort and patience you put into the re-launch of Qual Quarter and its new branding. I am so happy with the results and have no doubt that we are going to be very busy. Thank you for going the extra mile.
Julie Rathbone
Rathbone & Mcwabeni t/a Qual Quarter

If you want to get your mind out of the office box and expand your business horizons,
give me a call. I’d love to walk your brand journey with you!