There’s new brand identity and website design in town, yay! When I saw that a friend of mine, Lekgolo, had started her own freelance PR company and saw that she didn’t have a brand identity yet, I offered her my services and luckily she jumped at the chance and was enthusiastic about it. Hers may just be my favourite brand identity design yet.

Before beginning, I sent her a branding questionnaire which I send all my clients and it is a really important part of my design process; I use the questionnaire to get a feel and an idea of the brand that she wanted. I asked her to describe her brand in 5 words and she used the words, solidarity, fierce, soulful, graceful and winning, going on to elaborate that her brand is “young, fresh and caters for today’s fast-paced world with an edgy vibe.” From those words I had an idea of what she wanted her brand to represent, see the mood board above!

After that I asked her to compile pictures she uses as inspiration and had her pin them to her Pinterest in order to create her mood board. Using her answers to the questionnaire as a guide, I then added a few photos to further strengthen the mood board. Lekgolo had said she doesn’t want a brand that is too colourful which I judged to be right because her Pinterest board had mostly golds and blacks, so I chose a limited palette; black, an orange-brown (mixture of gold and ginger) and plain white for her brand colours. Her mood board had some bold lines and some circles and I wanted to incorporate those in her brand as well. After Lekgolo had approved the mood board I started by sketching out a few preliminary sketches for the logo. This is actually a fun part for me because I get to create something from just an idea, I allow myself to sketch away, coming up with concepts as I went along. I then designed a few logos digitally and sent them over to Lekgolo so she could choose her favourite. Unsurprisingly, she liked a lettered logo with a bold typeface and only a few minimal lines alongside it and all I could think about was the adjectives she provided, solidarity, fierce, soulful. This was a girl who knew what her brand was about!

I always design alternative logos for clients so they could have more flexibility but consistency so they can brand their logos across all mediums. Since Lekgolo advertises most of her business online, I made sure her alternative logos would look good on social media which means the logos had to adhere to the different sizings without losing quality. To do that I bought over the circles from the mood board and created initials of her company name and I loved how effortlessly her name was carried over. After all the branding designs were completed, I bought them together in a branding board and sent it to Lekgolo to sign off. She loved it and wanted to post it immediately on social media, haha. I love how everything came together fluidly. My next favourite part (honestly I think the process of creating is just my favourite thing, haha) was creating some stationery designs for Ginger & Gold. I use uppercase letters for her wording to further drive the fierceness and solidarity and since Lekgolo is in PR and networks a lot, her business cards had to strengthen her brand. I used the elegant black colour for most of the lettering and highlighted her profession so it stood out. To keep the business cards fun; I added polka dots at the back of it. Business in the front, party in the back! Haha! Next was the letterhead, and I wanted to keep it as minimal as possible but still interesting and consistent with the whole brand designs. The circles created a line that separates the contact information at the bottom and the logo is front and centre!

Next was the email signature which was just a mini alternate version of the business card. After all, aren’t email signatures basically digital business cards? Now Lekgolo can send her emails in style!

The website design is the most time consuming of all designs because websites are your brand’s first handshake where you cannot give your handshake and business card in person. Not only that but they represent and carry almost everything your brand is and because of that, it had to be good. I dedicate a week solely on website design because of this. Ginger & Gold’s landing page offers preliminary information so visitors can have an idea of what the company does and the kind of clients they work with which I think is a time saver and there’s a no-nonsense about it. Check out some of her work here and keep up to date with her because Ginger & Gold only has a bright golden future ahead. See what I did there?

What do you think about the brand identity design? Your favourite parts? I'd love to know so please feel free to drop me a comment below!

P.S. If you want to work with me I am currently available for booking.
[null, null, null, null, null, {"document_url": "https://www.allebasidesign.co.za/blog/ginger-and-gold", "unformatted_src": "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54aee486e4b05138bbd08202/54b91db2e4b0226a900a9bd5/5761357907eaa0ea7778ed52/1465993177151/Toyi-toys-branding-board.jpg", "src": "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54aee486e4b05138bbd08202/54b91db2e4b0226a900a9bd5/5761357907eaa0ea7778ed52/1465993177151/Toyi-toys-branding-board.jpg", "formatted_filename": "Toyi toys branding board", "alt_text": "New Brand and Website for ToyiToyi Toys"}, null, {"document_url": "https://www.allebasidesign.co.za/blog/ginger-and-gold", "unformatted_src": "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54aee486e4b05138bbd08202/54b91db2e4b0226a900a9bd5/55bb18c6e4b00dce923e6ef9/1465990626240/lekgolobrandingboard.jpg", "src": "https://static1.squarespace.com/static/54aee486e4b05138bbd08202/54b91db2e4b0226a900a9bd5/55bb18c6e4b00dce923e6ef9/1465990626240/lekgolobrandingboard.jpg", "formatted_filename": "lekgolobrandingboard", "alt_text": "Brand Identity and Website Design: Ginger & Gold"}, null, null, null, null, null, null]