From a total brand re-design to minor re-alignment, successful outcomes protect brand equity while aligning with core values.

Welcome to the new look HIVE!

Design Hive has just re-branded to HIVE Creative. I thought this was an appropriate time to discuss the processes of re-branding.

The first and most important question to ask when considering a re-brand is "why?". Why does the brand that you have been building for years, the brand your customers know and trust need to change?

With few exceptions the only good reason to re-brand is to continue the growth and development of your business - to increase revenue. Your marketing activities are built on your brand. The return on investment you receive from your marketing budget is inextricably linked to the appropriateness, clarity and strength of your brand - so how do you decide whether your brand needs changing?

Take the time to step outside day-to-day activities and review the big picture, making sure you involve staff, stake-holders and clients in the process. Begin by investigating how well aligned your current brand is by considering:

• Have the core values you stand for changed to a degree that is not reflected in your brand?
• Has the positioning of your products, services or market moved?
• Are you engaging new opportunities that are not being addressed by your brand?
• Have you out-performed your brand to the point that it is no longer a competitive advantage?

The HIVE re-brand began with a workshop to examine these issues and answer the question "who is Design Hive"?

Our brand workshop included a review of:

• our major competitors and our market
• our culture, wants and needs
• our values, attributes and essence
• our offering and promise
• and a SWOT analysis (Strengths, Weaknesses, Opportunities and Threats)

We examined our findings and documented a vision of who we are and who we'd like to be, developing a clear brief for our re-branding.

The design process begins with a starting point of infinite opportunities, as boundaries are defined we are able to focus on key decisions and refine solutions.

Our creative efforts began with visual research and exploration, generating words and images that captured the essence of our brand. As a team we reviewed and discussed, extracting and refining to create a clear visual of our desired message and positioning.

We then created design concepts with consideration to core components such as typography, colour and ambience. We confirmed a direction and refined our ideas with application to specific items: ink on paper, pixels and three dimensional form. Our designers worked closely with suppliers and technical experts to ensure the best possible results.

I am extremely happy with the work the HIVE team has produced on this project. The re-brand has already returned significant results, energising and focusing our team, and providing clear direction for future activities.

I hope that you, our clients, friends and colleagues, enjoy the new look HIVE and our creative mix of instinct + intelligence.

Best Regards,
Wayne Murphy - Studio Principal.

The new HIVE brand was a great opportunity to be quite bold and do something different. Pushing ourselves creatively while making sure we had a solid foundation.

We created our visual language to help express our culture and general vibe, including the generation of various icons (eg. the robot icon for internet). The icons represent aspects of who we are, what we do and how we do it. The visual language is a flexible tool that we can adapt depending on what we want to say, while still saying it the HIVE way.

The idea behind the mesh like structure of the visual language was all about seeing things differently, looking at things in a way that others may not. Inspiration was drawn from various sources including honeycomb grids, a type of photographic lighting equipment which is used to alter the shape and intensity of the light output. Mesh advertising screens applied to trams and buses was also a reference point. These items influenced the stylistic form that is now the HIVE visual language.

The advantage of breaking free from normal brand conventions of simply having a logo type and symbol is that it gives you flexibility to grow your brand language. By this I mean, if you have a suite of elements or visual language that are brand focused, they help tailor and strengthen your communications, anything from print applications to websites. In turn it makes for a more memorable experience and that is the result one expects from a successful brand.

Web and Interaction Design, Development and Tween Samurai.

Fun loving, Joseph's attitude to life is similar to his downhill mountain biking, bumpy and fast with a few airborne highlights. He has a glint in his eye for any new and upcoming trends and technologies, which in his chosen design discipline is extremely complimentary. We pried him away from his Blackberry to mumble out these few words.

Nickname: Code monkey
Dexterity: Right
Distinguishing features: Rock and Roll hair
Favorite place: India
Favorite website (currently): thefwa.com
Contribution to studio: Break-dancing

From a design background, Cade relies on his past skill set to effectively manage the studio. Plotting and tracking each project in the studio is a pretty hefty role, however his cool, calm and collected demeanor ensures that we all have as much creative time as necessary to produce successful outcomes.

Nickname: none > Rappy if you really must know
Dexterity: Right
Distinguishing features: my scar from glad wrap packaging, nasty I tell you
Favorite place: London
Favorite website (currently): fat-pie.com
Contribution to studio: proof reading scrumpet, and walking dictionary

HIVE Creative Pty Ltd
20A Macquarie St. Prahran 3182