Our Most Difficult Client Ever

Last year, Fluro celebrated its ten year anniversary and it felt like the right time to freshen up our look and feel. So we decided to completely redesign our brand identity, covering everything from the logo to the website. It’s only a year on that I can look back on the project with pride and satisfaction and without remembering the stresses and arguments that were all a natural part of the process.

We sometimes moan about the difficulties we have with our clients (in a loving, respectful way, of course!). But those are nothing compared to the problems we faced working for ourselves. It’s not that we’re difficult – we just felt so passionately about doing the best job possible. Any kind of compromise seemed completely unacceptable.

Outsourcing your logo

Anticipating the differences of opinion that lay ahead, Mat, our boss, decided to outsource the logo design. As a design agency, you might think this was a strange decision, but with hindsight it made perfect sense. Mat was looking for a fresh, objective approach to changing up our brand identity. He understood that true objectivity is almost impossible to achieve when you’re so deeply immersed in the business yourself. Thankfully, we were delighted with the results. However, it reminded us that we should remain as objective as possible for the rest of the campaign development. Easier said than done, perhaps!

Crafting a strapline – Let’s start something!

With the logo agreed, we then developed the full brand identity for the agency. Following the theme ‘Let’s start something’, the thought centred around igniting brands and enabling them to stand out from the crowd. We used eye-catching imagery with bold fluorescent objects and a striking but compatible colour palette.

The animation we designed for the new website was based around glowing shapes morphing into new forms to tell our story. But the difficulty was that there really was no right or wrong. It was all about opinions – and there’s always plenty of strong opinions at Fluro.

It took five versions and one long weekend for us to agree that the look and feel was perfect. You wouldn’t have thought that deciding on a particular shade of blue could inspire such intense emotions, but that’s designers for you.

When you’re proud of the work, you fight hard to protect the integrity of it, but unfortunately not everyone sees things that way. Something, or rather someone, has to give.

Looking back now, the refinements made at the time that felt like unacceptable compromises, now just feel like an integral part of what makes everything work so well. Yes, we argued vehemently about aspects of the job, but it was never personal and ultimately we all came to an agreement.

The finishing touches

The day the new website went live, we also displayed the new signage and distributed the direct mail packs. We heaved a collective sigh of relief and enjoyed a few thousand drinks together, all differences forgotten.

It helped that we’d had new mugs and hoodies produced for every member of staff, giving us all a tangible reward for our toils.

Being passionate about a project does lead to heated debate at times, but it invariably leads to great work too. If you’d like to see how we can ignite your brand with our creativity and dedication, please give the team a call on 01628 525449.