Case Studies

Blue Mountains
City Council

The Challenge

Every four years, all councils in NSW are required to produce a series of strategic reports and plans to demonstrate - in a transparent and accountable manner - how they are serving their communities and best utilising Government funding.

Blue Mountains City Council chose Hollywood Black to design their 2013 suite of strategic and planning documents in order to communicate clearly and openly with the community, and to cogently represent the Council’s future vision and goals.

The documents were required to:

• Comply with Government recommendations regarding content and structure
• Accurately convey Blue Mountains City Council's need for further and ongoing State Government support in a positive and proactive way
• Appeal to the local community, such that they would be read, referenced and duly considered (including feedback) by the community
• Project a clean, corporate design, while also being easy to read and use by Council staff, external Government agencies and the wider community.

What We Delivered

This project involved numerous consultations with the Council over a four month period of development and design.

The project included:

• Preparing conceptual designs
• Reviewing content, layout, colour palettes and images
• Designing and developing the entire suite of documents (see below)
• Developing design standards for integrated planning and finance document covers, graphs, charts and tables, and complex strategic concepts.

Hollywood Black dedicated significant time to researching and understanding the Council's key objectives and strategies - both for the development of these plans and strategies, and for the delivery of key services to the Blue Mountains City and community.

Consequently, the final documents have generated very positive responses and readership from within the Council (encompassing senior to junior staff), as well as the broader community. The project was a successful collaboration of many people to achieve the common goal of better communicating with and serving the Blue Mountains community.

The suite of documents and range of services delivered by Hollywood Black, included:

• Our City, Our Future - Sustainable Blue Mountains: design of overall positioning theme
• Special Rates Variation 4pp brochure: design, layout and graphics
• Delivery Program document (incorporating the Council's Annual Operational Plan), 140pp document: design, layout and graphics
• Resource Strategy document (including the Council's Long-Term Financial Plan, Workforce Management Strategy and Asset Management Strategy & Policy), 180pp document: design, layout and graphics
• Sustainable Blue Mountains 2025 - the Council's Community Strategic Plan, 108pp document: design, layout and graphics
• Our City, Our Future - Sustainable Blue Mountains: 4pp brochure design
• Our City, Our Future - Sustainable Blue Mountains: A3 Poster Design
• Design consulting
• Professional photography (events, portraits, people & places)
• Project & print management
• Design training & support.

Ideas in Practice

The Challenge

To create a resonant brand for new professional services marketing consultancy, "Ideas in Practice", that would appeal to larger professional services firms and mid-sized corporates.

Principal, Sarah Waley, was looking for a brand that reflected her strategic experience and expertise. As well as a new logo, Sarah was looking for a brand that could be rolled-out across a range of marketing collateral, and that worked online and in a digital marketing context.

Hollywood Black developed a brand that ultimately projected a contemporary and very clean look and feel.

What We Delivered

• Logo design
• Business cards
• Custom email signature
• Pdf document design
• Presentation folder design
• Powerpoint slideshow template design
• Desktop & mobile websites (design & development)
• Portrait photography

Biznet

The Challenge

To develop a distinctive, relevant and contemporary brand and visual identity for the Blue Mountains Chamber of Commerce.

The Board of Biznet in early 2012 released a new long-term strategy for the organisation; a revitalised and relevant brand was considered essential to better reflect the organisation’s core market positioning.

The existing logo was very similar to a number of other Blue Mountains organisations – which was contrary to Biznet’s desire to be recognised as a distinctive organisation; further, the design and colour palette of the existing logo did not translate well across all required applications and formats (especially digital applications). Finally and most importantly, the existing logo failed to adequately reinforce and communicate the key positioning themes of a “dynamic hub” and key “advocate for business”.

Working with brand strategists, Davis Marketing, we developed a series of logo concepts and different taglines to present to the Board in February 2012. Integral to this process was researching the logos of other Chambers of Commerce in Australia to determine common design themes/styles and to delineate opportunities for differentiation.

What We Delivered

A distinctive, contemporary logo that has been positively received by the regional business community.

The final logo concept included the following key elements:

• The central design device of a grid, consisting of a series of interlocking lines representing the multitude of stakeholders Biznet interacts with, the various networks Biznet creates and facilitates (i.e. "hub"), and the need for Biznet members to also build and sustain their own networks
• A colour palette embracing strength and clarity (i.e. clean & contemporary)
• A font that is easy to read, sophisticated and modern – entirely appropriate to a major business organisation
• A tagline that embodies Biznet’s desired market positioning, especially the key ideas of "hub" and "advocate". (i.e. Build. Connect. Lead.)

More specifically, a comprehensive visual identity and brand usage guidelines, encompassing:

• Logo usage, positioning & dimensions, colour palette & fonts
• Creation of a stand alone icon - "grid" - linked exclusively to Biznet and adaptable for interactive use in Apps and video animation
• Stationery (business cards, letterhead, comp slips, internal documentation design)
• Signage (pull-up banners, A-frame/sandwich board).

Metalscape

The Challenge

To reposition a Blue Mountains metal art business (Stewart Metalwork) which - while possessing great ideas and products - lacked a sufficiently contemporary and evolved brand presence to enter new markets, and grow revenue and market share.

The prime objective was to position the business for Australia-wide appeal and marketability to country, regional and city markets. Accordingly, this involved:

• Working with brand strategists, Davis Marketing, in identifying a new name and tagline
• Creating a resonant new logo and visual identity
• Creating a suite of integrated marketing collateral, online branding and signage.

What We Delivered

The new logo captured the metallic essence of the product range and the creative flair of the custom design involved in producing metal art.

It is a logo that transcends both country and city. It is a fresh, sophisticated and contemporary statement.

The name "Metalscape" references the core product offering, and the fact that the products can be used and displayed in countryscapes, gardenscapes and urbanscapes.

In terms of marketing collateral and online branding, Hollywood Black designed the following components:

• A5 sales leaflet
• Sales catalogue template
• New website banner & website background
• Pull-up & marquee banners, and
• A4 credentials brochure.

Blue Eco Homes

The Challenge

Our challenge was to:

• Update and enhance the existing website for this industry-recognised eco building company
• Design and write an online newsletter for customers
• Develop logos for three new sub-brands within the Blue Eco Homes group
• Photograph and post-produce the company’s multiple industry awards
• Design and develop a mobile website.

What We Delivered

Our work encompassed:

• Adding new pages/sections to the existing website
• Consolidating sub-menus
• Re-positioning existing content
• Redrafting existing website copy, writing new copy
• Creating a new "Industry Awards" gallery
• Expanding and populating the current "Completed Projects" gallery
• Populating the "Media" section
• Designing and writing the inaugural issue of the company’s online quarterly newsletter
• Based on the parent logo design, designing logos for three new sub-brands – Blue Eco Commercial, Blue Eco Solutions and Blue Eco Projects
• Photographing and post-producing the company’s industry awards
• Designing and coding the Blue Eco Homes mobile website.

Cuts For All

The Challenge

Complete reinvigoration of the brand of this long-established Upper Blue Mountains hairdressing business into a modern, quality, friendly unisex hair salon.

What We Delivered

• New logo & visual identity
• New tagline, capturing the key attributes of the business ("quality, ease & value")
• Stationery
• Store signage (front window, lower & higher awnings, A-frame/sandwich board)
• Coordinating internal photography.

Como

The Challenge

To create a refreshed web presence for Como (one of the Blue Mountains prestigious hatted restaurants) into an appealing and welcoming online experience that showcased their award-winning cuisine and service.

What We Delivered

We designed and developed a website for Como that incorporated the following features:

• Custom slideshows on each page ensuring that the "food" was centre stage
• A clean, uncluttered layout
• Using fonts as a design element on each page
• Design of pdf documents for food & wine menus
• Choosing a colour palette that embodies the restaurant’s warmth and sophistication.