Thankfully we have started the New Year with a bang, a bit of spill over for work that couldn’t be completed before the Christmas break. Gazing ahead we hope the future is brighter as the past couple of years have been tough for small business.  Our experience has been that we can be flying one minute then have a very quiet week or 2 which at the time was a bit worrisome, but it seemed to be a continuing trend.  Signage I guess is a bit of a stalwart industry, it seems that it is something clients are willing to spend money on even when the chips are down.  I think, like we have, you take the opportunity to improve things when things seem to be heading down a shadowy path. John seems to think that it always takes a good 6 months for a downturn to hit us then when the numbers seem to be going up everywhere else another 6 months for it to return to balance.  AutoSkin continues to be the strength in our business, we see a lot of repeat customers and given the systems and checks we have in place it is currently our brightest star.  There are a lot of other players in the field now than when we first started AutoSkin in early 2000 but we seem to hold our own at a corporate level and for small business’ who see the value in design driven vehicle graphics.  We put design before execution, never skimp on materials (3M), and our staff take great pride in their work, always have.  The last 6 months saw a more steadying trend and the new year has started with good work flows, so doomsayers aside hopefully 2012 gets everyone back on track.

The biggie for the New Year will be our online shop.  It will include Wall Scrawls, PrintAsArt products and a bit of a different take on signage products.  The vision behind this is to create unique, well designed products that can be picked off the online shelf.  Without giving too much away we hope to be up and running for our first season and theme in Autumn.

So let’s brace ourselves for I’m guessing a bit more of the same but light appearing at the end of the tunnel.  In the meantime, using any downtime to pour back into our business to get all those things that we don’t normally get around to on the agenda, the to do list and done.

Happy 2012 everyone.

Ok it’s a bit cheeky, but at heart this is a factory and within it’s wall tradesmen rule. They say and do what others think is funny. Thanks to our designer man, Trent and his blokey sense of humour.

It’s nice when your developer just adds the google + icon to your page!  Thanks Yakadanda.  Now how to use google +???

Williamstown Primary School Fete is on this Sunday 13th November.  We have provided the fete stall signage and sponsors’ banner (to come) as we did last time.  This fete is not an annual event, there have been only two in the time our children have been attending this school (2 in 7 years).  Hopefully the weather is fine as forecast and the double sided tape beds down these banners for the day.  Will post more pics of the day and sponsors’ wall banner with our logo on it too.

Here’s the link to this event on Facebook.  Come along if you’ve got nothing to do.  A chance to buy some Christmas presents.  Andy Griffiths, a local resident and well known children’s author, will be there along with Kate Beveridge, GS for the Melbourne Vixens, to visit fete 12-1pm.  Most of all I am looking forward to Willy Idol, to see which teacher goes home wearing the Willy Idol crown.

Cecil Street, Williamstown from 10am.

Behance has a great facebook post today about how a brand identity was developed for a wine company, Lou Bassaquet.  By creating an inspiration board of photos that reflected their business they were able to extract the elements that became the focus of their brand and more importantly put that intangible emotion around the brand that sets them apart, that says this is who we really are.

The focus of their illustrated logo centres on the grain of the woody vine.  Pantone (PMS) colours are drawn from the colours of their environment, the red wine and again the woody vine.  Hands appeared in the inspiration board and the wood grain illustration also looks a bit like a fingerprint.

These base elements have been used in the design of their stationery, label & packaging , website design and even their vehicle design and an array of marketing merchandise.

What would you put on your inspiration board – you might be surprised at what you can draw from such an exercise.  It could bear bountiful fruit for your brand – colours, design, it might also let you know what is truly important to you about your business, your point of difference, the emotion that surrounds your brand which will be the intangible experience you clientele seek from your brand.

Getting your brand elements in order creates cohesiveness for your brand from the outset.  It enables a rollout of your identity that can be adapted and changed for different advertising mediums but never strays far from the base elements, is rather an extension or tweaking of them.

I have seen this bike several times in recent weeks.  It looks like it has been around for 100 years but I have only noticed it recently.  What a great idea this would be in a local area for the delivery of newspapers rather than being flung from the back of a commodore and landing in your neighbour’s garden.  It would put a neighbourly smile on my face.

I will have to find out what this bike is being  used for.

This is a very clever pictogram by H-57. I do wonder how they came up with it?

Source: | yellowtrace

Lots going on behind the scenes with this website to deliver a site that caters for all businesses: large and small and everything in between, startups etc not forgetting those who want to do something different on a personal level too. Like our previous websites, the aim has been to provide a clean site with lots of images as they are the best example of the work we do and the best example of what we can do for you. We are essentially driven by good design, it is, we believe the most important aspect in creating the best end results. It is our point of difference.

The Projects page for each of our websites is like our old search page but everything is right here in front of you, no dropdowns, just click, play and find. We hope you like this.

We also would love feedback, and to interact with our clients, both new and existing and the prospectives. Join us on Facebook and Twitter if you would like to stay up to date too.

We have some wonderful clients who have been with us for a long time but we also want to nurture new business and help make your brand Decently Exposed.

The beauty of this site is that it can be updated, changed on a very regular basis which means more features, better features. Chief amongst these will be a shopping site … coming so very soon. Stay tuned folks.

Inhabitot have just posted images of The Milk Truck complete with breast on top for feeding mother’s who want a bit more privacy in and around the city of Pittsburgh or to pump milk in private.  Just text or tweet The Milk Truck and it will turn up to give you a break to feed in a nurturing environment.  It is currently on display at The Andy Warhol Museum in Pittsburgh.

So about the truck: bright, cheery & colourful.  The boob on top and it’s name The Milk Truck give you a pretty immediate visual about what it is all about.  Lucky the truck isn’t red.  Although I did notice that the nipple lights up at night.  Always mobile, so will always be seen.  Very much a talking point. Great Idea!

Some original visuals …  Click Here

Inhabitat (Inhabitot’s Parent) FB page here

After many months of hard work we are proud to launch the new version of the Decently Exposed Network. The new websites main goal was to make it easier for you to get to the information you need and we will be rolling out new features over the coming months.

The main focus of the new website has been to give each of our Network sites its own little place on the Internet, each having its own portfolio of work that you can browse through easily. These are

Decently Exposed
AutoSkin
taylormadesigns
Print As Art
Wall Scrawl
and our new online store (launching in October)

Each one of the Decently Exposed Network sites has its own portfolio that you can view and filter in real time and each portfolio item has its own gallery viewer. You can view each portfolio by clicking on the links below.

AutoSkin
taylormadesigns
Print As Art
Wall Scrawl

Hope you enjoy the new website, any feedback would be welcome.