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We are pleased to share with you all our latest Update!
As you may have noticed in recent weeks, something very interesting has been going on with our social media posts. We have been steadily working on a secret project and releasing little bits of information bit by bit to build some excitement for the big reveal, and that moment is finally here!
We are delighted to share with you our new company branding and visual identity for 344 Audio. This new aesthetic marks an evolution from the 344 Audio you are used to seeing, and reflects our company values and ethos whilst maintaining a link to the visual legacy that we have already established.
As well as sharing our updated branding with you in this post, we would also like to breakdown the process we have undergone to help you if you are branding/rebranding your business, social media pages and more.
Should you rebrand?
The first step when undergoing a rebrand, is to make sure it is the right move for you and your company. When it comes to rebranding, it can be the wrong move for some companies, whether the timing of the re-brand isn't quite right, or the rebrand causes confusion or potential alienation of a firmly established core audience. With 344 Audio, we wanted to make sure that going through the rebranding process was in the best interest of the company. We assessed the growth over recent years and realised that five years ago, we were a skeleton of what we are now. Our skills, expertise, efficiency and breadth of knowledge had all vastly increased, and so it felt right that our company branding be updated to reflect our growth.
Ask yourself -
What are you trying to achieve with your branding/rebrand?
What is your visual identity and what are your brand values?
Do you need to work with an agency/graphic designer or can you handle the task in-house?
Timing is everything
Rebranding is an enormous step for any company, so it's crucial to make sure the timing is right before you launch forward with it. For ourselves, that time is now.
We collectively came to this conclusion as the company has broken through several key milestones and every area of the business has been levelled up. We have invested significantly in new avenues of business such as providing Foley work and loop group sessions for other companies, and putting more focus on the courses we provide. We have also purchased a building and are currently undergoing a full refurbishment to create a more comfortable working environment and have space to cater for clients and the extra courses we wish to provide. These efforts and many others that we have been making in recent years need to be adequately reflected in our brand identity.
Once our plan had been established it was time to make our move. We needed to find a branding agency to bring our vision to life. Luckily for us, we already knew the company we were going to entrust with this project, Ventur Agency. We chose Ventur as it was founded by someone who has worked in collaboration with 344 Audio many times before. This gave us an advantage as they already understood our company and how our identity had changed over recent years.
Ask yourself -
Is the timing right, should you rebrand now or does it make more sense to wait until next year?
What is the culture of your industry like?
How do these decisions relate to your customer and audience?
Our branding process
We started with a brief description of 344 Audio, where it will be in the future and how we wanted it to translate over to the branding. We had compiled a few "buzz words" to give to the design team, these were words we wanted to reflect in the final product. We also discussed what type of branding we needed. For example; letterheads, business cards, social media presence, etc. It is very important to have a list of deliverables you would like so that everyone is on the same page.
We wanted the new look to feel fresh and modern while still retaining a human element. If 344 Audio was a person, it would be a fatherly figure; a guide that makes you feel like you’re always in safe hands. This is where authority meets our work ethic. It also has a sense of strength and heritage which comes from the company’s branding vision and influence by the Industrial Revolution. The industrial revolution is significant as it was the turning point for the population in the UK, particularly those within Manchester - the home of 344 Audio.
Once the original groundwork had been made, Ventur Agency went away and created the first mock designs. They then presented us with three different logo design variations to choose from. We were off to a great start as we had a difficult choice of choosing one of the designs as two of them met our brief perfectly.
Here are two examples of the mock logo designs. With design one, We believed this reflected the design commonly found above an industrial mill entrance. This correlated with the image we wanted to illustrate, however, we did not like the curvature of the text and believed it was not giving enough of a bold statement.
After a little deliberation, we came to a decision and chose our preferred logo (Design Two). We preferred this rendition as it retained the industrial feel while still being a bold statement piece. There were some changes we wanted to make; like refining the cog and changing the font of the tagline but this was a great first mock. Ventur Agency then went away to cultivate the design and create multiple variants in the form of social media profile pictures, taglines, etc. We did add a few additional requests for things that we hadn't considered prior, which Ventur Agency was happy to add onto the brief. After a little back and forth between ourselves and them, and some minor tweaks, we had a good base for all the deliverables.
The final mark is a presentation of the design as a whole, from custom fonts and colour schemes, to the formats they will be used in; Letterheads, social presence, business cards , etc. Ready for final tweaks.
The brand presentation was the most exciting part of the whole process because it gave us an insight into what the final product could be. We had signed off on the work they had completed so they then went away to create the final deliverables, to ensure everything was ready to release to the public. On completion, we decided to release it in increments over a few weeks to get our audience as excited for the final release as we were.
We have been reborn! Everything from our logo to our colour scheme has been revamped. The colours we have created to represent our brand are Vintage Green, Aged Paper and Charcoal. We initially had very minimalistic branding which we considered to be fresh and clean. However, the green we have chosen has a more traditional feel to reflect our values. The off white colour shows thought and consideration for the finer details while the dark grey gives a bold statement which portrays confidence.
Additionally, with 344 Audio having a strong social media presence, we took this into consideration when discussing the list of deliverables. From this we decided to add highlights on our Instagram. This was to make information about who we are, what we do and examples of our work ready for your viewing pleasure. These will be updated regularly to keep you up to date with the goings-on at 344 Audio. Also, it gives us the ability to show not only our accomplishments and changes to the business but it also gives us the opportunity to showcase the accomplishments of our craftsmen, in and outside of 344 Audio. We have a personal element in the way we work and we wanted that to be depicted proudly on our social media.
The whole process took around three months to complete. It may not seem like a long time, however, the journey was new for us and embarking on a complete rebrand was a much bigger task than we initially anticipated. This project definitely came with some unexpected challenges but we worked hard to reach a result that we are all incredibly proud of.
Finally, we would like to thank Ventur for putting their time and ingenuity into this project. The outcome is impeccable, we are proud to say that they guided us through this process and delivered something that the whole team is absolutely thrilled by. Once again a big thank you from all of us and we are looking forward to our future collaborations, whatever they may be.
Thanks for checking out this news post!
If you enjoyed this post please check out our ultimate guide to audio post-production: https://www.344audio.com/post/the-ultimate-guide-to-audio-post-production-sound-design
344 Audio is an Audio Post Production studio in Manchester.
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