Apricity Studio - Bringing Your Brand Vision To Life

One of the easiest ways of allowing personality into the business is by telling your story - or that of your business. Here are some reasons why stories are so powerful.

I’m at Startup Grind in Cardiff this week, pop by and say hello! 🍸

Personality is huge for brands - it gives them a blueprint for interacting with the environment, and communicating effectively and "on brand". Having given our business person a draft name, defining his or her personality is the next step to creating a truly personable business - and growing your brand!
Download my Brand Personality Chart here: https://onedrive.live.com/…

With Halloween around the corner and Christmas stuff appearing in the shops, do you run seasonal advertising campaigns or offers? And if so, are you staying ON BRAND in the holiday season?
Watch this video to see how some of the big names do it, and what to watch out for to stay on brand with seasonal advertising!

New Video is up, and we're beginning to build or business person! Check it out to find out about the implications of picking the right (or wrong) business name, and how to do better!

If you’re in the area, stop by and say hi! I’m giving a talk on turning customers into fans at 1:30 💜🥂

Showtime! #smallbizbrandhero

Cheekily celebrating two years of Apricity Magic (or was that madness??) this week. It's been a ride and a half, but I wouldn't have it any other way. Ok, perhaps with more ice cream, but that's a pretty easy fix! 😄
To mark this momentous occasion, I'm starting a huge new project: my own YouTube Channel! From Monday the 17th, Apricity TV will be the home of tons of red-hot small business branding advice, so you can #empower yourself to be your own #smallbizbrandhero! 😎 Find the channel here: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnj-sz_p S3VttyPZfKLyZBA
Looking forward to many more years full of awesome clients and #branding breakthroughs!

Amusing myself today by looking at faces from my video tests 🤣
Don't forget, you can get the real deal on YouTube from next Monday: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCnj-sz_p S3VttyPZfKLyZBA

HELLO EVERYONE! Apricity TV is becoming a reality in a weeks' time 😁😁 Check out my announcement, like, share, or even (dare I say it?) subscribe! 💜💛🧡
Official launch is Monday the 17th of Sept! 🎉 https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ucryIGEwM 7o&t=12s

NEW: book appointments & pay for brand packages direct using the "Book Now" button! 😎

Last night Naomi Hoang and I gave a talk on How To Talk To Designers at our local Natwest Accelerator Hub in Cardiff.
Basically what happens when a load of designers get together is that we start having a little moan about terrible client practices, and so we thought we could perhaps help ourselves save some time, and our audience to be better clients 😂
This is one of our slides on design timescales. Everyone wants good, fast and cheap. BUT you can only have two.

For me, World Entrepreneur Day is about taking charge. About celebrating the fact that you are in the driving seat, that you can make your own decisions and that validation doesn't have to come from without. It's about all the intrepid adventurers who don't settle for a pre-defined role and instead carve a way for themselves. You are all awesome! 🧡💛💜

2018 has been an incredible whirlwind so far, and I've really had my business head down since starting the Natwest Accelerator at the beginning of April. My business has changed massively, and is now busier than ever, which is a wonderful affirmation that what I'm doing is resonating with people.
But as much as I have plans, ideas that need working on, client work that has deadlines, I also realise that being self-employed, I have to look after myself. So tomorrow my mum is coming over from Austria, and I will do my very best to give her my fullest attention, go explore the area and eat all the ice creams. To not answer all the emails, and to not work on client projects (a lot). Apricity Girl is taking a Time Out, so she can smash the second half of 2018!
I'll be fully back in Superhero Mode on Monday, the 20th of August! 😎

This morning I'm working on the colour palette for one of my current clients 🧡💜💛. We're looking for a nature-inspired range of tones with a bit (well, a lot) of va-va-voom. It's a multi-layered brand, which makes the process more complex than it is in many other cases, but all the more important to get right. 🎨 #smallbizbrandhero

One super important way brands show their personality is through brand voice. Your brand voice is the verbal expression of your brand personality and values. It's what you say, and how you say it, both in planned interactions (marketing, advertising etc) and spontaneously.
If we filter everything we say through our brand personality filter, out should come, at least in theory, a language which really resonates what we are about. And if we do it especially well, it will make ...us very recognisable, too.
Of course, in practice it's a lot harder than that, and takes a lot of, well, practice to get it right. Start with finding a few beautiful words to describe what you do. Unusual words, expressions that make you smile, quirky ways of talking about your business.
Next time you're in a shop, take a closer look at a box of Tetley's. They don't say "80 tea bags", they say "80 lovely cups of tea" - same content, two sentences that feel wholly different! 💜🧡💛
See More

After the #heatwave I've been thoroughly enjoying the last few rainy days. As much as I adored the sunshine and wanted to spend every possible second out in the garden, a cup of tea, a book and the sound of the rain on the window are just as glorious. 💛💜🧡
What's your favourite thing to do on a rainy day?

You will have come across these things before: Mood Boards. Designers love them. I love them. They give us a great excuse to hang out on Pinterest for hours looking at pretty pictures 😂
Jokes aside, mood boards are great ways of putting together a brand vibe or concept. At that stage, it's not about finding actual visuals to use in your brand communication. It's more about creating a collage of colours, emotions, statements, textures, etc. - a vibe, a *mood* for a design or ...brand.
A good mood board should tell a story. It should contain concepts that are important to the brand, hint at a colour scheme and convey an emotion. This is the mood board I threw together for the Apricity.Studio rebrand.
It's, first and foremost, a bit of fun. It's colourful and bright. It hints at a sort of women-are-doing-it-for-themselves power while keeping it light and fresh. 🙃
Do you have the mood board bug, too? Or are you interested in learning more about it? Let me know in the comments! 💛🧡💜
See More

Join Apricity Girl's Big Branding Adventure!

Marina sorted out my business cards and email signature quickly, cost effectively and professionally. She is extremely creative, technically expert and a pleasure to work with.

Marina came to my house and spent a day teaching me Wordpress and was a very informative and patient trainer. It was a very hands on session which really helped to embed the learning and by the end of the session I was well on my way to having a front page designed, within a few more weeks I have been able to launch my first wordpress website which I'm very pleased with ( wont let me add a URL into a review but the proof is in the pudding here - add co uk on end - abbatributeband1) thanks Marina!

I was lucky enough to get a place on a branding workshop run by the lovely Marina last week.

She is very passionate about helping small businesses to understand who they are and what makes them unique. I learnt loads and left inspired! Thank you so much. Will definitely be in touch to work with you soon �

I have one word - EXCELLENT!!!

We commissioned Apricity Solutions to redesign our business cards with a very vague brief "We want something different"... :) and Marina got back to me within a few days with a few ideas. We tweaked it a bit together and the result is exactly what we wanted!

The whole journey was straight forward, excellent ideas, amazing customer service and the end result is PERFECT!

Thank you very much, we won't hesitate to recommend your services!

Helped me to better understand how to define the uniqueness of my business and how to clearly express it through my branding. I would highly recommend the Apricity Studio branding workshops.

Attended a DIY branding workshop with ApricityStudio and can thoroughly recommend. I'd studied marketing as post-grad which covered branding in detail but got a new perspective on it today that really resonated!