Recently we jumped at the chance to work with Priority One on their latest kaupapa to establish a brand identity for the newest project, Ara Rau.
Ara Rau – Pathways to Work is a new government-funded, community-led skills and employment hub. Its mission is to assist in plugging the hole of the Bay of Plenty’s predicted labour shortage. The team will provide a point of connection for job seekers, employers, and service providers acting as a broker between the three. Importantly, the team will ensure each stakeholder has the information they need to make better choices.
Brand identity
Humans are visually emotive creatures and every day we make judgments based on how we respond to the way something looks and feels. A brand identity is a reflection of your company or organisation. Because of this, it’s important that your brand fits like a glove and creates a desirable response in your stakeholders.
In creating the Ara Rau brand identity, we spoke to a wide range of stakeholders, tested pre-designs, and worked with Priority One’s brand ambassador. The journey saw us create a brand identity and story that reflects the kaupapa of Ara Rau. The result? We and our client, are quite frankly delighted with it.
The result
Alex Barrett, Future of Work Advisor at Priority One, led the project and admits that she was initially nervous to ‘hand it over’ to an external partner, because of the length of time she’d worked on it.
“Meg and the team at the Shine Collective got us straight away. They understood exactly what we needed and took the time to meet with all of us individually and hear our ideas.
“Creating a brand for a new community-led project with many different stakeholders wasn’t an easy task. But, through taking the time and really getting to know us and the outcomes we were wanting, they’ve created a seamless, meaningful brand.”
“We are so happy with the branding and communications plan that we received. The story behind our brand is meaningful and contextual to our unique place in the region. We couldn’t be happier; the Shine team is definitely part of our whānau now!”
Read more about Ara Rau here.
Our tips for refreshing your brand
When refreshing your existing visual brand elements, or creating a visual identity from scratch, our top four tips are:
- Work with someone that ‘gets’ what you’re trying to achieve
- Get your logo right as it’s worth the investment to consider a number of different options
- Use a consistent palette. Choose a handful of colours that work with the deliverables you’ll be creating and apply them consistently
- Test, test, and test some more.