Fruitbowl Media is a digital agency whose primary focus is bespoke WordPress website development. I was tasked to refresh their visual identity, and to develop a bespoke WordPress website to coincide. From a brand that stands boldly on its own, to one that can fit seamlessly into partner brands when showcased on their portfolio. I devised a visual language that retained focus on their client’s products and services as the ones in the lime-light.
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Fruitbowl Media
About the Business
Fruitbowl Media is a digital agency offering bespoke website development and design services to SMEs and local businesses. Their current primary clientele focus in the events industry, but have worked with a wide array of colourful businesses to provide trustworthy online presences and effective designs solutions.
My Role
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George Beresford Designer, Posing & Animation, Developer
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T Tony Developer, Project Manager
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I ILLUSTRATIONZ 3D Characters
Target Audience
Business Owners, SMEs, Marketing Teams
Project Disciplines
Logo Design, Branding, Prototypes & Mockups, Motion & Animation, Digital Banners, UI/UX Design, Responsive Design, Landing Page, API Integration, WordPress Websites
NDA
Some aspects of this project are protected. Details have been omitted.
From a dated logo-mark literal in iconography, to a sophisticated logotype to complement any brand.
What sets Fruitbowl Media apart from others is their friendly demeanour and welcoming attitude toward those who aren’t tech-savvy, helping them understand every step of the process from Registration to Maintenance. They treat everyone equally and help teams of all sizes understand and follow each step of the process. Fruitbowl were looking for a new updated image, to better reflect their skills and new expertise. From a logo-mark to a logotype, I created a more useable brand that allowed Fruitbowl Media to integrate into any design seamlessly, reflecting how well they seamlessly fit in to any business’s already established team.
Challenges
The team didn't like to use real photos in their marketing, and were looking for a way to create a human connection beyond they flat, life-less illustrated avatars that had before.
Solution
As the team ventured into offering 3D design, this was the perfect opportunity to showcase 3D avatars of the team. Using a 3D Human Model pack - ILLUSTRATIONZ - I was able to quickly customise avatars to match the team appearances using the pack's generator, and by utilising Blender's rigging and animation tools I was able to pose rigs into a wide array of custom stances, or apply community-made animation recordings from Mixamo.
A design language to stand boldly on its own, and to integrate as an integral partner with client brands.
Being a design and development agency, of course they needed great designs. I’m not here to talk about those specifics, but a key design feature worth mentioning here is how we focused on clients, and their products and services, as opposed to Fruitbowl’s own. This was because we wanted to convey how they can seamlessly integrate into any team to become a pivotal part of their operations, which is reflective of their work ethos. Think of Fruitbowl Media as the team at the sides of the curtain “making it possible” while their clients take centre stage.
Challenges
To create a responsive visual identity that can conform to fit client's own design language.
Solution
Stripping back the branding, converting the logo-mark to a logo-type, allowed for finer integration into client's colour schemes. This seamless integration retained focus on the work being shown, and advertising the business featured.
Of course it had to be WordPress for a team specialising in bespoke WordPress website development.
From extensive research into their archives, a value that’s always held true for the team at Fruitbowl, is their enjoyment for micro-interactions. From dragging fruit into a bowl back in 2010, to creating “Zombie Siege” in 2013, there’s always been a passion the team has shared for experiences. It was important to retain this level of friendly-fun into the development.
Notably, I built a reusable contact form system with the GMail API that utilised many bespoke and packaged spam-protection, which was later expanded to their other businesses by a simple drag and drop script. It offered automated spam protection on the client-side, server-side and also came equipped with Google’s own protection on email-send level from the API.
Project Conclusion
My time working with Fruitbowl Media was a great opportunity to delve into the world of a fast and agile development team. Having the opportunity to expand my 3D Modelling, Rigging and Animation skills was invaluable, and to develop a unique visual identity in a fully saturated market was hugely successful. The team throughly enjoyed my ideas and creative execution, and I would not hesitate to work with them again. What a blast!
Feedback for this Project
Tony Heyden (General Manager of Operations, Fruitbowl Media)George is a truly talented designer and developer. I have worked with George for over 10 years and always has a keen eye for perfection. Would highly recommend him and his work.
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I'm a passionate brand designer and website developer based in the beautiful county of Kent. With the flexibility of remote work, I bring creativity and technical expertise to clients across the UK and beyond.