At the end of last year we redesigned the website and animated logo for innovative central-Reading based award winning Timetrap escape rooms (See their site here www.timetrapescaperooms.com), who have gone on to win the pride of Reading awards alongside the gold award key from the UK’s leading escape room reviewer.

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Image above: Timetrap’s new website

We then were asked to rebrand local Newbury based market research agency Vanson Bourne (https://www.vansonbourne.com/) who have been running for over 20 years. We’re really proud of the creative solutions and have prepared a case study outlining our process from our discovery stage to final outcomes here: www.clearbrand.co.uk/works/vansonbourne

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Image above: Brand Guidelines for Vanson Bourne.

Another highlight of the year was our packaging concept design work for Moo Free, who have had their HQ in Reading up until this year. Moo Free (www.moofreechocolates.com) are a world leading, multi-award winning manufacturer of delicious dairy, gluten and soya free chocolate, that’s also vegan friendly. ClearBrand worked across new products, seasonal ranges, concept designs & exhibitions. Our design work for Moo Free products can be seen nationally across ASDA, Holland & Barrett, Morrisons, Sainsbury’s & Waitrose and internationally from resellers. Moo Free have won 9 industry awards last year including awards from the vegan food awards and independent, which can be seen here. We have put together our case study for last year’s work here: https://www.clearbrand.co.uk/works/moo-free.

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Image above: New Luxury chocolate concept range for Moo Free

As summer came along we were thrilled to be contacted by world & Paralympic Rowing Champion Lauren Rowles, who lives and trains locally in Reading, to work on her new personal logo and website, which launched over the last few months http://laurenrowles.com/. We’re now working with Lauren on her podcast launching this year.

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Image above: Lauren Rowles new site

Further rebranding projects included a national cleaning franchise started in Reading. Daily Poppins are a national domestic and professional cleaning franchise, with over 50 sites across the UK. They came to ClearBrand wanting to modernise their brand and website, while improving user experience and brand recognition. You may have seen their bubbly red cars darting around and we’re proud to have added our creative stamp to the franchise. Check our our case study for the brand clean-up here: https://www.clearbrand.co.uk/works/daily-poppins/

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Image above: Daily Poppins car design 

2019 was also our most successful to date as we won one of our biggest contracts in the company’s short history this year. We are currently rebranding The Business Continuity Institute (www.thebci.org), an international membership organisation with headquarters based in Caversham in Reading. With over 8000 members in more than 100 countries, the BCI truly are the leader in their industry and are a fantastic representation of the reach that the Thames Valley area has. For confidentiality reasons we can’t share too much from this project, but are excited to launch the new brand in early 2020.

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The Future of UX Design in a Technology Orientated World

Exploring the collaboration between Technology and UX Design 

Good design is more than just skin deep, it is understanding how people interact with the world around them. Arguably as technology becomes more and more entwined with daily life, a key role of many designers today is making that technology more accessible. This fact was recognized some twenty-five years ago when the term “User Experience Designer” first appeared on the scene. Since then this concept has been thoroughly embraced and has seen teams of designers working tirelessly to make UX better, quicker and sleeker than ever. Whether that be perfecting an app, website or even the product itself design is now so intuitive it is virtually invisible to the user.

Some would argue that we have gone as far as we can with UX development. In part thanks to the massive investment in it by technology giants such as Google and Apple. Apple in particular has reaped the benefits of this by experiencing an impress growth of 882.9%  over ten years thanks to its investment in UX. After all this development it is widely believed to have perfected the user experience, which begs the question; If we live in a world where UX is so polished does it have room to evolve?

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So what’s next?

Just as most technologies adapt over time to avoid obsolescence so must the concept of design for technology. In recent years we have seen the introduction of the long anticipated “Voice User Interface” in products such as Amazon echo and Siri. This innovation has taken UX designers away entirely from their native platform of the screen, and into a new unexplored space of voice commands. Could this new branch of innovation open up more opportunities for design previously though impossible? Other innovations include the advent of AI and Augmented Reality, a technology once only dreamt of is now reasonably accessible. A 3D virtual platform has the potential to disrupt the principles of UX Design as we know it and poses a fascinating challenge for future designers to come.

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What does the future of Healthcare look like?

What Problems are there now?

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Brief overview of the past and present

Over the last 5 decades, the population of the world has more than doubled. By 2050 the population is expected to reach not far short of 10 billion people on Earth. In the UK, the population is expected to reach 75 million by this time putting ever more pressure on the healthcare industry. The NHS was set up over 60 years ago with a system that hasn’t changed majorly over a decade. Unlike other industries, the healthcare industry in the UK relies on heavily out-dated technology and is in need of desperate change.
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What is coming?

However despite all this negativity, with change will come great progress in many areas that previously might not have even been thought about. The main drawback to the Healthcare Industry today is how it is treated as such. A patient is simply the same as any other, in the same category and place in line all grouped into different GPs. Every patient is completely unaware of their self until they are seen at their point in line and only then can an urgent situation be escalated.

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What difference does this make?

This could all be greatly improved. Within the next 10 years, along with almost everything in the consumer industry, you will be able to see everything you need to know via an app or online. Being self-aware could be the next huge step in controlling your own health. Being told you have an illness or told that something is unhealthy not a solution. Patients could see what they need to do to improve their well-being at any point and track their progress. This could all be linked back to a local GP who can keep up to date records of each patient and have the ability to choose those who most urgently need care very quickly all through the same system. This would mean 24/7 care for everyone and the ability to see someone as soon as you become in a more serious condition. Instead of going to a GP thinking you have a serious issue to then be told its nothing to worry about and using up time for someone that might need it more (or vice versa), you can see everything you need to know from home or on a device.

The role of Branding and Digital Design in the Healthcare industry

Where We Stand

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Brief overview of the past and present

The healthcare industry, especially in the UK, is an area where change is needed now more than ever. Many hospitals in the country are slowly becoming more and more out-dated relying on old systems and in some cases, generally bad design where it was not thought about to the level it is today. Patients, Practitioners and Professionals are all effected by this, anything from systems that data spreads run off of, to the signs in health care practices will all need to be changed and updated at some point in the future.

For us, these upgrades need to cover these key areas:

• Increasing patient engagement
• Changing patient’s Behaviour
• Improving Referrals
• Branding and marketing
• Content access and management
• Feedback

How we think a lot of this can be implemented:

The way a practice operates relies on good design choices. Time management is at the upmost importance in healthcare, 5-minute delays could have huge consequences down the line and having a spread sheet running on technology that’s a few years old can really slow this down. This will need to constantly be up to date in the near future; usability will be at the core of this. Everything will need to be thought out to design a system that not only works well, but is simple and very easy for practitioners and professionals to pick up and use right away with noticeable time saving differences.

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Signage

We can design for visitors and patients directly too. Signage in practices in some areas is in need of desperate change. Some rely on numbering on signs with no real direction on them. For a visitor this can be troublesome often having to ask clearer directions. Signage can also sometimes be generally hard to take notice off and not engaging the user in the correct way. In a healthcare practice sometimes you might not be allowed in an area completely and with this sense not given off by a sign can cause confusion.