 Hello Patrick and Eric. I'm Sammy, it's nice to meet you. Eric, I do think that we've met before but so far you've been talking to Miles and he's been helping you to give you some advice around your branding with the potential of you coming and joining us on the Brand Accelerator so that's really exciting if we can help you it would be awesome to work with you. Now Mars has sent me your logo to get feedback on the colors, the shape, the typeface and the icon for example and and yesterday I gave him my feedback on the colors which is passed on to you and you've now done the values exercise so I just thought I'd give you some feedback and introduce myself as well at the same time. I was very busy today and so what I'll do is I will take you over to the screen now and go through your logo with you as I'm talking and then you'll be able to see exactly what I mean so I'll see you in a second. Okay so as you can see I put the logo up in front of me and there's a few things what I'll do is I'll go through the logo first and then I'll go through the values and in fact no no what I'll do is I'll go through the values first so you've both filled in the values questionnaire that Miles gave to you and interestingly you both have two similar or the same values which is awesome that doesn't happen in business relationships very often so let's go straight into it the integrity which seems to be the the number two value that you've both circled that is the you've both circled that obviously so that is both a very important thing to you in your branding and integrity is actually our second value as well our second core value that might be why we're talking now you know when you create a brand that's based on your values you do very much attract other people that share those same values and that's actually why the color psychology behind your branding the fonts you use the icon you use and all the emotional attachments and associations that you cement into your identity that's why it's so important so I mean every brand that we've ever created has always been based on the colors that are associated to those values and of course color psychology is a massive part of my background so I use that I bring that into every customer that we work with on the brand accelerator so integrity you're looking at a burgundy spectrum now burgundy is a very family kind of color if you want to breed values and and communicate values that are very much about being part of a family you look after each other you know I'm gonna look after you you look after me and you know a kind of a loving respectful relationship if that's what you want to get across to your customers so you attract that kind of customer where integrity is highly important to them then you do need to be looking at the burgundy spectrum and obviously for our brand accelerators out of 2000 more than 2000 actually different color swatches and shades I can pinpoint exactly what shade of pantone needs to be used to attract your ideal customer so but you know obviously if you come on to our program then I can work all of that out for you and then I can tell you exactly what pantone color it needs to be and but you know just to give you an idea you are looking at a burgundy spectrum financial gain is in the dark blue spectrum it's very much about you inherit qualities from black which is leadership authority and and stability and you bring that together with the with the blue which is a very security based color and you'll find that's why a lot of the banks do use dark blue in their branding what you also need to be aware of as well is that you're not just working in the UK so you need to think about colors that are not just going to work in one country you've got to find a color that really works for you worldwide so that you can attract people from you know the UK and Europe through to Africa and you know China wherever it is you're planning to expand your business you you don't know where it's going to go yet but what you do need to do is step into the future and think about in five years where do you want it to go and that should become a part of your branding brief when your brand is being created so it's not to offend cultures that you might well start moving into later on and the blue spectrum and there are certain shades of blue which work internationally so so it is a good idea for you to make sure that your your logo has you know basically from what Miles has been telling me about what your business does and you I would be incorporating that dark blue and I would make that one of the majority colors actually that would be the majority color now interestingly the creative value and the community value that one of you has one one of you has the other and it's interesting because both of you have put creativity or community as your number one and they both fall within a similar spectrum they're in the same family of color but obviously not the same shades and creativity you'll find that in in reds and community you'll find that in oranges so your your logo that you've sent to me if you want to attract creativity and community then you know those colors not necessarily the icon or the logo but the colors will work if you are creating a community and you want to attract people who are very adventurous and creative people and artists or or activity based things you know so they're not academic if you're not attracting academics then the colors that you have are perfect if you're trying to attract creative people however if you are trying to attract people who are more interested in investments financial gain wealth things like that then these colors are completely wrong they couldn't be more wrong for what you're trying to do and but they do fall into the red orange spectrum so the colors that you've used in the logo you've got now they are perfect if you do want to track that kind of customer but it's not definitely not if you want to partner up with banks or more corporates or PLCs or any larger authority based organizations this logo isn't going to work with them it's not going to attract them now I have to say when I first looks at the logo and I did get some backup opinions on this because I didn't know what you do and Miles just sent across the logo and said what what's your first thoughts on this brand what do you think they do before I even knew what you did and and I must say when I first looks at it I thought it said reality Africa and thought it must be some kind of charity or community for sheltered housing because the building on the the left it looks like it's little huts and the orange makes it feel very community led you know you've got three there so it looks like you're building things for a group of people but and a couple of other people that I asked that when they saw it they thought that it was along those lines as well they either thought that it was a charity or they thought it was some kind of domestic housing project so I'm not sure that completely suggests what you want it to to get across about your business when Miles said the word investments being related to this brand I looked at it and I started trying to make things out of it and I thought okay well looks at the roof and well the first and second roof could work because it could be like an investment graph going up and but then you wouldn't want it to come back down again so of course you've got this going here you know that could work as a graph but then it comes back down again and it don't look very stable so yeah I'm not entirely sure about that I don't think that's what you want to get across either and then I actually realized I was trying to make the logo fit to what you do rather than what you do and having a brand that completely communicates what you do and why and who it is meant to be for you know your brand should it stands for everything you stand for it's what you stand for it's what you stand against your brand should put people off as much as it should attract them it should put off the people that are time wasters or that they're attracted to your brand for the wrong reasons and it should completely encourage people that you want to do business with to come spend money with you to get them interested to get them hyped up to create a buzz around your brand that's really what you want to be doing and your logo and your brand really should do exactly what it says on the tin it should tell us exactly the feelings you want us to have and the call to action that you want us to make so so yeah I'd also what I'd also say is that because it's in a box now if you have got a product as in a physical product that you're going to stick in box and send to somebody then no problem with using a box around your brand but doing what you do I would have thought your brand is more about thinking outside the box and looking at different possibilities rather than a fixed or limited service which a product is effectively a product is made and then sold it seems to me that you get more involved than that and that you find solutions and I wouldn't have this in a box at all and the font as long as you're attracting men 100% men the font is absolutely right but if there's any chance of you working with women or wanting to attract women then that font is completely wrong and the spacing of it is is is not right because it really doesn't read right that you'd need a font that actually makes it look like realty rather than reality and so yeah it's not entirely it's not entirely great I have to say and I don't know I don't know whether that's the designer in terms of they've created something that looks great to give you something you can use or whether this is you know whether they don't have the right brief maybe they don't have the right brief and that's actually why a lot of people come to us originally on the brand accelerator because they go and they go into reaction remode and get something created and that then is wrong for the business what we need to do really is look at the whole business which is why we look at 37 different aspects of your business on the brand accelerator so by the time it comes to branding that brief is so strong that the designer knows exactly where you're going to be going how you're going to grow your business what countries you're going to grow it into and what products this is going to potentially go on because again you know that the shape of this logo is great for certain things like on the website it might work and on your stationery it might work but if you ever decide to print it on to I don't know an umbrella or a pen the barrel of a pen it might not work on that necessarily if you want to embroider this onto a clothing though the shade of that color isn't going to work because you you'll find it very hard to match up that shading that you've got on the roof you can do it with solid colors but not necessarily what you have there so you know again it what we tend to do is step into the future and look at all the things that brand's going to do all the places it's potential to go all of the products and surfaces that that might be printed onto or embroidered onto we look at every aspect of it to make sure that the brand is fundamentally right and that the brief is right before it goes into the studio and I see a lot of things that look great like this it looks great and you know what I said to miles what I would do if I were you is I would keep this particular brand if you are going to do any kind of charity work or community housing or you're going to do something where there is a charity element involving property then this logo is absolutely perfect for that but to do what you want to do you need a different brand and this could be potentially a sub-brand under the brand you actually need so that you're attracting the right people first of all so there you go I hope that helps and let's click over so I couldn't just round off for you hopefully that's given you a good idea about the reasons why I wouldn't use the colors and why I think your logo icon needs to change slightly but then of course that does depend on a strategy branding is not about making look pretty and that's what so many designers do even the biggest and best designers are guilty of it and they don't necessarily think about the color psychology behind the brand and the all of the subconscious stuff it's like the iceberg you know when you've got that bit on the top that everybody sees well that's your logo but what about all the stuff underneath that people don't see that's actually what's holding it all up that's what makes it bob along the surface so seamlessly and that's what branding is you know you the brand itself is the icon and as in the branding is like the icon when they say branding a cow the branding is the icon and the brand is everything that goes around that business and all of the key messages their feelings the emotions the emotion equity the emotional equity that you build with the people who you want to do business with because ultimately they're the ones that are really important in all of this it's great that you have a brand that you like and that you're proud of and that you really you know want happily to sit on all of your marketing materials but if it doesn't actually attract the customers you want to work with and doesn't get them to spend the money with you that we want to spend then it's not doing its job and that's what your brand is meant to do so if you've got any questions do please let us know and other than that get in touch with Miles and hopefully we will work together on the brand accelerator and I should look very much forward to working with you personally take care and have a great day bye bye