Design-thinking the way forward

You may know us by our previous agency name, AJ Creative.  Since recently launching our new brand, Design Wise, we’ve been flooded with questions as to why we rebranded. So, I felt it was appropriate to give you a little insight into why. We have 5 simple reasons.  We are evolving!

01 

We changed our business model.

When your business model changes, your brand needs to change along with it.  We have grown to include more services and set new goals.  When we started out we were strictly focussed on website design.  However, in today’s competitive online world all design projects require a clear brand strategy to stand out.  Every project now begins with a thorough brand strategy process to clearly differentiate your business in the marketplace.

02

We changed our brand vision.

When your vision changes, your brand needs to align with that new vision. Our brand vision that was created years ago has changed.  It no longer applies to our new business model, or ideal partners.

When you visit the homepage on our website, you will notice a core message that says: “Strategy First. Design Later.” This statement is not just a tagline.  Our vision is to create purpose-driven brands for the conscious consumer. It’s a vision we see for the partners we choose to work with.

In the past, we talked about increasing efficiency, revenue, and awareness for your brand.  We still want ALL of those things when you go through the branding process, but we believe that when you create a brand that connects authentically with people, everything else will follow.

• You attract the right people into your business.
• You build a community of raving fans not just a database of one-time buyers.
• You create ease and flow of people who genuinely want to follow, recommend, and buy from you.

03

Our visual identity no longer aligned with our business goals.

Our new direction has us focussing on helping the conscious consumer.  Our new model focusses on going more in depth with our ideal partners, as opposed to widening the scope with just anyone and everyone.

We wanted to have true, meaningful relationships with the people we LOVE to partner with, and appear unappealing to the partners who aren’t a match for us to collaborate with.

04

We wanted to be perceived as more than just a marketing or branding “agency.”

The term “agency” was limiting for us because the reality is we do so much more than just agency work. In practice, we act as brand partners with our partners. In the context of a partnership, we provide ‘agency-type’ services, but also strategic counsel, consulting services, brand workshops, brand training programs… and even friendship.

05

Further development of brand components.

Finally, there was a great deal of freedom around our last brand identity.  As a result the brand expressions ultimately became misaligned. In such cases, the further development of the brand was a must to ensure it is coherent and recognizable. With the new identity clearly defined we can begin creating a resource library, combining tutorials, news, and articles.

That’s it in a nutshell!  We have shifted focus to be more purpose-driven, and to work with more purpose-driven brands.  With our new business model the focus of our brand and business identity became clear. We have fallen in love with our new brand and who we can help with it.

While we continue to celebrate the success of others, we now get to celebrate the positive impact our brand partnerships can have on the world.

Welcome to the new forward-thinking brand world.