queensland Archives – Salt Design • Brisbane Graphic Design

The world’s eyes are upon us!

With the world’s eyes focussed on the Gold Coast and Queensland, the 2018 Commonwealth Games provided an amazing opportunity for the State Government to promote investment in tourism developments across our fabulous State!

Initially, we were asked to design and produce digital artwork for a pocketed folder, 48-page prospectus and 4-page brochure. However, soon after we received the design brief, we were asked to also develop even more resources that were required for a Business Breakfast event.

Nothing like a deadline!

The workload was fast increasing in a VERY big way – with the deadline remaining unchanged!

Our ability to design and also PRINT all of the required collateral provided the solution to meeting the deadline.

Our Production Manager co-ordinated the printing of the folders externally, while digitally printing the prospectus, brochures, name badges, programs and display banners in-house. We delivered everything on time!

Déjà vu

Over the past 17 years, Salt Design’s had a huge chunk of experience working with government organisations. Projects have included developing branding for new agencies and entities; designing multiple Annual Reports, Strategic Plans, Consultation Reports and Action Plans; to creating collateral for numerous events, business breakfasts, launches, conferences and announcements!

Knowing how government approval processes work, understanding the many iterations, opinions, edits and amendments that are required is a highly attuned skill we have developed! This project was like so many others – requiring multiple levels of contribution and direction.

To ensure everyone was continually kept abreast of progress, we provided regular, well-documented updates to our client team. Our team collaborated with our client, providing advice, suggestions and solutions to every new idea, query and challenge as it was presented. Working in a pressure-cooker environment is not ideal – but when it’s on, we really love the energy and our team excels with creativity when supported by amazing clients!

Project highlights

Meeting the deadline certainly was a great achievement. However, there were many more highlights and wins…

Coordinating the initial design brief with the project team
Designing and presenting concept designs for multiple components
Provided design direction to the client’s event management team
Ensuring all designs adhered to brand guidelines, using specified fonts, colours and brand assets
Liaising with representatives from multiple departmental and private sector organisations to obtain logos, images and content
Collaborated with our client to determine cost-effective, timely and quality solutions
Discussing project requirements, establishing milestones and defining procedures for monitoring production
Developing multiple drafts, making client-requested edits over the phone, by email or in person
Making ourselves available to make urgent edits and deliver required files after hours and over weekends
Selecting suitable images, and ensuring all images would work effectively across all applications (print and digital)
Initiated regular production meetings with our client over the full life of the project and provided (by email) regular, detailed progress reports which enabled our team to highlight milestones and requirements for our client’s input
Held daily internal production meetings to manage timeframes and identify any issues, to ensure smooth production progress and that all deadlines were met

Managing print production and recommending suitable print techniques, organising external print quotations, negotiating timeframes with suppliers, and monitoring progress throughout production.

Gold! Gold! Gold! Reaching the finish line

We made it! It felt soooo rewarding as we busily packed vehicles with all the printed creative goodness ready to head down to the GC on Easter Sunday!

If you were to ask us what was the best achievement in this project – hands down it would be the amazing collaborative process we had with our clients! From start to finish, they trusted us to deliver!

Together, we exceeded expectations by creating a stunning suite of print collateral which promoted Queensland as a winning destination for tourism!

Because everything is better with a sprinkle of salt!
SALT.Shaker

Salt was recently approached to update the branding for LIA Queensland. LIA (the Lithographic Institute of Australia) was originally formed over 50 years ago. It is a well-respected industry association providing support, knowledge and connections for all within the printing and graphic arts industry.

Why we should never change for change sake?

For many long-standing members their logo was a ‘sacred cow’ and should NEVER be changed. But to others the organisation was in desperate need of an update – a means by which to engage with a new younger generation. Membership numbers have been waning for a number of years – so a fresh presentation of the organisation’s branding was hoped to be a first positive step toward reviving interest in LIA. But where to begin????

How do you ‘update’ a 50-year-old logo? How do you not offend the traditionalists? How do you attract a new, much younger, more progressive audience?

Our solution . . .

NOT to change the logo. Rather, refine it and add a new dimension to its application. By addressing the dated typography and finessing the existing logo symbol, we were able to reinvigorate the identity. By broadening the colour palette we were able to retain the ‘traditional’ LIA Green whilst enhancing its application by placing the logo on a darker, neutral colour.

The result

Each year the LIA promotes and presents the Annual “Graduate of the Year” Awards for apprentices within the Queensland Print Industry. The Awards event provided Salt with an opportunity to launch the new branding by applying it to a number of promotional resources including a Display Banner, Table Tent Cards, Award Certificates and PowerPoint presentation.

We were invited to attend the Awards event on 7 July. It’s an opportunity we rarely get – but one which we really love! To actually see how attendees reacted to the new branding on the Display Banners and to watch the PowerPoint presentation was terrific! The branding really worked in a consistent contemporary manner. Award recipients were overheard saying that it was the “best-looking Award Certificate they had even seen!”

Kudos to Gemma

The development of the new LIA branding was the work of Salt’s Junior Designer Gemma Jestico. The project provided a valuable learning ground for Gemma, who designed all of the corporate and promotional collateral along with documenting the application in a detailed branding guidelines. Love your work Gemma!

Our next challenge

Our work is not yet complete, as we are now investigating the development and construction of a new website for the LIA.
This will also provide our newer Salt Designers with a fabulous opportunity to learn in more detail the technical requirements of design for web.

Because everything is better with a sprinkle of salt!
SALT.Shaker