Adelaide Graphic Design Studio

Graphic design is more than art because unlike artworks, it exists to fulfil a specific purpose.

Organisations rely on high quality graphic design to be part of their marketing mix as they strive to achieve their goals. It helps communicate their message, sell products and services, and build a brand.

There is a stark contrast between top end graphic design and the designs of an inexperienced person.

Professional graphic designers can clarify and amplify your key messages. Their creativity makes your products and services more appealing, and your brand more memorable. 

All of this assists in standing out from your competitors.

Think of it as an investment. 

Need Adelaide graphic design? Contact us to discuss your next project.

Adelaide’s best logo designers will all advise you to avoid the latest fashion, trend or fad. These logos age too quickly. Create something that will stand the test of time.

Find a graphic designer who understands typography. You will be glad you did

Get your colours right. Do they project the characteristics of the company behind the brand? How do they render on a small screen, against a white background or a dark background? Then see how your new logo concept design looks in black and white.

Then test it in a variety of settings. How does your logo perform when it displays on phone, a business card, outdoor signage, letterhead and so on.

The final tip is to test it with people you trust and whose opinion you value. Having said that, you or a very small team should make the decision, not a committee. 

Get in touch if we can help or you’d like a quote for Adelaide logo designs.

Boylen adapts its graphic design and branding process to suit your needs.

We will take you through every step of the branding and design process, from strategy and concepts to the final execution.

And rest assured that you will deal direct with your personal graphic designer.

You may have a detailed brief that we need to interpret. Or you may not know what you want. That’s ok – our team of talented designers brings years of experience to your project.

They will use our well defined process to draw out what we need as we start the creative journey.

• The uniqueness of your story.
• Your audiences.
• The psychological triggers associated with your product or service.
• The current branding. Colour and typography preferences.
• Your likes and dislikes. 

You only get one chance to make a great first impression. To capture hearts and minds.

It would be our privilege to help you achieve that.

At the end of the project, you will receive an agreed style guide and your artwork in multiple file formats. You also own the copyright. 

Click here to make contact: Graphic Design Adelaide 

A logo functions as the face of a business. It’s what customers see first and foremost when interacting with that company. And a stunning, creative logo will help build trust, recognition, loyalty and affinity among customers.
As your organisation’s key identifier, it must be memorable, unique and preferably stand out from competitors. It shouldn’t be too complicated or difficult to understand. The perfect logo needs to convey everything about your brand in a succinct and visually appealing way.
Read on to learn the 10 key factors that make a great logo. Use it to create your own or to brief an Adelaide logo designer.

Brand-Centric
A great logo is brand-centric. It represents the brand’s core purpose, values and audience. It’s a representation of the brand that makes sense in any type of media. A logo that is brand-centric has longevity, can be used as a marketing device and can be applied to various products and services. Companies committed to a brand-centric logo may choose to compromise on elevated creativity in order to achieve this objective.
Conveys meaning
A strong logo isn’t just a random configuration of letters or symbols. It has a concept behind it – something that makes it unique and memorable. A great logo has layers of meaning and can be understood even if it’s just a symbol. The famous Nike swoosh projects a sense of action. It is an example of a great logo design because it is unique and expressive. We all know that it has a story behind it. 
Timeless design
Unless you are a pop up shop or something like a one-off event, your logo should be timeless. It must be able to stand the test of time and not become dated as the years go by and fads fade away. It should be able to transcend the current trends and remain relevant in the future. The best logos are so good that they are able to transcend their original industry and become relevant in a new area. Think about the logos you see today, like the Apple logo. They are as popular and relevant today as they were when they were designed years ago.
Good Typography Choices
Typography is the choice of lettering – and the art of how letters are arranged to form words. A good logo uses the right typography to convey the right message to its audience. For example, traditional banks opt for solid type to sell their story of stability – your money is safe in their hands. However, start-up banks aiming at ethical investors will want to differentiate themselves. A good example is Spring Bank. It’s type is all lower case. It’s not solid. It has a sense of air about it, as if it allows you – and the planet – to breathe. They have refrained from using a solid primary colour that banks often opt for. And their logo tells the right story – a simple plant that appears to be growing. Naturally it’s green.
 So the right font choice will make a great logo even better. It aids recognition and recall. It can help your logo stand out from the crowd. On the other hand, a poorly conceived font choice can ruin a great logo.
Clear and Concise Visual Communication
Award-winning logo design in Adelaide or internationally will always be clear and concise. It has one core idea or message. It doesn’t have multiple meanings or messages. It doesn’t have too many visual components. Some of the best graphic designers argue that a logo should be simple enough to be drawn by hand. We have one Adelaide graphic designer on our team who says the very best logos should be easy enough for people to draw from memory. Certainly it must be easy to reproduce in multiple formats and sizes for it to be the best logo design in its award category. 
Colour Choice
The right colour choice in a logo can dramatically improve its overall look and design. A great logo generally limits itself to one or two colours. In our Adelaide logo design studio, we study brands and it’s clear that, in many cases, the most recognizable branding opts for just one colour. Coca-Cola is red. Adelaide Bank is blue. Your logo colors must assist in telling the brand message and be legible and readable. Naturally they should work well together and be harmonious, unless you’re a subversive record label of fashion label.
Renders in black and white
A logo should work in black and white, and in colour. It must be legible and stand out when it’s printed in greyscale and in a small size. 
Scales well in size
It is necessary that your company logo is expertly designed be used at almost any size. It staggers our Adelaide logo designers just how often we see global organisations come out with a new logo that doesn’t shrink. It’s imperative it is a stunning logo when it’s huge on a billboard and also when it’s on a business card. It should also look good when it’s on a t-shirt, on a coffee mug and on the side of a truck. Test your logo to see how it looks across multiple mediums, such as packaging, magazine ads, websites and even TV commercials. We worked on one project where even the company cutlery was etched with a logo (a prestige shipping line). A really tough test is this: is it recognisable when it is distorted or used in unusual ways? It should be able to be read and understood even when it’s used for different products or services. 
Can it be animated?
A logo can be more than just a static brand identifier. At some point in time you may wish to have a fully CGI or animated piece that can be used in multiple ways, even outside the company’s existing marketing strategy. For example, can you see it being used in a dynamic way in a loop on a website or a television commercial? 
Instant recall 
This point is so obvious and yet so hard to achieve, says the head of our Adelaide design studio, Maddie Raschella. Everyone aspires to have a creative logo that people recall – and associate with your brand – even years after they last saw it. That’s why professional logo designers – like Maddie – are so highly valued.

We offer both.

Our designers have a passion for imagery, colour palettes, voice and tone. For typefaces, tints and textures. They seek the soul and essence of an entity and seek to communicate it via their art.

Sure, it has to start with strategy but there’s something special watching a designer disappear into their own magical world where creativity reigns supreme … and visual concepts are born.

Our designers have undertaken hundreds of branding and corporate identity projects. We believe that brand identities should be a positioning statement that help communicate unique stories, key points of difference, history etc.

Our task is to translate the essence of your organisation into a “graphic structure”, making it:

• Stunning and memorable
• Timeless yet contemporary
• Versatile – to suit a range of applications, from websites and apps to sales brochures and even the side of a pen.

We also know how to work on sub-brands within master brands. In fact, the SA Tourism Commission once wrote to us, complimenting us: “We at the SATC value our brand and it was great to see a tourism industry partner use if with respect.”

Whether it is design for a new product or service, branding, web design, graphic design, advertising or publications, our multi-disciplinary will deliver high-impact creative that helps your business stand out from the crowd.

But wait, there’s more! Boylen’s designers are locals and that means they are always on hand to provide advice on how the new identity should be applied in different situations.

Contact our friendly design team to talk about your graphic design project.

Design brief: we like to start with a well-articulated design brief. You may have this already, or you may need to develop it with your designer. 

Research: if appropriate, this starts with a review of your existing identity system and its uses, its strengths and weaknesses. We then research what you like and don’t like. To help the process, we usually bring some “outlier” examples to meetings; designs that are complete opposites so that we can get a sense of the direction you prefer.

We will want to talk about the unique aspects and key differentiators of your organisation, its culture, personality, traditions and aspirations. The same is true of your target audiences. What are you trying to convey? What impression do you want them to leave with them? On a more functional level, we will also focus on the ways in which the new corporate identity will be used.

Developing brand concepts: our designers often start the process by sketching and brainstorming in a free form manner to let the full power of creativity come through. Typically, this would include a series of visual symbols and typefaces. Ideas would then be narrowed down to a shortlist to be developed digitally.

Reality: once we have a few strong concepts, we provide a rationale on what each concept represents and why we designed it. We then let you decide what you like about them.

Revisions: in the majority of cases, if we’ve nailed the brief, clients will favour one concept in particular. From there, we refine the chosen design until we reach the point of perfection.

Do you have a project in mind? Let’s talk!

We go through this day in, day out with people undertaking website builds or social media campaigns. They come to us and say: “I want a website that looks beautiful, functions beautifully and I want it to tie in with my marketing.”

We say: “Great, what kind of photography have you got? Because you can make a million-dollar website look really, really bad with sub-standard imagery. But you can punch above your weight with a low cost, entry level website and it look a million dollars if you have stunning photos.”

It also helps improve your engagement because people are drawn into the page. That’s a great, emotive user experience.

Once you have invested in a photoshoot, you can repurpose shots in your marketing. You might also get some photos that are just for the purpose of social media. Look at what other people are doing and then include it in your brief to the photographer.

So you want to be an Adelaide website designer? Welcome to the club!
It’s a great career choice that offers a bright future and provides an outlet for your creativity. If you are on this page, you may be a graphic designer looking to broaden your skills.
There are a growing number of opportunities in the local market and once you have experience in South Australia, your ability to fit into a branding or web development team will give you the ability to travel and work overseas.
Sadly, there is a reasonably high degree of turnover in young people who start out thinking they want a career in design. So ask yourself, why do you want to be a web designer? Test it with someone – perhaps a career counsellor – who can offer alternative suggestions you may not have considered. Be as certain as you can before you take the first step.

Design Attributes

We are often asked, what are the attributes of the best web designers? Creativity ranks high on the list. So, too, does the ability to understand the user experience you are designing for and creating user pathways with your designs that will lead to a conversion point.
That’s a mix of creativity and soft science. If data scares you, if evidence-based web design sounds threatening, then perhaps you should think about a career in graphic design or interior design.
Before you sign up for a web designer’s course, get your hands dirty. Have you ever built a website, so you have an understanding of what’s involved for a developer who has to bring your designs to life? Try one of the free content management systems. Or use a more sophisticated CMS that offers a free trial.
Can you work in a team? You will be when you are employed as a web design professional. And all the talent in the world won’t help if you can’t communicate with clients, web developers and project managers. 
Great web designers get a lot of alone time to create their magic – but they need to be able to work with others. 
As you progress your studies, start thinking about what type of website design company suits you. Are you looking for a single company or do you want to be part of a fast-paced web design studio where you are working on a variety of projects at any given time?
Now it’s time for you to hear some of the tough news. A trait the best designers have is their ability to take on criticism. It’s not easy putting your design work out for client review. It can feel like you are being tested and judged, which you are. 
You will experience this from lecturers but they aren’t as tough as you will experience in the ‘real world’.
The other aspect of design – whether it is website designs or graphic design – is that everyone has an opinion. If you were a nuclear scientist, few people would offer a viewpoint on your work. But when you are a graphic designer or a web designer, everyone feels entitled to have a say, whether they have the credentials or not.
The trick is to be able to decipher:

• What is valid criticism and what is not
• What people are seeing. They have a fresh perspective and it’s different to yours. This is an opportunity to look at your work through fresh eyes.
• What people are trying to say, especially when they make suggestions. Non-designers can be clumsy in the feedback they give. It’s well-intentioned but it doesn’t always come out right. Try to look past how your clients communicate to the point where you can see what they are trying to express. (That doesn’t mean you should let people treat you badly. Develop your assertiveness skills so that you can ensure communication is respectful and not in any way demeaning.)

As a graphic designer or as a web designer in Adelaide – or anywhere in the world for that matter – you will need to develop a thick skin.
Adelaide has been repeatedly named as one of the most liveable cities in the world. So a career that combines creative web design and Adelaide might be the perfect fit for you.
If you aspire to leave South Australia and ply your craft overseas, go for it! It’s a brave and exciting move. You will learn that the best website designers in Adelaide are equal to the best in the world. (That goes for any profession. Trust us on that! Our best is world class.)
However, different cultures will give you feedback in different ways. The typical American firm will be direct. The English are likely to be more circumspect. In cultures where social hierarchy is dominant, you may feel you are being talked down to. If you are a female web designer, Adelaide is a nice place to work. People are respectful, regardless of gender. That’s not true in every country, so make sure you do your homework before taking the plunge.
Where do web designers seek inspiration? The best website designers we have spoken with seem to gather ideas from everywhere. They see it in the natural world. In shapes and colours. Ideas come to them from the spoken word, as it a single word or sentence can turn on a light bulb in their head.
Others need calm to do their best work. They need to be free of distraction, both visual and audio. We have a quiet room at Boylen where people go to work undisturbed.
Some designers start the day by meditating and their best ideas flow from that place of “emptiness”.
In time you will find your own style. You will come to understand where your creative muse resides and be able to tap into it at will.
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To get an idea of the different roles that could suit you, have a listen to this (sadly discontinued) podcast, entitled What Do You Do All Day?A careers counsellor can help you with the next steps. It’s best to study, rather than trying to do it alone. We’ve only ever employed one web designer who wasn’t qualified but he was an exceptional talent.)
You can study web design in Adelaide at TAFE, universities and through private institutions.
Each will bring their own emphasis and style, so have a close look to see what suit your personal style.
For example, Brainstorm says: “The first step to becoming a Web Designer is learning web design theory. There are foundational principles for creating good websites, including user experience, structure, and color theory.”
UniSA’s approach is: “To further develop students’ knowledge and skills in a range of interactive and design structures to ensure that websites and other created artefacts are visually well designed and compliant with web standards, and still reflect best practice.”
Seek provides a good insight into the market and the jobs available. Make sure you click on “SA” when drilling down into the information. 
Good luck. It’s a great career choice. If you choose the agency path, you are going to work with a lot of highly creative people, clients who are delighted by your creations and you never know what the next project might hold

Marketing material and sales collateral must be grounded in your company branding but its main focus should be to meet the needs of consumers.

Whether it is print material or electronic media, good design balances both elements. With high quality design – and creative design – you don’t need to sacrifice brand recognition if you are customer-centric in your communications.

This is true of graphic design for small business and for larger organisations that have strict style guides for their corporate identity.

We work with both.