Ark Social Media Coaching

THE BRIEF

Ark Social is a start-up focused on offering guidance to public figures, and people of influence, on how to approach the murky world of social media. Ark’s founder, Lilly, approached me to work on a branding strategy that encapsulated not only the nuts and bolts of what the business offered, but how her approach to guidance was one of empathy and humanity, in the commoditised social sphere.

BRAND ANALYSIS

After conversations about what set this business apart, and with prospective clients on what they needed from such coaching, Lilly and I honed in on a few key factors we needed the brand to reflect.

TRUST

The vulnerability of prospective clients meant that they had to put a lot of trust in Lilly and her abilities.

GUIDANCE

Ark is about navigating, not dictating.

AUTONOMY

Clients were also to keep their autonomy over their social media presence, and not to feel micro-managed.

COMPETENT, NOT CORPORATE

This is something Lily needed to convey from the outset. Ark was essentially her years of experience, manifesting itself in a human, empathetic touch. It also had to speak to, and move within the business world as an essential part of their talent’s presence in public life. This was our launching point to craft a brand that was not amateur-hour nor long lunches in suits.

RESEARCH

BOARD1 - We started with trends that spoke to now, colours & type that could be interpreted as clean, semi-corporate. Lilly had a particular Idea of natural imagery to reflect the turbulent social media landscape, and an instinct to use “millenial pinks”.

BOARD 2- I convinced Lilly to try to add more energy into the palette. We did after all want to make this fun for clients; to be real about the perils of social media, but add the sort of enthusiasm and enjoyment Lilly exudes upon working with her.

BOARD 3- Meeting somewhere in the middle we drew influence from more start-up corporate colour palettes - forrest greens, navys - but injecting an energetic tangerine to counteract the softer pinks and blues.

TYPE & STYLE

With a palette and direction in hand, we now had to develop a graphic and type style which evoked trust, guidance and a personal touch, competent but not corporate.

We saw the word-mark as an opportunity to be professional but not too heavy hitting, and looked at a few on trend serifs from serious to frivolous. Lilly also wanted to continue to use the metaphor of the ocean to reflect the rough waters of social media, and I suggested that it also required a human element - to convey that ark was about guidance and confidence, not fear of the horizon.

With a tight start-up budget, and imagery being expensive, we also started to develop a graphic style which attempted to convey the personable approach Lilly takes with clients, even when she’s not in the room with them.

IMAGERY

To overcome the start-up budget, we enlisted the skills of local photographer (and our good mate) Tom Coram, who had an archive of oceanic and human imagery, ready to go. With Tom’s help were able bring in imagery of a similar style and quality, to convey Ark’s purpose.

ARK - PHASE 1

Ark Social’s launch brand has a strong, clean word-mark, a main colour palette both empathetic and energetic, plus some complimentary hues to whip out when needed.

It’s graphic arc is precise, while its secondary forms are designed to mimic the imprint of a hand as it takes a business card.

Lilly’s first touch points with clients are her own social presence, and her business card.

Face to face with a client is when she conveys the empathy and experience that is vital to someone who is vulnerable, yet enthusiastic about their role in public life. Ark’s social media presence also needs to reflect the genuine, honest nature of what they encourage. It has to stay welcoming and current, but with an air of competence and confidence.

Ark’s website continues the imagery, and personality of the brand, but also needs to be blunt in what they offer, why you need it, and how you get it. It also needed to be simple enough for Lilly to adapt, evolve and add to herself as she reacts to the dynamic world of social Media.