clare alice

Visual Identity

Brisbane Writers Festival needed a new brand to capture their unique position in the crowded market of Australian writers festivals. They approached BWD to create a new visual identity for them, which I helped conceptualise and design while working as a designer for the agency.

BWF’s offering is not that of the high-brow intellectual capital city festival. But it’s not a small town get together either. Brisbane Writers Festival is a vibrant place where paths and minds meet, books become immersive experiences and a multitude of authentic Queensland stories are told - from first nations to young artists.

With a particular focus on the space created by the festival, coupled with the new tagline “where stories live”, we developed a logo, colour scheme and visual system which creates spaces on a page, where letterforms and images play.

It was important that the new brand was simple and clean, allowing it to compliment new themes for the festival in years to come. It had to be positive and bright, capturing Brisbane’s sunshine and laid back attitude, but also hold authority when place alongside more serious subject matter.

Fiona is an experienced counsellor who needed a website to capture her professionalism and care, and invite new clients to connect with her.

Confidentiality and professionalism were key priorities for her audiences, however we also wanted to create a website that was warm, kind and inviting.

We devised a user flow that would introduce Fiona, explain her techniques and unpack what to expect in a visit, giving easy calls to action.

I then developed a logo and look & feel for Fiona which combined a calming pastel colour scheme, simple graphics with fine lines and elegant typefaces to create a peaceful yet professional space.

Spaced with places to rest your eyes and quotes of encouragement, Fiona’s website provides respite from the cluttered pages of the internet, and an unobtrusive way to get to know her.

See it live at fionasimpkin.com

Brand Strategy + Visual Identity Design

Christ Church Inner West (CCIW) needed a new visual identity to unify their 3 diverse sites, and many congregations under one consistent and recognisable brand. I worked alongside Sydney creative agency Cadence Media, to help the CCIW community unpack their common values and unique personality as a church, then represent that through a bold new logo, colours and imagery.

The design we created focusses on themes of shelter, diversity and interconnecting conversations. The Inner West is a melting pot of backgrounds, languages and opinions, and CCIW wanted to show they are a community amongst this space, rather than separate to it. The physical buildings in the logo represent this space of shelter they provide and their physical presence in the Inner West, while the intersecting shapes reflect the crossing over of people from all walks of life.

The challenge of this project was to find a design style that each site at CCIW could embrace, while retaining their own unique flavour. To do this we developed a strict hierarchy of brand marks and colours which could be combined in original ways across a number of formats.

UI design

bwdstrategic.com

BWD is a creative agency that has been operating for more than 20 years.

Over that time their offering has evolved from writing, to design and now to sustainability strategy. While working there, I was briefed to design a website that would capture the new strategic focus of the agency without losing BWD’s unique creative spark.

The website would need to clearly explain BWD’s strategic methodology and thought leadership, while also showcasing their design work in a gallery.

I approached the problem by creating a unique visual style that mixed artistic photo collage with mathematical lines and a reserved colour scheme. This was rolled out onto an explainer video, and the website user interface.

Life Education has been a formative part of the Australian school experience for many decades through their well known Happy Harold vans.

In 2020, I was asked by the Victorian branch (LEV) to bring their look and feel into the digital world by refreshing their brand. We worked together to develop a visual identity that combines their core existing brand elements (such as Happy Harold imagery, school photography and National brand logo) with a colour palette that suits the digital world.

I developed a brand lock up for the Victorian charity “Life Smart Kids”, and a new brand guideline for rolling out the look and feel across a range of assets - from classroom activity sheets, to websites and EDMs, to stationery to the Life Education Vans.

The result is a captivating and coherent visual language which nods to the original Happy Harold roots.

User Experience and User Interface Design

Doctors experience health troubles just as their patients do. But with the added challenges of long working hours and pressure to perform, doctors can be even more susceptible to suffering from stress and burnout.

DRS4DRS advocates for doctors’ wellbeing and provides support to doctors across Australia. While working at the creative agency BWD, I was briefed to redesign their website, making it a “one-stop-shop” for doctors to find the advice, answers and help they need in times of illness.

We interviewed, ran workshops and surveyed over 100 doctors and students from a range of disciplines to unravel the complex and political context of medicine. By mapping different medical career paths, we identified the key causes of stress, biggest questions and stumbling blocks doctors have to seeking help. 

The research revealed that our users were very sceptical and concerned about confidentiality. Most didn’t know what support available, and were extremely time poor with little patience for websites. We also found that many doctors feel alone in their struggles, and there is an opportunity to build morale online.

The solution needed to balance a soothing tone with extreme clarity and professionalism.

I designed the Information Architecture for the website based on the journey of doctors from most stressed to least – offering prompts from “get help now” to “stay well” to “get involved”. The home page clarifies that the user has come to the right place and offers immediate help. The site also offers a wide range of help options from diagnostic tests to journal articles, so as not to box any visitor in.  

The user interface for the site needed to be fuss and distraction free. It also needed to load on a range of internet connections and devices, so animations and effects needed to be avoided. I created a tone of voice which is direct and knowledgeable, but helpful. I teamed this with a calming colour scheme and images of relatable people to create a sense of community, away from the sterile hospital context.

View a prototype

Brand strategy, visual identity and website design

Located in the heart of Wodonga, the Mann family store has been providing for the general needs of residents since 1921. The business was established by Ernest Mann, and has been passed down two generations of sons. Today the site is being redeveloped to meet the needs of the growing community and the owners Bruce and Robert asked me to create a brand for the centre that would capture both the history of the site and the fresh start they're offering residences with the new centre. 

I ran a brand workshop with the clients to establish Mann Central's purpose, vision, benefits and brand personality. From there I developed a look and feel to communicate the brand. The result is a clean and modern logo mark to create an up-market feel, combined with earthy imagery to capture life in the Murray Darling region. 

Brand strategy and Visual Identity

While working at BWD, my team was briefed to rebrand UCA Funds Management, one of the oldest ethical fund managers in Australia. UCAFM needed a new brand that would rally their existing base of investors from the Uniting Church, but also resonate with a wider community of ethically-minded charities and institutions. The challenge was to embrace the values and heritage of this social enterprise, but also bring them into a new era.

The rebranding process began with the challenge of finding a new name for UCAFM. My team and I spoke with board members, loyal clients, church members and potential investors to uncover the company’s unique benefits. From these insights we devised a brand strategy positioning it as progressive, professional and principled, but also as a compassionate ambassador for good in the corporate world.

We explored a number of options, brainstorming over 100 new names. The ultimate choice, ‘U Ethical’ represented the new brand perfectly. The word ‘ethical’ reflected UCAFM’s church heritage and the initial ‘U’ was a strong symbol of unity.

Our next step was to develop a visual identity that would strongly communicate U Ethical’s brand strategy. We developed a visual language based on the idea of ‘reframing the future’. The logo design, inspired by a view-finding mechanism, symbolises U Ethical’s vision of a better future, and its unique screening process which allows it to seek out appropriate investments. Moreover, with a warm colour scheme, rounded lines and bold photography, the new identity creates a warm and positive brand that helps to inspire action.

The new brand has repositioned U Ethical as a market-leading ethical investment fund engaged in purposeful, successful investing. The branding has been rolled out across all customer touch points, from introductory emails through to fund performance reports, with the iconic ‘u frame’ visually connecting each piece. 

The Marrickville Road Church brand started with a logo, colour palette and brand font. Slowly over 2 years I’ve grown their visual language to a wider suite of graphics which bring their communications together in a united style. It started with rebuilding their website on squarespace, then rolled into creating slide designs, postcards, social tiles, banners… you name it.

MRC’s brand has a unique role, in that it’s designed to fade into the background, in place of real conversations and authentic relationships. That’s why we’ve developed a somewhat neutral brand by using legible fonts and universal imagery, all with a human overtone.

Report, Microsite & Conference Branding

While working as a designer at BWD, I helped design a campaign for The Australian Meat Processors Corporation which aimed to introduce the notion of sustainability to their industry members and value chain.

Our brief was to design a sustainability report which addressed the key issues facing the red meat industry - international competition, changing consumption patterns and consumer attitudes, climate change, a fragmented value chain and a complex regulatory environment.

Rather than just creating a printed document, we set out to educate the red meat processing sector through storytelling across a range of communication forms - videos, interviews, printed documents, infographics, events and social media.

The concept we developed was a ‘Feast of Ideas’ - a lunch in rural NSW where we invited scientists, processors, farmers, retailers, food activists and government representatives, to gather and discuss the issues over lunch. We interviewed them about the challenges facing the processing sector, filmed the event, and then used the material to build a microsite and to write, structure and design a sustainability report.

The Feast of Ideas sustainability campaign was so successful, it acted as a springboard for AMPC's sustainability conference later that year. We repurposed content to create a new identity for this event – "The Vital Ingredient". 

View it live here

The yoghurt isle of Woolworths is a tough battle ground for the little guy. That’s why small business owner Adam, approached me to redesign the packaging for his breakfast product Yoats - a high protein yoghurt for the busy but health conscious. 

The brief was to create a suite of labels which would add to the experience of eating the product. The brand needed to catch the eye on a crowded supermarket shelf and have a unique aesthetic which would set them apart from other products flooding the market. We wanted to blend natural elements with clean design, but also capture the brand’s personality of fun, outgoing and not afraid to challenge convention. All this, while meeting strict labelling regulations for Australian retail.

I worked with Adam to refine the personality of his brand using archetype exercises and market reviews. I developed a range of label options, exploring collage, hand drawn elements, typographic treatments and illustrations. After many rounds of feedback and testing, our final design was based around a bright graphic pattern, with a crafted logo that was bold and energetic.

Visual Identity Design

My client Danielle has been collecting, curating and reselling designer children’s clothes for almost 20 years and today has a following of over 7000 on Facebook.

Her business inherited a logo, name and website “Little Treasures” which she has been working under - however the brand wasn’t reflecting her personality and expertise. My challenge was to create a brand which positioned Danielle’s boutique as a high quality and sustainable option for Aussie mums - while taking into account a name change to “Liberty & Whimsy”.

I created a logo and visual identity toolkit which could be applied to Danielle’s website and social media platforms. The design is characterised by fine crafted lines and European provincial inspired imagery - to give the brand a traditional, timeless and elegant look (reflecting some of the timeless big labels they sell). The accompanying graphics feature homey, handmade, watercolours and illustrations inspired by children’s story books, to capture some whimsical charm.

Reports and Microsite Design

While working as a designer for the agency BWD, I was involved in designing and coordinating an annual reporting suite for Commonwealth Bank. Their brief to us was to help them communicate their financial, and social responsibility performance in one united suite of documents, while also making it easier to find online.


We started by developing a look and feel which could be applied to the covers, page layouts and infographics across the suite. We then typeset the Annual Report and Sustainability Report, introducing diagrams and infographics to bring to life financial data and ongoing strategies through engaging visuals.

We then designed and built a new Commonwealth Bank investor relations microsite, where all the reporting documents could be accessed and new reports could easily be added in the future. We collaborated with the digital team at CBA, using their digital design language and grids to allow the microsite to fit seamlessly into the world of commbank.com.au. The site featured a live share price feed, videos from the CEO and a library of reporting documents for easy download.

A fresh brand for the official magazine of CMS Australia

Checkpoint has been in print for over 40 years, taking ordinary Australians on cross cultural adventures in its pages by telling genuine stories from the lives of missionaries serving across the world. When I came to work at the Church Missionary Society, I was asked to give Checkpoint a ‘freshen up’ to appeal to the loyal existing readers, but also to inspire younger readers to investigate cross cultural mission.

It took time, but we eventually instigated a shift from the existing masthead and internal format to a fresh layout – one that captures the imagination, convicts the heart and inspires open thought about mission.

I’ve now produced more than 9 editions of Checkpoint magazine and initiated a transition to an online format of the magazine.

My involvement in the design of Checkpoint magazine is holistic. I’m there when the edition’s theme is developed and the articles are commissioned. Once the articles are written, it is my responsibility to conceptualise the layout and execute it using whatever resources I can find. My hope is that this publication takes people on a journey to other places and helps them understand the lives and stories of those who serve with their lives in cross cultural mission.

Brand identity, UX and UI design for a live streaming start up

I met Steve in my local coffee shop while I was presenting logo designs to another client! After overhearing me, he gave me his card and explained he was starting up a world-class live streaming business, but needed a brand to match it. He was particularly drawn to the the creativity and conceptual thinking I’d put into the work he saw me presenting.

So, we put our heads together and using a range of brand strategy tools we defined the story and positioning for “Corrivium”. This visual identity plays on the idea of the magic of technology, and that exhilarating moment when all the planning pays off, and the action of a large-scale event is broadcast in real-time across the country, or even the world. We chose the tagline “we are live” to point to this moment, and developed visual tools to support this strategy.

I’ve now been working with Steve on live streaming events across many industries, developing beskpoke user experiences and live platforms. Stay tuned to see more.

https://corrivium.com/