In the studio this week… A gorgeous new blog for Matt Pereira

Da dah! I’m really chuffed to be able to show you the new designs for Guildford based photographer Matt Pereira’s new blogsite.

We first worked with Matt about 18 months ago when we printed some stationery for him. He seemed to like us…

“It makes a real difference to come across a company / service where you are treated like a worthwhile person and not just another annoying customer – even if you do fall into the “detail attentive” category ” Matt Pereira

Matt also attended all of my marketing workshops last year, and it wasn’t long before we built up a good working relationship. And so it was perhaps natural that when Matt needed his brand developing and a new brochure creating, that he turned to the Flourish creative talents.

We worked hard on developing Matt’s brand from a stylish, but somewhat lacking in “heart”, image to something that truly reflects him as a sociable photographer.

The Brochure

One of the pages from Matt’s wedding brochures.

And another two featuring the textured paper and the swirls that add instant tactility.

Back to the blog…

Here’s Matt’s old blog. The colours are fine, but easy to switch off to. By using the textured paper we used in Matt’s brochures (below) we created a site with more instant engagement that feels more like a brand and less like a template. Rob also created a new style header (which if you visit the site you’ll see rotates so that you see all the facets of his business). We both already have items on the wish list for phase two, but I think it’s a huge improvement that is surely befitting of a top photographer.

Matt was keen that he have a full width to show off his gorgeous images, and I wanted him to have better typography. We also discussed functionality and were both keen that he move away from blogger (which for some untold reason I’m very snobby about) and onto Wordpress, which with all it’s design customisations and plugins makes for a much better experience.

I’m always a bit nervous when clients just ask me to supply them with a design so that they can create the site themselves. I worry that they won’t follow through with the details that we’ve so carefully thought through. But Matt has done us proud! He took our design and hand-coded the thing himself (in four days mind – that’s a LOT of coding time!).