Three County Christmas profiles Neil Morgan Design, Cheltenham
Posted on 18th August 2022 at 17:40
In the Begining...
It all began 1 year ago, Paul and I decided to change our business name to Three Counties Christmas, revamp our branding and become an independent company. We had endless discussions about how we wanted to appear and multiple of google searches open on our laptops for logo ideas. We had too many differing opinions and in all honesty, we were spoilt for choice. That was when we spoke to Neil Morgan Design…
Let me introduce you...
With 33 years as a graphic designer, Neil Morgan has built up a stunning portfolio of clever ideas and creative designs to help businesses to promote their products and services. Neil has previously worked at award winning agencies in London, Oxford and Cheltenham, and now based in Cheltenham, he has continued his fabulous catalogue of work with some of these long-term clients as Neil Morgan Design.
Neil produces eye-catching, hard-working marketing collateral for businesses of all kinds, including the National Trust, Attivo Group, Cotswolds Conservation Board and Hydraforce.
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The day we met Neil Morgan
Paul and Neil are part of the same Gloucestershire based networking group. Paul suggested that we spoke to Neil to help give us some guidance and clarity.
Paul arranged a zoom meeting for the three of us to have a preliminary chat about the changes that we were making.
The chat was light-hearted, Neil was interested in our new endeavours and was really encouraging. We explained that our new name was ‘Three Counties Christmas’ because we wanted to highlight the fact that we are a local company and wanted to champion the rural counties of Herefordshire, Worcestershire and Gloucestershire. With Paul and I being proud of our routes, me being born and bred in Herefordshire for 30 years and Paul having always lived in Worcester and most of our decorating career remains in Gloucestershire…Neil quickly understood how important our name was to us. Neil congratulated us on a great name and had also mentioned that he had noticed that our social media had also given this impression, which gave me confidence that we had made the right choice.
Paul and I left the zoom feeling that Neil had really understood our business and what we wanted to achieve.
What happened next?
Well, I still had many logo ideas and colours flying around my head for Three Counties Christmas. A website needed to be built, social media pages needed to be changed and we needed to launch into the public eye as someone ‘different’ and memorable.
I collected a bank of images of different logos and colours that I liked and shared them with Neil Morgan Design. He concluded three key things from our collection – firstly that gold was a core colour, secondly that I liked swirly font and finally that it needed to have luxurious feel to our logo.
A week later, Neil emailed through an example of 6 different designs. They were all beautiful and all reflected the examples that we had suggested. But the font and the layout of our logo stood out immediately. I messaged Neil to try the logo with different colour backgrounds. I had it stuck in my head that the background colour needed to be a dark green because that is a real Christmassy colour. Paul disagreed and stated that he liked the original purple used. Paul and I were torn, so we zoomed with Neil to explain our predicament. He gave us this incitement into the reasoning behind choosing the purple originally and that completely changed my mind…
“Purple is the colour most often associated with rarity, royalty and magic.”
Why was the overall experience so memorable?
Why was the overall experience so memorable?
Paul and I felt that Neil Morgan Design truly understood our vision for the business right from the beginning, from building our logo together, to forming brand guidelines that we felt were effective and reflected our passion, professionalism and that we were a local, family business based in the Three Counties.
We started to confer on his thoughts about other matters within our business design and appearance because his thoughtful attitude towards our indecisions gave us clarity and enabled us to make decisions.
Paul and I were struggling to create a website design with an independent website designer. We continued to make amendments and I was starting to feel like I was being fussy. Whenever we had a review of how the website looked, we felt that something wasn’t right. So, we asked Neil to take a look to see what was missing. He straight away identified that the webpage was too busy and different sizes were mixed throughout in a muddle. Paul asked Neil to trial a mock up layout for us to see the contrast. A few days later, an email arrived of a smart-looking, clear cut webpage template which we absolutely loved! After a series of emails, Neil created the overall look of our website that we forwarded on to a different website designer.
Finally, Neil always checks and advises us on our wording whenever we have produced leaflets and website content. He corrects our errors and is the expert in grammar, spelling and punctuation. This is a huge help when you get brain fog from writing at great length. Maybe I should be asking him to check my blogs for Three Counties Christmas too…?
Here is Neil's answers to our questions in full...
What is your favourite Christmas film?
"Tricky one, there are a few contenders. Die Hard, but is it a Christmas film? It’s a Wonderful Life, but I have too give it to Elf. Whenever I watch it it just reminds me that we all have a big kid in us trying to get out."
What is the best thing about Christmas dinner?
"The obvious one is the opportunity to meet and share a meal with family or friends. As for the food, it’s a roast… what’s not to like. I am very partial to roast parsnips and sprouts with bacon and pine nuts, but the prize must go to Pigs in Blankets. When else do we get the opportunity to stuff our faces with this delight?"
What is your favourite Christmas song?
"Again, many options. I love to sing a good carol (In the Bleak mid Winter, or O Holy Night), but Christmas just doesn’t seem right without hearing Fairytale of New York."
What is your favourite Christmas colour scheme?
"I am a bit of a traditionalist when it comes to Christmas, holly, mistletoe, a good wreath on the door. As for colours, I really like silver and dark blue or purple."
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