“gotta write a blog” “gotta write a blog” the inner voice has been nagging, and as it has been nearly 3 months since my last confession (which is nothing short of a disgrace) finally I get a few moments to get this ‘out there’.
We launched our new brand “Bubble” on 19 June 2017. The creative process is usually a painful one but in this case Bubble evolved quite naturally. We knew that to play with the big boys we needed to create something that would be memorable, say what we do and be a cultural reflection of the business.
Professional Call Minders is a team of people who are incredibly committed, and this is the overwhelming thing that struck me when I joined the business 11 months ago. Providing telephone answering and telemarketing services has its demands. The outcome for every client really matters and it takes a dedicated team to deliver consistently high standards and get results. Positive attitudes and great communication make this a business that I am really very proud to work for.
In re-branding, the task was to translate how good this business is into something that the wider world would embrace. So no pressure then!
It all started in a little house in Droitwich over Christmas 2016, the home of our graphic designer Regina Morrison (I call her Gina), who does nothing to blow her own trumpet and pours scorn on self-promotion. However, when you work with a truly gifted designer in front of a Mac, the creative process begins. We started with colours, very simply just playing around with a palette that had some resonance with the culture of the business. Next we looked at shapes, both Gina and I are slaves to fashion and trends so we looked through Vogues, Porters, Tatlers etc for inspiration and for the articles, ads and headlines that appealed to us. Rounder shapes were more appealing. Our previous logo had been very square and we wanted something with curves. So after a few hours we had a range of colours and shapes. Next came the design.
The idea of a girl’s face came very early on. We had some outline drawings and now Gina had to bring her to life. The most torturous part of the process was the hair – middle parting? side parting? hairline too low? hairline too high? That drove us crazy and we had to take breaks and come back to it, but we got there. The name “Bubble” came about because we had to keep referring to the design. In the end we just came up with the name because of the shape and also the reference to “Bubble” the mad PA from AbFab, it all seemed to fit.
On 4 January 2017 we had our company meeting to lay out the business plans for the year and to reveal Bubble, it was a nervous moment, what would the team think? Initial reactions are always the most powerful and this would be an indicator of how the wider world would relate to the brand. It was love at first sight, in fact it was more than that, the team were really excited, so the next challenge was keeping it under wraps and getting it all trademarked (submitted 6 Feb and approved 28 April) now that was a long and anxious wait!
The website was completely rebuilt from scratch, new images, new format, new everything, and this all took about 5 months. Then the day came to go live. Being familiar with revving myself up and then getting really disappointed I kept my expectations low. But people have definitely warmed to Bubble and she has helped us to raise our profile, there is a Facebook page if you’re still reading this blog and if you would like to follow her adventures that would be brilliant. Now we need to think about Bubble as a character. People have asked us if Bubble has a boyfriend, where she’s going on holiday, what car does she drive, what’s her favourite Elvis song and more questions keep coming so it’s so good that a) people are interested and b) want to see what happens next. We shall be revealing more as time goes on.
