Just finished reading the rather great How to Run a Successful Design Business by Shan Preddy. It’s quite a chunky and comprehensive read but would highly recommend it to any design business owners or freelancers. While there are a million and one books available aiming, with varying degrees of success, to define the creative process or provide design inspiration, very few deal with the day to day business side of things with creatives in mind.

This book takes nuggets of business know how from a large number of contributors and focuses essentially on the nuts and bolts of running a design business, whether big or small. At around £30 and over 440 pages it’s not the cheapest or quickest read but the tips on financial planning and pitching/ potential client management are well worth the cover price. Unlike many broader business ‘How to’ guides it cuts the cheesy ‘Go Get ‘Em’ crap and focuses on real insights from successful design businesses.

Next on the reading list is Just My Type by Simon Garfield, having heard excerpts from the book serialised on Radio 4 a while back I’m quite looking forward to it.

Into the White have been working with new client Hayley Group for their conference stand materials for an upcoming trade exhibition in Amsterdam. The main exhibition space, visual shown above, comprises of 3×4 curved pop up stand, integrated screen display unit and curved counter. Other printed support materials for the event include a company introduction brochure and DL flyers. We wish them all the best for a successful event.

We’ve been busy as usual in recent months with some more design projects for long standing client Lily Lolo. After a successful redesign of the company website last year the company blog needed an visual update with a bespoke WordPress theme to fit in with the new clean website styling. An updated product catalogue for 2012 has been developed along with a new versatile gift box packaging (pictured) capable of holding a variety of products and brushes.

We are pleased to unveil a sneak peak of the branding we have developed for an exciting new client addition, Birmingham based horticulture and garden design company Lupin. Into the White was approached by business partners Susan and Julia after seeing our recent branding work for Parkinson Gill. The established company has experienced significant growth in the last 12 months and needed a more unified visual approach to reflect their range professional services, which include garden design, building, planting and maintenace.

We are currently finalising the company’s core business stationery and internal template documents along with a new company introduction mailer. Work shall also shortly begin on a new website for the company planned for early summer launch. We’ll keep you posted with developments.

Great looking Campaign launch materials for Mulberry’s SS2012 collection. The campaign’s beside the seaside theme, featuring oversized brightly coloured seaside confectionery, has been cleverly carried through into a beautifully designed behind the scenes newspaper disguised as a stick of rock by Construct.

Just another quick update with some recent project work for Birmingham’s brmb. Following on from a very successful event in 2011 the brmb walkathon makes a return this May, once again in aid of another great charity Help Harry Help Others, in memory of 11 year old Harry Moseley. We’ve worked on the new event identity and some initial promotional materials for the 26 mile walk round Birmingham’s suburbs. With over 4000 people already signed up, we’re sure the event will be a huge success and help raise much needed funds. You can sign up to the walk here.

We’re pleased to announce Into the White are working with Birmingham based Anthony Collins Solicitors on implementing new core branding materials following a recent strategy review and new brand guidelines. We will be working on updating a number of template documents and presentation materials along with core business stationery and  company e-newletters.

Getting quite a bit of exposure, but rightly so, are these fantastic images of instruments interiors shot for the Berlin Philharmonic Orchestra. The clever marco shots and great lighting help make the images look  beautifully architectural and vast in size.

Quick note for those looking for Valentine’s inspiration, our lovely client Lily Lolo are offering 10% off for today only. Click here to see our HTML mailer with details of the offer.