Our new brand is more than just a new look. It’s a part of my personal journey.
The creation of our new identity is based on our new BLUE values: Bold, Lively, Unique & Effective. We started the process with both self-reflection and taking a step back to evaluate how far we’d come as an agency. Having founded Blue Juice 11 years ago, its become so much a part of my identity. Our old retro look was a reflection of my personality and the name Blue Juice came about because blue is my favourite colour and juice represents creative juices. On the values side, no doubt Darryn and I have built the business and how we work around our personal value system.
What we realised through the evaluation is that the business has matured so much since 2007. Our BLUE values have always been there, they just weren’t documented. To mature further we needed to agree and commit as a team, to values that we all believe in and live by. The link to the business name (BLUE) is deliberate. We wanted our name to represent and embody who we are, what we believe, how we work and ultimately the value we deliver. Thus, BLUE now has far greater meaning – it’s not just a colour! We’ll share more on our BLUE values in posts to come.
As businesses mature they change, and we felt that now was the right time for Blue Juice to become its own brand, delinked from my personal love of all things old. It’s a moment of humble pride to take stock of what we’ve achieved with many great creatives that have passed through our doors. Blue Juice Design was started with a leap of faith – a jump into the unknown where a mere glimpse at the ocean of competitors could have scared me off before I’d even started, but I didn’t look at the competition. With blinkers on I started Blue Juice for me because art, design and web are my passion. I also had other motivation which many won’t know about – the lovely lady that replaced me in my corporate job left me with very powerful parting words. She said: “You’ll never make it.” Those words still give me goose bumps. She had studied graphic design, worked in an agency and knew the competition I would be up against, but what she didn’t know is that I’m a fighter, having grown up disadvantaged in many ways, and being a mother which, in itself, gives one resilience and strength. I took her words and chose to channel my emotion into an unrelenting passion to learn all I could and to succeed.
And succeed we certainly have, I’m not ashamed to say. It’s been the most exhilarating, exhausting, frustrating and rewarding 11 years of my life. I’ve had moments when I’ve felt like running a business is the pits but through my husband and team’s inspiration and passion, we’ve always come out shining.
My desire in sharing a very personal account in a very public way is two-fold. I want to tell the story behind our Blue Juice makeover, and I hope to inspire others. “There are things that either build you up or put you down.” Malcolm Gladwell author of David & Goliath. Every word is true. We can look at the competition and hang in the towel before we’ve even begun. We can take things too personally and quit, or we can rise above it and try our best.
I encourage you to put every drop of passion and energy you have into something you love, and if it fails that’s okay because the biggest lessons come through mistakes in life. If the road were always smooth we’d never know how to navigate a ditch or bump.
It would be remis of me to think that passion, a wonderful life and business partner and a great team are the complete recipe for success. A huge component are our clients. I want to say thank you from the bottom of my heart to everyone who has supported us through this incredible journey. We’ve put in hard work yes, but business is built largely on relationships and trust. You’ve trusted us to run your campaigns, rebrand your communications and business identities, run social media, build websites, maintain intranets, source content and more. Thank you for believing in us. We are so pumped for the future. Blue Juice Design is still our child, just bigger and definitely better. We’re 100% invested in it’s continued growth and success.
We look forward to working with you and many new clients in the future.
Check out our new look on www.bluejuicedesign.com
All the best, Sandy