Ancestral Stories – Website & Logo
The website…
The brief was to create a straightforward, but comprehensive website for this family history researcher. The target client for www.ancestralstories.co.uk are people who are interested in their own family history. They want to find information about family members who had lived in or been connected to the North West of England and/or North East Wales. The customers themselves can be anywhere in the world and this is one of the driving factors in getting a researcher to collect information, search for documents in record offices and visit significant locations. The clients are typically over 40 years old.
Graham is a professional researcher with a background in related fields and so we knew it was important to convey the rigor and authority with which he carries out his work. The nature of his work means that often the clients are a distance away and so it was really important for them to be able to feel the business is trustworthy and traceable. The age group of the clients indicates to us that there will be variability in their computer/internet literacy and so this was kept in mind during our design work.
Amy (and of course Dave) at Twizzlebird were fantastic to work with. They grasped what I wanted straight away and came up with a great concept and design. Cannot praise highly enough…a job well done, thanks guys
Graham Hicks, Ancestral Stories
We kept the design minimal and clean to ensure it was easy to read and simple to navigate so it’s effective for all levels of computer skills. The colours and motifs used were inspired by the historical documents that form part of the family history research, but these were used sparingly to give the right feel for customers without being clichéd. The design also brings together the sense of history with a contemporary approach.
We made sure there were some images of Graham himself to help establish a rapport with clients that are too far away to meet with him. To help build this level of trust we also added an in-depth case study and some client testimonials
The logo design
What stands Graham Hicks and Ancestral Stories apart from the competition is Graham is his adept research skills coupled with his passion. As you will see in his case study his approach comes across as holistic and far reaching, really using the resources and information he has to the utmost. His logo needed to encapsulate this. The circular shape and colour came from the idea of the wax seals used to stamp official documents, the logo then gives that sense of authority to the work done at Ancestral Stories. The oak-leaf is a classic symbol of English history and heritage which quickly conveys the nature of the business, and the joined circle is there to hint at the cycle of life and history. Important over and above these references is that the logo is a clean, simple, efficient way of communicating with clients
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