Zokpia Accounting & Consulting Content Design
Zokpia Accounting & Consulting is a team of accomplished professionals focused on taking clients' businesses to the next level. They specialize in increasing business profits and improving cash flows, all with the goal of helping clients grow and more profitable businesses.
Task
The task was to create high-end design materials for scheduled content posting for the company's Instagram and LinkedIn platforms for specific quarters they have established for the year.Target Audience
The company's target audience is construction management firms, general contractors, subcontractors, residential developers, and business owners who own a business in the realms of construction, remodeling, and home improvement trades.Challenge
The challenge was to create designs that would stand out from what was done in the past without going away from their visual brand identity. How I can elevate what they already have established visually?Deliverables
Digital graphic, motion graphic content
Visual Identity Research
The challenging part of this task was to create high-end designs that elevate the company's visual aesthetic without losing its visual identity. Since I was given creative freedom by the company CEO I had to use my experience as a designer to figure out what designs can achieve what the company is looking for.
It required a research deep dive on my part to understand the company brand, the established color palette, fonts, visual imagery, and the consistent ideas that make up the visual essence of Zokpia Olumese.
Style Discovery
From my aesthetic evaluation, I summarized the company style at the time to be very simple in nature ( a good feel to have). The designs use heavy solid color texture which is key to its simplicity. Bold weight is commonly used in text and if not used the implementation of text size is displayed as well to make sure the information is noticeable on social media. There are also cases of designs that really on photographs to be the primary background but most of the time shapes specifically circles are used primarily for the background. These were the things I noticed that made up the visual style of the brand and have worked very well. Here are some examples of what I shared just to see where I am coming from:
Since I only needed to elevate what had already been established there was no need to change anything pertaining to the color palette or typeface. While the designs were great at the time the firm felt that the current style wasn't going to be enough for where they wanted to go as the business continues to grow. They desired for the content and visual style to grow and expand as the company continues to grow and expand.
Problem and Solution
Now I had mentioned before that the designs already produced are simple in nature and feel which is always great, but since the company wanted to elevate the designs moving forward needed to have depth. All the designs before I joined were created using the software Canva which is a great design tool to use especially for non-designers that want to create designs fast in mass production. The problem with that is Canva has its restrictions so the designs are naturally restricted in uniqueness and visual appeal simply because of the limitations that Canva brings at least in comparison to Adobe Illustrator, Photoshop, and other Adobe products which I use for my design work. So the solution to this would be a software change when it comes to creating these designs; Canva is still implemented in the production of the content but more so for video content and as a project management tool since the company has all the design assets in there. Using Illustrator and Photoshop opens up possibilities of what can now be done for future designs such as the use of effects, size manipulation, etc. This leads to my process for creating the designs for the last quarter of the year 2022 and the first quarter of the year 2023.Q4 2022 and Q1 2023 Process
After listing out ideas I would go to sites such as Dribble.com or Behance.net for visual inspiration and then go ahead with creating the designs. For the Q4 2022 designs the actual process of design started out as trial and error but once I was able to establish a feel for what I wanted to create the rest of the designs came naturally and pretty cohesively. For the Q1 2023 designs, I learned from the previous quarter's process by changing my approach by having one main design idea and using that as a focus. That idea was textured backgrounds. I found a dark blue marble textured background that I knew could complement the light blue color from the company's color palette and use that as a consistent design element for all the designs for this quarter as a matching set.I approached this quarter by listing out the common visual characteristics of the early designs and then listing alternatives on a different list that I can implement into future work. From there I also added brand-new ideas that I can utilize as well for future designs.Q4 2022 Designs
Q1 2023 Designs
Background Designs for Tax Season
Q1 2023 Video Content
Reflection
I’m really grateful for the opportunity to have been able to work with such an amazing company through this project. It was the overwhelming trust in my design expertise that gave me the zeal to create this collection of designs. My biggest goal was to elevate the visual aesthetic of Zokpia Olumese CPA as the company goes to another level. This is a great foundational start as I continue to work with them in the future.Lessons Learned
In the future, I will incorporate competitive analysis into my research instead of focusing solely on Zokpia Olumese's brand. As a graphic designer, it is my job to not just create quality work but create designs that increase business success in the market. Seeing how the company's competitors design their content will only benefit how I and Zokpia Olumese CPA approach future designs.