Yesterday we received the first proofs of our book. After all of the problems the printer had been having (computer bugs, moving his factory, and adjusting his equipment to the new place), we were starting to worry that the quality would not be up to our standards. Well, we were pleasantly surprised by the proofs and will finally be shipping out the books in the next couple of weeks.

To order a book, click here.

Services

Exhibition design

Visual design & marketing materials

Presentations and websites

Branding and marketing plans

Market investigations

Design

Ashtary Design designs. We design logos, identities, websites, presentations, and exhibits.

Exhibition Design

We design for small-budgets (we’d love to do some big-budget projects of course, who wouldn’t?) which makes us resourceful at finding the creative solutions to customer’s needs.

Take a look at some of our recent work for the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands:

Ashtary Design was asked by the Embassy of the Kingdom of the Netherlands to design an exhibit of Rembrandt’s etchings for display at the new National Library and Archives in Tehran.

We had less than one month, a limited budget, and a number of design constraints including a prohibition against hanging anything on the walls.

Click on the image to see a slideshow presenting our design along with some images of the construction of the exhibit. Enjoy.

Visual Design & Marketing Materials

Take a look at some of our design work

A flash slideshow of some of our work is now available for your viewing pleasure.

Making a Good First Impression

First impressions are often based on the way you look. Is your shirt ironed? Do your socks match? Are you wearing jeans or slacks? Are you stylish or trendy?

Your organization also makes an impression based on the way it looks.

What is The First Thing People See?

Is it a billboard, a business card, a letter, or a website? Do all of these send the same message about your organization? If you do not know, then take a look yourself. Imagine that you know nothing about your organization. Imagine that you are seeing your business materials for the first time. What do you see?

A Strong, Consistent Look Sends a Strong Message

If you want your organization to send a professional image, then you need to have a consistent look to all of your business materials. A presentation given by one member of your organization should have the same look as a presentation given by another member of your organization. This is true even though the content will be different.

Strong Organizations Send Consistent Messages

 

Presentations and Websites

We can help you present yourself better whether it is through your website or through your presentation. We can help you make sure that you get your message across.

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Branding and Marketing Plans…

…Involve research and audits. An effective plan means understanding your audience and understanding how they see your product or service.

How do you get to know your audience? Well, you can start with a communication audit.

Communication Audit

How do you get to know your audience? Well, you can start with a communication audit.

What is your message and how is it being communicated to external and internal customers? Do you know? Ashtary Design can undertake a communication audit of your organization. This means that we do the following:

• Review print, presentation, and digital communications for message consistency
• Survey customers and employees about the value of the communications they receive from your organization
• Attend presentations and survey the audience
• Create a report based on our findings with recommendations for change

Why Do a Communication Audit?

• A communication audit helps organizations get a grip on the message they send both internally and externally.
• Following the recommendations of an audit can actually reduce costs by eliminating redundant and even conflicting materials.
• Customers like to be asked to give their opinions. Conducting an audit can help you better connect with your customers.

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Market investigations

Spending some time to get to know your industry, the specific niche for a given product or service, and the people who will use it/buy it is absolutely necessary for developing an effective brand. This research provides insight that can be used to communicate more precisely and persuasively with the target audience. The research also provides guidelines for the types of services that will need to be offered in order to satisfy your customers.

Market investigations can involve several methods including interviews, surveys, and literature reviews.

Who is the Target Audience?

Knowing precisely who the audience is makes it possible to communicate a product or service’s strengths in a compelling way. In the research phase, Ashtary Design will help you identify your core customer. We will provide detailed profiles of your target customer. These profiles are designed to provide insights into their needs.

A common problem encountered by companies is that the customer is not well-defined. Often, everyone on a project team has a different idea of who they are selling to and that idea may even change from day-to-day. Ashtary Design uses personas as a way to get agreement and understanding among the project team.

Ashtary Design uses personas –fictional characters that represent segments of the target audience–to better communicate an understanding of the audience for a specific product. These personas are not averages, but archetypes. There is just enough detail in the persona descriptions to make them seem like real people and to provide key information for the brand design phase.

What does your audience want?

A well-defined and well-understood persona set is the key to honing a brand message and solving the problem of the undefined customer. This is the problem that we described in the previous section.

Understanding the target audience well and specific people who make up that audience produces surprisingly effective results. This is repeated time and again in the real world. For instance, roll-away suitcases were designed specifically for flight crews, but it turns out that we all can use them. Denim jeans were designed for gold prospectors, but that does not stop us from wearing them. Knowing one target audience well is the key to success.

This understanding tells you what your customer cannot live without.

What’s the current situation?

You need to know enough about the current situation in order to determine what needs to be changed in order to meet future needs. This includes getting to know your competitors; understanding why they are successful (or not); and having a firm grasp of you limitations.

What’s possible?

This needs to be answered with some ideas for how to market the tower using innovative means. It is important to identify a variety of opportunities. Some may be feasible, some may not.

What’s feasible?

This question examines the limitations and opportunities for ideas that can actually be carried out.

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