When I start creating a brand, I never quite know where it’ll take me or what will enable me to get the best out of the brief.

Over the summer I’ve developed the brand for the MTA; a training course in theology, ministry and preaching based in the North East of Scotland, around Aberdeen.

The geographical location was a key aspect to the brand, creating a local authoritative course of this type meaning local folks didn’t have to travel to Glasgow or Edinburgh. As I began working on the project, it became obvious that by visiting Aberdeenshire, I’d develop a better brand.

It’s good working remotely for businesses across the UK and the globe, but even better to visit the places the client is based.

In this instance I knew I would be building a website and creating other design assets too, I was able to capture some images and get the drone in the air for some video footage to use across the website and in future applications.

More important still is the personal experience of the location. The stone the city is built from genuinely does sparkle in the sunshine, residents and visitors to the city can stroll to a wide, vast sandy beach from the city centre. The coastline is breathtaking, the region it’s saturated with history and the Cairngorms frankly ridiculously beautiful.

This personal insight and custom photographs have made building pages and drafting other elements an absolute breeze. I’ve been able to avoid the stock photo trawl (though we’ve used a couple) and made the overall brand much more bespoke.

I could have completed this project from my desk, the client didn’t expect me to make a visit, but the effort (it’s a flipping long way away is Aberdeen) was absolutely worth it.

Visit ministrytraining.scot to see it all in action!