Our new home —
We are beyond excited to finally share the whereabouts of our new home.
As of next week, we’ll be firmly planted in Brunswick. Our new studio is located on the ground floor of Nightingale Anstey, a beautiful building designed by Breathe Architecture.
Nightingale are doing inspiring work in The Village and we’re looking forward to joining the great community they’ve built.
To celebrate this milestone for the studio, we commissioned the very talented Pier Carthew to document the space in its raw form.
We look forward to welcoming you to our new home as it develops in the coming months. In the meantime, follow along on Instagram as we undertake the fit-out and find our feet in Brunswick.
If you need to, please update your records accordingly. Our new address is:
Shop 5, 216 Albion Street
Brunswick VIC 3056
Adapting —
One of the benefits of being a small business is the ability to adapt quickly.
At JAC&, we start our branding process with a thorough pre-design phase which entails a workshop that – amongst other things – explores purpose, defines audience and clarifies offering. We think this is a hugely valuable process for a business of any size to go through, at least once. For a small business, revisiting the process regularly can help considerably with improvement and growth. We find brainstorming the following regularly can be very helpful:
- Revisit your purpose. Why are you doing this? Why did you start?
- Understand your audience. Are your audience who you thought they’d be?
- Clarify your offering. Does your offering appeal to your actual audience?
Recently we went through this process ourselves and thought it would be valuable to share the journey. After announcing our new offering, JAC& Brand Workshops, we took some time to reflect and adapt.
We started with purpose, brainstorming why we created the offering and uncovered the following:
- To help small business owners understand what a brand is and how valuable it can be to business.
- To help new business owners build the invisible parts of their brand and gain clarity around who they are.
- To help existing business owners revisit and strengthen their brand.
- To help people with lower budgets build a brand with depth and substance.
To better understand our audience, we:
- Reviewed all data and insights available to us.
- Assessed all enquiries received for underlying concerns/hesitation.
- Asked questions of as many people as we could.
After going through the above steps, we realised we knew who our audience were but not what they needed. We spent considerable time assessing how we could achieve our purpose while balancing the business’ needs at the same time and landed on a compromise. Increasing participants slightly and reducing ticket cost invites our intended audience back in and allows us to help the people we want to.
Going through the above process can lead to so many different outcomes – financial or otherwise – if your business or offering isn’t doing what you thought it would, ask questions of yourself and others then, adapt.
Introducing JAC& Brand Workshops —
We’re incredibly excited to announce our new offering – JAC& Brand Workshops – designed to help small business owners add value to their business through a thoughtful branding and marketing approach.
Working in small groups we will explore what makes a successful brand, giving you the tools needed to speak clearly to your ideal client or customer. We will help you define your place in the market by clarifying your point of difference and establishing your brand character and story.
You will walk away with the knowledge needed to create a strong brand and a marketing strategy that fits your individual needs.
Workshops entail:
- Presentation, guided exercises and discussions in a comfortable environment
- Workshop tools supplied inc. notebook by Supply Paper Co.
- Refreshments by Antipodes Water and lunch by Goldilocks
- Post-workshop advice and resources
Workshop Schedule:
10.30-11.30
Defining your purpose and clarifying your offering
11.30 – 12.30
Developing brand story and character
12.30 – 1.00
Lunch by Goldilocks
1.00 – 2.00
Understanding your audience, position in the market and point of difference
2.00 – 3.30
Creating a realistic brand and marketing strategy
3.30 – 4.00
Questions and group discussion
If you would like to take part in a workshop, please contact Jac directly on jac@jac-and.co or 0450 189 308.
We’re doing a thing —
Join us on the 9th of November for a night of discussion and show n tell at General Assembly!
Jac will be sitting with artist and illustrator Ellen Porteus, designer and educator Jane Connory and Anna Reeves from That Startup Show to chat about how we work and create.
It’s free, but you’ll need to RSVP soon to secure a spot → www.generalassemb.ly
Introducing the newest addition to JAC& —
Earlier in the year we began our search for a great person to join JAC&. Taking ample time with the process, we met a lot of excellent people along the way. A very big thank you again to everyone who showed interest in the position.
We have made a decision and are excited to finally introduce you to the newest addition to JAC&, Sara Hayat. Sara has been working in the design industry for over 12 years and has a breadth of experience spanning branding, publication, packaging, advertising, illustration, copy writing and strategy. She is quick-witted, thoughtful and most definitely a great person. We’re thrilled with our choice and feel incredibly lucky that she’s chosen to spend her time with us.
Sara will be working across all areas of JAC& and is also crafting the next phase for 43 Derby Street. Having a fresh set of eyes in the studio presents a wonderful opportunity to make improvements. Together we’ve been reviewing and refining the strategic direction for both businesses and are looking forward to sharing our next steps with you.