The Book People was founded in 1988, on the principle of making books available and affordable to everyone.
Starting with a single van selling books, the company soon had 140 vans and later expanded its reach through a mail-order catalogue before launching its online store in the late 1990s.
As part of my role, I designed digital assets, such as web banners and landing pages to promote specific products, competitions and events.
A typical promotional cycle would start with the publication of a mail-order catalogue and focus on a theme, such as a ‘Summer Sale’ or a ‘Christmas season of storytelling’.
To share ideas for the look and feel of each upcoming theme, I contributed to an internal marketing deck. I then made amendments in response to the feedback given during it presentation.
This required a high attention to detail to produce the highest standard of work within a deadline.
Due to the pressure of online competition, The Book People became too dependent on discounts to attract and keep its customers. The brand lacked any emotional identification as there was little to distinguish it from other booksellers.
To gain a fresh perspective, we worked with an external design agency to create a new and compelling brand identity.
To add personality and help the brand connect with its customers, a unique collection of distinctive hand‐drawn illustrations were introduced — showing joyful characters of all backgrounds, ages and interests enthralled in a world their new book has transported them to.
The new community of book-loving characters were blended together with a less urgent tone of voice.
We translated the new brand identity into a set of design guidelines for internal and external use.
I worked with the marketing and merchandising teams to introduce the brand's new look and feel online. This included refreshing email templates, promotional banners and social media mastheads.
As the new brand identity became more established, I acted as a guardian to ensure that it remained consistent everywhere.
