This extends to the staff headshots on your site, with the added impact on the morale of the team with the boost professional-looking headshots can give to the staff ‘feel good factor’.

What we would always recommend when approaching photography is this process is best handled by the professionals, with a host of fantastic agencies and freelancers out there who can meet your brief to exacting standards. However, we know that often when it comes to booking a photographer ‘life gets in the way’.

Whether it’s your budget or the fact your staff work remotely, it can be difficult to get both a professional photographer and your staff together in the same room. So what can you do when this situation arises?

We’ve pulled together a guidance document for such an occasion, giving some tips as to how your staff can generate consistent, high quality team headshots with just an iPhone. Feel free to download our guidance document in full below as a PDF, while we have also listed here a few key recommendations:

✔️ Set up your iPhone camera in portrait mode

✔️ Make sure you are in a naturally lit environment

✔️ Find a clean, white wall or a non cluttered background

✔️ Grab a helper, or set up somewhere to rest your phone

✔️ Stand back so there is around 30% of wall space above your head

✔️ Position the shot from the waist up

✔️ If you are without a helper, set up a tripod or other leaning post for your phone and use the timer function

❌ Do not take a ‘selfie’ or angle the phone at all

❌ Do not stand against reflective backgrounds/mirrors or areas of natural light e.g. windows

❌ Do not set up a scene (unless instructed)

❌ Avoid poorly lit areas and reflective shadows

✔️ Take multiple shots to give a selection of choice

✔️ Send over the photos as high quality files

❌ Do not edit/crop your pictures, leave that to the design team

Please download the PDF below to view our full guidance document, including imagery to show you best and worst practices. While if you have any questions about how photography fits into your sense of brand and how this is best achieved we’d be delighted to talk. 

CORE Photography Guidelines.pdf

Photography is such a crucial element in the design of a website. It can go so far in helping you to achieve that brand direction you want to exude to your users, no matter what that direction actually is.

Team headshots when budget or geography get in the way

In a previous insights post we discussed the concept of ‘user personas’ and how a site owner/administrator can fully utilise them in order to optimise their site. 

We thought as a follow up to this we’d hand over to our UI/UX designer Sophie Stephens for an insight into the part user personas have to play when it comes to designing a website.

A user persona is usually a fictional character which represents your target audience. They are an extremely valuable tool in UX and they allow you to better understand the people who use your product, service or system. 
A user persona is more than just a collection of people of different ages based around your target market, they allow you to identify specific traits, characteristics and qualities about the person based on facts and data around ‘real’ users. This is obtained through user research and any behavioural data you have gathered around your product, service or system.

Demographic information such as age, gender and nationality

Information around their tech literacy, to establish what devices they may use, their knowledge of the internet, software or social media, and if they use apps (if any)

Background information and often a quote on a users goal

Specific challenges, frustrations and pain points in relation to your product or service

The persona’s influences and where they spend most of their time reading/learning information

See below an example of a persona design template which features those key points:

Why are user personas beneficial to your business?

User personas can help your business discover the way people use your product. They boost marketing strategies and can help your business truly understand who you're marketing to, increasing leads or sales conversion rates in the process. 

Why is a user persona beneficial to our process?

Personas are a great UX tool for building empathy and keeping the user the focus of the design process, eliminating biases about users. 

To create a good user persona, our UX designers and marketing specialists will capture the most important information about a user. To do this they have to step into the user’s shoes, and dive deep into who they are, what their needs are and their goals. The creation process alone can help our team get a better understanding of your audience and their primary needs. 


When our designers create wireframes and prototypes of a business product/website they create them through the lens of the various user types - ensuring that it caters for all needs, and addresses all pain points, creating an effective and pain free user experience.

Putting the user at the heart of your website

It’s now clear that carefully crafted and accurate user personas are a vital resource in delivering/reviewing a wide range of website functionality. In truth this is because your users should always be the prism by which you look at your website through and only by understanding how they want to access your site will you ultimately be able to achieve the best possible experience.

If you want to see your website through your users’ eyes, please get in touch and we’d be happy to discuss how user personas could benefit you.

Benefits of personas: how it aids the design process

From conversations with clients over the years we’ve found that while the term ‘brand’ is a term often used, it’s sometimes less commonly understood to mean the same thing to all parties.

What does 'brand' mean? Or perhaps more importantly what do you mean by 'brand'? It's a massively fundamental question really, but one which sometimes can slip between the cracks in a relationship between client and agency, often leading to difficult conversations later down the line when the end result is not quite what was expected pre-project.

In our latest insights post our Digital Designer Dan has taken a bit of a deep dive into ‘brand’ as a concept, in the process shining a light on design terminology and setting some common ground for how we talk about ‘brand’ with our clients.

Firstly, a brand cannot exist without a company or a product, which is the driving force behind the brand. There are two brand models, one which we shall call ‘the old model’ and the second, which is the main model used in the modern era, we will call ‘the new brand model’. 

‘The old brand model’ was based on the logic of factory management. The company created the brand (through products and advertising), the brand attracted customers (as a captive audience), and customers supported the company (through repeat purchases). The ‘new brand model’ is similar, but with one important difference: the order of the events. Instead of creating the brand first, the company creates the customers (through products and social media), then the customers create the brand (through purchases and advocacy), the brand sustains the company (through customer loyalty). 

Ultimately, with the old model the products themselves that the company produced made the brand, but with the new brand model there has been a shift where it is the customers that make the brand not the products. 

Essentially, your brand isn’t what YOU say it is, it is what THEY say it is. 

Some may say that branding has moved from a physical realm of products to a more psychological realm of how the company makes the customer feel when buying/representing that company. It is this gap between company and customer, that we as designers look to build a bridge and connect the two. This bridge and connection is what we call the ‘brand’.

When commercialism first began all a brand meant was, what products do you have, but as this evolved we as humans demanded more of what it means to be a brand. As a species we are a herd animal and have a deep internal longing to want to belong to something. In the commercial landscape that meant we demanded more of the industry of companies. 


We no longer want to just buy brands but we wanted to be a part of the brand, we wanted to join the brand. We no longer buy products because we want them, but we buy products because of the status those products give us. 

You are either Apple or Android. We tend to apply our identity and status to these companies rather than just the product themselves. As designers we use the word brand to incorporate all these factors. Building a brand is about building a multitude of products and overall essence and feel that helps the customer connect to the company and want to join that tribe as it were. In our early generations we were a part of tribes and now the meaning or definition of ‘a tribe’ has changed. I believe that now means what we call ‘a brand’.We choose companies not because of their names, but because of the style, the status that gives us, how we feel when we use/wear one of their products. We want to belong, and in the modern heavily commercialised world we want to belong to a certain group of companies that we believe represents us as a person.


Image: Android vs iOS: The Battle of Security, Speed, and Storage
This is why the word ‘brand’ has evolved from its first use which meant products, to incorporate a wide range of different deliverables. It still means products but that is only a small percentage of what the word encompasses, others include; meaning, feeling, environment, service. If the customer helps build a brand, companies want to engage them and think about their needs on a deeper level from just a materialistic stand point. That is why a brand includes every touchpoint that is related to the company, be it a billboard, a website, a store design, the customer service. All these different touch points help the customer feel welcomed and makes them feel like they have found a company where they belong.

When designers and marketing experts talk about the word ‘brand’ or ‘branding’ within a business setting, we are talking essentially about the overall experience that the customer has and feels when engaging with the company. This is why the brand model switch has happened. We put the customer first and look at what we want them to associate with this company when they see/join the brand. By thinking through this lens and creating assets and an overall experience that customers want to join and be a part of, they are more likely to share with friends and keep returning to the company which sustains the company through loyalty, to produce more that relate to the brand/tribe they are creating. Hence a brand ecosystem is made. 

power has shifted from companies to customers

people are not focused on products, but meaning

customers buy products to build their identities

they buy in tribes to feel safe and successful

the battle is no longer between companies, but tribes 

the company with the strongest tribe wins

It is clear that brand as a term or as a concept traverses a number of states, from physical to psychological, from clinical product scope to the emotive mindsets of users. It is only by understanding this bridge of ‘brand’ whereby we can truly create an experience optimised for the end user.

We at CORE have over twenty years experience in building and elevating brands, if you would like to discuss how ‘brand’ is applied to your business, please get in touch.

As a busy digital marketing agency, we are often focused on delivering the very best we can for our clients, but it is also important that we give ourselves a spot of TLC.

As our content team grows, we now have even more resource to drive our own digital marketing strategy and broaden our social media presence. We decided to look at the pros and cons for creating an Instagram account and evaluate its effectiveness as a marketing tool.

Enjoy our 7 reasons to answer your question, ‘Why Instagram?’.....

Instagram allows you to talk about everything that your brand offers through the use of imagery. Having a creative Instagram profile will give your business that competitive edge and showcase your creative talents. After all, they do say a picture speaks a thousand words!

2. Take a peek ‘behind the scenes’ of your business

Instagram is a great platform to show off the more informal side of your business. Whether that be staff social events, sporting activities or even scenic pictures from your office window, Instagram is the platform to upload these creative shots to allow users (or clients) to get to know you a bit better. People do business with people, so showing a more human side is always a plus.

3. Use hashtags to further your social reach

By adding hashtags to the caption of your Instagram post you allow the social reach to be extended. Users of Instagram can search to bring up all posts that contain certain hashtags. Using relevant hashtags can be extremely effective for getting your posts noticed.

4. Use the platform to tease what products/news you have coming

If you have an interesting case study coming up, new product launch that you're excited about or new developments to your website, Instagram can be used as the platform to tease this information. By using graphics such as “coming soon…” or “watch this space” it creates excitement with your followers and allows the anticipation and interest to grow around what you will be revealing.

In the Instagram photos that you post, you are able to tag other users in the post or mention them in the caption. By doing this, it not only shows collaboration with others, but increases the chance of engagement on posts as your image will appear under the “tagged” section of the user’s page that you have interacted with.

Instagram stories offer all the features of direct competitor Snapchat but allows you to have this feature under one platform. Instagram stories can be photos or videos, that appear on the top section of the Instagram homepage and are visible for 24 hours. The feature allows you to draw, add text, filters or fun stickers over the top of your content, allowing the Instagram user to get creative with content!

In addition to Instagram Stories, users can now go live! Unlike the feature that Facebook offers, Instagram Live videos instantly disappear as soon as the live video has ended, it really is like being at an event live! However, if you do want to upload a video to your account that will appear permanently, this can be done through the normal posting procedure.

If you are looking for some assistance in making the most of your social media channels and delivering a wide range of content, talk to us today and let’s get digital working for you.

'Why do I need Instagram?' - 7 reasons to use the 'gram' as part of your business' digital marketing strategy.

7 reasons to use Instagram as part of your business' digital marketing strategy.

The talk will be hosted by the designer Chris Bagot (Founder, Softroom) and Gavin Smith (Operations Director, Wahaca) and will be attended by the region's top architects, designers and restaurant / bar operators. It is one in a series of events which have been held around the world, with the aim to foster a shared communication of industry ideas and inspirations and is a must for those with a true passion for design.

Our role at CORE is as sponsors of the event while we're also Digital Partner to the annual Restaurant & Bar Design Awards, which celebrates the very best in global design. In fact this event's setting, Wahaca, Cardiff was this year's winner of best Multiple Restaurant at the most recent awards ceremony in October.

CORE have been involved in supporting the Restaurant and Bar Design Awards since its inception in 2008 and is something we're proud to see develop into the fantastic event it is today.

It has been our responsibility to oversee all aspects of digital for the awards; including the brand and identity work / design, build and ongoing support for the Awards website, the online application system and online discussion and adjudication process.

Over recent years, taking advantage of our growth into a rounded digital agency, we have also been charged with handling the digital marketing for the awards ceremony, including social media management on the night.

The talk is open to architects, designers and operators involved in the hospitality industry and is strictly RSVP with limited numbers - if you're interested in attending please email the names, roles and email addresses of all attendees to:rbdtalk@wearecore.co.uk

We are delighted to announce that CORE are sponsoring a free to attend 'Restaurant & Bar Design Talk' being held at Wahaca, Cardiff on Wednesday the 2nd December 2015 at 6:30pm

We are delighted to announce that CORE are sponsoring a free to attend 'Restaurant & Bar Design Talk' being held at Wahaca, Cardiff on Wednesday the 2nd December at 6:30pm

We see some very beautiful, well laid out visuals: very detailed, grid based designs with precise typographic layout.

We often think of these ‘flat’ layouts as being the ‘breadth’. They are fully immersive snapshots - and are representative of how the website will look on a two dimensional plane. Often they are detailed and engaging. However, these designs, while often submitted as the finished article, are only the initial visual interface of the website; the projection of the identity and the brand values as visual design intended to create an emotional resonance with its audience in a matter of seconds.

Our issue with this is that graphic designers are mostly trained to achieve engaging results in two dimensional visual media. When working on a website layout, therefore, they often treat it the same way as designing a poster. Striving to achieve a fine balance with elements of interface design: moving the elements of the design two pixels to the right, two pixels to the left and, perhaps, back again. All carefully and thoughtfully crafted to achieve the best impact and balance possible.

Our clients and partners work hard on this aspect of a project and, once completed, the end client is usually fully on board and happy to sign it off. Then it’s over to us, and the fun begins.

As a front-end web designer I strongly feel that this is only one half of the (visual) puzzle. Although there has undoubtedly been a great deal of consideration given to the visual impact and emotional resonance of the flat design up to this point, they can often fail when marrying the user interface (UI) with the user experience (UX). A graphic designer is rarely asked to consider the whole user experience on a functional level and across different devices, and this is something that we, as web designers and developers, excel at.

Where experienced web teams can add value is in considering the ‘depth’ of a website. Web developers, as an intrinsic part of their role, have to consider how a user is going to follow a path through the website.

At Core we find that in situations where we are able to work in tandem with graphic designers at the visual design stage of a project, then a better solution can be presented to the client. If this can be done before they buy into a visual design that is not as practical or workable then it’s a better situation for all stakeholders in the project.

We have over 20 years experience in marrying the breadth and depth of a successful web design. We are always happy to discuss any potential issues with our design partners and offer reasonable and practical solutions throughout the process - often before the end client is involved. Presenting a design for sign-off with little or no assessment of the function of a website could result in lengthy re-design processes, failing to meet deadlines, and worst of all undermining the client’s confidence in the successful delivery of the project.

We can help to avoid these pitfalls - we champion breadth and depth in web design, as well as the true spirit of collaboration and working in partnership to deliver outstanding results.

Building a great website that performs well is a multi-faceted task. Graphic designers and developers working together as a team should be a rewarding and successful process, and will mean nothing is left out of the brief.

In this post, we give you an insight into how we go about designing our websites and the thought processes behind our decisions.

In an age where the number of websites, and blogs in particular, has gone through the roof, Google has had to quickly adapt to suit these greater demands. Google is trusted by users to deliver them the website they need, while wading through the vast amount of information they don’t need. In keeping up with this service, the search engine giant has had to tweak its algorithms to ward off the bad actors among us.

Over the past decade or so, Google has been refining its search to allow positive SEO practices (‘white hat’) to prosper over negative tactics (‘black hat’). These measures can only be a good thing in the long term for respectable SEO practitioners, although it has undeniably caused some collateral damage to some small businesses.

Perhaps where the algorithm changes have seen the biggest impact is with smaller companies who have seen their search referrals tail off massively. With no training in the web or SEO, they might have been unaware that buying links, keyword stuffing or simply having links inbounded from sites of poor quality would be considered as ‘black hat’.

The key thing to realise here is that although they may not have understood it at the time, ignorance is now no longer a valid excuse. It is now their duty to stay up to date with how Google searches work if they are reliant on the online aspect of their business. You might also well argue that this is not their responsibility or area of expertise as business owners but if this is the case then the appointing of a digital marketing manager or external agency is paramount.

What Google has made abundantly clear from these recent updates is that it wants to reward websites that are creative, interesting and, most importantly, are designed for humans to view them and not algorithms. This should inspire you to create innovative content for your visitors rather than trying to lure them to your site under false pretenses.

This is said to exemplify Google’s growing appreciation of content marketing over more 'old school' SEO techniques, although these certainly can work in conjunction with one another. Practices such as guest posting will provide a diversity to your website and make it more appealing while keywords will still be needed to drive solid SEO. Good use of social media will also be of advantage to you, as a means of pushing this new content and a way of linking back to your site. In a simplistic sense though, Google is crediting those who pay close attention to their website and give the user what they need and punishing those who are lazy - a good message you would suggest!

Like all aspects of online marketing, you need to be willing and able to accept change if you’re to succeed. If you feel you are in need of any help with a change, please get in touch.

As the blogging business booms, Google are always looking to evolve their algorithms to stay up to date. So how can you look to grow your online presence without falling foul of the search engine's dreaded penalties?

Content marketing is at the forefront of modern thinking in digital marketing and in this post we take a look at its potential possibilities and pitfalls.

A study undertaken by the Nielsen Norman group emphasised the vital importance of first impressions, with the first ten seconds a user spends on a site deemed critical in how they proceed. It’s a stark figure for those affording big budgets on online advertising and expecting big returns.

On a more basic level, those numbers mean the design of your site has to be right. It has to be visually impressive, user-efficient and contain clear calls to action which makes the user’s task that much more easier. Although perhaps on a more complex level it also means you should concentrate on creating an impact with your advertisements, an idea which can seem more of a risk. This is where the rise of certain online tools will help.

In a previous blog post, we talked of the importance of Vine and Instagram video but it is the emergence of Snapchat as a legitimate source of advertising which has taken some by surprise. Snapchat has been around since 2011 and had taken its active daily users to over five million in two years. The tool allows users to take photos, record videos and send doodles to friends before the image is destroyed after a maximum of ten seconds. A lot has been made of its less scrupulous uses, but brands have now caught on to the craze and used it to boost awareness.

In the US, Taco Bell have been a keen embracer of the tool and have used it to post exclusive ‘sneak preview’ images of their products. While here in the UK, the Co-op have used it to send out a promotional code before it then disappears, rewarding the quick minded with £30 off laptops.

In early October of this year (2013), Snapchat also announced the launch of their ‘Stories’ feature. This allows users to piece together clips for viewing over a twenty four hour period, allowing you to create a narrative of the day. This brand new feature is sure to pique the interest of brands who’ve got a story to tell.

The use of these tools allows marketers to do what they do best, be creative. Although Snapchat, like any other form of social media, should only be used if appropriate to your brand. The tool has a huge teenage market and is best used when a brand has something impactful to say. Its bold nature can seem intimidating but that doesn’t mean it shouldn’t be considered if you feel you have the right content.

In an age where the average attention span of an online user is dwindling while they themselves become ever demanding, we examine the term 'fast and furious marketing' and discover what it could mean for your brand.

With the emergence of channels like Snapchat as a marketing tool, we look at how we have to evolve to keep up with ever-demanding nature of our consumers.

Get in touch with CORE and let's find the best combination of social media channels to achieve digital success for your brand.

Creativity insights

Team headshots when budget or geography get in the way

Benefits of personas: how it aids the design process

What do we mean by brand?

Why Instagram?

Restaurant & Bar Design Talk

Making Better Websites

Content is king

Fast and Furious Marketing