SOCIETY STAFFING
Website & Logo Design

LOGO DESIGN, WEBSITE DESIGN & IMPLEMENTATION, REBRANDING

https://societystaffing.com

JAN 2019 - JAN 2020

Society-staffing-mock-up-presentation-fi

Society Staffing is a Private Staffing Agency based in NYC that focuses on Domestic & Professional Recruiting.

Society Staffing primarily focuses on providing turnkey domestic staff hiring solutions for private clients and maintaining tranquility for their estates and properties. After being a dominant player in the private staffing industry, Society Staffing has decided to take a new approach with me to enhance, innovate, and re-inspire their branding direction and logo design.

The Challenge

As the Designer, my primary focus is to understand the pain points from both the executive's opinions and also the candidate's experiences interacting with the interactional environment (online website).

During the early 2019 winter, Society Staffing faced a shortage of applicants compared to the rate of job openings. It was quite the opposite of what most job hiring processes look like externally. Most global consumer businesses would have not too many job openings but have a very high traffic of applicants. However, for niche-focused industry players, the concern is more of the opposite. The recruiting Team at Society Staffing is aware of the internal struggle to find and fill qualified candidates compared to the number of client job positions created every month.

Due to the unique demand in high-end domestic recruiting compared to the human capital available on the market, after close observations, the challenge that the CEO and I both identified is the need to increase qualified applicant numbers through the rebranding campaign which includes a new logo, new website, social media & marketing campaigns, word-of-mouth strategy, office merchandise, and external networking events.

The Mission

Society Staffing 2.0 is a re-design project focusing on the webpage, social media, and marketing in order to help solve current problems within the company. The mission of this project is to increase website traffic by enhancing the web experience and unifying the branding identity.

Re-design the old Logo into an inspiring, bold, and iconic in character, which will be implemented into the newly re-designed website.

The final implementation will overall enhance the brand's characteristics in order to increase revenue, attract new clients, and drive digital user engagement. To Give the company a compact-easy solution for attracting and introducing the digital currency exchange industry for new and existing customers.

The Solution

Successful implementation of New Logo & Website (Mobile-friendly), and handing-off the Brand Playbook Collateral, New Logo Implementation, New Website Interface, Documents & Stationary to the client, CEO of Society Staffing.

Re-designed Logo Installation
on the Recruiting Team glassdoors

Project Scope.

I. Old & Outdated Logo

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II. Unsecured (no SSL Certificate) & Outdated Website

III. Non existant Google Search Optimization (SEO)

Research.

During the research phase, it was essential to gather the pain points, define the scope of the project, understand development areas with the client, and organize the key points gathered from my observations. My intention for the research phase was to uncover the needs and frustrations of the target user to better understand how to appeal more effectively, optimize, and initiate.

1. Define main qualitative issues with current branding methodology, website experience, and logo aesthetics
2. Determine the brand archetype in order to refine the ethos, pathos and logos of the company
3. Ideate and display how the corporate logo can massively affect the branding experience

Founded in 2012, Society Staffing has built an exemplary reputation for delivering polished staffing solutions for C-Level executive clients. The current state of business reputation greatly increases the ability to gather more clients & account leads. However, Society Staffing faces the internal struggle to find and fill the appropriate candidates. The amount of job positions that are created daily is overwhelming compared to the number of candidates the company can provide.

Figure 1. below is a screenshot captured from the company website (Compass Web App) under the 'Current Open Jobs tab. It is evident that there is an abundance of job positions but a scarcity of appropriate candidates. The problem statement that I want to highlight is that the website appeals more to the client & client representative than to the candidate. We must consider the candidate's experience using the website in order to gain consistent candidate traffic. The main visual aesthetics of the current website displays luxury avant-garde. The current use of Type and minimal aesthetics is understandable if the website is client-facing. The majority of SS Clients are individuals who will have a representative interact with the webpage instead. The project objective is to develop a candidate friendly, branded user experience through rebranding. The first step is to recreate the logo which will begin the new branding experience of Society Staffing 2.0. The second phase will follow with Business Cards & Office Stationery. As requested by the Client, we have postponed the website as planned for now until further notice.

The Archetype

Brand archetype is a concept originally conceived by celebrated Swiss psychologist, Carl Jung. In marketing, a brand archetype is a genre or niche you assign to your brand, based on symbolism and typography. The idea behind using brand archetypes is to anchor your brand against something iconic, embedded within the conscious and subconscious behaviors of humans. In the minds of both the brand owner and the public, aligning with a brand archetype makes the brand easier to identify. There are 12 different archetypes identified by Jung. As a staffing service provider, SS is under the “caregiver” archetype. Society Staffing resides under the caregiver archetype with companies such as Johnson & Johnson, Salvation Army, UNICEF, Bayer, etc. By understanding the characteristics of the company, we can select specific typography, colors, and shapes for logos.

Secondary Research

Secondary research consists of understanding and gathering the website user demographics, social media engagement metrics, ATS (Applicant Tracking System) data points similar to conventional CRM tools, current opportunities landscaping, competitive landscape analysis.

Primary Research - User Engagement Behavior

Research Assumptions:
-Users prefer online mobile experiences rather than physical experience when it comes to job application filings.
-Users identify a notion of trust through properly designed web experiences
-Mobile web appearance and user experience friendly designs
-Convenience is the key importance for most online applicants

Logo Ideation & Prototyping.

PREVIOUS LOGO & BRAND

The New Logo: Society Staffing 2.0

The old logo was using the Palentino Linotype typeface which is a very slender, transitional serif font. According to Cath Caldwell, Senior Lecturer at The University of Arts London Central Saint Martins school, that transitional serif fonts are easier to read on small point sizes and print, but not soo well on a larger scale and digital experiences.

During the initial interview with the CEO, he mentioned that there are many competitors within this tight niche market for domestic staffing. Thus in order to remain competitive within the landscape, he determined that there must be a new logo and branding identity for the company. We continued to discuss understanding how the CEO imagined his company to emotionally feel like and experience like. We were able to establish three strong emotions for the new logo; "Bold, Strong, and Command".

In what ways can we envision a conceptual logo for a private domestic staffing agency that wants to feel "Bold, Strong, Command"?

For the new logo, I wanted to utilize the S symbol as a main focal point and replaced the font with ATHELAS, a bolder Serif typeface. This way I don't have to stray completely away from the original branding. Also, a slightly thicker ring around the emblem was added. I envisioned a Grotesque Sans Serif typeface would deliver the Bold and Command aspect to the overall logo. I chose AXIS EXTRA BOLD typeface for "Society" to display visual hierarchy over "Staffing", which uses a common Sans Serif typeface SYSTEM font.

4 Prototype Logo visualizations were created and Prototype Logo 1 was chosen for final selection.

Finalized Logo.

EMBLEM

COMBINATION MARK CENTERED

COMBINATION MARK

COMBINATION MARK RIGHT ALIGNED STACKED

Re-designed Logo Installation

Logo Prototypes for Branch Company:
Household Hire

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Website Design & Implementation.

Search Engine Optimization.

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Successful digital marketing nowadays begins at landing on the top result of a relevant Google search. According to StatCounter, 2017 Google dominates the search engine market share by 86% in the US. This means every 86 out of 100 Americans are using Google to search for information. However, landing on top of a Google search result is no easy task. A combination of keywords within the website can significantly change the search engines. In order to be spotted on a Google search as a top search result, SS needs to adapt to a Search Engine Optimization strategy. The SEO is a digital marketing strategy where business websites add specific vocabulary within their landing page in order to increase the reach. For instance, SS needs to add multiple key phrases such as ELITE, PREMIER, STAFFING, AGENCY, SOLUTIONS, DOMESTIC, etc, to expand the chances of being spotted on a google search. Currently, by searching the phrase “domestic staffing” on Google, Society Staffing is the 8th result from the top (figure 6). By adding a header sentence in the top of a website and repeating the keywords in descriptive content sentences, this can increase the keyword count. This will allow SS to become on the top search over the other non-ad website results. Similar to Instagram or Twitter hashtags, website SEO is heavily influenced by relevancy and exposure of keywords. Google Ads is also another quick way to be spotted on the top results list. As a paid subscription, many companies get top search result landings because they have paid for advertising on Google (figure 5). Google Ads payments range variously depending on what our focus and audience size is. Easy management and the essential solution for digital marketing. The email marketing program MailChimp, is the most popular tool for email marketing management and CRM insights. MailChimp’s product is a monthly subscription base with 3 different price plans varying on the number of email recipients and size of the business. I recommend that we utilize MailChimp in order to expand Society Staffing’s communication efforts.