DSPANZ: New colours for a new territory
Our newest Little Villager Elliott Davies joined our client service team in 2020, and we’re thrilled to have him on board. Here, he’s sharing his experience working on his first end-to-end project with LVC, for our fantastic client DSPANZ.
DSPANZ (Digital Service Providers Australia New Zealand) is the non-profit industry association representing the world-class business software sector in Australia and New Zealand. Formerly known as ABSIA, DSPANZ has worked with government agencies and industry bodies since 2014 to help streamline and transform payroll, superannuation, tax, accounting and finance operations by delivering new, secure digital solutions.
At the start of 2021, the DSPANZ team approached Little Village Creative to assist in developing a new visual identity. The association was branching out into a larger territory and needed branding that better represented their partner base and today’s software sector.
“We as a board recognised the language that was being used to talk about our industry had changed,” DSPANZ Director Matthew Prouse explains. “We needed to modernise and change our language to continue being a part of the conversation. The way we presented ourselves, and our branding, wasn’t as clear as we wanted it to be.”
This was one of my first projects with LVC, and I was looking forward to learning more about DSPANZ as well as having the chance to lead a brand identity project with the team from start to finish.
The brief involved crafting a new brand identity: a logo, colour palette, guidelines and a website mockup that DSPANZ could take to their development team. One of the key goals for Matthew and the team was to move away from the old conservative branding and adopt a more modern look and feel.
“[Our former brand] ABSIA was conservative and consistent with a government department,” Matthew says. “We wanted a branding experience that was contemporary and more energetic. Making sure that we have high contrast in how we represent ourselves is really important to us, as is being inclusive as an industry association.”
Our task was to create a colourful brand identity that was representative of DSPANZ’s partners, while ensuring accessibility for the visually impaired. We presented three concepts created by our talented designer Megan, with the favourite being the most vibrant of them all.
After receiving great feedback from the DSPANZ board, we provided clear guidelines on how to roll out the new branding across their website and all other marketing materials.
“All the concepts showed insight and understanding of our industry,” Matthew explains.
“The board’s first reaction was that it’s so easy to work with these guidelines – we loved the palette and vibrancy, but also just the ease of adopting the new brand across the existing assets. We were very impressed by the work Little Village did.”
Given this was the first LVC project I’d led from beginning to end, I was fortunate to work with a talented designer in Megan, but also a client who was clear on processes and timeframes every step of the way. Matthew agrees that our approach made it possible to deliver to a tight deadline on a tight budget.
“We had a clear process that we worked through at the beginning. We had a call to clarify exactly what we were after, transparency about the time involved and visibility about the progress throughout.”
We couldn’t be happier with the result of this project and look forward to seeing DSPANZ flourish and continue their good work.
Got a brand that needs an identity and direction? Let’s chat: Get in touch or drop us a line on 1300 528 680.