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5 Inspiring Sans-serif Typefaces

Fonts are the ruler of the design world. With so many to choose from, it is sometimes hard to break away from your go-to favourite, especially when you know it’s going to work a dream on your current project. Sans-serif fonts have always been at…

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Happy New Year from Truly Deeply

We’re back in the studio and ready as ever for what 2018 has in store. The team at Truly Deeply had a great holiday away (bar the few thirsty studio plants that may need some time to recover), with a few of the team travelling…

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oBikes – when technology and good intentions meet the real world

Dockless bike sharing is an innovative and profitable new market place for tech-savvy start-ups but what happens when technology and good intentions meet the real world? The generosity of bikes appearing across cities throughout the world to help us get from A to B, improve…

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Biophilia creeps into graphic design

Biophilia Biophilia is humankind’s inherent connection to nature. It’s why crackling fires and crashing waves captivate us; why strolling through a park soothes us; and why shadow and light can affect our mood. Biophilia suggests that we have a need to connect with nature and that…

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Bank First or Customer First? Confusing rebrand messaging.

New look, new name with a contradictory sales pitch. Next month Victorian Teachers Mutual Bank will relaunch as Bank First. The new name and identity gives the bank a much simpler and stronger name to compete with other mutual banks. It also shifts the brand…

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Department store Myer shows their branding game can still hit a winner

Anyone who’s ever worn heels for a day at the races, the idea of taking them off before you start the long trip home has enormous appeal. At this year’s carnival, Myer were giving away comfortable, practical, and not completely unstylish, branded slides – manna…

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A lesson in design from Japan

I recently visited Japan to satisfy my life long obsession for all things Studio Ghibli and my fascination for Japanese culture. I was determined to soak up as much inspiration from all aspects of the country to feed into my design practice, and there are…

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The Race That Stops A Nation

On the first Tuesday in November in Australia the nation stops for the running of the Melbourne Cup. It is Australia’s most prestigious thoroughbred horse race for three-year-olds and over. It is the richest ‘two-mile’ handicap in the world and one of the richest turf…

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Death of the Shopping Mall – The changing landscape of retail

The world of retail has changed. Online shopping, online product and brand comparison, and the new shopping habits of consumers have significantly changed the retail landscape. Retailers, shopping strips and shopping centres have had to get agile in evolving the way they connect with and…

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Thanking our very talented Art with Heart artists

An art exhibition is nothing without its artists and we were lucky enough to have 74 of them contribute to this year’s annual charity art exhibition; Art with Heart. All artists donate their time and artwork to the event which raises money for local charities,…

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Music on the Brain – Grolsch turns Listeners Emotions into Psychedelic Art

  People are living more hectic lives, where being busy is now a competitive sport. This can cause stress, and stress boosts cortisol, turning us to fight or flight mode. So, to create some peace in the daily grind, Grolsch decided to do a music-fuelled…

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Another successful Art with Heart – 2017

Last night we hosted our annual charity event, Art with Heart, with all proceeds going to Tomorrow Man. Tomorrow Man was founded by Tom Harkin and is supported through auspice by Gotcha4Life. Currently in Australia suicide is the largest killer of men aged 15 – 44, (6 Australian…

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Is Oscar the world’s most innovative Health Insurance brand?

A health insurer deliberately catering toward digital natives. New US health insurance company Oscar has been called the Warby Parker for health insurance. Warby Parker is a Silicon Valley darling, an online glasses retailer who came out of left field in the US to disrupt their…

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A sneak peak into the graffiti pieces for Art with Heart

The artworks are rolling in to the studio for this year’s charity art exhibition Art with Heart. This year we have received some great graffiti art pieces from some incredibly talented artists that will be up for auction on the night of the event. Here…

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Banksy strikes again

Banksy has popped up in the heart of London this week, unveiling two new murals close to the capital’s Barbican Centre. Banksy has described the murals as an “(unofficial) collaboration” with the upcoming centre’s exhibition of Jean-Michel Basquiat, an American artist who started his career off as…

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The Experience Economy – Airbnb trips available on Zola wedding registry

The days of the casserole dish wedding gift are done. Global wedding registry site Zola has partnered-up with Airbnb to offer Airbnb gift cards as part of their offering. The move makes perfect sense to me. The experience economy shows no sign of weakening with the…

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The Lost Art of Spacing Out

Previously, in Creativity and the Art of Zen, I explored the concept that by slowing our overactive minds and creating some inner stillness, ideas and intuition have the space to flow. Boredom is another way that allows our mind to wander, and gives our creativity a…

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Celebrating 70 Years of Christian Dior

Celebrating the seventieth anniversary of the House of Dior, the National Gallery of Victoria is currently showing The House of Dior: Seventy Years of Haute Couture, a unique collaboration between the NGV and the House of Dior, featuring more than 140 stunning Dior garments. Exclusive to Melbourne,…

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Green Day Tops the Charts with Audience Engagement

Hyde Park July 1st, 2017 Green Day are the headline act to a sold out concert. Over 65,000 fans wait in anticipation… Queen’s 1975 hit, Bohemian Rhapsody, starts to play, and the audience creates the most spine tingling sing-a-long… an iconic song, over 40 years…

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Kudos to Illustrators

With the steady increase in readily available free stock imagery, I often wonder about illustrators and how they are staying afloat in the growing pool of image libraries. Are illustrators being put on the back burner because stock imagery is so easily obtainable? Or is…

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Google, PayPal and Bunnings healthiest brands in Australia

International research company YouGov releases the 2017 BrandIndex showcasing the best brands. The YouGov BrandIndex rates the overall health of the brand and takes into account consumers’ perceptions of a brand’s quality, value, impression, satisfaction, reputation and whether they would recommend the brand to others.…

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8 Amazing Creatives to follow on Insta

I’m sure we have all been there, sitting in front of the computer hoping for some divine creative inspiration to get the design juices flowing. You have trawled through your normal go-to inspiration sites but came up empty. You have made plenty of excuses to…

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Creativity and the Art of Zen

Have you ever had one of those moments where you’re drifting off to sleep and a great idea or solution pops into your head, only to be lost the next morning, unless you take time to get up and write your thoughts down? Or maybe…

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Brands we love – Royal Botanic Gardens

The Royal Botanic Gardens is one of my favourite places in Melbourne. Famous for their beautiful gardens, conservation of plants, and their visitor and education programs, the organisation does great work around sharing the importance of plants to life. To me it’s the gardens that…

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Sweden lists itself on Airbnb

Visit Sweden has listed the entire country on Airbnb      

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Friday Feel Good

It’s reassuring to be reminded that we all make mistakes! Big thanks Ronald. Dave Ansett David is the founder of Truly Deeply, a brand agency with 25 years experience working with brands to position them for growth. His deep expertise is in the creation of…

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Back to basics: 5 key things to consider before starting your website

So you want a website and you want it now. There are alot of easy ‘web page builders’ out there these days which allow you to create your website using the drag and drop method. That’s fine if you need to launch your site in…

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Brutalist web design and what we can learn from it

Grids, rules, order, harmony — qualities that typically define ‘good design.’ What happens when all of this is thrown out? When chaos is embraced and celebrated? It’s called brutalist web design and it’s taking the design world by a storm. In this post we will take…

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Master Personal Brand Fail for MasterChef King George Calombaris

It would appear MasterChef Judge and restaurant king George Calumbaris has tarnished his personal brand when it was recently revealed nearly 200 staff at his restaurants have been underpaid $2.6 million. George Calombaris’ company underpaid 162 of the 430 current staff at his restaurants including…

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Brand Australia set to break world record for economic prosperity

The gold medal for the longest running strong economy goes to… On April 1st Australia is to to achieve a truly remarkable milestone, and one that most of us will be floored to discover. Australia will likely be able to lay claim to the title…

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The 4 biggest mistakes Western brands make when entering China

Getting it right in China. Our good friends at Adsmith China have put together a list of the four most important things for Western brands to consider when entering the Chinese market. For all but the most informed brands, China is a market with great…

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Big brand Marvel releases their 2017 Superhero NRL Jerseys!

  The NRL’s ongoing collaborative superhero campaign with comic brand Marvel continues with their new jerseys for 2017! Wether your a fanatic fan of Marvel AND/OR the NRL sport, you can’t deny it is a compelling campaign and shows the power of collaboration between two forceful brands…

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Amex Vs Visa – A battle of brand association

All brands have meaning in the minds of their market. Whether carefully and strategically considered or by default, all brands hold associated meanings in the minds of the market place. Well considered brands establish a competitive brand proposition (their brand strategy) with layers of meaning…

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Introducing Trump Bold – A new font to Make Typography Great Again!!!

Introducing Trump Bold, a new typeface from Truly Deeply founder; Dave Ansett. Inspired by The Greatest Donald of our time (with apologies to Sutherland & Duck), Trump Bold is designed in his image; Bold and Distinctive. Trump Bold works well alone and is kind of…

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Sparkke Change : A beer brand with a true purpose

Booze with a Conscience Sparkke Change, has come to my attention in recent months as a refreshing challenger in the beer category. The brand shot to fame through a clever use of a Pozible crowdfunding campaign that went viral, sparking much needed awareness and interest…

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Say Hi to Quinse, a new font designed by Truly Deeply’s Dave Ansett

Introducing a new display font called Quinse. Inspired by the style and character of French directional signage, Quinse is a confident and bold signature font perfectly suited to brand mark design, packaging design, headlines for publications, print and digital campaigns as well as retail point…

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A brand testimonial from President Trump (or someone who looks alot like him)

Why thank you Mr President Over the Christmas break I remembered us shooting this little testimonial from The Donald (or someone who looks a little like him) at an Entrepreneurs Organisation event a few years back. At the time Trump was a slightly maligned reality…

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Festive Greetings to You

Wishing you all the best for a festive season filled with chilled vibes, good humour and plenty of great food. We’ll see you again in 2017. Save Save

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Why I love being a brand manager at Truly Deeply

  Have you thought about switching to brand? For any account handler / client service person looking to scratch an itch in their career path, in particular those working in traditional advertising big agencies, I’d love to give some accounts of my perspective in my…

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The 6th Annual “Hey Jimmy Kimmel I Told My Kids I Ate All Their Halloween Candy.”

I never get tired of this… Does that make me a bad person? For the past five years US comedian and late night show host Jimmy Kimmel has asked parents to pretend they ate all their kids’ Halloween loot and post video of their kids…

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Clinton 4 Trump – Local street artist Lushsux gets all US election on us

A fresh piece of street art has gone-up overnight in Gwynne Street, Cremorne showing Hillary Clinton and Donald Trump getting it on. The best piece of election coverage I’ve seen. Check it if you’re in the hood and give Lushsux some ups. Photo: Justin McManus.

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The unique and stunning world of microscopic images

The winners of the 2016 Nikon Small World Photomicrography Comp. have been announced. The competition showcases “the beauty and complexity of life as seen through the light microscope,” according to Nikon’s website. The pic above was shot by Douglas L. Moore of the University of…

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AFL Grand Final Branding – Battle of the Bulldog & the Swans

We love our footy here at Truly Deeply. With just the penultimate game to-go our tipping comp has gone down to the wire with some serious mind-games between Em and Simon playing out. And as part of the excitement of Grand Final week, we are…

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Organic natural brands no longer differentiate

When mega brands go organic Gatorade is introducing an organic version of it’s brightly coloured sugar water for ‘athletes’. While the new product will be tested in select markets it seams Pepsi Co., the parent brand, sees the threat to the market dominant sports drink from more…

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Calling all Courageous Blondes – Lululemon Partners with Canadian Brewery

It seem’s that Lululemon is now targeting the yoga loving, beer drinkers. Who doesn’t like a cold beer after a sweaty yoga session?… The global activewear brand has partnered with Canadian based brewery, Stanley Park Brewing to create a lemon hopped ale called ‘Courageous Blonde’.

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Optus differentiates from the market with a flexible rebrand

Optus is the second largest telecommunications provider in Australia offering mobile, fixed, and broadband services to consumer and business customers. It has repositioned itself in the market with a flexible rebrand. You may remember their recent rebrand back in 2013 that received many mixed reviews and…

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Why is a brand style guide so important?

A style guide is important in maintaining a successful brand story. Clarity, consistency and longevity is key. Why is a brand style guide is so important? Think of a time when you purchased a flat pack from Ikea, came home, tried to put it together using the instructions…

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Here come the milk brands

Things may have died down since the consumer backlash against big milk in Australia following Whaleed Aly’s piece on the project in May but I think we’re starting to see some of the effects in our Milk isle still today. While there was a immediate…

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Maria Grazia Chiuri – The First Woman to Lead the Iconic French Brand Dior

Dior appoints Maria Grazia Chiuri as their first ever female creative director.  With an impressive portfolio, Maria was first snatched from label Fendi by Valentino and just recently has made her debut as creative director for Dior – the first ever female to run the fashion…

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Truly Deeply Founder Dave Ansett speaking at AGDA event next week

AGDA’s Design Means Business Series A series of events aimed at providing insight and inspiration into the business side of Design. The events are focused on providing experiences, seminars, case studies and thought leadership insights, through which designers can develop their business knowledge and practice.…

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Adidas x Kanye West – Risky or Genius?

Adidas expands their partnership with Kanye West, as they embark on the most significant partnership ever created between a sporting brand and non-athlete. Kanye West’s collaboration with Adidas is undeniably one of the most successful initiatives from Adidas to date. West has helped revive the brand’s image, create one…

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New York Times Fashion Photographer Bill Cunningham Dies – A Pioneer Who Left Behind a Legacy

The ‘most important’ fashion photographer in the world. Bill Cunningham has passed away at age 87. A sad time for the fashion industry.  Bill Cunningham is regarded as one of the most important fashion photographers who ever lived. He began working as a hat maker and…

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Google Analytics looks at UX In Real Life

Are you distracting your customers and deterring them from buying what they really want on your site?     For the holiday season, the team at Google Analytics thought it would be helpful (and fun) to demonstrate how missteps on the digital shelf play out in real…

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Influence Marketing – A Relatively New Social Media Movement

What traits are important for a successful social media influencer? In the world of social media, an influencer is a individual who has the power to make others believe that they need a certain product or service because of their real (or perhaps perceived) authority, relationship with the…

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More than a car? Not more than a brand

When is a car more than a brand? Never! Specially when we don’t want to talk about the car, but we still have to sell them? Volkswagen latest campaign #morethanacar focused directly on the value of brand heritage to stir the emotions in the car…

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The Simplicity of Being Nude – A Brand Delivering the Bare Minimum

Taking a Nude approach. Domestic glassware brand all about simplicity. Nude is a new domestic glassware brand that insists “simple is beautiful”. Nude want to appeal to a younger target market and brings a fresh new angle to a pretty out-dated and fair to say boring industry…

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The Power of Australian Made Products in the Chinese Market

Australian business ‘Green and Clean’ sells bottled Australian air to China The Chinese markets growing demand for all things Australian continues to boom, from iron ore, to real estate, to baby formula and now Australian air. With China’s emerging middle class becoming increasingly worried about…

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#SLEEPREVOLUTION – Huffington Post’s Global Sleep Campaign

The Sleep Revolution – A book all about the Zzz’s. We all know the effects of a bad night’s sleep. THE SLEEP REVOLUTION is a newly released book by author Arianna Huffington written to educate people about the benefits of sleep and how often this is overlooked.…

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11 x World Surfing Champion – A Closer Look into the Life of Kelly Slater

A true surfing legend – a snap of myself with Kelly Slater at the 2016 Rip Curl Pro. I was lucky enough to meet Kelly Slater over the long weekend at the Rip Curl Pro at Bells Beach, and it’s fair to say I am a pretty…

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American Apparel is Bringing Sexy Back

American Apparel returns to its roots in an attempt to revive the brand American Apparel, the Los Angeles based clothing manufacturer and retailer known for basic apparel and risqué marketing campaigns, has decided to bring sexy back, and propel it back to being at the…

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