Everyone loves a story of a self-made hero and they don’t come much better than Canvasman. Starting out from the tiny cellar of a Victorian terraced house in 1996, the award-winning, Yorkshire-based manufacturing business has grown to become the UK’s leading supplier of bespoke canvas products.
Canvasman specialise in the manufacturing of outdoor coverings for a huge variety of products, from boat and vehicle covers to shop canopies and upholstery. Every product they create is designed and manufactured to order by their highly-skilled production team based in Baildon.
When we were first approached by Canvasman several years ago, the passion they had for their craft was self-evident. It is clear that the inspiration they take from nature translates into their design approach. Canvasman products are designed to withstand the outdoor elements so, when we started the branding process the natural option was to focus on nature itself.
Also referred to as the ‘golden ratio’, the fibonacci sequence lies behind many of the world’s most seemingly complex patterns, from hurricanes to flower petals. The spiral structure of the golden ratio is also found in shell formation. Shells are designed to provide shelter from the elements, making this the perfect fit to construct a nature-inspired brand identity.
Following several successful years of partnership, Canvasman recently visited the BML studio to undertake a Foundation™ brand strategy workshop in order to refocus their brand values and what it is that defines them as a company.
The brand strategy workshop surfaced that the hand-crafted and beautifully-designed nature of their products needed to be better communicated. The strapline ‘Made for the elements. Designed for life.’ was developed to better reflect the brand personality of excitement and ruggedness.
"With BML's help, we've grown 25% year-on-year for the past 4 years."
The new brand strapline informed the creative direction and provided focus, which previous marketing material lacked. The rebrand aimed to create a strong visual toolkit to enable Canvasman to appeal to their core target market and position them at the higher end of the market.
A collection of canvas textures and stitching provides the main base of the branding, instantly communicating the core product.
The use of lifestyle photography alongside the new colour palette helps to showcase the wide variety of products on offer and creates genuine excitement and desire for Canvasman products.
The Canvasman product range is vast. Not only is everything they create bespoke, but they do it for a huge variety of niche markets, each with their own specific product languages and industry jargon.
In order to overcome this, we set about creating a visually-led website that guides users through the product selection process. The image-based navigation structure walks customers through a series of simple steps to help them identify the product most suitable for them.
We are currently working with Canvasman to bring the website inline with the new branding; a concept for which is shown below.
The Canvasman website has more than 28,000 page views per month generating in excess of 80 new business enquiries per month through contact form submissions alone.
Our strategic approach to the branding and website had a significant impact on the business. Firstly, it improved the quality of enquiries the client received because products are beautifully presented with all supporting information easily accessible. This enhanced the perceived value and helped Canvasman to justify their pricing.
Secondly, customers were able to explore the full range of Canvasman products in a clear and logical manner, rather than the limited and somewhat confusing options presented before.
Finally, it improved the efficiency of the business by vastly reducing the high volume of administrative time they previously spent answering basic questions about their products.
It has been a pleasure working with Dave, Natalie and their team. We chose BML because they could look after both our technical and design needs, which I found was rare in a creative agency. They also have a great ‘can do’ attitude. We were delighted with the work they created for us, which really moved us to the next level. They captured, represented and enhanced our brand perfectly and the new website is very professional. The after sales has been excellent too. I would highly recommend using the services of BML Creative.
Chris Salisbury, Managing Director – Canvasman
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