Brand Refresh | Product Design | Website
The Brief
Janet Harbison is a globally renowned Irish harper, teacher and academic who has dedicated her life to the traditional harp. Janet approached the agency with a desire to modernise her business and future-proof her highly acclaimed brand to continue its legacy.
Our Approach
The project began with a thoughtful refresh of the brand identity, ensuring the business retained its established recognition and market familiarity.
At the heart of the brand is its distinctive icon, which we chose to preserve while giving it a meticulous redraw to enhance its visual clarity and quality. The primary challenge was striking a balance between honouring the business’s Irish heritage and creating a contemporary identity - without leaning too heavily into overtly Irish themes.
To achieve this, we introduced a refined colour palette of regal greens paired with a soft cream. This combination offers a fresh, modern aesthetic while subtly nodding to the brand's traditional Irish roots.
This careful balance extended to the typography. We selected a typeface that pays homage to the elegance of Celtic-inspired design while maintaining a timeless, classic appeal. The result is a brand identity that blends heritage and sophistication with a modern edge.
Creative Development
With the brand refresh complete, we begun working on the redesign of the client's product portfolio, ensuring it aligned seamlessly with the newly refreshed branding.
By incorporating the new branding into every touchpoint, we elevated the overall look and feel of the product range, creating a more premium and consistent presentation. The redesigned portfolio not only reinforces brand recognition but also enhances the customer experience by showcasing the products in a way that feels modern, elegant, and unmistakably tied to the brand’s identity.
With the brand foundations and product materials in place, we turned our attention to redesigning and rebuilding the client's eCommerce website.
At the start of this phase, we identified that the client’s existing images were outdated and of low quality, which limited their usability across the new website and marketing materials. Recognising the importance of high-quality visuals in creating a strong and authentic brand presence, we recommended a professional photoshoot to capture fresh, high-resolution imagery.
To bring this to life, we organised an external production team for a full-day shoot, and provided the photographers with a brief of capturing the client’s essence and warm, characterful personality.
Solution
After auditing the client’s original website, it was clear a scalable, dynamic solution was needed to handle the large product catalogue and ensure seamless performance as the business grew.
We designed and developed a new website using a Headless CMS for fast, smooth front-end performance and integrated it with WooCommerce to efficiently manage eCommerce operations.
This modern tech stack not only resolved issues of scale and speed but also provides a future-proof platform for growth, delivering an enhanced shopping experience and equipping the client for long-term success in a competitive digital market.
To view the website click here: www.janetharbisonharp.com
CLIENT WORDS
“Got a great new website – love the graphics and the dedication to the job was excellent.”
Other Work
LET’S TALK
Looking to realign, refresh or redevelop your brand or business marketing strategy? Send us an email at hello@designmc.org or, give us a call direct on 01926 754038 for an informal chat.