REVEALED!
ALL THE WINNING PROJECTS FROM THE BRAND IMPACT AWARDS 2015
ISSUE 245 OCTOBER 2015 DIGITAL EDITION PRODUCED IN THE UK
PITCH MORE PERSUASIVELY How to sell your design concepts to even the most sceptical client
FeaTUrinG johnson banks • nb The ParTners • r/Ga MovinG brands AND MORE...
M e G
r b
Essential tips to deal with clueless clients, image licensing, plagiarism and more
M o si d
his t m ct o r f pa s t h d Im rs g i s n ran inne i e v r’s B d w i s u l ea war c x y A E
i d an
The LeGaL GUide For desiGners
F o s
W G n
do YoU CharGe bY The hoUr?
You might as well be punching yourself in the face, says freelancer Sabrina Smelko
W E LCOME
OCTOBER 2015
EDITOR’S LETTER This is a very special issue, in which we’re delighted to announce the winners of the second annual Brand Impact Awards – our celebration of the best branding work from around the world. But the huge extended feature at the core of this issue goes far beyond a showcase of the projects that impressed our judging panel. Weaved throughout are the gems of wisdom that helped make those projects world-class – and like the awards themselves, these are carefully tailored to the market sector for which they were created. Once again, our two special awards recognise the ever-increasing importance of delivering meaningful social impact, and the value that fruitful collaboration can have to a project. It’s telling that the winners of both also won our Best of Show gongs. One of the most crucial aspects of creative collaboration is a strong relationship between designer and client – but of course, not all designers are so lucky. Therefore our second feature reveals how to turn things around in a pitch to a sceptical and uncooperative client. Next month, we shift our focus from the projects to the studios themselves, as we reveal the final 30 in our UK Studio Rankings 2015, the result of a huge nationwide peer reputation survey of over 60 leading creative directors. There are 12 new entries since last year, not to mention a few spectacular rises and falls – and we’ll be exploring the secrets of all these studios’ successes. See you then!
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NICK CARSON EDITOR nick.carson@futurenet.com
FEATURING
KARAN SINGH
KIRSTY WHITTAKER
VERòNICA FUERTE
JAMES KENT
SUNITA YEOMANS
This issue’s cover artist is illustrator Karan Singh. His bold and colourful style is a playful interpretation of minimalism particularly focusing on depth and dimension through pattern and repetition. Professionally, he’s worked with Google, Adobe, IBM, Asics and the band OK Go. www.wakeupmrsingh.com
Kirsty is a senior designer and team leader at NB, where she has worked for four years. Her most recent project has been curating the Sign Of The Times exhibition at the Protein Gallery, featuring the work of 100 leading designers. Turn to page 91 for her Aspall cyder rebranding workflow. www.nbstudio.co.uk
Veronica set up Hey Studio in 2007 after working for a number of years with a variety of design studios in Barcelona. She was soon joined by Ricardo Jorge and together they built Hey into the multi-disciplinary studio that it is today. Turn to page 20 for her take on the Tokyo Olympics logo controversy. www.heystudio.es
James Kent was founding partner of KentLyons for 12 years before setting up Why. He has been working with leading brands such as BBC, Channel 4, BT and BSkyB for almost 20 years, and offers advice and expertise on how to win over difficult clients in our feature on page 42. www.wearewhy.co.uk
Brand impact Awards judge Sunita has a wealth of clientside experience at major retailers and supermarkets, having previous worked as head of creative at Tesco, creative controller at Argos and head of online design at Boots. She shares her insights from the BIA judging process over on page 68. www.sshy.co.uk
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OCTOBER 2015
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NICK CARSON EDITOR Nick has been running 16.5 miles home from work recently in preparation for his first marathon. Check out his just cause over on the Just Giving website at www.justgiving.com/nc-marathon.
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JO GULLIVER ART EDITOR Not satisfied with one holiday, Jo took two this month in quick succession, staying for a few days in Berlin where she saw Pattie Smith perform, then onto Ibiza for a long stag weekend. ‘Green beer’ was consumed.
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TIM HARDWICK OPERATIONS EDITOR Tim took a time-out in Yorkshire with his family and soaked up some northern culture in the historic walled City of York, which is home to over 500 ghosts independently verified by science. Fact.
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DESIGNER A sad goodbye is in order as Rich is moving on from CA to pastures new at Bath-based branding and packaging agency Design Group International. Congratulations and good luck to you, Rich!
MANAGEMENT
CONTRIBUTORS
Tom Dennis, FranklinTill, Veronica Fuerte, Kate Marlow, Michael Molfetas, Tommy Parker, Karan Singh, Sabrina Smelko, Matthias Steffen, Anna Richardson Taylor, Wijtze Valkema, Anne Wollenberg, Tom Woolley
ADVERTISING
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STAFF CONTRIBUTORS JULIA SAGAR
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COMMISSIONING EDITOR Julia had a swashbuckling few days at the Boomtown Fair, where the theme this year was pirates. However Julia misinterpreted this and went dressed as Liberace; she got mocked for excessive sleevage.
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OCTOBER 2015
ISSUE 24 5 OC T OBER 20 15
CULTURE 10
TRENDS: Massaging the mind with a spectrum of light, plus Barcelona-street inspired patterned carpets
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PLACES: Elmwood’s Daisy Hill highlights some of her favourite current hangouts in the city of Leeds
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PEOPLE: Creative studio Lord Whitney talks about its newly revamped website and its whimsical humour
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EVENTS: What happens when a creative studio takes a vacation together? We have the scoop here!
INSIGHT 20
PLAGIARISE THIS: Hey’s Veronica Fuerte on what it means to cross the red line from being influenced by something to just plain copying it
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STOP CHARGING BY THE HOUR: Hourly pricing for your creative services is tantamount to punching yourself in the face, argues Sabrina Smelko
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SHOWCASE Our selection of the world’s best new graphic design, illustration and motion graphics work 28
DOING IT FOR THE KIDS: Here Design creative partner Kate Marlow looks at the consequences of starting a family on one’s creative career
D IARY 2 V I D EO WA L KT H R O U G H D IARY 1
NB STUDIO
PROJECT DIARIES A global rebrand for Carlsberg, 3D-printed numerical resin sculptures, and using blood as ink for a poster to mark the anniversary of the Hiroshima and Nagasaki bombs 83
D IARY 3
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Senior designer Kirsty Whittaker explains how NB combined eight generations of apple expertise in a new identity for Aspall cyder 91
C O N TE N TS
OCTOBER 2015
BR AN D IMPACT AWARDS
80 GEMS OF BRANDING WISDOM The results are in from this year’s Brand Impact Awards. Find out who came top of their creative category and absorb advice from the best brand designers in the business 48
SUBSCRIBE AND SAVE UP TO 54% Three great ways to subscribe to the world’s best design mag: Print Digital Both See page 40 Non-UK subscribers See page 47
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IN DUSTRY ISSUE S
NE E D T O K NO W
PITCH PERSUASIVELY
LAW FOR DESIGNERS
Not every creative project is smooth sailing from pitch to delivery. Here’s what to do when a client rejects your design 42
Has your creative work been ripped off? Fear not: help is at hand. We reveal how to navigate legal pitfalls for designers 102
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WE LOVE ...
COLOUR THERAPY Hortense Duthilleux massages the mind with a spectrum of light cientific research into the psychological and physiological impact of colour is developing rapidly, all thanks to advances in the monitoring and quantifying of our responses to sensorial stimulation. There is already compelling evidence that our perception of colour really does affect our minds and bodies. As a result, artists and designers are testing colour’s power to alter visual perception, mood and mental state. In an attempt to manage our fast-paced, increasingly out-of-kilter work-life balance, a growing number of consumers are turning to meditative practices to help reduce stress as well as enhance performance and productivity. Recent Central Saint Martin’s graduate Hortense Duthilleux explores how light can be used as a tool to restore a sense of balance by completely massaging the mind with light. Using different filters of light housed inside optical goggles, wearers are encouraged to absorb coloured lighting whilst staring at a spinning spectrum in order to achieve the optimum meditative state.
IMAGE CREDIT: Highlight by Hortense Duthilleux
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www.hortense.co.uk Each month, our Trends section is curated by experienced creative consultancy FranklinTill (www.franklintill.com).
CULTURE TR END S
OCTOBER 2015
DE SIGN E D FOR LIFE
antique triumph Hidraulik takes up the pavements of Barcelona and gives them a modern in-house twist erceptive creatives visiting Barcelona won’t have failed to notice the opulently patterned hydraulic tiles that line the city’s iconic streets and squares. These art nouveau flourishes gave local T-shirt company Ddeloi the inspiration to create similarly geometric shirt designs and before long the patterns had inspired a whole new brand. “I thought the best way to show these patterns was still on the floor, but using carpets,” says Eloi Rossinés, founder of Hidraulik Modernist Rugs. “Initially my intention was to use handmade New Zealand wool, but I realised they would be more
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modern if they were created out of PVC and printed using UVI ink, making them anti-bacterial, fireproof, cool insulating and easy to clean.” With help from Barcelona-based branding and web design specialists Huaman Studio, Rossinés was able to produce both classic and modern carpet collections which come in stylish yet inexpensive contemporary telescope packaging, displaying logo, barcode, model name, size and technical information. Huaman Studio also designed the flexible, neutral identity and website, creating added value to the innovative products and widening their target audience.
PRODUCT:
Hidraulik rugs come in Classic, Modern and Custom ranges, with unique designs inspired by particular Barcelona streets. www.hidrauliktiles.com
COST: €230–540
Stay one step ahead with our barometer of visual cool
MAINSTREAM
STILL FRESH
EMERGING
No longer just for girls, pastel pink is the new modern shade for a range of packaging and branding.
Colour bleed: paper edges appear to be dipped in colour allowing for the ink to bleed freely across the page.
Digital drag: capturing the repeated digital tracers from a font that’s been dragged across a screen.
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ILLUSTRATION: Michael Molfetas www.michaelmolfetas.com
TRENDING
P LA C E S CULTURE
OCTOBER 2015
STREET VIE W
CRE ATIVE QUARTE RS
ACCESS OUR GOOGLE MAP AT bit.ly/CALeeds
LEEDS, UK
Elmwood account manager Daisy Hill loves keeping her design consultancy team updated with the latest creative places and events around Leeds. Here she highlights some of her current favourite hangouts in the West Yorkshire city
DUKE STUDIOS
3 Sheaf Street, LS10 1HD www.duke-studios.com This creative co-working space hosts studios for nearly 50 companies, encourages collaboration, supports start-ups and has brought together an active design community. It’s been beautifully converted to include the new Sheaf Street Cafeteria.
THE TETLEY
Hunslet Road, LS10 1JQ www.thetetley.org A not-for-profit arts and learning centre in an iconic art deco building. It’s packed with workshops, exhibitions and opportunities to take part in the city’s art projects. Past projects have included painting workshops and food festivals.
VILLAGE BOOKSTORE
Call Lane, LS1 7BR www.villagebookstore.co.uk Village is an independent book store and gallery. They stock a huge range of zines and books, and it has the added benefit of being in the Corn Exchange, which is a beautiful building, home to loads of independent businesses.
BELGRAVE MUSIC HALL
ILLUSTRATION: Tom Woolley, www.tomwoolley.com
1 Cross Belgrave Street, LS2 8JP www.belgravemusichall.com The music scene at the Belgrave is second to none, the events are varied and the ever-changing street food offering keeps you on your toes. There is a constant stream of events happening. And to top it all off, there’s a roof terrace with a bar.
MUNRO HOUSE
Duke Street, LS9 8AG www.munro-house.co.uk A well-established creative hub in the city centre, known for its everchanging exhibitions and a variety of events. The main draw is an independent book and design shop, Colours May Vary, which supports local designers and print makers.
Daisy Hill first moved to Leeds in 2009 to study design at university. After falling in love with the city life she decided to stay. In 2014 she joined Elmwood, having admired the brand design consultancy for several years. www.elmwood.com COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 13 -
CULTURE P EOP LE MY STYLE IS...
BALLERINA MEETS HELL’S ANGEL VIA MARILYN MANSON
Amy Lord and Rebekah Whitney have redrawn their website to reflect the studio’s expansion
Michelle Haswell is a Glasgow graphic designer and blogger, otherwise known as Queen Michelle. www.kingdomofstyle.net
NE W V E NT URE S
STOMACH TATTOO Most of my tattoos are in memory of my parents, except one illconceived one on my stomach, which I got when I was 20. I may or may not have been drunk.
DOWN THE RABBIT HOLE Creative studio Lord Whitney has revamped its website, filling it with its signature blend of absurd aesthetics and whimsical humour
outed as self-proclaimed ‘connoisseurs of make-believe’, Lord Whitney exudes creative passion. From surreal sets to music videos and ad campaigns, its dedicated team has worked with a range of high-profile names like Cartier and Tate Liverpool. Now with a redesigned website, online visitors can indulge themselves in the nonsensical court of Lord Whitney.
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IRIS VAN HERPEN COUTURE SHOES
ILLUSTRATION: Rob Grasso, www.robgrassoillustration.com
These shoes are mental. I tried them on and had to have them, even though they are entirely impractical. I rarely wear them, therefore they are destined for a display cabinet at some point.
BALLET GEAR When I’m not designing and blogging, I’m a ballet dancer. It’s my passion and I couldn’t live without it. Ballet is this beautiful collision between femininity, pain, strength and precision.
Tell us what Lord Whitney does. We are passionate about play, creativity and the overuse of our imaginations, and we apply this to each of our projects – whether that’s a set piece for a fashion editorial, props for a window display, or an immersive environment for a theatre piece. We’re makers and make-believers at heart; we are a studio that has a talented team dedicated to designing and delivering original, imaginative and exciting new work. What made you update your website? When we designed the website three years ago we worked with Boxhead, who did an incredible job of representing Lord Whitney as the main two artists – Amy and Rebekah. Since then, we’ve grown COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 14 -
into a team of seven and been involved in much larger scale and high-end projects, so it just felt like we’d changed as a company and it didn’t quite represent what Lord Whitney has become. We were keen to evolve the site in the same way that we’ve evolved as a studio. How did you generate ideas for what the site could look like? We’ve developed a distinctive aesthetic and brand for ourselves, so it was natural to follow that through into the website design. There was a lot of generating ideas with Rabbit Hole, bouncing ideas back and forth with them and trying out different options, and of course we looked at websites we liked as well – not just their aesthetic but their functionality. What was the most challenging part and how did you overcome it? Trying to explain and get across the variety of work we do can be difficult. It’s much easier to just show people. We wanted to let the work speak for itself, but also offer a more in-depth look at Lord Whitney for those who take the time to explore the site. What three pieces of advice would you give any design studio looking to redesign its portfolio website? Think about how to get across a sense of your personality and creative style without trying to force it too much. Be clear about what you do, how you do it and who you’ve worked with. And have fun with it! See your website as a piece of work in itself, and design it with the care and creativity that you would give to any other work. www.lordwhitney.co.uk
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M Y DE SIGN SPACE IS...
PICTURE PERFECT
Illustrator and designer Tamer Koseli maintains a Zen-like zone of creativity amid the hectic bustle of Istanbul’s business district oes art imitate life or vice versa? The perennial question hovers tantalisingly over the clean, orderly and meticulous creative space of illustrator and designer Tamer Koseli, who could easily be sat in a scene straight out of his own minimalist sketchbook. Truth be told, it’s also the living room of Swiss-born Koseli’s home, a square peg in the round hole of downtown Levent, a bustling cluster of skyscrapers in one of Istanbul’s most frenetic business districts. “I’ve been living here for five years,” explains the bespectacled designer. “It’s basically full of things that have meaning for me, but one of the best things about it is that I can get to work right after I’ve got my first espresso while I still have my boxers on.” Convenience coffee comes with a twoway grip, thanks to the vestibular vessel (aka Dombo) at Koseli’s right-hand side (1). “I got this unbreakable Domoor cup while I was
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exhibiting at Milan Design Week 2009 as a student,” he recalls happily. “It reminds me of the good old days when I was constantly chock-full of inspiration, and how much fun I had on that trip – I guess it reminds me of childhood in a way.” Far from being relegated to a bygone era, design events are a recurring feature of Koseli’s rich and co-ordinated creative lifestyle, suggested by the Pictoplasma Character Portraits book that sits on his shelf (2). “I love design conferences and 2014 could well be the year that I attended the most,” he says. “I really appreciate the creativity of the presentations there.” The illustrator continues to find plenty of inspiration in children’s toys – as evidenced by the sentinel-like ForceBot that overlooks an assortment of retro action figures and iconic figurines (3). “It really doesn’t matter what age I am, I’ll always like them,” he assures us. “And despite
the fact that he doesn’t have feelings, I’ll always care about ForceBot, because he was my first ever robot toy. I’ll admit that I’m fairly mad about them.” His fondness for the giant LEGO head container (4) is more practical however: “I’m not sure if there’s another toy than LEGO which has affected the way I design and illustrate things,” he reflects. “Combining simple geometric shapes with a limited colour palette – that’s definitely a method I learnt from playing with the little bricks.” Finally, it’s impossible not to notice the Happy New Year card – designed by Hey Studio, delivered by Monocle – that takes singular pride of place on the whitewashed walls (5). Koseli reflects on the framed design: “Creating an illustration for Monocle was like a milestone for me. After that my career changed a lot,” he reveals, hinting at the exhibitions, print and online clients that his distinctive work has adorned ever since.
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Tamer founded his studio in Istanbul, Turkey in 2010. He has worked with clients such as Condé Nast, Knack Magazine, Men’s Health, The North Face and The Wall Street Journal. www.tamerkoseli.com
CULTURE EVENTS
OCTOBER 2015
KEY INFO LOCATION Ibiza, Spain www.ibiza.travel WHEN August 2015 PREVIOUS DESTINATIONS Copenhagen, Barcelona, Paris, Hamburg, Berlin, Reykjavik, Marbella, Oslo, Ibiza (again)
S O M E O N E S U M M E R PA R T Y
SOMEONE’S SPANISH SOCIAL
Award-winning London-based design practice SomeOne knows how to party! We caught up with founder and strategic director Simon Manchip to find out what makes the perfect team holiday ork hard, play hard – it could so easily be the motto of design agency SomeOne, whose recent holiday party saw the entire agency take Ibiza by storm…
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What are the key factors in deciding on a location for the party? Will it be memorable? We make our own fun, but it’s even better in a castle! Will it run out of drinks? We drank the Marbella Beach Club dry. Will we be asked to leave? Because 44 people can make quite a scene. Get those right and it’s great! Do you set aside studio budget for these events or does everyone chip in? Everything is paid for by the company. With the parties, we have always set out to give people the chance to experience things they couldn’t easily do on their own. We’ve hired a suite of private villas with their own private pools. We’ve swam in volcanic heated lakes in Iceland, been pulled across tundra by huskies, chartered yachts for the day, and taken over more than a few beach clubs and
high-end restaurants. It’s all budgeted for. No one has to put their hand in their pocket. Everyone is invited. Is it a big job pulling it all together – do you have designated organisers? It takes about three months to organise them. We have a core team who specialise in the various components. Flight. Hotel. Events. Food. Because we know they’ve got to be amazing we just fit in chats about plans when we get a chance. It’s entirely based on the enthusiasm to make it rock. Are these trips strictly ‘no work chat’ or do you ever have creative epiphanies? People can pretty much do whatever they want in the studio or on the beach. It’s all interlinked. It’s fun discussing next week’s film shoot in a sun-drenched jacuzzi. You’ve been to Ibiza before. Why again? I think we may have found our spiritual home. We are already talking about going back next year. It’s got it all. www.someoneinlondon.com COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 16 -
Poolside cocktails, sunshine-drenched sailing and, of course, clubbing are the perfect combination for the SomeOne crew
E V E NT S CULTURE
OCTOBER 2015
KEY INFO LOCATION The Catskills, New York, USA www.visitthe catskills.com WHEN August 2015
VAULT49 TE AM GE TAWAY
GOING WILD WITH VAULT49
New York-based design agency Vault49 looks forward to its summer retreats as an opportunity to get back to nature. Jonathan Kenyon talks good times in the Catskills countryside etting out of the studio is good for you – especially if you substitute it for a placid lakeside and undulating countryside. Which is what Vault49 did on its last retreat in upstate New York…
balance is incredibly important, I’d say especially in a creative profession. We’re fortunate enough to all be doing what we love, but it’s also a demanding career and it’s important to get a healthy dose of perspective.
Why did you choose the Catskills for your retreat and how was it? New York is deceptive. You feel like you’re in the middle of an urban metropolis but in just a couple of hours driving you’re exposed to some of the most impressive countryside to be found anywhere in the world. The Catskills offered us boating, fishing, hiking, camp fires, and all on a working farm, so each morning we got our own milk, eggs, and supplies for the day. Oh, and there was no cellular signal either, so we couldn’t be tempted to do a little work on the sly!
Do you have a recovery period or do you get straight back to work after? Our team returns to the office noticeably energised and ready for any challenge. There’s no recovery period and, if anything, we achieve so much in the following weeks to not notice the days we were absent.
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Why are studio socials so important? Our regular outings are an opportunity to celebrate our team, enjoy each other’s company, and also course-correct. It’s a cliché of course, but it’s true: work-life
Finally, what would your advice be to fellow studios thinking of organising something like this every year? There’s no reason why every studio can’t do regular team retreats. The returns are so much greater than the outlay, both in terms of effort and cost. A retreat doesn’t have to be expensive, it doesn’t have to be far, and it doesn’t have to disrupt client work if it’s well organised. www.vault49.com COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 17 -
Boating, fishing, hiking, canoeing and camp fires – all the elements that make Vault49’s retreat one to remember
CULTURE EVENTS
OCTOBER 2015
WHAT’S ON
dates for your diary The Pixel Show returns with a bang to the Latin American creative scene in October, with OFFSET London taking the schedule into November promising a raft of top notch speakers
LONDON DESIGN FESTIVAL
BRAND NEW CONFERENCE
19-27 SEPTEMBER Various venues, London www. londondesignfestival.com First staged in 2003, LDF is one of the world’s most hotly anticipated annual design events. The festival programme is made up of more than 350 exhibitions, installations, talks and debates that are staged by hundreds of partner organisations from across the design spectrum.
24-25 SEPTEMBER Lower Manhattan, New York www.underconsideration.com Hosted by UnderConsideration, this two-day event focuses on the development of corporate and brand identity projects by some of today’s most active and influential practitioners from around the world. Speakers this year include Etsy’s Julia Hoffman and Snask.
GLOBAL DESIGN FORUM
THE SECRET HANDSHAKE CONFERENCE
20-25 SEPTEMBER Cromwell Road, London www.globaldesignforum.com Staged during and organised by the London Design Festival, the GDF is the agenda-setting event for design, and aims to challenge established thinking by presenting key global issues and linking them to opportunities in the design sector. David Adjaye will design an installation for Somerset House as part of the Festival, which also features Wolfgang Buttress, the designer behind the UK Pavilion at Milan Expo 2015.
02-03 OCTOBER ADC Gallery, New York City www.learnthesecret handshake.com The Secret Handshake helps young creatives looking for insider insight, honest answers and solid solutions to go pro. Produced in partnership with the Art Directors Club (ADC), this conference brings together a broad range of talks, inspiration and educational panel discussions. Speakers this year include Wolff Olins’ Lisa Smith and ADC Young Guns 2011 Winner Ping Zhu.
HOW INTERACTIVE DESIGN CONFERENCE 05-07 OCTOBER Chicago, USA www.howinteractive conference.com Billed as the web conference for designers, HOW brings together interactive designers behind blockbuster web design projects for the likes of Google, Etsy, Fitbit and more. Through a mixture of talks and workshops, speakers will demystify concepts, share design processes that you can include in your own work, and highlight hot web design trends and tools.
SENSES & SENSIBILITY
PIXEL SHOW 17-18 OCTOBER São Paulo, Brazil www.pixelshow.com.br The Pixel Show is the biggest creative event in Latin America and the third largest in the world. Each year it brings together the Latin creative market featuring national and international lectures, workshops, exhibitions, live paintings sessions, new musicians and Sharp Talks (the mini free lectures that were such a success at last year’s show). Organised by Zupi, it caters best for creatives from Argentina, Brazil, Chile, Peru, Colombia and Portugal.
05-07 OCTOBER Lisbon, Portugal www.iade.pt/unidcom/ senses2015 This conference is an international forum for sharing and exchanging information which embraces the theoretical, applied and related areas of design and marketing. Strands will be delivered in parallel sessions through keynote presentations. Themes include culture and design, sustainability, future trends and innovation.
INTERACT LONDON
AIGA DESIGN CONFERENCE
OFFSET LONDON
08-10 OCTOBER Hyatt Regency, New Orleans www.designconference.aiga.org The AIGA conference brings the design community together to experience provocative speakers, local culture, nightly networking receptions and competitions, including Command X, in which emerging designers face off in head-to-head battles. The moderator for the event this year is Roman Mars, host of the popular ‘99% Invisible’ podcast on design. Exhibitions, professional development sessions and face-to-face roundtables with design heroes also feature.
12-13 NOVEMBER Shoreditch Town Hall, London www.iloveoffset.com One of the most well-regarded creative events around comes to London for the first time, and looks set to build on past successes when it has regularly drawn over 2,000 delegates to Dublin. A smorgasboard of top speakers will be in attendance, including illustrators Yasmeen Ismail, Tomi Ungerer, McBess and Seb Lester, creative agencies Graphic Thought Facility and Mother London, set designer Rachel Thomas, fashion designer Una Burke, and the inimitable Morag Myerscough.
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20-21 OCTOBER The British Museum, London www.2015.interactconf.com Interact London is a bespoke event that explores the importance of design and the roles that UX and IA play in today’s digital society. Together, the speakers and talks represent a mix of ‘philosophy and practice’ from some of the most accomplished thinkers and practitioners in their fields who believe design makes a difference. .
OCTOBER 2015
Strong opinion and analysis from across the global design industry THIS MONTH VERONICA FUERTE FOUNDER, HEY STUDIO www.heystudio.es
SABRINA SMELKO ILLUSTRATOR AND ART DIRECTOR www.sabrinasmelko.com
KATE MARLOW FOUNDER, HERE DESIGN www.heredesign.co.uk
REGULAR WRITERS BRUNO MAAG FOUNDER, DALTON MAAG
MARK BONNER PRESIDENT, D&AD
SABRINA SMELKO ILLUSTRATOR AND ART DIRECTOR
BEN TALLON FREELANCE DESIGNER
CRAIG WARD DESIGNER AND ART DIRECTOR
LOUISE SLOPER HEAD OF DESIGN, CHI & PARTNERS
WAS THE TOKYO LOGO FIASCO A WITCHHUNT? Veronica Fuerte blames social media – not plagiarism – for the abandonment of the first Tokyo Olympics logo
V E R ONI C A F UE R T E INSIGHT
OCTOBER 2015
ABOUT THE WRITER Veronica Fuerte set up Hey Studio in 2007 after working for a variety of design studios in Barcelona. Within a year she was joined by Elisava graduate and Hey Studio partner Ricardo Jorge, and together they built Hey into the multi-disciplinary studio that it is today. www.heystudio.es
s designers we are constantly surrounded by inputs. Information is everywhere and we are all bombarded by it all the time. Walking down the street we see posters, adverts, shops, people; on the internet we read blogs and articles, and look at thousands of images that people we follow have liked. Our culture is alive with ideas and they can be accessed as never before. We absorb all this information. Most of it goes in unconsciously and sometimes something stops us for a moment in our busy lives and makes us think, setting off a train of thought that arrives somewhere else. It’s quite normal that you remember some of these things you have seen and use them in some way without thinking about it too much. This is how the creative process works. There is an accumulation of ideas that over the years evolve in different ways when applied by different people. In a creative profession like design it’s essential to be aware of what has been done and what is being done. This is how we learn, how we get better and how the work that we produce grows. The really big challenge with making an identity is to create something unique. To make something completely unique is incredibly hard and if you manage to do it then you have either done something revolutionary and brilliant or something bad and wrong! An artist or a designer who is angry that their creativity has been copied makes a good news story. Social media explodes and everyone can give their opinion. There’s a big fuss, it’s a lot of fun and then it is forgotten. The disappointing thing when this happens in the less visible creative industries, like design, is the realisation that the only time that the profession seems to get noticed is when we are meant to be at war with each other. Sometimes you think it would be nice if the story could just be that someone produced a good identity but obviously we all know that isn’t the way these things work. Disaccord makes a better story. How closely one piece of creative work resembles another also depends on the type of work it is. Crossing the red line from being influenced by something to just copying it isn’t the same in every creative process. The smaller the creative palette, the more similarities there will be. That doesn’t mean it has been copied, it just means that if people are using the same tools, it is more probable they will come up with ideas that are like each other’s. When you work with geometry and synthesis in illustration and design, it is quite easy to arrive at a
a
similar place. You might have got there by completely different routes but it really isn’t at all surprising or unlikely that you reached conclusions that have things in common. The Tokyo logo is exactly this. There are similarities, elements that look the same, but that is just a coincidence which comes down to nothing more than that they were created using similar styles and techniques. Anyone would love to think that their work had been copied for a truly global event like the Olympics, but that just isn’t the case. But that doesn’t make as interesting a story as plagiarism. We live in an age where information and opinion is everywhere. Social media allows people to share their thoughts where before only a select few could do so through traditional media. This has been a positive thing in terms of what it allows us all to see and do.
“PUBLIC OPINION, AS EXPRESSED THROUGH SOCIAL MEDIA, PUT TOO MUCH PRESSURE ON THE OLYMPIC ORGANISING COMMITTEE AND WE SHOULDN’T BE SURPRISED THAT THEY DECIDED TO ABANDON THE LOGO”
The downside is that social media can act like a lynch mob, gathering enough force and momentum to make things happen which, with perhaps a little more thought, we wouldn’t allow to happen. Public opinion, as expressed through social media, put too much pressure on the Olympic organising committee and we shouldn’t be surprised that they decided the easiest thing to do was to abandon it and try to move on. I personally do not agree with taking legal action in cases like this because I believe it was a coincidence rather than an infringement of copyright. These things are very difficult, and expensive, to prove in court and, more importantly, I think that designers should be working together, not fighting each other. What’s your take on the Tokyo Olympics logo design? Tweet your thoughts to @ComputerArts using #DesignMatters
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INSIGHT D ES IGN MAT TER S
OCTOBER 2015
“HOW DO YOU MAKE BRANDING EMOTIONALLY ENGAGING IN A SATURATED MARKET?” H OL LY K A R L S S ON DIRECTOR, SHILLINGTON (US) www.shillingtonschool.com
“Develop an intimate knowledge of your target audience; dig past the stereotypes to find what resonates with them (and what doesn’t). You also need a clear understanding of what it is you’re trying to communicate; you can’t expect your audience to listen when you don’t know what it is you’re trying to say.”
R I C H A R D BA I R D FREELANCE DESIGNER AND FOUNDER, BP&O www.bpando.org “Branding projects should be seen as short stories; ones that designers are enthusiastic and capable of writing or talking about in a variety of situations. Good aesthetic sensitivities appeal to base instincts and a shared sense of taste. It is a connection easily made, but just as easily broken. In a saturated and increasingly capable market it is commonplace and offers little in the way of differentiation or longevity. Fostering and enhancing a genuine emotional connection comes from the recounting of process. This should be clear and honest, not reworked or post-rationalised. Happenstance should be celebrated, not downplayed. Process stories should be written or told with good intention, character and passion, in a way that is insightful and self-assured, yet avoids arrogance and the esoteric.”
GEMMA GERMAINS CREATIVE STRATEGIST, WELL MADE www.wellmadestudio.com
“It takes many skills to build a brand. It’s not enough to rely on strategists, we need to be proactive in the predesign stages. However, we can build relationships that equally value these skills. Good design won’t fix a dysfunctional team, immoral goals or a rubbish product. Maybe sometimes we should consider doing nothing at all.”
YOUR VIEWS Comment on Facebook, or tweet @ComputerArts with your thoughts using #DesignMatters
AUBREY DELA CRUZ Context and timing based on relevant truths and pains. Just like comedy.
@SUBEECHALI Know what your specific market loves and put it on full display. Don’t market vaguely to ‘everyone, ages 0 to 100!’
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@LUKETONGE Don’t bamboozle or overcomplicate things. Find a compelling truth and tell it simply. Assume the best of your audience.
DE SI G N M AT T E R S INSIGHT
OCTOBER 2015
B RU N O S E L LÉS CO-FOUNDER, VASAVA www.vasava.es “I believe that the key to connect and improve engagement with branding work nowadays is to celebrate the differences, embrace the originality and let the brands speak their very own language. As designers it is our duty to define brands’ voices. Markets are very fragmented and so the brands should be; it is our job to build identities in a inventive and unpredictable way, avoiding the standandarised solutions and allowing enough time and resources to explore every single aspect and peculiarity of the brand. If we can detect what makes a brand unique and build over it accordingly we’ll be succeding no matter how crowded the market.”
ROB G ON Z A L E Z CO-FOUNDER, SAWDUST www.madebysawdust.co.uk
“It’s a tricky question, but emotional engagement must come from the organisation itself, the visual branding can only do so much. It’s the lifeblood that runs through the business (that the identity is for), which ultimately will engage with its audience.”
@JRPCD Truth is always a nice way to connect with people. It should be the essence of every good brand; that and a decent product.
@JAMFACTORY By being honest!
TIM SMITH STUDIO LEAD, USTWO www.mypoorbrain.com
“We work a lot with users – from the very beginning of a project at brainstorming sessions to testing of prototypes. We like to tackle problems and create exciting experiences with their best interest at the core of the project. The branding tends to lead from the product itself and therefore it fundamentally connects and engages with the user – they crafted it with us after all! So my advice would be to work with the intended users as much as you can.”
@RHAPSODYDESIGN Be honest and tell the story of what drives you to help people, what makes you unique as a brand and a person.
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@LIAMBRAZIER Throw in a free cuddly toy? That appears to be the key draw to buying insurance these days.
I NSIGHT S ABR INA S MELKO
OCTOBER 2015
ABOUT THE WRITER Since graduating from her illustration course in 2012, graphic designer and illustrator Sabrina Smelko has amassed a client list that includes Cadbury and The New York Times. www.sabrinasmelko.com
Stop charging by the hour According to Sabrina Smelko, hourly pricing is tantamout to punching yourself in the face. The Ontario-based freelancer explains how to not be punished for being good at what you do
eople turn to charging hourly because it seems easier than conjuring up some random flat fee, but you’re only punishing yourself by doing this. Pricing hourly can be a slippery slope that leads to being underpaid, bitter and anxious. It’s counter-intuitive to growing as a professional. And that’s no fun. Let’s say you’re just starting out as a new designer and you’re charging $50 hourly. Project X takes you 10 hours, so you get $500 for the job. Years later, you’re more experienced and your skill level is far better – you work faster, you’re more efficient and a more well-rounded human being – and that same job could now be done in half the time, meaning you’d get $250 for it. That’s right – you, a more experienced, advanced designer, are making less for all of your experience and knowledge. So, for the sake of argument, let’s say over those few years you were smart enough to increase your rate from $50 to $100 (a significant jump which I guarantee clients will notice and do the math on), you’d still only be making $500, which, need I remind you, is the same amount as you did when you first started. And what’s worse? Your clients will likely turn their nose up at your price increase, pinch the pennies and (in some cases) call you out. Alternatively you might get told, “Listen: you’re good at this and it’s easy for you, so can you have a new pricing model where your fee changes depending on how easy a project is for you to do?” And, feeling defeated, you may cave – but fight that wimpy urge!
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You should respond with, “My time is worth my time,” but this response is often misunderstood (I speak from experience), leaving both the client and you a bit limp. There is one proven way to make more money with hourly pricing: by lying and finding ways to spend more time on a project while your client is trying to do the opposite. Doesn’t that sound like a great idea? No, it’s extremely awkward is what it really is. Lesson learned: you should never be paid less simply because you’re good at something. In fact, you should be compensated fairly for that expertise. How easy something is for you to do should never dictate pricing. It’s unfair to be punished for being good at what you do. That’s the problem with hourly pricing: it’s completely counter-intuitive. So what should you do? How should you price? There are so many factors that come into play, but in general pricing a flat fee based on value is typically more fair for everyone involved. Value-based pricing means you price based on a few factors: your time spent; your skill level and experience; the actual scope of the work (what’s really needed), and details such as usage, due date, number of anticipated revisions, size of the client and so on. So if you plan on getting better at what you do, please do yourself a favour and consider charging based on value rather than by the hour. Do you prefer to charge by the hour, and if so, why? Tweet @ComputerArts using #DesignMatters
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I NSIGHT K ATE MAR LOW
OCTOBER 2015
ABOUT THE WRITER Kate Marlow founded award-winning creative studio Here Design with Caz Hildebrand and Mark Paton in 2005. www.heredesign.co.uk
Doing it for the kids Inequality in the design studio isn’t simply a gender issue. Creative partner at Here Design Kate Marlow argues that the consequences of starting a family on one’s creative career have yet to be addressed
ast month, Computer Arts revealed the results of its first Creative Salary Survey and one stat in particular stood out. According to the data, male graphic designers in general are twice as likely to receive a pay rise through an internal promotion. But once they reach senior designer level, the reverse is true. What a weird statistic! I’m sure it can’t just be about confidence. I prefer to think there must be some really bizarre and unlikely explanation. Being one of four partners, three of whom are women, I can honestly say that I have never suffered any financial setback from being a woman and that my salary has always been a reflection of my efforts. I count myself lucky that I’ve always worked in non-sexist studios. Salaries always appeared to be related to merit. At Here it goes without saying that we raise our designers’ salaries in accordance with their brilliance, regardless of gender or level. In fact there was a time when we struggled to find male designers that lived up to the high creative standards set by a largely female team. So, I’m surprised to hear about the imbalances thrown up by the survey in the junior positions, yet proud that women are positively rewarded in the highest creative positions. On gender issues in the workplace generally, I think that the consequences of starting a family and parenting seem a far less-voiced problem. Women who leave their jobs to have children can often find that inequality faces them upon their return. I feel
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that since I had children I’m taken a little bit less seriously within our industry, yet it’s something nobody would ever admit to or voice openly. And if I’m feeling it just slightly then I wonder how many women feel it more acutely. It can feel like a bit of a minefield deciding what’s right and wrong. Is it fair for your colleagues to compensate for your need for flexi-time just because you have kids and need to leave early to spend time with them? Is it a ‘lifestyle choice’ that you should have to deal with through good and bad? Is there a social responsibility for others to support your decision? There don’t seem to be any easy answers that feel fair to everyone. One glimmer of light does occur to me. More mothers work part time or shorter working hours than fathers. That suggests a rather old-fashioned view. Despite my husband and I being supporters of gender equality, I’m the one who leaves early to collect the children and I’m the one who is there if they fall ill. Why is this? Our gender drives us into certain traditional behaviours. As a progressive, modern couple I don’t mind admitting that my husband and I are still a bit trapped in a gendered way of doing things and I feel conflicted about it. Maybe same-sex couples who have children will show us the way to equality at work and at home. I hope so: I’m up for some new role models. Are you paid what you deserve? Download the CA Creative Salary Survey 2015 at www.creativebloq.com/salary-survey
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Computer Arts selects the hottest new design, illustration and motion work from the global design scene
BILATERAL RELATIONS UK/MEXICO 2015 IDENTITY by Alphabetical www.alphabeticalstudio.com
UK/Mexico 2015 is a cultural celebration between Mexico and the UK – a year-long festival hosting a programme of highprofile cultural, academic and trade projects taking place across both nations. Shoreditch-based Alphabetical was asked to come up with an identity for the festival. "The challenge was to produce a truly bilingual concept that embraced the unification of the two nations," says studio co-founder Bob Young. The solution was a
custom typeface that visually connected both cultures and allowed them to speak as one. Young continues: "We wanted to strike the balance of a contemporary festival feel, but with enough historical equity from both countries that we could visually reference each nation without it becoming clichéd. With this in mind we made sure that the rest of the identity system outside of the typeface featured a vibrant colour palette and graphic use of photography."
S HOW CA SE
OCTOBER 2015
UK/MX is the biggest ever cross-cultural celebration between Mexico and the UK Many weeks of sketching were involved in developing the typeface's style Typographer Jeremy Tankard helped to craft the design and make it more functional The rest of the identity outside of the typeface features a vibrant colour palette Graphic use of photography reflects the cultural diversity of the year-long festival programme The typography works as an impactful and iconic numbering system for programme events
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T HE V E R Y B E ST NE W DE SI G N
OCTOBER 2015
THE REST OF THE INDUSTRY SAYS… BEN TALLON Illustrator and art director www.bentallon.com
“The clean-cut identity leaves me with a sense of essential intrigue. By avoiding temptation to involve flags or obvious clichéd references to either country, the typeface succeeds in its daunting challenge to reference both cultures with a strong and vital subtlety. Alphabetical's identity design allows all forms of creative work showcased to breathe and stand alone under an instantly recognisable look and feel.”
MARK RICHARDSON Founder, Superfried www.superfried.com
“This project is one of those where you wished it was sitting proudly on your own home page. It must be challenging to create a typeface to represent a whole culture, but to represent two seamlessly is borderline masochistic. It's commendable that despite the many boxes it must tick, the lettering style is still experimental, yet legible. The typeface also looks awesome in isolation or combined with imagery. So often type looks great with strong photography, but weak without – or vice versa. To achieve this balance is especially impressive considering the bold palette. The only negative is that the flamboyant, Mexican contribution potentially makes old Blighty look a bit dull in comparison!” COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 31 -
S HOW CA SE
OCTOBER 2015
STRIPEY MIGRAINE STRIPES by Charles Williams www.madeup.org
Self-initiated work can be an excellent opportunity to experiment with new styles, but this project from London-based illustrator Charles Williams proves that it can make good business sense too. "The brief I set myself was to explore a variety of 3D forms – typographic, abstract objects and so on – just using undulating lines," says Williams of project, which has already led to commissions from the likes of Wired and Fortune magazine. "I have a sort of recurring obsession in my work – the idea of revealing something hidden in interesting ways. I like to depict forms that suggest content (often typographic), playing with legibility and creating an
interplay between the textural, intricate forms that create the image, and the image itself," Williams continues. "This project is a continuation of that idea, using a simpler aesthetic toolkit –just stripes and simple colourways." Like most of his projects, Williams' so-called "stripey migraine" began life on isometric gridded paper, which enables him to work ideas out, before he moves the piece into Illustrator where the real work begins. But Williams assures us the pay-off is worth it: "It's fun when you get to the point where the thing you are trying to depict starts to appear and it goes from complicated mess to something clean and representational."
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T HE V E R Y B E ST NE W DE SI G N
OCTOBER 2015
BEHAVIOURAL ECONOMICS FORBES JAPAN ILLUSTRATIONS by Karolis Strautniekas www.strautniekas.com
Tasked with illustrating a series of articles with potentially dry subject titles like 'Rational emotions' and 'The science of scarcity', some illustrators would struggle from sheer lack of inspiration. Not Karolis Strautniekas, who received just such a brief from Forbes Japan magazine, for a special in-depth look at the world of behavioural economics. "The articles were the only materials I had," says the Lithuania-based illustrator. "But the art directors gave me absolute freedom to interpret it and I'm very thankful for that." Strautniekas' main challenge was to avoid straightforward interpretations and come up with deeper, more beautiful metaphors. In the illustration shown here, Strautniekas sought to express the idea that scarcity constrains our ideas and our choices: "For example, poor people can't afford to think about the future in the long term as they are always forced to think about today and tomorrow." With the first rough sketches of each idea in his Moleskine notebook, Strautniekas turned to his Cintiq and drew them in Photoshop. "I would describe the aesthetic as literary, calm, melancholic, from a time that is difficult to define," he adds.
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S HOW CA SE
OCTOBER 2015
— PRINT HIGHLIGHT —
GOLDEN AGE OF DESIGN BRAND GUIDE: SINGAPORE EDITION by Foreign Policy www.foreignpolicydesign.com
Say hello to the first edition in a series of publications featuring the iconic homegrown brands that make up the current golden age of design in Singapore. The idea was conceived by local idea makers and storytellers Foreign Policy design, who sought to document the people and the process behind some of Singapore's most successful brands. "I wanted to share the journeys and stories of how brand owners build their brands, typically starting with only an idea and a belief," explains ambassador of design Yah-Leng Yu, who combined traditional and digital tools in its production. "The people who help craft and design them should be celebrated and should continue to inspire the next wave to come." Yah-Leng Yu wanted to buck the trend of image-heavy design books lacking written information about featured projects, and saw the proliferation of great brands as an opportunity to document their stories and inspirations. "Finally we can blow our own trumpets," she says. "There's no better time to be a designer in Singapore."
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T HE V E R Y B E ST NE W DE SI G N
OCTOBER 2015
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S HOW CA SE
OCTOBER 2015
BASKETBALL FOREVER KOBE BRYANT BRAND TYPEFACE by Sawdust www.madebysawdust.co.uk
London-based creative agency Sawdust was approached by Nike to develop a fully functional display typeface for its signature basketball player Kobe Bryant. The brief was to create something entirely bespoke based on Bryant's existing logo mark (the sheath logo), which needed to work alongside and expand on this existing branding. "Like with any bespoke typeface the idea was to have something that exists exclusively for the brand – in this case Kobe Bryant – and represents him as an iconic sports player," explains Sawdust co-founder Rob Gonzalez. "We worked closely with the designers at Nike to realise something that is unique, versatile and very much on brand. This meant we had to design something that commands attention, is unapologetic and striking, like Kobe himself." The main challenge was to create type that felt unique yet complemented the existing logo. "We found inspiration from the negative space and the star-like central point of the sheath logo mark," says Gonzalez. "These elements went on to form the base structure of the letterforms."
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T HE V E R Y B E ST NE W DE SI G N
OCTOBER 2015
— FEATURED SHOWREEL —
BALL GAMES STUDIO SHOWREEL by Cub Studio www.cubstudio.com
You can't create a showreel without a portfolio of work to draw from, but there's more to a creative reel than simply tacking past projects together. The animation and motion graphic specialists at London-based Cub Studio were busy animating client projects throughout 2014 and didn't get an opportunity to showcase their latest and best work until March of this year. "We finally managed to sit down and create a shortlist of key shots we felt we had to include," says Cub Studio co-founder Ben Skinner. "After numerous edits we managed to agree on about a minute of footage. We wanted to ensure the reel stayed punchy to ensure viewers were engaged. With so many showreels created each year it was important to us to ensure people watched and remembered ours." The reel opens explosively with a flight of fighter jets screeching over an American football stadium – taken from the studio's Guide to Liberals, Ladies and Limeys animation – and there's no let-up in pace throughout as the pumping beat carries the sportsoriented action to a satisfying conclusion.
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S HOW CA SE
OCTOBER 2015
BUILDING BLOCKS POSEIDON HELSINKI BRANDING by Kokori & Moi www.kokoromoi.com
Poseidon Helsinki is a Finnish company with the aim of centralising the tasks of architect and builder under the same roof. Creative agency Kokori & Moi was approached to create a visual identity for the company and design brand applications covering the full remit, from website to collateral and products. The primary elements of the identity are the outlined geometric shapes filled with colour, inspired by a map of downtown Helsinki with all its blocks and buildings. These illustrate the area where the company operates as well as the potential sites it could take over and renovate, while the text and logo are placed in horizontal and vertical directions like streets running around buildings. Graph paper was also incorporated into the identity in order to highlight the company's architectural design principles. "The visual identity was inspired by the era of modernism, with its colours, grids and shapes," says Kokori & Moi co-founder Antti Hinkula. "We took influence from architecture and the art of time, led by Corbusier and the masters of geometric abstraction. It was a super-fun project – and straightforward!"
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T HE V E R Y B E ST NE W DE SI G N
OCTOBER 2015
— MOTION HIGHLIGHT —
LIFE AMPLIFIED ITV2 CHANNEL IDENTS by ManvsMachine www.manvsmachine.co.uk
ITV Creative approached ManvsMachine looking for a youthful brand refresh to help ITV2 reconnect with its target audience of 16–34 year old Brits. The project needed to embrace the programming and demographic while unabashedly celebrating excessive entertainment by shaking things up a bit. "ITV2 is the naughty sibling of the ITV family, so we created a badly behaved channel brand system that disregards the norms of sheduling," explains creative director Mike Alderson. "Rather than delivering a pre-packaged set of idents, we
delivered an automated modular play-out system that assembles idents randomly on the fly." In keeping with ITV2's outlandish brand of entertainment, the studio latched onto the theme of amplifying everyday life as the visual hook. "Life amplified," says Alderson. "It's cheeky, whimsical and unapologetically excessive. Creating a torrential rain of hammers was particularly enjoyable!" The scenes are a mix of CG and live action, the CG shots created in Cinema4D and the live action scenes shot on Arri Alexa and Amira cameras.
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P I T C H M OR E P E R SUA SI V E LY
OCTOBER 2015
WIN OVER SCEPTICAL CLIENTS
Not every creative project is smooth sailing from pitch to delivery. Here’s what to do when a client rejects your design WORDS: Anna Richardson Taylor ILLUSTRATION: Wijtze Valkema www.bamseontwerpt.nl
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icture this: the concept is perfectly sound – in fact it’s the best you’ve designed in a while. The team has invested copious research, insight and creative juices, and come up with a presentation that will envelop the client in a wave of enthusiasm and appreciation. The deck is finessed, the sell is delivered with gusto and everyone looks up at the client in anticipation – only to find tumbleweed blowing, followed by a big fat ‘no’. Admittedly, this scenario is extreme. Everyone knows that good designers build relationships with clients based on trust and communication. It is important to create that trust from the start, to challenge a woolly brief and seek access and exchange throughout the design process, making a point-blank dismissal unlikely. As James Kent, founding partner and executive creative director of Why, says, communication is 80 per cent of a designer’s job. A good designer needs to sell ideas, concepts and variations on a theme throughout the project, minimising the risk of outright rejection wherever possible.
ALGY BAT TE N C R E AT I V E DIRECTOR, FIVEFO OTSIX Algy is the co-founder of Fivefootsix, a design and branding consultancy that creates strong personalities for organisations. He has also worked at studio Browns, Nokia and Unicef. www.fivefootsix.co.uk
JAMES KENT CO-FOUNDER WHY James was a founding partner of KentLyons for 12 years before setting up Why. He has been working with leading brands such as BBC, Channel 4, BT and BSkyB for almost 20 years. www.wearewhy.co.uk
However, although it is not the norm, the big fat ‘no’ can happen. At US design studio Go Media, rejection of all ideas in the first round happens in less than 5 per cent of cases: “Although spontaneous client feedback can range from ‘Genius!’ to ‘This is not even close – were you even listening to me?’,” says Go Media president and designer William Beachy. Therefore, if you’re faced with rejection, don’t panic. This is the point at which a designer’s mettle and communication skills come into their own.
READ THE ROOM If you find yourself in a client scenario that screams rejection, it’s always important to remember that those clients are just people, stresses Steven Wills, creative director at Substance. Just as in any other situation, it is easy enough to spot when someone is being ignorant, kind, helpful, unhelpful, arrogant or an odd combination of all of these, Wills says. “So it is easy to pick up the signals being projected by the people in front of you in a presentation.
ROBERT SOAR C R E AT I V E DIRECTOR, DRAGON ROUGE Prior to joining Dragon Rouge, Robert was a director and creative director at Enterprise IG (now Brand Union) and FutureBrand UK, as well as creative director at Fishburn Hedges. www.dragonrouge.com
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SAR AH C AT TLE C R E AT I V E DIRECTOR, PEARLFISHER Sarah leads Pearlfisher’s design studio, encouraging imaginative, bold ideas. She has been responsible for the creative direction of some of Pearlfisher’s award-winning work. www.pearlfisher.com
I N DUST RY ISSUE S
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CLIENTS’ MIND GAMES
Expert recruiters and negotiators give us their top tips for improving your current situation SYMPATHY/LIKEABILITY The sympathy/likeability principle of influence posits that people are more prone to be influenced by those they like. In laymen’s terms, make the right impression at the crucial initial presentation stage – it can make or break an idea.
AUTHORITY When people feel unsure about a purchase, they look for a testimony from a person with authority on the subject. As a designer, your position of expertise is given – why else would a client commission you? Don’t create an ‘us versus them’ atmosphere though; guiding the client rather than dictating them through the process is key.
ULTIMATE TERMS The psychological theory of ‘ultimate terms’ states that certain words carry more power than others. The three categories of persuasive words include ‘god terms’ that demand obedience or carry blessings (such as ‘progress’ or ‘value’); devil terms, that are despised (‘fascist’, ‘paedophile’); and charismatic terms, which are less well defined. So choose your words wisely, their message will be all the more persuasive.
YALE ATTITUDE CHANGE APPROACH The Yale Attitude Change psychological approach dictates that a number of factors and characteristics can enhance persuasive speech. Being a credible, attractive speaker, for example, can work wonders with certain audiences. In addition, messages should not appear to be designed to persuade, and speakers should always present a two-sided argument.
AMPLIFICATION HYPOTHESIS This theory states that displaying certainty about an attitude when talking to another person will help to increase and harden that attitude, according to online resource ChangingMinds.org. Conversely, when the attitude displayed is uncertain it will soften the attitude in the other person too. To persuade someone, therefore, you need to align your attitude to theirs. So if a client has an opposing opinion, you show vague agreement, but if the client expresses a better opinion, agree wholeheartedly.
Therefore it’s your job as a person, not a designer, to understand and pick up on this.” You have to make sure you get the measure of the room. “Some people need persuasion, some are skeptical from the start, some just want to learn more in order for them to make a decision on something which isn’t their area of expertise,” says Kent. “A good designer and presenter would be able to see this and tailor their presentation to fit these people and to answer their requirements, allowing them to concentrate on the work and make informed and confident decisions.” So if a design is going down like a lead balloon, don’t keep on presenting. You’re better off acknowledging things aren’t quite right. “Engaging in a conversation at this stage is vitally important,” adds Kent. “This is when the client is at their most engaged and this is when you can pick the key drivers that will make them love the next route you show. If you labour that first route that they hate and drone on, then when you get to route three, even your excitement for it won’t be enough to bring them round.” Sarah Cattle, creative director at Pearlfisher, agrees. “If a client isn’t sure or shows a degree of indecisiveness, this is when a situation could be turned around and helpful suggestions made to try and help make them appreciate it,” she says. Giving clients the time and space to absorb the ideas is a good idea. “What on first viewing may evoke a strong reaction, either way, can change within 24 hours,” says Cattle. “Encourage clients to combine their immediate gut reaction with their perspective 24 hours later.” If the response is an ultimate rejection, however, it is time to listen even more so. Beachy suggests restating the client’s feedback back to them. “This shows the client that you are listening and it also helps to eliminate any misunderstandings,” he explains. “It’s tough to hear negative feedback about your design. And it’s quite natural to throw the defenses up and fight. But just stop. Take a deep breath and consider what the client has told you. Maybe they’re right.”
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P I T C H M OR E P E R SUA SI V E LY
OCTOBER 2015
creative director at Dragon Rouge London, tries to think of all the questions a client may have. “I need to prove that I have thought of everything and this gives the client more confidence in us. They become more open to being persuaded that our idea is right as a result.” “You need to back up all ideas with concrete insight,” adds Kent. “Frank and honest conversation is always the best solution. If you genuinely don’t think a client’s preference is right, then you need to offer the suggestion why. If through your research and background Nonetheless, having listened to and understood work you can honestly say that a client’s feedback and views, you pink will offend 36 per cent of might still want to stand up for the audience, then this is what what you believe is the right will convince otherwise. Do your design route. Algy Batten, owner research and have a reason for at branding agency Fivefootsix, everything, don’t stew in the reckons that doing an about-turn studio pushing pixels.” the moment a client doesn’t see The way you present those the value in something suggests facts can also make a marked the designer might not have impact. You have to state your confidence in the solution, making case calmly and knowledgeably. the client lose faith. “If you can’t intellectually explain Fredrik Öst, co-founder the merits of your design choices, and creative director at Swedish maybe your design choices are agency Snask, says that he has WILLIAM BEACHY more subjective than design experienced rejection of design driven,” says Beachy. “For ideas many times, but has always instance: ‘Well Bob, we shouldn’t managed to fight for them. “Fight put yellow text on a white background because there for your ideas and design concepts. If you don’t know isn’t sufficient contrast for anyone to read it’ is a design how to then you haven’t designed with the right process,” merit-based point. ‘Well Bob, we shouldn’t make your logo he says. “If you have a good relationship with the client, pink because, uhh, it’s ugly’ is just your subjective opinion then it shouldn’t be persuasion but convincing. The and isn’t going to convince anyone of anything.” difference is that convincing is showing evidence and reason as to why and how your idea and concept works. Then the client will have to reason as to why it doesn’t work, and then you can agree or disagree but it will end Using real-world examples to make a case can help to in a compromise, and you will want that compromise to convince a client of the merit of a design idea, adds be beneficial for both sides.” Beachy. “It’s hard for clients to argue with you when Showing the evidence and reason behind a good you’re following a design principle that Nike, Apple design is crucial. Before a presentation, Robert Soar, and Coca-Cola are also employing.”
As many point out, designers are not artists, but hired to produce great creative work within the confines of a brief. “Designers must remember this,” says Wills. “Clients have a far greater understanding of their specific business and marketplace than the designer does and therefore have a valid and important perspective in shaping what is ultimately created.”
FIGHT FOR IDEAS
“IT’S TOUGH TO HEAR NEGATIVE FEEDBACK ABOUT YOUR DESIGN. AND IT’S QUITE NATURAL TO THROW THE DEFENSES UP AND FIGHT. BUT JUST STOP.”
THE REAL WORLD
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Another trick, says Beachy, is to show clients both options – their preferred way, and yours. This gives the client the feeling that they are in control. In fact, reassuring the client that they are in charge is a crucial step in dealing with rejection. “You need to start by lowering their defences,” says Beachy. No matter how adept at communicating a designer is, eventually there will come a situation, in which a return to the start is required. At this point, the challenge is to refuel and find energy to start over again, says Öst. Kent suggests taking a significant step back. “Don’t try and design yourself out of it. Don’t sit at a computer, fiddling with things, hoping the next route will solve the problem – it won’t,” he explains. “You need to take a bigger step back and work with the client, take each step of the process with them so they are party to all the information, reasoning and background. Then when you re-present ideas they will see how you came to that conclusion.”
“Pick your battles,” Beachy says. “Take a moment to remind yourself that you’re a commercial artist. You’re being paid to help a client execute something. You should always work to produce good design, but know when to fight and when to just give the client what they want. Learn to put your ego on the shelf for a while. Ultimately, your design is not you. You have tens of thousands of these projects ahead of you. So let’s not give ourselves a heart attack over every one.”
REASONS FOR REJECTION
From fear of failure to simple impatience, here are the common causes of client rejection
Reasons a client might reject an idea are manifold – from “reasons with no reasoning behind them”, as Fredrik Ösk from Snask puts it, to simple budget considerations.
BACK TO SQUARE ONE
Naming often elicits powerful reactions that see clients dismissing ideas out
Coming up with an entirely new design can have an impact on costs and time, but there are ways of tackling this challenge too. When Cattle and her team were at the first stage of a project for natural skincare brand Green&Spring, she loved a concept that was later rejected. “I took it on the chin,” says Cattle, “but rather than give them another set of three worked-up concepts which would have taken another two weeks, I decided to approach it differently.” Cattle created loose conceptual boards, with sketches and inspirational imagery, which took her around two days. When those pieces were presented to the client, they fell in love with the ‘British Bird’ concept. Ironically, the second solution is often better than the first, Soar points out. And so it should be: “You are now very clear what the client does and does not want.” Through the fog of possible disappointment and the energy spent on extolling the merits of your brilliant original idea, one thing in particular is worth remembering.
of hand, sometimes for a variety of personal reasons rather than considered decision-making, says Why’s James Kent. The fear of failure can also play a part. A particularly daring idea can be perfect for a client, but at the same time push their comfort zone, Kent adds. “The client looks at this and thinks, ‘We are spending quite a bit of budget on this, if I don’t get the ROI I am going to have a very uncomfortable review meeting with my boss. Best play it safe.” Another idea might be too early for a certain target market, Sarah Cattle at Pearlfisher says. “Designers, by their nature, need to be ahead of the curve. You might just see your concept 10 years later.” But it’s not all about the client’s opinion – subjective, reasoned or otherwise. Rejection can be due to a designer’s own making. Steven Wills of Substance, for example, says that only once has he presented work that ultimately met with a complete rejection. “I put this down to my own eagerness and impatience,” he says. “I should have spent time challenging what was a flowery and quickly written design brief and foolishly thought I could overcome this obstacle by getting all ‘creative’. It was a big, expensive mistake, as a full and final parting of the ways quickly ensued.”
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80 G E M S OF B R A NDI NG W I SDOM
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M E G
F O S
BRANDING WISDOM
The winning agencies at Computer Arts’ very own Brand Impact Awards 2015 share their branding expertise
T
he great and the good of branding filled London’s Grand Connaught Rooms in September for the second annual Brand Impact Awards – our celebration of the best branding from all across the world. One of the things that sets the BIAs apart from other design awards is that work is judged in context. As well as a strong concept that’s beautifully and consistently executed, judges were asked to consider whether the project stands heads and shoulders above the rest of the market sector for which it was designed.
Over the next 32 pages, we’ll showcase all of the hugely inspiring projects that have won or been highly commended at this year’s BIAs, including two special awards that are designed to recognise the power of social impact and the value of fruitful collaboration. But we’ve also channeled the combined experience of all the agencies that created these projects into 80 gems of branding wisdom – advice that, in the spirit of the BIAs, is tightly focused on the market sector at hand. Read on to discover the secrets of world-class branding...
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Artisan
Winner (programmes) Mister Cooper by johnson banks www.johnsonbanks.co.uk
johnson banks was asked by ice-cream start-up Mr Cooper to create a distinctive logo and set the tone for its unconventional brand. Specialising in alcoholic and gourmet flavours, Mr Cooper’s treats were strictly for grown-ups and the brand needed an identity to match its approach. After presenting a number of initial designs johnson banks developed the concept of a typographic lipstick mark to express the hedonistic nature of the product in an appropriate form. The logo could be rubber-stamped onto white paper cups and napkins as though a cheeky kiss had been planted. The challenge was to craft a beautiful hand-lettered mark utilising both positive and negative space to spell out the brand name within the lip shape. As the logo developed further, johnson banks experimented with a variety of lettering styles and worked through challenges within the design such as legibility and spacing, before arriving at an arrangement and lettering style that really worked. Lettering specialist Rob Clarke helped fine tune the details, making the logo look voluptuous and unified. Finally, the firm brought the identity to life across real-world applications including packaging, uniforms and merchandise.
80 GEMS OF BRANDING WISDOM
LONGITUDINAL THINKING When dealing with individuals in a potentially stressful start-up scenario, you have to keep imagining that one day, that little brand could be something really huge, advises Michael Johnson of johnson banks. “Keep on believing in what the team is trying to do, without lapsing into ‘trendy for a week’ designer clichés.”
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Automotive
Highly commended (programmes) Williams F1 Group by hat-trick www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk
hat-trick rebranded the Williams Group to bring the focus of the corporate brand back onto the famous name, drawing all the activities together under that name and simplifying the brand architecture. The firm created a simple but distinctive logotype, featuring a W monogram that could be used as a shorthand mark. To reflect the precision engineering of the group, a distinctive, elegant typeface with a small bevel detail was designed for use across all communications, while the heritage of the 35 F1 cars in the company’s history is preserved through graphic silhouettes.
Bar and Restaurant
Highly commended (programmes) Pico de Gallo by Bienal Communication www.bienal.mx
Pico de Gallo is a contemporary Mexican restaurant in Yucatan, Mexico, with an elegant and irreverent personality. The restaurant name was inspired by typical Mexican salsa, and creative studio Bienal Communication collaborated with Mexican architect Gerardo Sarur to create a consistent, congruent atmosphere based on essential flavours from Mexican cuisine. The branding breathes with the interior design, in harmony with the eccentric graphic concept inspired in traditional Mexican cantinas – but adapted for new generations.
BUILD IN LONGEVITY In conservative sectors like Automotive, hat-trick’s Gareth Howat advocates building a case for change. “Show that your branding has flexibility and potential to adapt, and therefore longevity,” he says. For Williams, they trod a line between the brand’s technical and emotive sides.
02
START WITH THE DETAILS Many people brand restaurants by first creating the concept then thinking about decoration, music, type of food, and so on. Bienal creates in the reverse: from the particularities to the general concept. “This way our creative process is better nourished and without limits,” says designer Eugenia Diaz.
03
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Culture
best of show shortlisted.
Winner (programmes) Almedia Theatre by NB Studio www.nbstudio.co.uk
To mark the arrival of a new artistic director and to signal a new strategic direction, the Almeida Theatre approached London-based branding and communication firm NB Studio to review and refresh its brand. After an intensive period of immersion and briefing sessions, NB highlighted the key themes that would inform the work, proposing a bold re-brand rather than mere cosmetic enhancement. The new visual language reflects the theatre’s boldness of purpose, contemporary relevance, and ambition to challenge and question theatre, the stage, the plays and its dialogue with the world. To ensure effective and creative use of the branding in all communications, NB partnered with Almeida to provide creative direction and design of all key applications, from the on-site identity to show imagery and membership materials. In the six months following the rebrand, the Almeida Theatre has gained plenty of high-profile media coverage, taken three sold-out shows to the West End and beyond, and went on receive an impressive haul of theatre award nominations.
CREATE DEBATE Never be afraid to put your hand in the blender, says NB Studio. Cultural organisations thrive on debate, so if you don’t challenge them, you’re not doing your job. For the Almeida for example, NB created posters with photographer David Stewart. “These visceral images divide opinion and ignite debate,” says brand strategist Dan Radley. “It’s exactly what the Almeida is all about.”
04
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Highly commended (programmes) DeviantArt by Moving Brands www.movingbrands.com
DeviantArt is the world’s largest online social network for artists. Moving Brands was asked to support its drive for new partnerships and aggressive growth goals. To guide the creation of the new brand, Moving Brands defined the core story – ‘Bleed and Breed Art’ – and evolved the logo into a literal representation of its desire to turn the art world upside down. The pattern uses the symbol, while the system includes brand typography and a fully customised iconography set for the website and mobile app. At launch, millions of lapsed and new members rediscovered the site. Tellingly, thousands of artworks were created from the new brand.
Highly commended (programmes) The Jewish Museum by Sagmeister & Walsh www.sagmeisterwalsh.com
Sagmeister & Walsh was tasked by the Jewish Museum with connecting the historic and contemporary, and engaging multiple visitor generations. To do this, the firm designed a new identity system founded on an ancient geometric system from which the Star of David was formed. Drawn on this grid, the branding system invites surprise and flexibility across all media, while remaining unified in visual language. A processing app was also built to turn a photo or webcam stream into a Jewish Museum illustration.
BE A STORYTELLER “For cultural organisations, the articulation of why they do what they do is the most important aspect to get right,” says Moving Brands co-founder and chief creative officer Jim Bill. “A cultural brand without a clear story can never have a compelling brand, period.”
05
DO NOT DECEIVE Honesty is key when formulating a cultural brand, says Stefan Sagmeister. “Whatever we deliver as branding specialists won’t work if it’s not sincere and truthful to the institution or organisation itself. Bending the truth is a high risk manoeuvre, and lies usually only work once, not twice.”
06
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Highly commended (campaigns) Google Year In Search by R/GA London www.rga.com
‘Year in Search’ was a breakthrough film telling the story of 2014 through the trillions of searches made around the world. More than a wrap up of the year, ‘Year In Search’ was a data-driven narrative, exploring our burning questions and heartfelt reactions to big events and the minutiae of our everyday lives, to give one of the most genuine perspectives of the world today. R/GA crunched millions of lines of data to uncover the human insights hidden within Google search and turned big data into an even bigger story. From pure questions like ‘what is love?’ to reactions to global tragedies like Flight MH370, this film offers a snapshot of the times we’re living in. R/GA set out to do more than remind people of things that happened: it wanted to offer fresh insight and a new way of looking at the world.
EXIT THE COMFORT ZONE The arts are a progressive voice, opening debate, changing opinion and highlighting new ways of thinking. Brands should push the boundaries in the same way, says Moving Brands’ chief creative officer Jim Bull. “If your work feels within the comfort zone, it’s time to start over.”
07
COLLABORATION IS KEY Collaboration from early on is always a good thing, says NB Studio’s brand strategist Dan Radley. When working on cultural brands, consider setting aside a ‘transformation space’ to gather early opinion on what the current branding lacks, and where the client sees the organisation’s cultural narrative heading and how the new branding will reflect that.
08
LET CREATIVE BRANDS BREATHE If you’re designing identity systems, keep things simple and flexible, advises Radley. “Your clients won’t have loads of money to spend but what they will have is lots of imagination. So, respect the shared nature of cultural assets, and have the audacity to hand control to the people who use them every day.”
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FASHIONABILITY KILLS “A timeless branding solution will save your client a potential fortune in future rebrand fees,” says Radley. “Rupert Goold, the director of the Almeida, recently told us, ‘Aristotle invented modern theatre. So, if you’re doing a Greek series, you’d better know your Greeks.’ Similarly, if you’re seeking design inspiration for a cultural organisation, always start with the founder’s story.”
10
BREAK OUT OF THE MOULD “Look at what every other existing cultural organisation is doing in the same city or local region and then stay well away from all of it,” warns Stefan Sagmeister, “unless of course you are working for an institution whose stated mission is to copy another one in town.”
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BEWARE ‘STAKEHOLDER MANAGEMENT’ Close collaboration with your client may be key (see tip 08) but even intellectual giants of the cultural world sometimes need rescuing from their own bewildering inclusiveness. Always keep this in mind in this space, and above all have the courage of your convictions in the face of adversity.
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social impact shortlisted.
Education
Winner (programmes) Apprenticeships Awards by Purpose www.purpose.co.uk
Back in November 2013, the NEC Birmingham first held The Apprenticeships Awards evening and accompanying Made by Apprentices exhibition. The event celebrated the year’s achievements from the country’s top apprentices, promoting the various ways they have made a difference to workplaces across the country. Branding agency Purpose was hired to create a visual identity that celebrated all the great products that had been made by apprentices over the past year. It designed an adaptable scaffolding system to create various structures throughout the event, to hold everything from earrings, to Lewis Hamilton’s Formula 1 car. The studio designed a Meccano-esque typeface, called Assemble, made from graphic plates and rivets, and a complete graphic language based around the elements of construction, echoing the apprentices’ handcrafted creations. This approach became a visual thread running through the messaging, materials and graphics across the entire venue, working to praise the accomplishments of young apprentices and put them firmly in the spotlight. Due to the success of the branding programme, the identity was used as a benchmark and consistently applied across all communications at all subsequent Apprenticeship Awards events.
INVOLVE THE STUDENTS Students are incredibly passionate about any changes to what an institution’s brand represents, notes executive creative director at Purpose, Stuart Youngs. “So take a broad cross section of them through the process with you, or pay the consequences later.”
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NEVER TALK DOWN Nobody likes a pretender, warns Youngs. “Never attempt to speak to students ‘on a level’ because they will always see straight through it. Education brands in particular need to be aspirational and behave with absolute integrity if they are to be respected.”
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Highly commended (campaigns) UAL recruitment campaign by Spy Studio www.spystudio.co.uk
Camberwell, Chelsea and Wimbledon, three of the six colleges that form University of the Arts London, needed a student recruitment campaign and asked SPY Studio to come up with something vibrant and engaging that captured the spirit of the art school. Experimentation, a sense of adventure and eclecticism are central to the values of the institution and the campaign had to communicate these qualities. SPY spent time on campus getting a feel for the environment and produced collages that were the foundation for the branding. The final materials differentiated the colleges and personified their spirit and energy.
Highly commended (campaigns) UAL: The Album by Supple Studio www.supplestudio.com
Arts project Album was borne out of a collaboration between the Widening Participations department at University of the Arts London and photography archive Autograph as a taster project undertaken by London’s inner-city youth. Taking the traditional family album as a starting point, young people explored their identities and cultural heritages and that of their communities. The project culminated in a week-long exhibition at the Autograph gallery in East London. The identity for Album is inspired by the creative ways people juxtapose their photographs in a family album. These many juxtapositions helped create a flexible, ever-changing identity system which reflects the diversity and creativity of the students who completed the course.
ASSUME NOTHING People assume that all educational establishments are the same but every institution has its own set of problems to grapple with, says Spy Studio’s Ben Duckett. Go in with eyes wide open.
15
MAKE IT REAL Education is a passport, so be sure to focus on the destination, says Purpose’s Stuart Young. “There’s rarely a better way of proving a provider’s ability to ‘take me there’ than through peer to peer examples.”
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BE BRAVE In education there are often many stakeholders needing to be pleased, says Ben Duckett. “Create open channels of communication to share views, but always stay true to your ethos.”
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Entertainment
Winner (programmes) BBC Newsbeat by Moving Brands www.movingbrands.com
The way people consume news is changing, and BBC Newsbeat, the news service aimed at 16 to 24-year-olds, had fallen behind. Moving Brands was engaged to reinvent the Newsbeat offer. The agency took inspiration from the Newsbeat name. Like the beat, the brand is bold, unmistakable, always on and always moving on. The wordmark is designed to react to the beat; when a user hits pre-programmed points within the site, a beat sequence animation is triggered in the mark. The ‘beat’ part of the wordmark can also act independently from the ‘news’ part to take on the role of a load animation. The grid system is built to replicate a simple music time signature. All elements of the grid are divisible by four, with content landing on or off the beat. A unique component of the Newsbeat brand identity system is the colour picking method, a tool which uses tones found within editorial imagery, applied as slice overlays. The BBC Newsbeat brand launched in April 2015. The first article published on the new site went on to trend on Twitter – a huge success for a site that aims to be more shareable and social than any of its peers.
CURATION IS KING At a time of saturation and mass availability of media (legal and illegal) there is huge value in curation, says Darren Bowles, executive creative director at Moving Brands. “To appreciate the curator you have to like what they represent, their character and their personality. Our role is to capture that personality and embody it in how the brand looks, speaks and acts.”
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Highly commended (programmes) TouchCast: The Story of Now by Lambie-Nairn www.lambie-nairn.com
Lambie-Nairn was commissioned by the BBC to create the brand identity for Story of Now, a documentary fronted by Idris Elba. The series can be found on the BBC Taster website and is an interactive experience in which visitors can choose to explore video clips and other short-form content via an interface, instead of watching longer episodes. Story of Now was created using the TouchCast platform, which is available as an app that enables users to create interactive videos that can include social media posts, Google Maps and websites. The series has become a kind of ‘calling card’ for TouchCast, as it’s one of the best ways to explain what the technology does.
Now responsible for branding strategy at global investment firm Franklin Templeton, BIA judge David Delaney has many years of branding expertise in the finance sector, including stints as head of marketing communications at HSBC, and head of brand management at Barclays. Here, he shares his experiences of the Branded Campaigns room... Which categories most impressed you this year? Within Campaigns, the best work was definitely in Not-For-Profit and Sport. At the heart of the former were strong and compelling human stories – and storytelling always helps to bring campaigns to life. In Sport, there’s clearly a lot of strong brands competing in the sector, and we felt the work was particularly inventive as a result. What’s the most memorable project you saw, and why? I think the one that was most talked about in our room on the day was Google World Cup, which really shows how brand owners and marketers have to think beyond just the marketing department and build bridges with social, HR, legal and many other teams to build momentum. It’s all about collaboration. Were there any particular trends that stood out for you? We talked quite a bit about the stronger contenders having more focus on not just the visual, but the verbal – with the power of words
coming through in some of the stronger examples of campaigns. That was particularly true with the Unicef work, where copywriting is really at the core. Communications clearly need both, but in other submissions the language sometimes didn’t always get the same level of focus. That helped us sort the wheat from the chaff. Besides a strong concept and beautiful execution, we asked all the judges to consider how a piece of branding stands head and shoulders above the rest of its market sector. What was the biggest challenge in doing this? Relevance was definitely the biggest challenge. It’s very easy to look at a strong idea and get wrapped up in the execution, but you have to be able to judge it in context, and whether it’s relevant to its target audience. Between all of us on the judging panel, we had a broad range of market-sector expertise represented – but the best submissions also gave us heaps of background context to take into account. Finally, what’s your one piece of advice for agencies entering next year – how do they catch your eye as a judge? We made a point of judging entries based only on what was submitted, and one of the things we struggled with was when projects didn’t come with enough evidence to say that they worked across numerous touchpoints. That’s crucial.
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Finance
Winner (programmes) Zhuck by NB Studio www.nbstudio.co.uk
An app developed for Bank24.ru, a leading Russian bank, Zhuck was created specifically to cater to disillusioned entrepreneurs, accountants, managers and investors who want a closer control of their business without getting caught up or slowed down by the bureaucratic Russian banking system. It focuses on three main areas: profit and loss, invoices and payments, and partners. However, unlike many banking/productivity/financial apps, Zhuck jokes, provokes and occasionally insults the user, cajoling them into action, making ‘doing nothing’ seem like the difficult option. The name Zhuck translates to English directly as ‘beetle’, but the word has a deeper significance in Russian. The best way to understand it is when a person is described as as a ‘shark’: on one hand it can mean aggressive, predatory, cunning and malicious, but on the other hand a ‘shark’ is savvy, clever, entrepreneurial and driven. Put simply, a ‘Zhuck’ is someone you want on your side, not against you. NB Studio was challenged to create a brand identity that worked both on- and off-line. The bookish elegance and seriousness is offset by touches of bright colour and the marauding Zhuck character. Frequent trips to Zhuck HQ in St Petersberg, and co-creation sessions in London – plus expert consultancy from Michael Wolff and Daljit Singh, and interface design by Else – ensured the brand identity and digital experience were closely connected.
BE LIKEABLE “People hate finance brands,” says NB Studio’s Dan Radley. “In this risk-averse sector, personality cuts through.” Zhuck is about inspiring Russian entrepreneurs wading through bureaucratic treacle. “It jokes, provokes and even insults the user – the point is it connects emotionally. The finance brands which succeed will be those who recognise our desire for a light touch in routine transactions, but an attentive personal touch in the critical moments of our lives.”
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Highly commended (programmes) Wealth Horizon by 3 Sixty www.3sixty.co.uk
Wealth Horizon is offering a revolutionary, digital way to invest; this needed to be reflected in the identity. Following an in-depth positioning review, 3 Sixty helped turn their thinking into a brand identity that communicated the company ethos. They set out to create a brand that looked simple, fit for digital purposes, yet iconic. It needed to look trustworthy, whilst communicating how accessible investing can be. 3 Sixty designed a mark that is distinctive enough to stand alone, but works across the entire campaign. The online tool had to be accessible and simple, and work in harmony with the branding. 3 Sixty created a responsive website with marketing automation, which nurtures leads, provides real-time analytics, runs emails, evaluates leads and manages campaigns. It all adds up to an online brand that’s bold, efficient and works well across print, digital, social media and animation.
Highly commended (programmes) The Family Building Society by johnson banks www.johnsonbanks.co.uk
The Family Building Society was set up to facilitate ‘inter-generational giving’, where grandparents lend money for deposits on flats, children get help from parents to finance first mortgages and so on. johnson banks’ task was to create a unique visual identity and positioning to match this interesting brand idea. The chosen solution allows the building society to customise its own logo to each of its customers by overprinting their customer names. This way, what was a generic ‘offer’ becomes specific to each particular family, even down to their own version of the logo. They established clear photographic guidelines for the society’s applications, and introduced ways for the featured customers’ handwriting to be used in the printed items. Genuine, authentic families are used in all communications to re-enforce the brand idea.
DIGITAL IS KEY “When was the last time you spoke to your bank manager?” asks John Waring at 3 Sixty. “Today, most transactions with financial services are digital. Customer service can support or undermine the brand promise. Investing in UX research and design will leave a positive and lasting impression on the brand.”
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AIM FOR SECTOR SUBVERSION “Finance is a sector that still doesn’t really ‘get’ branding,” laments Michael Johnson. “Either go with the industry defaults of blue, purple and letterspaced capitals, or try and subvert the received wisdom, reject the generics and argue hard to stand out. Be prepared for a battle against conservatism.”
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best of show shortlisted.
Luxury
collaboration shortlisted.
Winner (programmes) The Connaught by The Partners www.the-partners.com
The Connaught hotel in London is a British icon. It has been in business since 1815 and today presents a clever combination of elegance, tradition, and modernity. According to The Partners’ BIA entry, the agency was briefed to help The Connaught “capture and visually articulate the spirit, richness and magic of our unique corner of London.” The agency decided that nothing less than a work of art would do the job, and over a year was spent working with artist Kristjana S. Williams, the client, and a team of designers. Fine etchings from the hotel were collaged and handcoloured by Williams, creating a work that has a modern look while preserving the heritage. To capture something of the experience of staying at the Connaught the agency interviewed guests, who spoke about a magical feeling that lingers with them long after they’ve left the hotel: “A sense of possibility, adventure and memories being created.” The artwork is made up of the most iconic details from the hotel’s life, such as the crest of hounds, portraits of the Duke of Connaught, and the chestnut trees at the entrance. The history is re-expressed in a quintessentially British way, creating an image of wonderland in London’s Mayfair district.
MAKE THE DIFFERENCE Provenance, authenticity and evocative stories are the justification luxury brands have over one another, says The Partners’ Greg Quinton. “Just look at the luxury watch market: hundreds of virtually identical products – how does a buyer make a decision without being an expert? The ‘why’ is the last true differentiator of a customer choosing your brand over another; it is unique for each brand; it is their point of difference.”
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best of show campaigns.
Not-for-profit
social impact winner.
Winner (campaigns) Unicef UK by johnson banks www.johnsonbanks.co.uk
While people recognise the Unicef brand, recent research showed that it was not front of mind. There was an overall lack of familiarity with the brand, with many not even realising that Unicef is specifically a children’s charity. Ensuring more of the world’s children are fed, vaccinated, educated and protected than any other, it has done more to influence laws, policies and customs to help protect children than anyone else in history. johnson banks needed to clearly establish a consistent link between the charity and children, whilst also forming a much stronger emotional connection with the public and potential donors of all types and ages. The new approach was based around five words: ‘For every child in danger’, which always appear adjacent to and locked to the logo. Giving particular attention to the positioning of ‘danger,’ this enables the charity to illustrate the millions of children facing violence, disease, hunger, and the chaos of war and disaster, then ask for the public’s help to keep children safe. Whilst this is the main aspect, there’s also a softer side to the new identity, which allows the charity to talk about its work for ‘every child’ and ‘safety’, giving inbuilt flexibility within the campaign.
FIND THE STANDOUT FACTOR You have to find, or help discover a truly great and innovative core idea that will help a not-for-profit really stand out, says johnson banks’ Michael Johnson. “This is a sector where millions of pounds and often millions of lives are at stake and it’s our collective responsibility to search for ideas that cut through.”
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Winner (programmes) Tusk Conservation Awards by The Partners www.the-partners.com
best of show programmes. collaboration winner.
Initiating community development and environmental programmes across Africa, Tusk Trust currently support 50 programmes across 18 African countries. The not-for-profit organisation needed a new logo and visual identity for the Tusk Conservation Awards that would help them raise the profile of the brand. The design needed to be authentically African, with particular enphasis on traditional African patterns. The Partners studied African patterns extensively, paying particular attention to recurring aesthetic and graphic details. Creating a unique pattern of its own using the T-U-S-K letterforms, the agency intentionally crafted it to remain discreet, ensuring the viewer sees the pattern first, rather than the name itself. The unique pattern was then used as a reveal with aspects such as the belly-band wrap for the programme, or the isolation of the wordmark as a visitor scrolls on the website. In a twist of genius, Tusk also worked closely with the Kenyan Enkiito tribe to create 50 traditional beaded wristbands in the brand’s signature pattern – a key factor in the project picking up the Collaboration Award at the BIAs. These bracelets led to 17.5 million online impressions, which was a huge 400 per cent increase from last year.
WHAT’S THE STORY? “The not-for-profit sector has become a showcase of great creativity, thanks to increased activity from advertising and brand agencies,” says Stuart Radford, creative director at The Partners. “The sector has become more sophisticated and now it’s much harder for brands to differentiate and get the public’s attention and support. So, now more than ever, cut-through depends on a strong story.”
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Highly commended (programmes) Help Musicians UK by hat-trick www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk
Previously known as the Musicians Benevolent Fund, Help Musicians UK needed an update to reach a broader audience. The starting point was to update the name. Musicians had said that ‘benevolent’ sounded remote and didn’t convey, these days, the kind of work the organisation actually does. Based on the structure of music staves, hat-trick created a flexible brand device, focusing on a powerful new imagery style that showcased people the charity has helped in the past. Simplifying the colour palette, a clean and effective typographic style was put in place, which was further applied to the restructure of the organisation’s online presence. To digitise the identity, filmmakers created a series of powerful case studies to help explain the work of the charity and the impact it has.
MAKE IT PERSONAL Know your audience – and how to emotionally engage and motivate them to adopt and care about your cause, advises The Partners creative director Stuart Radford. “A fun event that creates a following can be as powerfully motivating as a heart-breaking story. It all depends on your audience.”
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MAKE IT EASY “Once you’ve communicated your campaign’s primary objective, make sure your audience knows its role in achieving it with a call to action that’s clear and as easy as possible to follow through on,” says Radford. “Unfortunately, no matter how important the cause is, the reality is that people are busy, so the easier and simpler the better.”
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MAKE IT IMPACTFUL “Achieving maximum impact and widespread awareness is a must, but this is always challenging with a small budget,” says Radford. “Using guerilla approaches, unusual channels or expected channels in surprising ways can often make a huge impact – particularly, when the approach itself garners press attention that amplifies the reach of the campaign.”
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MAKE IT UNEXPECTED “The most important thing to remember is to do all of the above in an original and unexpected way,” says Radford. “Of course, creatively, this is the Holy Grail, but it is also essential in ensuring your message
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cuts through the noise of the many other worthy campaigns vying for attention in the not-for-profit sector.” FIND THE REAL PROBLEMS Start in the right place, advises Michael Johnson of johnson banks. “Don’t assume that what you’ve been told is true – the real problem that a brand faces often isn’t what everyone first assumes it is. If there’s money, track where they are before you start so that you can assess the impact of what you do next.”
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FIND A CASE FOR CARING Take time to develop rock-solid narrative and really good reasons ‘why’ people should give a damn, says Johnson. “Don’t jump to design too soon – nearly every great brand in this space makes just as much sense verbally as it does visually.”
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FIND YOUR FEEDBACK LOOP Protect four to six weeks for a proper design phase that leaves no stone unturned, says Johnson. “Be prepared for design ideas from this stage to subvert the verbal ideas from stage two. Remember not to be precious – just see it as a feedback loop, amend and go forward.”
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DON’T BE TOO DEMOCRATIC “Find the best route. Get agreement. From everyone. Even the naysayers,” say Johnson. “Alternatively, get the majority vote and hang the naysayers out to dry. Life’s too short for complete democracy.”
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Highly commended (campaigns) The Royal Institution: ExpeRimental by Supple Studio www.supplestudio.com
The Royal Institution (Ri)’s charitable purpose is to encourage people to think more deeply about the wonders and applications of science. In line with this, it launched ExpeRimental to encourage kids to think about science in a creative way, creating a suite of videos encouraging parents to carry out simple science experiments at home. It needed to be engaging and accessible; it needed to inspire youngsters to observe, question and explore the world around them. Supple Studio’s solution was to create an Ri house icon that was more playful than its previous designs whilst still sticking with the Ri brand as a whole. The icon was then coupled with a strong set of house illustrations by Peter Grundy, communicating that you can make your home a science lab with everyday household stuff.
Highly commended (campaigns) The Donkey Sanctuary by The Allotment www.theallotment.co
With a £30+ million income, The Donkey Sanctuary is the world’s largest donkey and mule charity in the UK. The charity wanted to appeal to a younger audience. To do this, The Allotment was asked to review the charity’s product approach and recommend a way forward as part of a broader retail strategy, producing a series of brand-led gifts. After a collaboration with the senior team at The Donkey Sanctuary, The Allotment realised that the initiative needed a range which would appeal to different audiences, for different gifting moments and at different price levels. With this in mind, the agency developed three ranges: Designer Donkey, Donkey Antics and the Souvenir Range. A mix of the contemporary, the high-end and the cheeky, The Allotment’s range of products were aimed at donkey devotees as well as gifts that would appeal in their own right.
HAVE A PURPOSE The not-for-profit sector is all about communicating the reason for an organisation’s existence, its purpose and cause, advises Stuart Radford at The Partners.
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BUILD A TOOLKIT A great branding toolkit that the various stakeholders can use is essential, insists Michael Johnson. “Again, don’t be precious, be flexible. Implement your ideas, then track them. Strive to make an impact.”
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GIVE A ROD, NOT A FISH By creating easy-to-use brand assets and guidelines, you empower the client to create simple on-brand comms that don’t cost a small fortune, agrees Supple Studio designer Katie Cadwallader.
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Highly commended (campaigns) Up For School by The Partners www.the-partners.com
Established by former UK Prime Minister Gordon Brown and his wife Sarah, #UpForSchool is an initiave which aims to get all children, all around the world into school and learning. The Partners was asked to create an identity for the initiative that would engage an audience of youth ambassadors and young supporters in order to create the largest petition in history – a petition that no governments, politicians or leaders can ignore. The identity is an illustration of a book in the shape of an upward arrow, accompanied with a colour palette inspired by children’s schoolbooks and a deliberately provocative tone of voice. Purposefully lo-fi in their design, the simple visual assets enable young supporters to create their own posters, banners, stickers and badges, and get campaigning around the world. The campaign is set to culminate in the delivery of the world’s largest petition, presented to the United Nations at the end of 2015.
social impact highly commended.
COMBINE STORY AND IDENTITY Not-for-profit organisations must have strong, distinctive visual identities supported by a powerfully told narrative that communicates and emotionally connects the audience to what they’re all about – and why it matters. “It’s the combination of the two that makes people sit up, take notice and most importantly, care,” says The Partners’ Stuart Radford. “Standout without story equals meaningless noise; story without standout equals lost in the crowd.”
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INCREASE YOUR EMPATHY Put yourself in the shoes of the audiences you are trying to communicate with and always seek to appeal at a highly emotive level, says Paul Middlebrook, managing partner at branding agency The Allotment. “With not-for-profit work, you have an opportunity to really dial this up.”
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BE BUDGET-AWARE Making a small budget stretch is key. Be creative and the constraints of a tight budget can lead to powerful solutions, says Katie Cadwallader, designer at Supple Studio.
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BE CONSISTENTLY RIGOROUS Apply the same disciplines and rigour to not-for-profit work as you do for other clients, advises The Allotment’s Paul Middlebrook. It’s still all about blending incisive strategy with meaningful creative work.
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KEEP IT SIMPLE “As you can see from the other entries, this is a fiercely competitive sector where everyone is vying for attention,” says hat-trick’s Gareth Howat. “Our approach to achieve impact is to keep the core concept really simple and singleminded so that it stands out. In the case of Help Musicians UK, we simply used the musicians to tell their own life stories of how the charity has helped them to create a powerful story.”
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AVOID CLICHÉS AT ALL COSTS “One of the biggest challenges in this sector is creating powerful and distinctive imagery with typically tight budgets,” says Howat. “It is so important to avoid bland or clichéd imagery. By now we have probably used up our allowance of favours from friendly illustrators and photographers.”
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Public Sector
Winner (programmes) Swedish Handicraft Association by Snask www.snask.com
The Swedish Handicraft Association is a non-profit organisation working to preserve, promote and develop handicrafts, both by individuals and business. With a vision to give every person the opportunity to discover the beauty, usefulness and the joy of handicrafts, the association has been around for more than 100 years. But with over 17,000 members, 22 regional offices and eight retail shops they had a big challenge to gather everything under one name and one brand. Snask, a brand, design and film agency situated in the heart of Stockholm, began with the idea of transforming
THINK OF BRANDS AS HUMANS Snask uses this exercise to start with since it’s so simple to imagine: what’s the brand’s personality? How should it speak? What should it say? To who? How should it dress? How should it walk? How should it charm? Can we help it be cooler, smarter, better suited for its environment?
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the way people perceived Swedish handicraft. It was time to move away from old-fashioned notions of butter knives and knitting into the artisanal concept of everything being made by hand – combining a modern sensibility with the association’s rich history of knowledge and experience. The agency created a new logotype for the association, which could be made by hand flat on a surface as well as built up by any material, or as an graphic identity. The new design formed the bedrock of joining together all the various elements of the association under one stylish, unified identity.
NAVIGATE THE HIERARCHY “Despite what some think, we do have unnecessary hierarchies in the Swedish public sector,” says Snask’s Fredrik Ost. “There’s no better tip to navigate your way to the very top and get to talk to decision makers directly instead of destroying ideas through the grinding hierarchy systems.”
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Highly commended (programmes) BBC Newsbeat by Moving Brands www.movingbrands.com
Also appearing in the Entertainment category, Moving Brands’ work on the BBC Newsbeat project aimed to reinvent the news service for 16- to 24-year-olds and enable it to regain traction in the sector. Working with the client embedded within the studio, it collaborated on the proposition and design of the brand and website. Inspiration was taken from the Newsbeat name. The wordmark is designed to react to the beat; when you hit pre-programmed points within the site, a beat sequence animation is triggered in the mark. The ‘beat’ part of the wordmark can also act independently from ‘news’ to take on the role of a load animation. The grid system is built to replicate a simple music time signature. All elements are divisible by four, with content landing on or off the beat. A unique component of the newsbeat brand identity system is the colour picking method, a tool which uses tones found within editorial imagery, applied as slice overlays.
BIA judge Sunita Yeomans has a wealth of client-side experience at major retailers and supermarkets, including being head of creative at Tesco, creative controller at Argos and head of online design at Boots – and now runs her own studio, SSHY. Here, she sheds some light on the deliberations in the Branding Programmes judging room... What was the stand-out category for you this year? I liked Technology. It was refreshing to see creative solutions that weren’t predictable digital graphics, especially the branding for Fugue. Also, the Financial sector is working so hard to present itself as human that there’s some wonderful, innovative design as a result. The Family Building Society expresses real life beautifully, and Zhuck is witty and charming. Did you have a favourite single project? My favourite was the Connaught Hotel. The design and illustration was a visual extravaganza. I love imagery where you see something new every time you look at it – for me, that’s one of the most effective ways to keep a brand identity fresh. Were there any visual trends running through the work? I saw a lot of texture throughout all of the entries, regardless of whether it was created with typography, illustration or photography. There was also a huge amount of colour. It’s
not really surprising, as trends have been moving this way for a few years. Consumers want to be cheered up by the graphics around them. There’s a move towards more complex design that demonstrates skill and expertise, to stand out against the mass of computer-generated design. For you, what does it take for a piece of branding to stand out in the crowded modern marketplace? I used to believe that great design needed to be invisible, that a consumer should barely notice it, just act upon it or feel affinity with it. These days, I think the opposite. Most consumers are now very design literate, especially the generations that have been brought up with tablets, smartphones and other tech. They create their own imagery and design all the time, and are fearless in their approach to it. Brands that want to have impact need to create identities that challenge the status quo, and make consumers wonder: ‘How on earth did they do that?’ Finally, what’s your one piece of advice for any branding agencies that are considering entering the BIAs in 2016? Get away from your desks and your computers, and allow your designers to roam the streets for inspiration. Trust your graduate designers when they suggest brave ideas. And above all, try to do something totally new for your clients. You might think it’s impossible, but it’s not.
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Retail
Winner (programmes) Argos by The Partners www.the-partners.com
Argos, a UK retail institution with 40 years of heritage, is well loved. But as an old world catalogue company, it needed to transform in a big way. With online rivals busy transforming how the nation shopped, Argos needed to change to compete effectively. Moving beyond a core heartland audience, Argos needed to become a brand for all. That meant reaching out to new audiences. The Partners was tasked with repositioning the store as a “categoryof-one SuperRetailer fuelled with energy, attitude and dynamism”. This was achieved through a complete re-launch, creating a new brand identity and body language that was executed consistently across every channel and embraced by all parts of the business. ‘GET SET GO ARGOS’ was the big idea and branding device. Packed with energy and confidence of New Argos, it was designed to incite action as well as reappraisal. The driving concept was that ‘When you need to make things happen, you need a SuperRetailer.’ From TV to outdoor to tactical press, social channels, mobile and beyond, this was a joined up re-launch like no other. It all took place as Argos’ stores were transforming into digitally integrated spaces, which seamlessly connect customers in-store and online.
ENTERTAIN ME Retail is theatre, according to The Partners. Done well, it can be stimulating, interesting and exciting. “The stage is set, the staff are the actors, products are the props; make it fun and we will spend,” declares creative director Dave Roberts. “Bore us and eventually we’ll go elsewhere.”
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Highly commended (programmes) Dilo Bonito by Bienal Communication www.bienal.mx
Dilo Bonito (Portguese for ‘Say it pretty’) is an online gift delivery store whose main objective is to create an integral gift-shopping experience, from the moment the client orders anything in the website to when the recipient gets the product. The user has the option to buy, inter alia, presents such as flowers, piñatas, cookies, occasion cards or gift sets. Due to the products’ colourful nature, Bienal Communication decided to create an elegant brand that uses mainly black and white, with a pastel colour palette that contrasts perfectly, to emit a clean, sober and timeless celebration atmosphere. Bienal chose a typographic logo that represents the ribbons of gift wraps, positioned diagonally to make a reference to the effectiveness of the delivery service. Finally, the graphic applications were a simple black and white polka dot pattern – a direct wink to the protagonist of every celebration: the confetti.
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DON’T DESIGN IT, THINK IT FIRST “We’ve all heard the phrase ‘retail is detail’ but you can’t use this as a starting point,” explains The Partners’ Dave Roberts. “The trick is to start big and think about the whole experience you’re creating for people, and then work backwards.”
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JOIN UP THE BRAND “Be sure to avoid a collection of zones and ideas that are only bolted together by the brand,” says Roberts. “There are too many shops with no lasting memory or pleasure when you visit, they are just a place to purchase with a badge above the door.”
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MAKE FRIENDS “Great stores are created by many people and you often have to work with multiple agencies to achieve your goals,” Roberts explains. “Brand, environmental, advertising, merchandising – all need to be close to what you’re doing. You can’t just do a big reveal at the end of a project and expect everyone to get on board.”
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COLLABORATE TO INNOVATE Retail design goes beyond the graphics concept, according to Bienal. One of the most important things is to set the rules of the game clearly to engender collaboration. When the central concept is developed and all those involved live and breathe the same brand, the outcome is more consistent and homogeneous.
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DON’T CALL ME A CONSUMER Consumers, demographics and the ABC world are useful to a point, but wouldn’t you rather design for real people? Roberts explains: “You need to question your work against the mindset of real people, not ‘consumers’. It’s about creating environments that people want to be in.”
FRIENDLY FEEDBACK For Bienal, the importance of amicable feedback between client and design agency is critical. “We work as if our retail clients are our friends,” says graphic designer Eugenia Diaz. “Values such as common decency and professional chemistry are crucial when designing a public-facing retail project.”
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BE TRUE TO YOUR BRAND Build a personality into the brand that’s true to the brand, not true to the latest trends, says Roberts. “Far too many retailers (especially groceries) opt for the ‘local hipster type’ look. What they don’t realise is that people see through it!” FOLLOW YOUR GUT Avoid paralysis by analysis, is Bienal’s advice. Always follow your gut and your common sense: feed your revolutionary instinct and the need for change. Set on fire what a retail store ‘should look like’ and just be bold with your proposal, but keep in mind functionality.
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Sport
Winner (campaigns) Game Before The Game by R/GA London www.rga.com
R/GA has been working with the Beats by Dr Dre headphones since 2011. Recent commercial The Game Before The Game stars some of the world’s greatest footballers – Neymar Jr., Goetze, Sturridge, Fabregas, Suarez, Chicarito, Van Persie, Schweinsteiger, Altidore, Sagna, Matuidi – and features their authentic pre-game rituals. It also includes some of the world’s biggest celebrity football fans, such as LeBron James and Serena Williams. The ad shares the pre-game rituals of famous football players, fans and celebrities around the world, as they silence all doubts, distractions and fears in their preparation
for victory. Every ritual from every player and nation is completely authentic; as is the role that Beats headphones has come to play in each athlete’s preparation. By leveraging key influencers, R/GA was able to connect and engage with fans through storytelling content across multiple brand touchpoints. The agency worked closely with key broadcast partners throughout the campaign, in order to blur the line between the studio shows, games, and the film itself – and a strong 360-degree communication strategy helped maximise its breadth and depth of reach.
EXPRESS YOURSELF There’s in an interesting drive on sports products and brands becoming means of self-expression, says R/GA associate design director Daniel Nieuwenhuizen. “They’re not about giving you the chance of buying Ronaldo’s or Messi’s latest boots, but how you can use them as a way to express yourself performing at the highest level.”
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Winner (campaigns) Google World Cup by R/GA London www.rga.com
Google wanted to connect with people’s passions around the 2014 World Cup. The event would be absolutely saturated with marketing, so Google’s contribution had to be unique and valued. R/GA London designed and built a process that took real-time search data, crafted it into a highly shareable pieces of content, and released it out to the world during the tournament. These pieces of content were called Trends. Throughout the entire tournament, R/GA set up a team of translators, data analysts, writers, designers, strategists, producers, developers and social managers to uncover fascinating search trends, offering insightful and entertaining search stories in 12 different languages. These Trends attracted coverage on some of the most influential media houses like the BBC and ESPN, and the biggest names in football and media including Lionel Messi, Marco Reus and Mesut Özil. Without a single dollar spent in media, the project delivered over 3.4 billion impressions, worth around $13.6M in media spend. From a brand perspective, 30 per cent of all retweets @google in 2014 came from World Cup content.
CONSIDER PERFORMANCE Keep in mind the movement of sports companies into areas of technology, says R/GA London’s Daniel Nieuwenhuizen. These days they are building hardware, storing and supplying data, and helping users measure and quantify their activities. Therefore the products are expected to perform on not just an emotional level, but also a practical one – and to prove that they can.
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collaboration highly commended.
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OCTOBER 2015
Winner (programmes) Invictus Games by Lambie-Nairn www.lambie-nairn.com
The Invictus Games are an international sporting event for wounded, injured and sick service personnel organised in partnership with The Royal Foundation of The Duke and Duchess of Cambridge and Prince Harry, and the Ministry of Defence. Lambie-Nairn was briefed to bring the inaugural event of September 2014 to life by developing a logo and powerful brand identity, which would reflect the event’s core values, and attract and engage competitors and audiences on international level. The agency had just seven weeks to build the brand from scratch and develop an identity that would put the inspirational stories of injured service personnel centre stage. This also had to be collaborative, so everyone could pick up and participate. The inspiration for the ‘I AM’ idea – which became the Game’s rallying cry – came from the final lines of the poem ‘Invictus’ by William Ernest Henley: ‘I am the master of my fate, I am the captain of my soul’ The logo reflects the event’s core values of personal achievement. Invictus is Latin for ‘unconquered’, so ‘I AM’ captured the spirit of the games perfectly.
DON’T OVERCOMPLICATE THINGS “Keep it simple, make it cool,” advises Adrian Burton, creative director at Lambie-Nairn. “The world is absolutely full of sports brands with deep pockets. Invictus was designed to be uncomplicated, bold and iconic. Who doesn’t like black?”
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social impact shortlisted.
S PE CIA L RE PORT
OCTOBER 2015
Highly commended (programmes) Williams Martini Racing by hat-trick www.hat-trickdesign.co.uk
hat-trick was originally commissioned to refresh the corporate brand for the Williams Group, but the identity review revealed the need for a wider look at the whole relationship of the racing team to the Group. The introduction of Martini as a lead title sponsor led to a change of direction and a swift response was needed to rebrand for the 2014/15 season. The challenge became how to integrate the iconic Martini ‘racing’ stripes with the newly evolved Williams brand to create an exciting and vibrant racing team identity. hat-trick created a series of graphic illustrations for each of the circuits and asked the team to choose its favourite racing corners. The agency worked closely with the Williams in-house design team to implement the identity across a range of print, environmental, uniform, livery, online and sponsorship graphics. The new look was launched at the Australian Grand Prix in March of last year.
MAKE IT ORGANIC One of the key things that is becoming ever more important in this sector is how to work alongside other brands and sponsors,” says hat-trick’s Gareth Howat. “It’s critical to consider a system of how that works up front and not as an afterthought.”
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STAY ADAPTABLE “All brands have to be flexible to be truly successful,” says Howat. “But one key thing we have learned from working with Wimbledon and Williams is just how many different people are involved in implementing that branding. That’s why creating and testing ideas that are adaptable is important at the beginning.”
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FACTOR IN FAN FEEDBACK “Sport has very big audiences,” says Manchipp. “So get ready for a lot of feedback, particularly from the fans. It won’t all be good. So be sure of the direction you’re taking and that the clients are even more sure of their direction. You don’t want to see them take a U-turn when Wendy says she doesn’t like it in the Daily Mail.”
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COMMUNICATE VISUALLY Sport is global, so if you’ve got an execution that hinges on lots of words, watch out, says Manchipp. “Non-written communication is a smart thing to consider early. This is the perfect place to roll out suites of useful and ownable graphic languages. You’ll need top creative teams though, as many of those paths are very well trodden.”
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DATA DRIVEN DESIGN With data becoming one of the main ways to measure well-being, sports brands need to think about what impact they’re having on people’s lives when they aren’t practicing sports, says R/GA Design’s Daniel Nieuwenhuizen.
PERSONAL AND EMPOWERING Sports brands live and breathe self belief. Think Adidas’s ‘All In’ or Nike’s ‘Just Do It’. Those competing are doing so not simply against each other but against themselves.
AGREEABLE DESIGN Sport has lots of stakeholders, notes Simon Manchipp, co-founder of SomeOne – shortlisted for a BIA for its Baku 2015 European Games identity. “Get ready for lots of meetings and opinions. The good news? Everyone is really into the sport you’re working with. It’s fun. But be sure to design ways for people to agree.”
LEARN FROM THE BEST “Sport inspires us, unites us and defines us, but for ‘sport’ today you could read Nike, Adidas or EA,” says Adrian Burton, creative director at Lambie-Nairn. “These are the category convention authors against which all sporting brands are now measured. Don’t copy them, but do learn from them.”
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80 G E M S OF B R A NDI NG W I SDOM
OCTOBER 2015
Technology and Telecoms
Winner (campaigns) Beats Music by R/GA London www.rga.com
“Streaming music services lack heart,” according to R/GA London’s BIA entry. “Algorithms aren’t enough to fix the problem and can’t deliver people the perfect music for the moment. If you love Paul Simon, you’ll really enjoy Art Garfunkel. That makes perfect sense to a computer, but not to a human being who lives and breathes and feels.” To fix that problem, R/GA needed to figure out a way to combine technology and people driven by a passion for music. That was the brief given to the agency by producer Jimmy Iovine and rock god, Trent Reznor; to help design a revolutionary new service combining human curation and technology, and create a new way to experience music. The result is Beats Music, a digital music service that reinvents the category, by combining technology with human curation. There are three layers to the app. The first is a smart profile that users set up by telling it what genres and bands they are interested in. An AI layer connects that profile with input from human curators. An editorial team, made up of music experts, feeds the system with handselected playlists, albums, and songs. With a slick design and intelligent recommendations that enable you to personalise your music more successfully than any algorithm-only competition, it’s a real innovation.
THE SERVICE IS THE STORY According to R/GA, tech brands are often related to a signature way to provide a service, rather than just aesthetics or comms. “As we try to define the brands of the future, we need to think about the story it has to tell as the user interacts with it – look at Snapchat, Instagram or Tinder.”
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AVOID THE CLASSIC CLICHÉS Stay away from the technology clichés at all costs, cautions Stefan Sagmeister. “Chances are that the competition has already used them to the point where all the juice they might have had has already been pressed out of them.”
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OCTOBER 2015
Winner (programmes) Fugue by Sagmeister & Walsh www.sagmeisterwalsh.com
Fugue automates the creation, operations, and regeneration of cloud infrastructure. When learning about the software, what stood out to Sagmeister & Walsh was the importance of ephemerality, as the software replaces the need for maintenance of long-lived components in the cloud with automated regeneration of short lived ones. Creating a brand that visualised all this involved embodying Fugue’s core attributes of lineage and elegance and departing from the typical “tech” graphics. Sagmeister & Walsh’s logo works like the software does: it constantly regenerates itself while data moves from one point to another. The logo application also has a drawing function so that you can draw abstract visuals in the Fugue language using a tablet device. The name of the software, Fugue, references music composition made famous by composers like Bach, Mozart, and Beethoven. The creators of the software are former musicians, and functionalities in the software reference terminology from music. This is paid homage to with the branding and software developed to load any music from a user’s library. The logo speed alters to reflect the beat of the music. The logos with sound can then play at trade shows, in the application demo, or online as animations.
VISUALISE EMOTIONS Consider the emotional quality of the technology, product or service you’re promoting and see if there is a way to visualize this emotion, advises Sagmeister. “Go and see Disney-Pixar film InsideOut for a great example of this.”
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BECOME AN AESTHETE “Genuinely consider beauty as a branding feature,” offers Sagmeister. “In technology, where everything is considered rational and functional, beauty is the golden path leading to true functionality.”
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80 G E M S OF B R A NDI NG W I SDOM
OCTOBER 2015
Highly commended (programmes) Function Engineering by Sagmeister & Walsh www.sagmeisterwalsh.com
Function Engineering specialises in mechanical design and engineering for product development within, but not limited to, consumer electronics, computing and networking, mobile, medical, robotics, entertainment, commercial and industrial equipment. Function approached Sagmeister & Walsh to create a new brand identity system; narrowing in on Function’s expertise in designing hinge and linkage mechanisms, the agency designed a typographic system based on a hinge/pivot system. It expanded on the system by creating a series of icons, illustrations, and patterns which can be used flexibly across various collateral in print and online.
Highly commended (programmes) Open Knowledge by johnson banks www.johnsonbanks.co.uk
Open Knowledge has been the leading organisation opening up data across the world since 2004 and is at the forefront of a technology revolution. The brand’s narrative asks if we want to live in a world where access to knowledge is ‘open’ or ‘closed’, choosing a world where knowledge creates power for the many, not the few. A world where data frees us – to make informed choices about how we live, what we buy and who gets our vote. A world where information and insights are accessible and apparent to everyone. The identity was sourced by johnson banks directly from the data in one of the organisation’s projects, the Global Open Data Index. The branding agency extrapolated the symbol from the datasets of 72 countries in the Index, showing how open (green) or closed (red) their data is. The symbol is also designed to work on multiple levels, as an ‘earth’, as an eye, and as an ‘O’ for ‘Open’.
CHALLENGE THE STATUS QUO Technology is a sector ripe with clichés, awash with money yet bereft of imagination,” says Michael Johnson. “Challenge them with ideas that haven’t been seen in the sector before. Force them out of their comfort zone. Be prepared to be applauded, or fired.”
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GIVE IT A HUMAN FACE If you can ‘ground’ the technology and make it seem more human, more real, that can be really useful, says Johnson. “No-one really cares about giga-bits and terra-bots, it’s how it impacts their life that matters.”
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Transport and Travel
OCTOBER 2015
Highly commended (programmes) Airbnb by DesignStudio www.wearedesignstudio.com
Home-rental site Airbnb wanted to be the first community-driven super brand and DesignStudio’s rebrand needed to reflect this vision. Their research found users typically have a strong, emotional sense of purpose and affection for the community they’re a part of. This was reflected via the idea of ‘Belong Anywhere’, which informed every aspect of a new global brand identity. Central to this was the new Beló logo, a symbol aiming to transcend language and cultural barriers globally, with a long-term goal to become a universal symbol of belonging. The new identity was launched across all corporate, consumer and community channels.
Highly commended (programmes) The Verb Hotel by GBH www.gregorybonnerhale.com
After Boston property developers acquired an unloved 1959 Howard Johnson motel, GBH was approached to rename and rebrand the property. The agency drew inspiration from the motel’s history as part of the area’s 60s /70s music-driven cultural scene and all-round bohemian lifestyle. New name The Verb (as in ‘reverb’) positioned it as a spiritual home of Boston’s music scene, and the logo plays into the hotel’s 1950s origins. To involve the local community, GBH commissioned photographs of flamboyant locals making the ‘V’ (or ‘Verb’) sign, which are used throughout the identity. Musical authenticity is also brought to communal areas through the music memorabilia collection of David Bieber, former editor of local counter culture paper The Boston Phoenix.
THINK GLOBALLY It’s vital to know the client on a global scale, says DesignStudio co-founder Ben Wright. “You need to assess the brand experience for people travelling through different countries. Conducting an in-depth immersion process helps capture local inspiration and insight to develop an authentic brand.”
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CREATE AN EXPERIENCE According to GBH, great branding for the transport and travel sector is about understanding a guest’s experience, and creating a journey of discovery through well-considered touch points: “It’s about knowing when to create a big surprise, when to raise a wry smile, and when to gently whisper.”
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OCTOBER 2015
Wine, Beer and Spirits
Winner (programmes) Crafty Dan by WPA Pinfold www.wpa-pinfold.co.uk
WPA Pinfold was asked to create the identity and packaging for a new, innovative range of packaged and keg beers for Daniel Thwaits Brewery. The Crafty Dan range aims to take on the American craft beer imports and reposition Thwaits beers in the contemporary craft beer sector – appealing to younger, trendy drinkers while still trading off the company’s rich heritage. Combining the best of both worlds, old and new, with nearly 200 years of brewing know-how and American hops and malts, each design has a clear definition of its beer style (which is a key communicator for today’s more experimental drinkers). For example, the 13 Guns design celebrates the formation of the United States of America, with classic illustration and typography, symbolising the craftsmanship and attention to detail that has gone into the brewing process, whilst maintaining a clean and fresh look which also reflects the beer itself. The challenge was to integrate the branding across all packaging formats (bottle, can and fount) and communicate a premium positioning. The designs have roots in traditional scraperboard illustration style, with a contemporary edge that resonates with the graphic style for craft beers in the USA. After launch, Thwaites saw a 590 per cent increase in average sales per beer.
PUT THE ART IN ARTISANSHIP “Craft is all about putting the art into artisanship and creating great beers that differentiate themselves from the more mass-produced alternatives,” explains WPA Pinfold’s Myles Pinfold. “In the USA, craft brewers have recognised the power of the brand to help them take on presiding market forces. This has been instrumental in making some of the now classic craft brands famous.”
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OCTOBER 2015
Highly commended (programmes) Miller Lite by Turner Duckworth www.turnerduckworth.com
Miller Lite is the USA’s third largest beer brand and invented the ‘light beer’ in 1975. With a dramatic decrease in sales, MillerCoors wanted to radically redesign the brand to attract new drinkers. Turner Duckworth felt that the existing packing didn’t relate to the original promise of ‘great tasting beer with half the calories’, so, inspired by the history of the brand, the agency aimed to remind customers that Miller Lite was the original light pilsner, an iconic US product with strong brewing credentials and an innovator in the beer market. The original 1970s packaging was redesigned in a modern way, introducing new elements such as iconic wallpaper, custom type and a monogram logo to add depth.
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EMBRACE CREATIVE FREEDOM “The poor drinker is often challenged when they’re trying to make an informed choice,” believes WPA Pinfold’s Myles Pinfold. “There is simply too much visual chatter in the category and not enough clarity. As designers, we can create any look and feel to order and in this sector there is endless inspiration, with tens of thousands of beer labels and beer books to reference. It really is too easy to simply follow the herd in this sector.”
DEFINE THE BEER EXPERIENCE “Too often the brewer and designer focus on the individual beer brand, instead of championing the passion and individuality of the brewer, or understanding the recipe and style of the individual beer,” adds Pinfold. “Telling the drinker what the beer tastes like is a good starting point – a learning that can be had from the wine category. Remember, there are over 8,000 beers in the UK and the diversity of beer is amazing, there are even more styles of beer than there are of wine.”
THINK OFF-PACK Beer brands must be recognised across a bar and look cool in your hand, says Turner Duckworth co-founder Bruce Duckworth. So invest your design talent in a few highly considered visual assets that are dominant on pack, but that can also come to life when taken off the pack.
EMPHASISE THE CRAFT Brewing is a nuanced craft and the packaging design needs to reflect that in the fine detail, says Duckworth. “Wine should look intriguing, less big brand and more artisanal. You need a story. Raid the brand archives, quiz the makers until you find something that’s an unmistakable difference, and then use that as the central theme of the design.”
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SOCIAL DESIGN As Duckworth points out, beer, wine and spirits are inherently social things, passed between friends, shared, put on tables – even bought as gifts. “Design with that in mind,” is his advice. “Design packaging to look good in its social setting, to be talked about, and to make people feel good.”
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HOW DOES IT TASTE? People tend to imagine that products taste like they look, argues Duckworth. So think about that in your choice of typefaces, colours and iconography with that in mind. “Everything you do says something,” he points out.
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MAKE IT VISUAL “Wine in particular can be incredibly difficult to shop, very complex, and very verbal – the shelf is a wall of words; often in a language the shopper can’t speak,” says Duckowrth. “Make it visual. Memorable visuals make wine easier to buy, and easier to buy again.”
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THINK ABOUT CHARACTER Across all drinks categories – from craft beers and tequila to tea and coffee – people are looking for character. “So create distinctive things, nurture the idiosyncrasies, craft objects of character,” advises Duckworth.
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I NT R O P RO J E C TS
OCTOBER 2015
Computer Arts goes behind the scenes with world-leading designers as they reveal their working processes…
INCLUDES PRO WORKFLOW ADVICE Plus: the latest tools and tech for designers
CARLSBERG REBRAND: A NEW LEAF Taxi Studio reveals how it harnessed Carlsberg’s long-standing brand heritage, building a fresh global identity around its iconic hop leaf 84
QUESTIONING THE BOMB POSTER: SEEING RED
3D-PRINTED NUMERALS: LET’S GET PHYSICAL
How Pentagram used real blood as ink to mark 70 years of the A-bomb attack on Japan 98
Radim Malinic explores a range of creative processes to produce a set of free-standing resin sculptures 95
PLUS:
CRAFT THE IDENTITY OF A HERITAGE BRAND
THE LEGAL GUIDE FOR DESIGNERS
Video walkthrough: senior designer Kirsty Whittaker 91 reveals how NB refreshed Aspall’s identity
Esssential tips and advice for steering clear of all 102 the classic legal pitfalls that await designers
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CARLSBERG REBRAND: TURNING OVER A NEW LEAF Tasked with creating a new global visual presence for Carlsberg, Taxi Studio harnessed the potential of the company’s longstanding heritage, placing the iconic hop leaf motif at the brand’s creative core
PROJECT FACTFILE BRIEF Recognising the need to simplify the brand’s visual presence across its portfolio of beers, Carlsberg briefed Taxi Studio to reappraise its global visual identity and packaging. The brief was to symbolise, simplify and rationalise, and the resulting creative leverages the brand’s iconic Hop leaf motif to create a striking and flexible new system. AGENCY Taxi Studio www.taxistudio.co.uk PROJECT DURATION 18 months LIVE DATE August 2015
The outcome was a fridge of family beers that share a strong genetic link
THE DESIGN BRIEF
Spencer Buck
SPENCER BUCK CO-FOUNDER AND CREATIVE PARTNER, TAXI Spencer is one of the creative heads at Bristol-based Taxi Studio, which he co-founded with Ryan Wills and Alex Bane in 2002. Taxi’s philosophy? Fearless dedication to getting brands noticed – because no one ever had a great idea by playing it safe.
J C Jacobsen discovered the Carlsberg yeast and shared it with the world rather than keeping it to himself. He wanted to push the boundaries of beer development. Jacobsen worked with great minds of his time, like Louis Pasteur and Alexander Fleming, and most lagers in the world today can be genetically traced back to the yeast that he found and sourced. Today, Carlsberg is facing a considerable amount of competition in the lager market. A lot of key competitors have been going through a process of premiumisation and simplification – it was felt that Carlsberg was starting to lag behind and its current portfolio of beers was fairly disjointed. People need to encounter the same visual expression whenever they experience Carlsberg in any market. At the same time, each sub-brand’s proposition must be communicated with its own merit – without being divorced from the master brand. COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 84 -
Jessica Felby, Carlsberg: Since the beginning, the Carlsberg company has sat at a crossroad between art and science. The majority shareholders are the Carlsberg and Tuborg Foundations, so every beer sold helps the worlds of art, science and music. In many markets, the lager we see as the core isn’t necessarily the master brand and the biggest seller – the sub-brands weren’t supporting one another and some of them were becoming increasingly disjointed. This was about pulling everything together as a brand. It wasn’t broken as such, but we needed to understand and elevate our positioning. A series of creative workshops took place where we identified opportunities and issues. Taxi was very involved with these. We sat down with different people from different agencies who had worked on the brand. After that, we sat down with Taxi to write the brief and continued to hold workshops throughout the project.
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PROJECT AT A GLANCE Key stakeholders at Taxi Studio and Carlsberg explain the creative process
1 Brand credentials
2 Best representation
3 Iconic potential
Spencer Buck: Carlsberg is one of the world’s most iconic brands, spanning a history of some 168 years. Our overriding ambition was to create a fridge of individual family beers – and determining how to apply the brand’s premium credentials and heritage was absolutely fundamental to this creative task.
Benjamin Hoffmann: What is something you would recognise Carlsberg by? That was the question we asked ourselves. How could we use our design architecture to represent ourselves in the best way? We have a great heritage and a great story, but some markets aren’t going to be interested in that.
Spencer Buck: We explored the potential of elevating the hop leaf as a key asset. As part of this exploration, we really understood the potential of the hop including the creative gift of one of the core sub-brands, Elephant, fitting perfectly into it – which paved the way for all sub-brands in the range.
4 Eureka moment
5 Projecting the future
6 Design explorations
Jessica Felby: The hop plant is, of course, what makes beer. It’s an intrinsic part of the brand and is physically in the product. A eureka moment happened when we saw the Elephant test. We knew then that this was a design solution that would work for all the sub-brands.
Spencer Buck: We did some thinking about how we could simplify and modernise the brand mark. We set ourselves the challenge of imagining Carlsberg in 50 years’ time. How many steps back from that should we take to reach a comfortable place? That was an interesting exercise to go through.
Spencer Buck: It soon became clear that, over time, this could become as powerful and iconic as the Nike swoosh. We explored line extensions and sub-brands to see how we could push the hop icon over time. We also explored the scientific rationale for size and placement, and tested different lock-ups.
7 Colour theory
8 Bespoke typeface
9 Distinctive sub-brands
Jonathan Turner-Rogers: Carlsberg must stand out in a world of green. We looked at the compounds of different greens – including the greenest green possible – and examined what they meant and how people reacted. We looked at bright, vibrant greens for refreshment and darker, richer, premium hues.
Spencer Buck: Carlsberg’s existing typeface wasn’t taking its cues from the core brand. We worked with Kontrapunkt to create a bespoke, relevant typeface that worked in harmony with the Carlsberg brand mark and could also work as a standalone equity and a visual shortcut to the brand.
Spencer Buck: Each sub-brand still communicates its own individual personality. Some key elements have been retained to ensure people can still identify their favourite beers in the future. Each sub-brand drives equity back into the hop leaf and therefore into the overall Carlsberg brand identity.
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JESSICA FELBY GLOBAL DESIGN DIRECTOR, CARLSBERG As head of design for Carlsberg Group, Jessica heads a team that handles design for Carlsberg’s international brands. She has 20 years of FMCG experience, including at Coca-Cola Europe as well as various agency-side roles.
JONATHAN TURNER-ROGERS ASSOCIATE CREATIVE DIRECTOR, TAXI Jonathan joined Taxi Studio in 2011 after building his creative credentials at the likes of Blue Marlin, JKR and Landor Associates. He has 15 years’ experience and previously studied packaging design at Somerset College of Arts and Technology.
WORK IN PROGRESS
Jonathan Turner-Rogers
Our role was to sensitively evolve the core brand identity, ensuring it would adapt to various market needs and to other formats and sub-brands. Our explorations helped us to decide what we should and shouldn’t develop – they were an effort to really hone the brief to the point of perfection by bringing things to life and showing them to people to see how they reacted. We knew Carlsberg had a certain set of colours. It is recognised as the green beer brand. But what is the right green? We looked into the science behind different shades of green and considered how we would use it – while the early concepts were too radical, you can see hints and smatterings of that learning and exploration in the final creative. The green was just a glow before, but it’s now part of the brand equity. We created the Carlsberg ‘Shard Light’ system to dramatically emphasise the hop leaf on packaging and communication materials. This system becomes more graphic with some key sub-brands, such as Elephant. Working with Carlsberg was about understanding not only the core portfolio but also how to expand the brand into promotional, limited edition or seasonal branding with consistency. So, for example, we’ve produced a limited-edition winter pack and have started to look at limited-edition designs for the Asian market. Each design is totally unique to Carlsberg – we want them to be beautiful, to stand out and be collectible.
Developing the new typeface in conjunction with Danish type specialist Kontrapunkt
Taxi Studio refined existing elements to declutter and streamline without squandering brand equity
Spencer Buck: We’ve created an illustrative style that drives Carlsberg’s premium credentials back into the branding. One thing we are being very careful about is to be sure that we use the hop leaf, and the visual articulations of it, sparingly and respectfully. We’re going to curate a limited amount. To complement all of this and introduce another layer of ownable premium craft, Taxi Studio and Carlsberg’s design team worked with Bo Linnemann at Kontrapunkt to create a proprietary typeface and ‘Probably’ logo that borrows design cues from the iconic Carlsberg logo.
Exploring the potential of elevating the hop as a key asset, it became clear that, over time, the emblem could become as powerful as the Nike swoosh as a standalone symbol
INITIAL CONCEPTS THREE IDEAS THAT DIDN’T MAKE IT THROUGH
This route was too revolutionary, but the learnings of form and function benefited the final design. The triangle represents excellence in many forms, in keeping with Carlsberg’s relentless pursuit of perfection.
This design made it to the final cut as it was loved internally and externally. It taps into Nordic design principles and articulates Carlsberg’s brewing heritage and premium credentials. It also deploys green sparingly.
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This was the most radical as it evolved all brand assets. The idea stems from the name itself, which refers to founder JC Jacobsen’s son Carl and to the hill where they placed the brewery. The hop leaf sits proudly as a marker on the hill.
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OCTOBER 2015
STEP 2
STEP 1
STEP 3
THE PURSUIT OF PERFECTION JONATHAN TURNER-ROGERS EXPLAINS TAXI’S TAKE ON THE HOP LEAF STEP 1 The distinctive device above the ‘r’ in Carlsberg was derived from organic signatures in the hop leaf plant. Part of our exploration was to see how far we could push that shape before it lost its identity. STEP 2 We tried to make it conform to a perfect triangle, which is a perfect form in science and nature, but somehow the hop lost something when it was made completely perfect so we kept it as it was. As part of imagining Carlsberg in 50 years’ time, we also used the simplistic shape to see how far we could push it in a triangle format.
STEP 4
STEP 3 One of the lock-ups that we explored was this idea of the ‘Hero Hop’, which allowed us to start exploring the size relationship between Carlsberg and the brand mark. We started to look at a system that has since been dropped, but something that we did use was the perfect relationship between the brand mark and the hop icon. STEP 4 We also looked at how we could introduce a bit more of an organic form to the hop leaf that wasn’t so rigid and linear. Some of these explorations were taken forward and some were not. STEP 5 On the final designs, you can see areas where we use the core brand mark and have deployed the hop, and the size relationships between the two strike a perfect balance as they were born out of this experiment. Everything in the visual system has rhyme or reason to it, nothing is there by chance, and it all taps into Jacobsen’s original belief about striving for perfection. STEP 5
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BENJAMIN HOFFMANN DESIGN MANAGER, CARLSBERG Benjamin joined Carlsberg Group in 2010 and has over 15 years’ industry experience. He was previously design innovator at Coca-Cola Europe and owned freelance design consultancy Akkurat. He has a Master’s from the Royal Danish Academy of Fine Arts.
CONCLUSION
Jessica Felby
This is a timeless system that has the flexibility to evolve. We haven’t designed ourselves into a cul-de-sac. It can grow organically over the years and will allow the brand to have a life. We have all worked together on various brands over the years, so we didn’t have to go around the houses trying to build trust and establish ways of working and talking. Of course, working in the beer industry means you can go out for a drink – if you put beer into a relationship, it’s always good for getting on! It also helps that we have a team at Carlsberg entirely made up of trained designers, which means we can be champions internally and we can be design diplomats. And we’ve had a lot of fun along the way.
Spencer Buck: The whole process has been very democratic. We keep each other honest. We don’t have a traditional clientagency relationship – it’s a truly collaborative one. None of us are afraid to declare our feelings about a project or a particular direction. The barrier that traditionally exists has been truly demolished by frank, open and honest conversation. This project has been opened up to more and more internal departments at Carlsberg and everyone has commented positively on it. From our perspective, it has been easy to work with and translate across different touch-points, enabling us to provide consistency – and, where relevant, to add in those layers of wit and creative expression that are so important for us as an agency. Carlsberg’s heritage plays upon this intelligent humour, which is something we really champion and have pushed Carlsberg to champion too. The reason we work so well and the reason it’s so collaborative is because we understand that having fun is fundamental to the creative process. You have to take the work very seriously, but you can’t take yourselves too seriously.
PROJECT SOUNDTRACK CO-FOUNDER SPENCER BUCK TAKES US ON A NOTEXACTLY-SERIOUS TOUR OF THE TAXI STUDIO STEREO
The Hop Leaf can be subtly and beautifully incorporated into illustrative designs. Limited-edition cans have been designed for Asian territories, while the ‘Shard Light’ system appears on the new range of packaging
MASSIVE ATTACK: TEARDROP We play a lot of music in the studio. We had to start with Teardrop by Bristol’s very own Massive Attack because we’ve had some tough feedback to deal with and overcome.
GRANDMASTER FLASH: WHITE LINES We needed something to pick us back up again after that tough feedback so, once we’d finished sniffling, we played White Lines (Don’t Do It) by Grandmaster Flash and the Furious Five.
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DOLLY PARTON: 9 TO 5 We played Dolly’s 9 to 5 over and over again – ironically of course, because the whole concept of working nine to five simply doesn’t exist any more in our world.
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V I DE O WA LK T HR OUG H: NB ST UDI O
OCTOBER 2015
PROJECT FACTFILE V IDE O WA L K T HR OUGH
CRAFT THE IDENTITY OF A HERITAGE BRAND Senior designer Kirsty Whittaker explains how NB brought eight generations of apple expertise together in a refreshed identity for cyder-maker Aspall
BRIEF Capture the unique eccentricities of a 300-year-old family business to refresh the Aspall identity across the packaging range – on and off trade – together with the website, point of sale and livery. AGENCY NB Studio www.nbstudio.co.uk DESIGNER Kirsty Whittaker STUDIO SKILLS • Conduct forensic research to identify authentic heritage assets • Source and craft the typography for a new wordmark • Work with craft specialists to illustrate brand symbols and signatures • Develop colour palette, secondary visual assets and tone of voice
NB STUDIO NB is a branding and communication studio. Owners Nick Finney and Alan Dye say: “We get quickly to the heart of organisations and we’re never afraid to challenge the things we find. Our aim is distinctive ideas that help people consider, enjoy and even fall in love with brands. We call this creative courage.” COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 91 -
VIDEO CONTENT WATCH THE VIDEO AT bit.ly/ca245-NBstudio OR IN OUR iPAD EDITION See page 81
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KIRSTY WHITTAKER SENIOR DESIGNER Kirsty Whittaker is a senior designer and team leader at NB where she has worked for four years. Her most recent project has been curating the Sign Of The Times exhibition at the Protein Gallery, featuring the work of 100 leading designers.
1 Forensic research
DESIGN TASK
We did our due diligence, investigating the product range and where the logo appeared. We found lots of variants of the wordmark and many typefaces. Then we dug into the archive in search of authentic assets.
Our challenge was to refresh an authentic craft brand and behave like a British contemporary classic. On the Twitter feed we found a perfect positioning in 140 characters: ‘@Aspall: Eighth generation of family cyder makers: in Suffolk since 1728; obsessed about apples and quality. A new British success story.’ The two brothers who run the company, Barry and Henry Chevallier are apple fanatics who still follow the standards set by Clement Chevallier in 1728. But their brand looked tired and inconsistently applied. It just didn’t match the vitality of the people we met. We wanted it to be true to Aspall – this is a classic British artisan brand that deserves a beautiful identity. On the video I’ve talked mainly about the product labels, where the whole identity really comes together. We found quite a few technical design issues to solve, so essentially we took all the separate elements apart, polished them up and put them back together. But the first role any designer needs to play is detective. For me this involved a joyful dive into the archive at Aspall Hall, blowing the dust off old documents and records, and uncovering old marks, motifs and photographs.
4 The inspiration We spent time in St Bride’s printing and publishing library exploring swashes, ligatures and other quirks. Then we loosely re-drew the wordmark, retaining everything that was distinctive – only making it better!
7 Secondary motifs Apples are at the heart of Aspall. So we worked on a special collection of paintings by botanical illustrator Rosie Sanders. We were delighted to find someone who was as fanatical about apples as our client! The NB team developed a robust identity system, from packaging to point of sale
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V I DE O WA LK T HR OUG H: NB ST UDI O
OCTOBER 2015
2 Concept development
3 The analysis
Some of our early ideas played into the solution: an authentic identity sourced from the archives; treating cyder as if it was champagne; and a typographicallyled concept we called ‘apple press meets printing press’.
The P and A of the old wordmark had character. But we found issues too: a pronounced swash on the A added personality but also made it hard to use, and there was too much space between the A and S.
5 The development
6 Commissioning illustration
The evolved version is more calligraphic and glyphic. The scaled initial A has a pronounced swash flourish. We’ve matched the crossbars of the A, added an angled serif and lifted up the curve on the L.
The old version of the knight symbol looked untouched by a craftsman’s hand. Couldn’t he have more spirit? Hand-cut by illustrator Christopher Wormell, our version references the original statue on which the knight was based.
8 Bringing it all together
9 The new logo
Other elements we looked at included the colour palette, which conveys the spirit of the Suffolk landscape, engravings of the founder and family, and a tone of voice rooted in local vernacular.
The redesign is sensitive to Aspall’s heritage, emphasising the authenticity of the products. Robust principles provide a platform for future cyder variants, the Aspall vinegar range and new product development.
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DI A R Y˚ 2 : B R A ND NU
OCTOBER 2015
3D-PRINTED NUMERALS: LET’S GET PHYSICAL Wanting to create a series of beautiful physical objects, Radim Malinic explored a range of unfamiliar creative processes to produce a set of free-standing resin sculptures
PROJECT FACTFILE BRIEF Radim Malinic experimented with 3D printing to turn vector illustrations of numerals into a series of limited-edition sculptures, which were cast in resin and then given a chrome finish. He collaborated with designer, artist and maker of premium figures Chris Alexander, of Creo Design, to create the resin sculptures. DESIGNER Brand Nu www.brandnu.co.uk PROJECT DURATION Seven months LIVE DATE September 2015
RADIM MALINIC GRAPHIC DESIGNER, BRAND NU Czech-born Radim is an awardwinning freelance art director, illustrator and graphic designer based in London. He established the name Brand Nu in 2006 and has worked for clients including Coca Cola, Penguin, O2, Orange, PlayStation, Xbox 360 and Heineken. COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 95 -
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THE DESIGN BRIEF
Radim Malinic
The basic premise was to take vector illustrations and turn them into freestanding resin sculptures with a chrome finish. We’re losing touch with physical things – these days, renders are so good that people don’t expect things to actually exist. I wanted to create a physical product that would almost be encapsulated in time. I had created a type illustration of number ‘7’ about four years ago. I was playing around with the Blend tool in Illustrator, making incisions in a regular number to create something with a fluid life of its own. The idea was to take the character and make it ownable. I produced an ‘8’ the next month and planned to create new ones monthly. But then I thought: this could be turned into a 3D sculpture. I had some basic awareness of 3D printing and it was something that I wanted to explore. The numbers ‘3’ and ‘7’ are close to my heart. My birthday is 21 March – or 21.03 – and ‘7’ was my ice hockey jersey number. I added the ‘5’ as it followed the order and it was something I hadn’t published before. I would have created an entire alphabet in 3D if I could have, but the process to make these handmade turned out to be more than I could budget for, so ‘3,’ ‘5’ and ‘7’ felt right as a set.
PROJECT EVOLUTION RADIM MALINIC TAKES US FROM 3D MODELLING TO FINISHED SCULPTURES
STAGE ONE The initial sketches were the result of experimenting with the blend tool in Illustrator
STAGE FIVE The next step was to create the mould boxes that would be used to cast the sculptures
STAGE TWO Finding someone to do the 3D modelling was surprisingly challenging, but we eventually discovered Hobs Studio
STAGE SIX Chrome finishing was used to colour the sculptures and provide a metallic finish
BEVELLED BEGINNING
MODEL SEARCH
3D PRINTING
Chris Alexander from Creo Design made this whole project possible. We first met at The Meat creative conference in Aberdeen. I showed him my original illustrations, which had a liquid-gloss look. I wanted the numbers to have pronounced bevels and I was trying to blend in colours that I hadn’t used before.
I simplified the vectors to be 3D-modelled. The desired look couldn’t be achieved easily so Chris suggested I find a 3D modelling studio to help. This was surprisingly difficult. Eventually though, I found Hobs Studio in London who were able to model the designs and do the 3D printing for me.
Hobs Studio provided one 3D print for each number – they were glass-like in appearance and almost transparent. I didn’t want them to be flat on the reverse side, as they needed to live in a 360-degree world. Then I had to get the number 5 re-rendered because the base wasn’t strong enough.
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DI A R Y˚ 2 : B R A ND NU
OCTOBER 2015
HOW I WORK RADIM MALINIC ON THE VALUE OF CREATING TANGIBLE OBJECTS
STAGE THREE We had the number ‘5’ re-rendered because the base needed to be strengthened
STAGE FOUR Chris Alexander smoothed and sanded the 3D prints until they were perfectly polished and smooth
I set out to create something with emotional value – it’s a physical item and it can break. We make so many things that disappear quickly. I wanted this to live offscreen in the real world. I come from a print background, so I’m used to making final decisions every day. Digital work can make you spoilt – you can always change things and re-upload. This project has further influenced my regular client work – it has given me some healthy confidence to experiment with turning things into physical objects. For example, I branded an online mediation-courses company, Rest & Be, and designed a logo based on my custom designed ampersand. Once that was signed off, I went to a laser-cutting company and made some test props for the film set. You can create beautiful renders showing logos on T-shirts, but this was about taking the visual concept and turning it into a physical object to hand to the client. No digital file is as good as actually holding something unusual in your hands.
STAGE SEVEN This limited-edition set had 15 of each number. I’d like to create more in the future
SMOOTH OPERATOR
MAKING THE MOULDS
CHROME COLOURING
FUTURE POTENTIAL
The 3D printing was a bit fragmented and rough. We had to make it smooth and super-polished. Chris filled them with an epoxy filler and glued the two halves together, then he filled the join line with epoxy putty, sanded them smooth and applied a filler coat of paint. Then he sanded down the filler coat to reveal surface errors.
To create the mould box, we moulded half the number in a pressure chamber at 60psi, which crushes the air bubbles in the silicone, and cast the resin in the same method which produced an almost blemish-free surface. Chris then sanded the split line, filled blemishes, sanded the surfaces and removed mould grease.
The original test colours were obvious. It wasn’t a case of going to the end of the Pantone book for less obvious shades – if you’ve got a nice monochrome room then you want something that blends in nicely. Chris suggested a chrome finish; Chrome Illusion created one of each to test, completed about six months later.
We produced 15 of each number, so 45 in total. I’m really attached to them. I don’t think I’ve realised their full potential yet. They’re so leftfield from my two-dimensional work – this project has gone way beyond the social media post where it began. I’d love to be able to create more of these numbers and complete the set.
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QUESTIONING THE BOMB POSTER: SEEING RED Using his own blood as ink, Pentagram’s Harry Pearce created a visceral visual treatment to mark 70 years since the bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki
PROJECT FACTFILE BRIEF Ahead of the launch of its ‘Questioning the Bomb’ exhibition in September, the Art Gallery of Maryland asked creatives to design poster treatments. Pentagram partner Harry Pearce used his blood, dropped into water and photographed by Richard Foster, to create an abstract representation of the mushroom cloud. AGENCY Pentagram London www.pentagram.com PHOTOGRAPHER Richard Foster www.richardfoster.com PROJECT DURATION One month LIVE DATE September 2015
THE DESIGN BRIEF
Harry Pearce
The Art Gallery of Maryland asked a series of artists and designers to respond to the exhibition concept of ‘Questioning the Bomb’. It was about giving a personal take on the fact that it has been 70 years since the nuclear bombing of Hiroshima and Nagasaki – the idea was to create something that would add to the debate rather than trying to answer it. I knew I needed to do something with real gravitas. I was experimenting with ink drops underwater for a different project and I realised that this resembled the mushroom cloud. The central idea came from my belief that what we do to others, we are doing to ourselves. COMPUTERARTS.CREATIVEBLOQ.COM - 98 -
Metaphorically speaking, everyone’s blood was spilt that day and we can’t wash our hands of it. We have all been affected ever since, which was why I needed to actually use my own blood. I showed my GP some sketches and asked for help taking the blood. She was keen, but couldn’t say yes immediately – blood is actually considered a weapon and taking your own blood away isn’t something you would normally do. Once the other doctors in the practice agreed, we arranged a date to take the blood first thing in the morning and then go straight to the photographic studio to get to work.
DI A R Y˚ 3: P E NTA G R A M
OCTOBER 2015
HARRY PEARCE CREATIVE PARTNER AND DESIGNER, PENTAGRAM Harry became a Pentagram partner in 2006, having co-founded and grown Lippa Pearce in the previous 16 years. He works for a broad range of clients, and is a board member and designer for Witness, Peter Gabriel’s human rights charity.
WORK IN PR0GRESS Richard Foster
The dropper is held at the perfect height for the blood to disperse in the water
Harry Pearce’s own blood was taken for use in the photo shoot
The team shot over the course of a day in sequences of five or six images to try and capture the perfect shot
PROBLEM SOLVED PHOTOGRAPHER RICHARD FOSTER ON CREATING THE IDEAL BLOOD DROPLET
We experimented with a whole range of apparatus for generating drops of blood, from garden irrigation systems with drip nozzles to syringes and pipettes. We found a pipette worked best. I hadn’t anticipated how close we would need to be to the surface of the water when creating the drip – normally you’d be looking to get more of an impact, but the blood just completely broke to pieces because the surface of the water was much stronger than you’d expect.
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My objective was twofold: to keep the authenticity by making sure we did actually use Harry’s blood, and to make something beautiful. We used paint and ink to start working out the scale and the right drop height. We also needed to think about the type of liquid we were dripping it into. Should that be more dense than water? We did do some pricking of fingers and squeezing of blood when we were experimenting. The temperature of the water was also key because it affected the way in which the blood dissipated or stuck together. We used a clear tank and lit the floor underneath to reflect off the bottom of the liquid. The drop of blood in the final image was only about 5mm wide, but the distance from the back of the tank to the background was around 4 metres – there’s a wave-like quality that was being reflected from a background a long way away. We didn’t want to add anything to the blood, so we needed to be able to adjust everything else around it. We shot in live video mode and found it wasn’t effective to use motion-sensor triggers because we were waiting for a delayed effect after the blood hit the surface. That took too long for the triggers to work, so we found it was better to just do it manually. Dropping blood into water makes it start to change colour, so we tended to shoot a sequence of five or six images, review what worked and what didn’t, then change the water. As the day went on and our store of water got warmer, the images were getting less beautiful and we found that we needed to lower the temperature in the tank. It was important to preserve the purity of Harry’s idea. This was one moment in time and it couldn’t be done using trickery in Photoshop. There were so many unexpected elements, such as the little globules you can see in the final image and the plasma skirt, which came together very organically. Some of the drips and shapes were two or three times the length of this one, with a slower build. This one was a bit more compact.
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RICHARD FOSTER PHOTOGRAPHER Richard is a London-based photographer whose client list ranges from global agencies and consumer brands to broadsheets and magazines. Richard and Harry have been working together for 30 years, including work for Helping Haiti and Witness.
CONCLUSION Harry Pearce
During the shoot, we viewed the shots on-screen next to photographic images of the mushroom cloud. It took a lot of experimentation and dozens of tries to get it right. We were starting to worry that we might have to combine multiple images, but there was no debate once we saw this shot. It was clearly the right one. It was one of the very last shots of the day and it had the most evocative shape. Everything else needed to stay very minimal. As much as it’s my image, it simply could not have happened without Richard’s forethought and attention to detail. I’m a huge believer in chance and accidents. This was a total gamble where we could end up with something – or with nothing. We had to hope that our ideas and experiments would work, as it could so easily have been a failure. In the end, the only surprise was how perfect it ended up being.
LESSONS LEARNED HARRY PEARCE SHARES SOME INSIGHTS FROM THE PROJECT
One of the last shots of the day resulted in the perfect image for the final poster
SHARP SHOOTING The doctors advised us to shoot as quickly as possible as, once blood starts to congeal, it gets heavier and won’t dissipate so well in water. I went to the surgery, had five vials of blood taken, jumped straight into a taxi and then we spent the rest of the day shooting in the studio.
PERFECT PARAMETERS Temperature was essential. If the blood was slightly cold when it hit the water, it would have just dropped in a line with no explosion. If it was too warm, it would dissipate immediately. Drop it from too great a height and the surface breaks up too much.
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GENUINE DEPTH With design, it can be very hard to create something that has real feeling as there are so many layers of complex messaging to negotiate. This is one of the most complete things I’ve ever done in terms of the depths of thinking and the expression.
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THE LEGAL GUIDE FOR DESIGNERS Has your creative work been ripped off? Perhaps you’re dealing with a clueless or unscrupulous client, or facing a law suit yourself? Fear not: help is at hand. We reveal how to navigate all the classic legal pitfalls for designers he design business can be a murky one at times, with copyright infringements, licensing misuses, passings-off, and accusations of outright creative theft unfortunately commonplace. Few professional creatives set out to infringe another’s work. But it happens: often deliberately, but sometimes unintentionally. Infringements and legal actions are costly and disruptive. Yet seeing work being used without credit – literally and figuratively – makes a creative’s blood boil. The sad truth is that copyright abuse affects all scales of creative businesses, from Marian Bantjes – a designer whose work is in the permanent collection at the Cooper-Hewitt National Design Museum – to video artists, illustrators and even
t
design students. It can take the form of stolen pitch ideas; apparel and poster rip-offs; and clients misunderstanding the terms of a commission and illicitly profiting from your work. The story of Modern Dog – the Seattle design studio that was forced to sell its building in 2013 to fund legal proceedings against Disney and Target – is well documented (see www.moderndog.com and also www.robynneraye.com). Such a case reveals the stark fact that copyright actions are almost always expensive to bring and often difficult to prove. “A very famous pop star created a ‘map’ of their music career that was very obviously copied from my Map of Influences,” says Bantjes. “[Bringing legal action] was a really long shot on my part because although it was clearly ‘in the
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style of’ [my own work] it wasn’t directly lifted or scanned in any part.” “This kind of thing is incredibly difficult to fight, if not hopeless,” Bantjes says, admitting that bringing expensive litigation against the pop star was a big and potentially costly gamble. “My lawyer drafted a letter drawing up 13 separate points in which their map was the same as mine, but he told me that the worst-case and most likely scenario was that they tell us to ‘fuck off back to Canada’; the best-case was that they give us some money. However, to our astonishment they did the latter – not that it wasn’t the right thing to do of course. They also destroyed the remaining copies of their map. We thought they were going to be assholes about it, but they weren’t.”
PREVENTION IS PROTECTION Follow these pre-emptive rules and your creative work will be safer against the scourge of copyright infringers A result like the one Bantjes achieved doesn’t necessarily need a legal team, though. Calling in the lawyers and heading to court should always be the last step in any dispute. The first step should be knowing your beans when it comes to copyright legislation. As a very, very brief overview (see the box on page 97 for greater resources and country-specific bodies), under both US and UK law, anything original and creative is copyrighted once it is in a fixed medium. ‘Original’ simply means you created the work; that you are the originator. ‘Ideas’ and ‘styles’ however are not copyrightable. This means it’s okay for someone to examine how you work and to create their own version based on their own idea – that’s what influence is. Every amateur painting of sunflowers, fruit bowls, or ascending angels is an original work alongside those of Van Gough, Cezanne and Raphael. However taking those original works or elements of them and using them elsewhere is a breach of copyright. “The question is whether or not the possibly infringing work takes the expression of an idea – which is a violation of copyright laws – as opposed to simply expressing the same idea as the work,” says Scott Burroughs, a US-based attorney
who specialises in copyright disputes at www.designerlawyer.com and writes for www.youthoughtwewouldntnotice.com, a site dedicated to identifying, naming and shaming copyright infringement within the creative industries. “If an artist is familiar with their own work, and most artists know their art intimately, it shouldn’t be too hard to identify cases when someone has copied or stolen from that work.” Image rights are a separate area of intellectual property to copyright. They protect the (mainly financial) interest that a person has in their appearance. In short, image rights mean you can’t use a photo, recognisable illustration or ‘likeness’ of Olympic champion Jessica Ennis-Hill on your client’s product packaging without paying a lot of money for her image rights. You’ll find it pretty difficult to claim copyright on names, words, shapes and colours – individually, none are unique enough to be deemed copyrightable. Combining such elements in to a new design for a logo or company branding, though, may come under a legitimate copyright infringement claim. It is possible to register the appearance of a product or design, its logo, its packaging and shape, and the associated patterns and colours of that product.
Watermark your work The most obvious way you can prevent your creative work being abused is to watermark it. You might reckon this uglifies your creations in an instant, but only lazy creatives steal, so watermarking has its merits and there's a reason why stock libraries emblazon their samples. Show off The best way to spot plagiarism is to let the community at large do it for you. Post new work to your site, submit it to showcase blogs, keep your portfolio up-to-date and link to your work on social media. The more people who know your work, the more eyes to spot infringers. Retain proof The Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA) is based on ‘proof of ownership.' Keeping your project files organised and retaining any correspondence or other proof of creation date means you have documented evidence available should you need to call in the lawyers. Register your work In the US you can register your work officially for a $5 fee at www.copyright.gov/eco and in the UK various services such as www.copyright.co.uk and www.copyrightservice. co.uk offer certified registration and litigation assistance for around £40. Explain the terms Make it clear to clients that they can buy a licence to use and reproduce the work, or buy it from you in perpetuity. Unless otherwise agreed and paid for, any work that you create remains your copyright.
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N E E D T O KNOW
AUGUST 2015
STAY ON THE RIGHT SIDE OF THE laW Ensure you don't make the mistake of infringing someone else's intellectual property by sticking to these rules Don’t use Google Image search Lots of creatives tell us this regularly. It's impossible to track where images might come from and who owns them once they're slapped on a mood board, and the slightest error when creating hundreds of project assets can cost you dearly. Don’t take on dodgy work Clients can also be the initiators of copyright issues. If you're asked to produce something you're uncomfortable with, or to copy an existing piece of design by a client who has little or no imagination, walk away – not only will these types of projects do your portfolio few favours; it could see you being labelled a design plagiarist. Don’t take chances Freelancers and smaller studios will most likely be supplied assets and key visuals by the client or client's agency. Don't assume they're all legitimate, though. Services like Image Exchange by Picscout.com help you trace copyright images. Check your licences Before you hand over a completed project, check all of the licences that might be associated with the assets. For example, any stock imagery might require a commercial fee; any fonts which are embedded into a UX design or app need the appropriate licences; and make sure you check the time-periods of each licence as well as which countries and formats are included.
“IF ALL OF YOUR EFFORTS GO UNANSWERED OR THE RESPONSE IS UNSATISFACTORY, THEN YOU NEED TO MAKE A CALL TO A LAWYER” Trademarks and Registered designs like this must be applied for, however. If you notice your work being used without your permission, the first thing to do is make whoever’s using it aware of the infringement. The likelihood is that most businesses won’t have realised, and will have commissioned a cowboy creative who provided a logo or website design that more than heavily borrows from your existing creation. No matter – they are responsible for removing your copyrighted work. Hobby illustrators and enthusiast designers can often be unassumingly guilty of infringements, believing they’re within their rights to take elements of stills and videos and remix or use them; especially if it’s for a charitable or local event or service. They’re not, though, and so a gentle and polite reminder of copyright laws normally solves any problems. Clients are often the worst and least intentional culprits, taking your work and reusing it in various ways in which they’re not entitled. Again,
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educating your client and spelling out at the beginning of the project what rights of use they’re purchasing from you can save a lot of hassle down the line. If it’s a showcase or stock site that’s selling your work, there will be a reporting function on the site. List your complaint, give a take down request, and link to your original piece. For hooky online stores flogging your designs on apparel and posters, suggest compensation but let them state an initial figure: you’ve no idea how many units have been sold. The essential lesson is to sound as though you know more about copyright – and the way in which it is being infringed – than they do. Read the Digital Millennium Copyright Act (DMCA), advises Burroughs. This protects you regardless of whether your work is copyrighted or officially registered, and it also lays out the principles for proof of ownership. If your initial contact goes unanswered, followup with a firm statement that proves beyond doubt that you know your rights.
DI G I TA L I LLUST R AT I ON T OOLS
JULY AUGUST
RESOURCES AND TOOLS TO PROTECT YOURSELF Knowledge is power when it comes to protecting your creative work. Arm yourself with these resources… WIPO – worldwide The World Intellectual Property Organisation helps you protect your work and resolve copyright breaches. Their Intellectual Property Handbook is an essential read. www.wipo.int/about-ip/en/iprm USPTO – USA The US office for patent and trademark approval also registers copyrightable works. Its Learning and Resources section includes detail on what the Digital Millennium Copyright Act is and how to enforce it. www.uspto.gov
Find a DMCA Take Down letter template online, and state that you have the original files, evidence of the date of its creation, or other proof of ownership. If all of your efforts go unanswered, or the response you get is unsatisfactory, then you need to make a call to a lawyer. In the UK it’s possible to bring copyright cases to the Intellectual Property Enterprise Court under the Copyright Designs and Patents Act 1998, but only if the damages being demanded are under £5,000. Even so, it’s likely you’ll require the services of a lawyer as most decisions at small claims courts are appealed. Make sure you do your homework and hire a firm which specialises in copyright disputes. Collect all of your proof and correspondence and show it to your lawyer before asking for a quote; you’ll get a more solid idea of the outcome and cost. You’ll also be asked to list what demands you see as fair compensation. In most cases you’ll be granted a cease and desist or take down order, and awarded costs if you succeed.
If the work is making someone else money, which you’re entitled to a share of, then you can request financial compensation. This isn’t an invitation to pluck a price from the air, though, no matter how aggrieved you feel. You need to calculate your financial losses at what is a conceivable and provable market rate; this is known as ‘damages’. It’s up to the courts to impose any fines for the infringement. When it comes to compensation claims, most courts deem a buy-out fee or a percentage of revenue earned as fitting compensation. If you get to this stage, though, it’s time for the legal pros to take over and for you to get back to the Mac and (try) to focus on your creative work. Copyright cases are never pretty and always expensive. But the law exists as the final and most powerful means you have of protecting your work, and possibly even your creative career. Next month: Create the right studio environment and be more productive.
Intellectual Property Office – UK The area of the UK government website covers UK copyright and trademark law. It includes detail on what rights you have and how to protect them. www.gov.uk/topic/intellectual-property/copyright. For £25, you can also search to see if you hold the copyright to existing work. www.gov.uk/search-registered-design DACS – UK A not-for-profit artists' rights organisation which can assist you in collecting unpaid royalties and approaching copyright breaches. They offer a registration and disputeresolution service. www.dacs.org.uk AIGA – USA The professional designers body offers support, resources and reams of advice and information on protecting your creative work, plus case studies and support on what to do if it's breached. www.aiga.org/resources World Trademark Review – global An organisation whose Design Rights publication gives detailed information of individual nations' copyright laws and how to enact them, plus contact details of government bodies and support services. www.worldtrademarkreview.com/Intelligence/ Design-Rights/2015
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o, you can’t just put makeup on brands, because problems need solutions and every brand will have problems. Solutions should be a mix of strategy and design. If you just do something fancy then you’re just doing whatever you think looks good and that’s it, or you’re letting the client decide what’s beautiful or suitable. You have to take control and start to do branding and design for real, based≈on a strategy and a solution. Stop thinking of an identity as only a logotype. It’s so much more. Every time we enter a pitch we do it full-on and try to solve problems that the client most often never even asked for or (better yet) knew they had. That’s our number one recipe for winning them. Most of the time our competitors come to presentations with mood boards, saying the obvious and showing a mediocre identity. We always tend to stand out by starting out with presenting the client with problems they never even thought about. We then go on and show them what they are today, followed by how they want to be perceived in the future, and then compare it to how they should be perceived in the future. So: what they are, what they think they should be, and what
n
ENEMY OF TH E MONTH
Fear Fear is dominating the world at the moment. And as ridiculous as it sounds, Yoda had it spot on: “Fear leads to anger. Anger leads to hate. Hate leads to suffering.” So stop being afraid of everything new or unknown and make sure you stay well-read.
they actually should be. Of course, you have to do your research here but you will be surprised by how far normal logical reasoning will take you. So it doesn’t matter how awesome your design is if it’s not made specifically for the client in question as well as solving their problems. That’s how you will be persuasive enough to win a pitch. That’s how you convince sceptical and difficult clients that your design solution actually is a real solution and not just makeup. Last year Basque athlete Iván Fernández Anaya competed in a cross-country race. He was second and a good distance from the race leader, Abel Mutai. As they entered the finishing straight, he saw the Kenyan runner mistakenly pull up about 10 metres before the finish, thinking he had already crossed the line. Instead of exploiting this, Iván stayed behind and gestured to him to cross the actual finish line first. That’s something our industry needs to learn from. Why? Because even if he had won the race he wouldn’t have been the best. By the time you are among the best at what you do, you will simply realise it yourself and no longer seek the acknowledgement of others.
SNASK OFF! Snaskified is a recurring column by Snask, the internationally renowned creative agency, that strives to challenge the industry by doing things differently. They worship unconventional ideas, charming smiles and real emotions, and see the old conservative world as extremely tedious and as the world’s biggest enemy.
Fredrik Öst www.snask.com
GOSSIP
CA NDY
F ILT H
Q &A
T H U MB S U P !
THUMB S D OW N!
Q: What character from Game of Thrones would Snask be? A: We would love to be Jon Snow but we’re probably a mix of Arya Stark, Tyrion Lannister and Mance Rayder.
Revenge
Donald Trump
The Argentinian movie Wild Tales is mind blowing. It’s just about the utterly beautiful, ridiculous and stupid urge for revenge. See it!
Donald Trump is the biggest idiot of a generation of old men going to their graves with their conservatism. Yet he seems to be gaining votes. What’s wrong in this world?
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