Growing our own stories

Having created the identity for the Engineering & Physical Sciences Research Council’s (EPSRC) Growth campaign last year, we’ve designed a range of marketing materials, both print and digital, to promote the campaign, including an iPad/iPhone app, microsite, concertina brochure and A5 postcards.

The aim of the Growth Stories campaign is to highlight the ways in which the EPSRC is promoting economic growth within the UK through its funding of research projects to as wide an audience as possible. These stories range from an award winning, wireless heartbeat monitor for premature babies to the invention of new, flexible organic solar panels.

To bring the stories to life across the different media and grab people’s attention, we used large, bright and colourful photography that represented each story whilst short, snappy copy explained the background to each story. Each image is featured in all its hi res glory on the custom designed and built iPad/iPhone app, which takes advantage of its ‘retina' screen. We also designed a promotional microsite to showcase these stories to a wider audience through editorial and social media. This ensured the content is accessible to everyone, whether viewed on a mobile, tablet or desktop.

EPSRC used its stand at The Big Bang Fair in London this month to create interest in the app and website, with a pocket sized concertina brochure featuring some of the stories and A5 teaser postcards given to school children. The app and website were launched a few days later with the first batch of 20 stories and a further story will be added each week for the rest of the year.

EPSRC was delighted with the app, and Communications Manager Gemma Hulkes had this to say:

"We worked with TTP to create EPSRC’s first app, the contributions from them were invaluable and it was great to have their digital communications knowledge and expertise."

You can get hold of the free 'GrowthStories' app for both iPhone and iPad from the App Store. You can also see some of these stories on the custom microsite created to promote the app: www.epsrc.ac.uk/growth/ - look out for new stories being added each week throughout the year.

An innovative environment

Having already updated the look and feel of the Fostering Innovation 2013 Awards for the Biotechnology and Biological Sciences Research Council (BBSRC), the next stage was to create vibrant, stylish venue dressing, trophies and supporting printed material for the event at Altitude 360º, on the top floor of Millbank Tower in London.

The Fostering Innovation Awards recognise and celebrate the innovative work of BBSRC supported scientists who are delivering economic and/or social impact. This year’s competition saw the introduction of a new award, Excellence with Impact, which joins the Innovator of the Year and Activating Impact Awards.

Our challenge was to implement the award branding across the event space, complementing the stylish location, creating an exciting, coherent look and feel and directing the people flow throughout the venue, from the initial visitor experience at the entrance to the three award areas on the 29th floor.

We split the floor space of Altitude 360 into four zones, one for each of the three awards and the fourth for the presentation area. We carried the yellow, vibrant pink and blue colours from the starburst logo across the award zones, giving each zone its own colour so they were immediately identifiable and offered visual intrigue for guests.

For each zone we created a large perspex triangle, vinyl wall lettering and graphics along with window borders in its allocated colour. Coloured lightbulbs completed the effect and provided a warm glow, especially effective as the evening approached. Coloured floor vinyls at the entrance and across the venue floor was the perfect wayfinding system for visitors, guiding them into the individual areas.

We also created supporting print and digital material for the event, including the invite, brochure cover, animated slideshows using the logo shape and colours shown on screens throughout the venue, and the three award trophies made from the respective coloured perspex.

The event was a real success and BBSRC was delighted with the look of the venue on the night.

 

Making the complex simple

view the site here: www.coveburgess.com

Newly formed architects Cove Burgess recently approached us for help in refining its identity and creating a website. Both partners wanted the identity and collateral to reflect their approach to architecture, ie. pared back, stylish and ‘less is more’. Similarly, they felt that the website should be used to reinforce their credentials for contacts they had already met, rather than it pulling in new business from first time visitors. They wanted it to simply and quickly whet the appetite of any potential clients and leave them wanting more. They imagined it as a ‘second date’ website ­­– a good way of putting it!

Following this thinking, the identity needed to be simple and understated yet sophisticated. The use of Optima fitted the mix of modern and traditional whilst the differentiation of ‘Cove’ from ‘Burgess’ through two tones of grey created a stylish, pared back identity. The use of foil printing on the business cards reinforced the high-end, luxury feel and set the benchmark for follow up collateral.

We created the website in Wordpress CMS using a custom designed theme. Throughout the project we had to resist the urge to add too many 'common' website elements such as news pages and blogs etc that would perhaps improve SEO or more obvious 'calls to action', but would also depart from the extremely minimal and unique cornerstone we agreed upon at the outset.

The site structure was reduced to the point where only essential information was retained and the homepage features a simple horizontal menu (styled in the brand font) and large image carousel. The case studies page was paired down to just six key projects and a very concise description for each. Whilst both simple in style and in use, the site was created to be as easy to update as possible by the client should they wish to do so.

Cove Burgess are extremely pleased with the website and refreshed identity. Partner Timothy Burgess, said:

"Our approach is to make our clients lives easier; taking their complex projects and deliver them with the minimum of fuss. To the point got this immediately, which is not really surprising, as they do the same thing. The brand and the website are both simple and clear, exactly as it should be!"