Fall for our roundup

Pomak and the Painter

Over the years we have built up good relationships with clients based overseas, such as New York, San Francisco, Dubai and a little closer to home in Ireland. At the beginning of September, one of our senior designers, Jem, flew over to Dublin to oversee the installation of an exciting new project. It called for us to use some old techniques and methods we had not used for some time. One of the highlights was using Dublin based signwriter, Colm O'Connor, who brought some of our icons and messaging to life on real wood. You can see him in action in the video Gentlemen of Letters.                                                                                                                                                                  

We are still trying to work out if Jem was more impressed with the painting or the pint of real Guinness before his flight home.

Totally Bricking It!

September 24 has seen the launch of ‘The Art of The Brick’ at Truman’s brewery - to put this plainly, it's an entire exhibition filled with lego sculptures! That's right, childhood dreams do come true.

Created by New York Artist Nathan Sawaya, the sculptures are bound to leave both children and adults in awe. The highlight has to be the 20ft dinosaur, but there are also some special London influence pieces.

Reasons to be Creative

At the beginning of this month, our very own Jem Pomak went to his very first design conference and learnt a very pertinent lesson:

"The running theme of Reasons to be Creative seemed to be “design what you know and love”, although that might have just been my dreamy-eyed first-conference-wander talking. One speaker in particular, James Victore hammered home how important it is to design boldly, saying “If it doesn’t move you, how can you expect it to move anyone else?”. It was just one little thing but it really hit home, as an agency we do design with passion but it's not something I'd consciously thought of before.".

Our picks from LDF

If this year's London Design Festival has been a bit overwhelming for you we have picked a couple of our favourites for you to have a look at.

1.Dominic Wilcox’s stained glass car

If Dominic's self-driving car is anything to go by, the future is going to be a beautiful place! Wilcox predicts that by 2058 (very specific) it will be safer to ride in driverless vehicles than ones controlled by humans. Our client, Transport Systems Catapult agree, as they're currently trialling driverless pods.

2. Dan Tobin Smith, The First Law of Kipple

Dan's latest installation draws inspiration from the sci-fi writer Phillip K Dick, who stated that endless clutter builds up in a persons life as ‘kipple’. Through Dan’s Studio there is a pathway defined by the absence of miscellaneous clutter. From afar, it would be easy to think that the items have been spray painted to achieve the effect, but look closer and the sheer scale of the project becomes clear.

A tricky start for the iPhone 6

With more competition than ever before, Apple-sceptics had a fun September. Initial reports that iOS8 had more bugs than usual were joined with complaints on-line that the new iPhone 6 was actually bending!

Many have been quick to jump on the Apple bashing wagon with the likes of LG being swift to take the mickey “Our phones don’t bend, they’re naturally curved :) #bendgate.” (However, if you are going to poke fun at iPhones, then using one to send the tweet is probably not the smartest move!)

This all highlights the importance of some serious testing before launching something, whether it's a bendable phone or a mis-interpreted logo!

The science underdogs

This week the world of Science has recognised some of the contributions made to mankind that make very little difference (even the underdog needs a bit of recognition).There are some truly cracking entries, but we've picked our top three:


1. Researchers who have studied the slipperiness of a banana skin
2. Pork strips stuffed into peoples noses to stop severe nosebleeds.
3. The men who dressed up as polar bears to study reindeers reactions (sadly we do not have an image for this one, that said our imagination does a pretty good job).

Luckily some of our science based clients are striving for slightly more ‘impact’ and ‘imovation’.

Challenge over but not out

Well, Sam completed his Challenge-Charlie 97 days of running with his final 12k along the banks of the Bosphorus with our MD, his Dad, desperate to complete it with him.

In a tremendous effort by Sam he has raised thousands of pounds for the Team Hutton Just Giving page from sales of the now iconic ‘Join Us’ T-shirt and donations. You may have seen some of our team out running in our shirts over the bridges along the Thames on a Wednesday after work (finishing with a well earned pint at the Mudlark!).

The last weekend park run on the 14th September will be a difficult one to forget, as Sam was joined by many of those who had run with him for one epic run (and picnic) in Battersea Park. What has been truly inspirational is the lasting effect these runs have had on people, transforming non-runners into runners. We certainly intend to keep it up, so if you fancy joining us let us know... we’ve even got some T-shirts left so you wont feel left out. To find out more about the actual Challenge and Sam’s 97 days of running, visit the website. Well done Sam - we’re all proud of you, and a little bit fitter!

Sorry, summer’s gone

Now that the summer has come to an end, illustrator Seth Armstrong’s feature ‘Book your Stay’ in Mr Porter reminds us of the hot days and holidays past, as we now wait for the wind and rain of Autumn. Armstrong paints some of the world’s most famous novels held up agains the background of the novel itself. The results are something to behold.

Tickled Pink

You may have noticed little splashes of magenta in our Enews and local area over the past couple of months. This has been our work for our local Business Improvement District (BID), Better Bankside’s 2015 ballot campaign. From a leave behind leaflet, a 2m high roller display to branding a bike, with the BID proposal brochure as the finale, we've been helping them to get their message out there.

The upcoming ballot has also provided the perfect catalyst for positive change and an evolution of the Better Bankside’s sub brands – Visit Bankside, Bankside Venues, Bankside*, Bankside Buzz and Bankside Urban Forest. Each subbrand has a strong identity and personality that was beginning to appear distant from the Better Bankside brand and at ballot time it is essential that people know what the BID has delivered.

We started with a joint audit and rationalisation of their identity and communications, creating a clear and consistent brand hierarchy for the group. This enables us to clearly communicate the offerings and structure of the BID for their 2015 campaign, whilst building on the recognition of the main Better Bankside identity.

‘Bankside’ acts as the main connection in both location and the titles. Highlighting this was a core principle with the new visual language. Our work introduces the range of offerings all under the Bankside ‘umbrella’ and helps both businesses and locals to recognise the breadth and success of work completed by the Better Bankside team.

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It was key to keep the main Bankside logo unchanged, as their colour palette and slab font are established and widely recognised. By retaining these two key elements, the design relies on clear and sympathetic typography to reinforce the hierarchy and distinguish the sub brands from the main identity.


Each of the campaign pieces followed this theme of clear, concise communication (great minds think alike!) using their bold recognisable colour palette and making use of strong imagery.

At the same time we challenged the volume of communications and looked at simplifying these to shorter more succinct pieces that linked through to the websites we had previously designed. Creating one simplified e-newsletter was the vehicle for this strategy. The template was built so Better Bankside can now create, edit and send their enews quickly and efficiently in-house. Check out their monthly updates here.

The culmination of this work is the ballot brochure that is hot off the presses and winging its way to all the Better Bankside businesses… of which we are one. You’re doing a great job guys, you’ve got our vote!

Making Waves

Most of our clients keep our feet firmly on land, however recently we’ve taken to the high seas (well, the Thames…) to work with Thames Clippers and their newest partner MBNA.

Louise Errington, MBNA Thames Clippers’ Head of Marketing, had worked with us before joining Thames Clippers’ crew and so contacted us to help with rolling out their new logo, which was designed by MBNA’s inhouse team.

The ceremonial Champagne is still drying on the bow, but you may have already spotted the newly branded fleet on the river and the revamped pier signage. However, still to come are the river and commuter guides. A large amount of people use the Clippers to sail through the rush hour (thank you MBNA Thames Clippers for that pun) and so these guides will give them bite sized chunks of information about the service.

Katie and Jem enjoyed the launch event - Picture from www.thebiglondon.com

Along with implementing the logo across their marketing materials, we also created their brand guidelines to help the team with creating any new or day-to-day pieces.

We often find clients can be wary of approaching a branding and design agency to help implement an existing logo, not to mention creating brand guidelines. The perception being that these agencies will want to change the logo and start from scratch. Poppycock! If it ain’t broke, don’t fix it; and other such clichés as this particular project proves. (But if it is broke then we’ll let you know!)

There are benefits to a fresh pair of professional eyes for the implementation of an identity through to easy to use guidelines. Strong and memorable identities are far more than just the logo, so this is where the knowledge and attention to detail of those fresh eyes can really add value to your brand. Guidelines then go on to look at things that may not have been covered in the logo’s design, such as what happens when you need to place it on a coloured background, and what font do you use with it? Whether staff leave or you change your design agency, professional guidelines help ensure that a company can apply and implement their identity consistently across all brand touchpoints.

Collaborating with a creative team, like those at MBNA Thames Clippers, isn’t something that’s new to us (we are a friendly bunch after all). We’ve also worked with teams at Turley and The Technology Partnership, creating initial visuals and designs for the team to carry forward.

Hopefully our recent work with MBNA Thames Clippers proves the power of collaboration, and if you would like to create a dream team with us, why not get in touch?