Spring roundup

#Winning Get the streamers out folks and blow up the balloons because we're celebrating our Silver award at this year's IDA Awards for our work on Twitter's London office! It's a great accolade to have and a fantastic way to finish off what was an exciting project for us. We would like to thank Twitter for the great opportunity and say congratulations to all those people involved with producing such a fantastic workspace environment. Now if you need us, we'll be celebrating with a well deserved drink. Pass the champagne please!

Environmentally Friendly We're increasingly becoming more involved in workspace environments as time goes on, so it’s always good to stay ahead of the game and see what new and exciting innovations we can bring to our clients. This short video is a great example of how 'durable and functional' doesn't have to be dull, or sterile! The designers of spaces, from cinemas to airport lounges, discuss how they brought a feeling of home to their space. The spaces are so robust yet welcoming, you'll even be allowed to put your feet on the sofa!

Mobilegeddon Firstly, don't panic. Many of you will already know the big digital news this month (and no we don't mean the release of the Apple Watch), Google have released rules aimed at down-grading websites that aren’t mobile friendly.  The new Google algorithms are currently spidering through the world wide web with gusto, knocking off points for sites that don’t cut the mustard. Doom-sayers have been telling readers that their websites will disappear, never to be seen again, if they don't tow the line. But let us repeat, don't panic! Google aren’t the monsters that everyone’s making them out to be. Firstly, it takes a while for search criteria (and internet content changes) to take effect, this can be weeks. More importantly, this addition to Google’s ‘points system’ is just the latest addition to many design and content features that Google (and other search engines) look for to measure quality of content and usability of websites.  Your site may not be responsive, but if you have killer content you should perhaps worry less than someone with a responsive website where content needs a review. Also, these new rules only apply to searches from mobile devices. In short your website should be responsive, well constructed and well written, with accessible and relevant content. Click here to try Google’s mobile friendly test tool (try saying that fast) to see how your site fairs. If you’re still concerned, then get in touch with us and we’ll see how we can help.  And whilst we're on the topic of digital self-improvement, the folks over at SME have compiled some handy hints to ensure you're engaging with online visitors (most of which we've been harping on about for years!). Online users are a fickle bunch, with 55% of visitors spending less than 15 seconds on a page, so it's important to grab their attention with infographics, visual content and stunning images (why not check out this months story on how our client SeaBird use photography to bring their annual report to life).

Time for fun Another Bank Holiday will be rolling up at the end of the month, and if we were to say you could experience a wonderful mash up of the Crystal Maze and Indiana Jones in real life you may think we'd been celebrating our IDA win a little too hard. But no, we are talking about Time Run, an exciting new "escape the room game". Now we're not entirely sure what that means but we've signed up to find out, so watch this space! You'll be transported back in time and given tasks and mind-bending puzzles to solve across three rooms, as you try to find the Time Run lost artifact. This takes immersive theatre to the extreme, we think the only thing missing is Richard O'Brien

A picture perfect report

The importance of good imagery can often be overlooked during the quest to perfect your copy when creating a piece of collateral. However, our long term client SeaBird Exploration has been steadily commissioning and building a bank of beautiful photography over the years we’ve been working with them.

SeaBird’s vessels are often out exploring the seabed, however when they are required to dock for maintenance, the team take it as an opportunity to commission photography of the vessels and crew at work, with some art direction from us.

The 2014 annual report’s main job is to communicate the performance of the company, but it also acts as a showcase for the scale of the SeaBird operation through imagery, bringing to life the work of the crew and shore based team. Using a mix of black and white and colour photography we add interest throughout the document, and both large scale and smaller images keeps the pace exciting.

The SeaBird annual report helps highlight the difference strong imagery can make. It is true that a picture is worth a thousand words!

The voice

ISBA, or the Incorporated Society of British Advertisers to their friends, is the voice of the British advertising industry and has been working with advertisers in various ways since 1891!

Of course ISBA’s offering, and their look and feel, has changed a lot since 1891, but they felt it was time to refresh their marketing materials. Our work started with their Annual Conference, however from the very beginning the plan was to create a contemporary suite of materials that reflected ISBA as the voice of a modern industry.

We wanted to use ISBA’s strapline “The voice of British advertisers” as the grounding for the concept as it embodies their offering perfectly. We created a graphic that reflected a collection of different soundwaves, or voices, using transparency to bring the concept of layers of voices to the fore.

We’ve also tailored the layouts of each document to better suit its audience and use. We’ve used colour and layout more functionally for the schedule based Training and Capability Programme and used shapes and typography more freely to create a more editorial look for the new business focused “Join Us” brochure.

We agreed a square format for the Join Us brochure, which elevated it beyond a standard brochure. We also recommended a change from a coated stock to an uncoated, creating a more premium and contemporary feel, whilst being more environmentally friendly.

Finally, for the Annual Conference, we also created a short animation that could be used on the website, throughout the event and during talks. The use of moving image added a really exciting dimension to the "voice' concept, even if it was a challenge to animate!


ISBA-Animation-sponsors from to the point on Vimeo.

We’ve thoroughly enjoyed adding more volume to ISBA’s voice, and with more projects on the horizon, it’s only going to get louder over the coming months.