Our 2014 Calendar

The reports of the “death of print” you may have heard have been greatly exaggerated, and the positive feedback we receive every year about our calendar support the fact that it is indeed alive and kicking.

As with any self-initiated project, our calendar is a labour of “love”, as we strive to think of a new concept that will top the one from the year before. We started by putting our heads together in the Autumn. Ideas ranged from the team dressing up in all manner of outfits, to a cocktail recipe for every month (what does that say about us?), however in the end our inspiration came from the ethos that we proudly live by: “Clear, concise communication”.

As they say, practice what you preach. This year we put that into action by creating a series of typographic illustrations that visually represent us, and what we bring to our work and your brand. To really tie each idea into our brand we stuck to our black and white colour palette, using a subtle grey pantone to pick out parts of the design and lift them from the black. We then turned to the print team at Scanplus to bring our design to life, as usual their work was fabulous!

Some of you may also recall that we went one step further and animated these illustrations for the video on our stand at the recent Public Relations Show 2013, just to prove that print and digital can live together in harmony.

The Clear, Concise Calendar is being shipped out, but if you don’t receive one do not fret, all is not lost! Drop us an email and we’ll do our best to put one in the post for you. There have been whispers of a series of limited edition prints for some of the illustrations, so keep an eye on our e-news as we’ll announce them there first.

You can also download a free copy of our calendar in PDF format here

Do let us know what you think - inspiring or a waste of time? Let us know!

tothepoint's 2013 calendar – how it all unfolded

our 2013 calendar

Each year, we produce a desktop calendar that goes out to our clients and friends in late December. With digital calendars becoming increasingly prominent, and traditional print calendars being shunned by many, we are surprised (and flattered) that ours has remained so popular. We enjoy great feedback from clients on its usability and many look forward to receiving theirs each year.

Being a superstitious lot, this year we thought we'd turn a negative into a positive and pepper our 2013 calendar with lucky charms. Once we nailed our concept (Make your own luck) we thought it would be a doddle for a creative bunch such as ourselves to fold up 12 origami animals. Oh, how wrong we were! Even with instructions all over the internet, the most nimble fingered of us struggled to turn simple origami instructions into anything resembling an animal! To add to this, we also discovered that like most creative industry outputs, intellectual copyright also covers many origami designs.

We quickly realised that we needed to link up with an origami artist of the highest order, who also owned their own copyright. Who better then than the acclaimed Chairman of The British Origami Society, Mark Bolitho? We were delighted when Mark agreed to join our venture and after only one brainstorming session (and a quick trip to Paperchase), we were overwhelmed when he brought the 12 completed 'lucky' animals over to the office!

Mark Bolitho with his mini-menagerie

Now we just needed a professional photographer to capture these fantastic pieces in their best light. In stepped Noel Murphy. We've worked with Noel for a few years for clients including EDF and The Technology Partnership, so we knew he’d do a great job. With Noel on board, we assembled our pop-up photographic studio at tothepoint towers and set to work.

Noel keeps quiet while shooting elephants

Once we were happy with the photography and artwork, it was over to one of our favourite printers, Scanplus, who help us with the calendar every year. This time, Linda and new recruit Katie watched the guys in action, experiencing the quality and attention to detail they deliver on every job. Of course, this year’s calendar was no exception…

the calendar rolls off the press

We’re extremely happy with the results of this year’s collaboration of experts. Forging close working relationships with other specialists is both inspirational and effective in achieving great results, whatever the project.

We hope that our calendar brings you a little extra luck and wish you a happy and successful 2013.

For further origami inspired stuff, including wallpaper downloads, a free screensaver and our 'Flight of a Thousand Cranes' game – head on over to our origami page!

P.S. if you haven't received a copy of our calendar already please let us know and we’ll send one over (if we have any left).

Let's get Physiological

We first got involved with the project in April when we were invited by the Society (on recommendation from EPSRC, with whom we have an ongoing relationship) to take part in a competitive pitch, which we subsequently won. The Physiological Society last undertook a rebrand in 2006, gaining a new logo and brand guidelines.

The existing printed materials loosely reflected these guidelines, but as a collection the leaflets and posters lacked consistency and a strong visual identity. As such, our role was not only to refresh the visual identity of the Society but to also ensure this new identity was applied consistently and correctly across all of its printed materials, helping to increase the profile of the Society amongst its varied audiences, including within Industry and Parliamentarians.

We obviously managed to impress the right people at the Society as Clare Kingston, Head of Media and Communications at the Society, had this to say:

“Not only have ttp been brilliant in delivering a fantastic new brand identity and design on budget, they have been great fun to work with too. Refreshing a brand in a member organisation can sometimes be a tricky process but Jim, Mark and the team have produced a contemporary look that is still sympathetic to our roots as an established scientific organisation. They have been a pleasure to work with and our Members love the new designs.”

There were a number of things we had to be aware of when we started the project. As part of the brief we were advised that the Society was not looking for a complete overhaul of the branding, but more of a refresh/evolution. This was because the existing logo was firmly established amongst the scientific community, and, given the economy the Society didn’t want to be seen to be spending frivolously on design. The Society however was looking for ways in which to evolve the brand cost effectively. We also had to consider that as a science organisation, the Society is reliant on strong branding and eye-catching design to make the occasionally ‘dry’ subject matter more appealing.

As physiology is the science of how different systems function in the body, the existing logo was based on a visual representation of an ‘action potential’ – the electrical impulse in a nerve cell. This change in electrical activity is represented by the rise and fall of graphic lines in the logo – a nice idea but we felt the graphic was a bit dated.

So, using this as a reference point, we came up with a number of options for the logo, designing a couple of safe options where we stuck closely to the existing style and retaining the action potential concept, along with some that pushed the boundaries in a variety of directions. After presenting our ideas to the Society, we then developed one of the ideas routed in the action potential curves and a cleaner, more accessible and contemporary logo was born. Featuring a primary colour palette of navy and cyan, the five waves create a bolder and more impactful identity whilst reflecting the gravitas and expertise of the Society.

The new logo has been implemented across all printed materials including booklets, posters, exhibition banners and pop up stands, stationery and business cards. We also produced a set of brand guidelines, which detail electronic use as well as print. The updated website is based on these guidelines and has just gone live.

Furthermore, the update of printed / marketing materials forms part of a wider communications review conducted across the Society this year to ensure it is communicating as effectively as it can with its variety of audiences which include senior scientists, early career scientists, undergraduates, schools, policy makers, Industry and the general public.

You can download the full guidelines here or view image examples below.