How should an organisation launch a new or revamped brand? Brand launches should reflect the character and personality of the brand. They are often informed by the client and their desire and appetite for a more ritualised and expansive introduction. Two revamped brand identities we have been working on for several months will be launched in the next few weeks. Due to their shape and personal involved their launch will be subtly different. Both appropriate and both reflecting the type of organisation and personal involved.
A new brand identity is a huge opportunity to explain the new trajectory the organisation is heading, reinforce what is stands for, believes in and articulate what is important to it. Often the perception of focus for a brand launch is external. Just as important is is the internal brand launch. After all, these are the people who will represent and espouse and the brand. They are the ones who need to be totally clear what the brand stands for in order for them to live it well.
The external brand launch often will involve both digital and traditional media. If my involve PR consultants, media relations and sometimes sophisticated multimedia events coordination. Brand launch is a unique opportunity for organisations to manage their brand messaging in a controlled way before it begins swirling around in very wide circles.
In some cases clients are keen to have less razzamatazz– or soft launches – for a number or reasons. Budget is a big one. A full rebranding exercise can be expensive, not necessarily in brand consultants’ fees but in the cost of producing literature, signage, vehicle graphics, websites etc. – all in one hit. Regularly we have worked in a way that phases out the old system. . This is when existing stocks, containing the old identity are run down. New items with the new identity are created once the old ones have been used saving waste.This way a rebranding exercises can sometimes be achieved using existing budgets without the neccisity for a single one off investment.
If you would like to discuss how Ice House Design can help you with launching your brand please get in touch.
What is a creative brief?
A creative brief is a short document that sums up a project’s mission, goals, challenges, demographics, messaging, and other key details. Typically produced by the person heading up the project, a creative brief outlines the problems to solve and offers the tools they might need, without prescribing a solution.
Why do you need a creative brief?
To start – you need a plan! A solid creative brief ensures everyone is on the same page before the project has begun and acts as a guiding north star throughout. Simultaneously allowing a project to stay on track, whilst underpinning the creative concept and strategic thinking.
A creative brief helps align everyone on the task at hand. Even the best creative minds in the world can’t solve a problem they don’t understand. More than just an arbitrary document, it is a tool that allows for clear and thorough communication from the very beginning of the design process. It prevents potential last-minute project changes, misunderstandings, and conflicting objectives along the way.
Marjorie Newnham, Project Manager at Fiasco Design, adds: “With larger projects that involve multiple stakeholders and various rounds of creative, it’s especially important to agree on the deliverables up front, so there’s no potential for confusion later down the line.” Establishing parameters and crucially – building trust, at the beginning will help ensure a smoother project journey.
Who is a creative brief for?
It’s quite likely that the people who will use the brief are an external creative agency who may not be familiar with language that is specific to your industry. So it should be accessible to a designer or web developer, for example, and avoid lots of acronyms or jargon. However, worth adding that this doesn’t mean a creative brief needs to be dry! It’s meant to incite enthusiasm and possibilities.
Hayley Yates, Account Director at Fiasco Design, adds: “It’s valuable for us to know if a client’s been through a similar creative process before, or if this is their first time. It allows us to tailor our approach based on their level of understanding of the process, as the acronyms and jargon exist in our industry too!”
What should a creative brief include?
Whilst not an exhaustive list, including these key bits of information will help a creative agency to understand and work towards your project.
Although it might seem like a lot of information to convey in a relatively limited amount of space, a good creative brief stays focused and to the point. Pages and pages of additional information should be unnecessary. The more you are able to distill your thinking into clear and concise points, the clearer it will be to the creative agency you’re partnering with. The brief process in itself, might in fact help to refine exactly what you’re hoping to achieve.
Working at the intersection of brand and digital, we take our partners with us at every step of the creative journey. Our open and inclusive ethos helps us to create joined up work that sparks change. Looking to start a creative project? We’d love to hear from you: hello@fiasco.design.
You’ve got the degree in the bag, a cracking portfolio filled with beautiful, thoughtful design, a creative CV and brilliant references. You arrive at the interview ready to dazzle, only to find that they expect 2+ years industry experience and a catalogue of household names under your belt.
It’s no secret that the creative industry is hugely competitive. Sometimes getting a foot in the door can be the most challenging part. And how many times have we all heard the phrase: it’s not what you know, it’s who you know? How many of us have been asked to work for ‘exposure’ or offered unpaid work experience?
We know it’s hard out there and we know that’s the industry’s responsibility, not yours. So while you continue to make out-of-this-world work, we’ll keep creating opportunities to get it seen.
And here’s one we made earlier…
The Design Awards
The South West Design + Digital Student Awards were launched as an initiative to tackle how institutions approach design education. To get them thinking less about individual projects and more about the creative careers beyond.
The awards give third-year university students an opportunity to submit their innovative designs, win cash prizes (and who doesn’t need cash?), network with potential employers, get a portfolio review and win a paid placement at Proctor + Stevenson.
This year’s categories
If you haven’t checked out the website yet, the design categories up for grabs are:
Motion and AR – Think video, animation, XR, VR, AR and 3D graphics.
View images in blog here.
Graphic Design – Think 2D, 3D and print
View images in blog here.
Digital Design – Think web and digital graphic design.
View images in blog here.
And if you want to test out some cool AR right now, scan the barcode, download the app and hover the camera over the images above.
View images and QR code in blog here.
As well as having their designs shared with industry experts, all finalists are in with the chance to win a paid placement at Proctor + Stevenson, with the opportunity to extend. Runners up will receive £1k cash each, and the Ultimate Creative Champion will receive a whopping £4k cash.
When is the ceremony?
Once you’ve entered your designs (see entry guidelines), your submission is now in the hands of the gods (judges), who will be announcing the 10 finalists on 16 June 2022.
The finalists will be required to attend Proctors HQ in Bristol on 23 June 2022 for a day of interviews for the placement prize, followed by an awards ceremony and, from 6pm, a party with food, drinks, and dancing.
Some of our biggest clients will be there as judges and esteemed guests, along with the Proctors team, for your opportunity to network and celebrate your work.
A note from 2021’s winner Emily Hawkins
Emily Hawkins was last year’s winner. She studied at Portsmouth University and entered the awards with her innovative design titled Nature’s Aeroplanes.
We sat down with Emily to discuss her project, her experience at the Design Awards, her placement at P+S and what she’s up to now. Watch the video below to find out more.
2021 South West Design + Digital Student Awards winner Emily Hawkins video here.
To enter and read the full submission guidelines, check out the South West Design + Digital Student Awards website.
If you have any questions at all, you can contact us at [email protected] .
GYDA is thrilled to announce its repositioning as a Mastermind-centred business. The relaunch which happened in June 2022, sees GYDA increase its focus from being a business consultancy who helped agency leaders through traditional consultancy methods, to one that focuses on peer-to-peer Mastermind groups for agencies leaders all over the world.
The relaunch was the culmination of a six month project initiated by the managing partners Robert Craven and Janusz Stabik.
Robert said:
‘Our experience of running Mastermind programs spans back over seven years and includes the renowned Google Elevator program. It made sense to pivot the business to focus on the tools that work for agency leaders. We continue to support our clients with additional 1-2-1 coaching and growth centered consulting.’
The project included an in-depth strategy phase where GYDA collaborated with their growth experts and agency clients. Followed by a rebrand project with TinyBrand.
Janusz said:
‘We were so excited to work with Jemma at Tiny Brand again. Helping us to solidify and refine our brand strategy, they went on to create a new visual identity and collateral for GYDA. We are over the moon with the results. Our beautiful new brand fits perfectly with our audience and confirms GYDA’s position as market leader for mastermind programs.’
Visit GYDA.co to learn more about GYDA Mastermind
Visit Tiny Brand
To promote the launch of Cunard’s newest Ship, the Queen Anne, we crafted an exquisite Direct Mail pack for guests exemplifying the grandeur that you would expect from Cunard.
Every detail of the pack was designed with luxury in mind: a slower pace of storytelling with more exploration, heavier stocks for heightened connection, contrasting colours to surprise and delight, and gold foil that glistens throughout the experience.
Upon lifting the lid, the jewel in the crown is unveiled – a collection of four dazzling teal and gold cards, each an artistic rendition of Queen Anne’s unique architectural features: from the Grand Lobby designed by world-leading artists and architects to the magnificent column in the Britannia Restaurant. On the reverse, a glimpse of the ship’s interior is shown through richly coloured renders – igniting guests’ imaginations about what to expect. And all of this was meticulously designed to fit within international postage restrictions.
Hannah Waters, Creative Director, adds, “Everything aligned perfectly on this project. The brand is prestigious – the pinnacle of luxury. Our clients were ambitious; driven to help us achieve something great. And the process of piecing it all together was one of the most rewarding creative experiences of my career.”
Every detail was considered from this pack and Armadillo understood the brand and goal from the campaign to create the direct mail pack. Guests have been delivered a crisp, white postpack: a representation of Cunard’s famous White Star Service, and inside, a richly textured black presentation box, adorned with iconic Cunard brand elements in pristine gold foil.
As well as this, the pack includes a carefully crafted 16-page brochure, with additional imagery of Queen Anne and the destinations that the ship will guide their customers to through the cruise. All of this was intimately designed to fit within international postage restrictions, and was a great campaign for Armadillo to take on.
Louisa Gould, senior CRM manager, Cunard, comments, “Simply wow! We’ve already had so much positive feedback on the luxury DM piece. Everyone loves it. Thank you all for helping us create this masterpiece, I really do feel it is a piece of art.”
Cunard has reported that the first day of voyage bookings for new ship Queen Anne proved the busiest booking day in a decade.
The founders of The Big Plastic Count – Greenpeace UK and Everyday Plastic – appointed purpose-driven creative agency, Enviral, to create its latest national campaign, which has lifted the lid on the country’s recycling rates and exposed that the government is talking trash about our plastic problem.
Through their launch video, The Big Plastic Count and Enviral encouraged 31 MPs and 97,948 households to take part in counting their plastic for a week in May, which equates to 1 in every 262 households in the UK. This was the biggest ever investigation into UK household plastics and the data uncovered will be crucial in convincing the government, big brands and supermarkets to take ambitious action on reducing plastic packaging.
Throughout the investigation, participants counted over 96 billion pieces of plastic and uncovered that only 12% of our plastic waste is actually recycled with 17% exported abroad, 25% sent to landfill and 46% incinerated.
Working in close partnership with the The Big Plastic Count team, Enviral developed the creative, the narrative and oversaw the shoot productions to create three hard-hitting films; a launch film, a how-to film and a shocking results film which puts pressure on the government to act.
Chris Thorne, Plastics Campaigner at Greenpeace UK said: “The plastic crisis is out of control but if the government acts we can get a grip on the problem. That’s why The Big Plastic Count is so important. Getting the narrative right on a campaign like this can be make or break. Through Envirals understanding of our needs and their collaborative approach they’ve helped us create assets we know the public will connect with and will lead to more and more people pushing the government to take ambitious action to end the plastic waste problem.
Joss Ford, Enviral Founder, comments: “We’ve been consistently beating the drum around the role of creatives in fighting the climate crisis and in connecting hearts and minds. So being able to partner with such an impactful organisation like Greenpeace UK really is a huge moment for our team and one which we hope brings real impact and holds those in power to account.”
This project embodies Greenpeace UK’s wider mission to defend the natural world from destruction, with a vision for a greener, healthier and more peaceful planet that can sustain life for future generations to come. The campaign evolved out of The Everyday Plastic Survey, pioneered by Everyday Plastic, a research-led non-profit focused on evidence-based education and campaigns. With the aim of mobilising and inspiring the UK population to help lift the lid on our recycling, it’s hoped this campaign will hold the government to account and bring real, positive change.
Enviral was awarded the contract after a competitive pitch process. With previous agency nominations including The Drum’s Best Use Of Video For Digital Advertising, Enviral is a full-service ethical brand communications agency based in Bristol that leverages the power of storytelling to effect real change for future generations.
Watch the launch video in full here.
Page builders within content management systems afford users a great deal of power and flexibility when creating content. But a large proportion of websites are built with a structured content template model. While this is not as flexible as using page builders, it takes advantage of the ability to use content across different websites and devices.
Both are useful options in different contexts, so we’re going to explore some of the benefits and limitations of page builders vs. structured content.
Creating content for your website has never been easier, thanks to page builders. You don’t need to have developer skills, which means you can have total control of the content on every page. It also means marketers can focus on the messaging and visuals rather than getting involved in a software development cycle.
Click here to view image in blog.
Why use page builders?
Page builders allow the user to create a page on their site without involving developers. There are some amazing solutions available such as Elementor for WordPress, which allows an editor to build a page to their specific requirements using a drag-and-drop interface. Site Studio and Layout Builder for Drupal also offer drag-and-drop features that allow the user to build a page from a fixed set of components.
These components can comprise different layouts for the user to add content to. They can also be carousels curated from existing content (a news list, for example) or created at the point of entry. They can also be forms that a user can decide to include as part of a campaign.
This allows marketers to create landing pages for campaigns, but also to edit their website quickly and easily. If the site has been configured correctly, a user will be able to build pages that conform to their company’s brand guidelines without consulting a web designer. The page will still look attractive and consistent. So the advantages are many, both in terms of speed to market and flexibility for the marketer.
But what are the limitations of using page builders?
These solutions won’t be right for every website. It really depends what you’re trying to achieve. So what else do we need to consider when choosing an approach? Firstly, page builders aren’t ideal for authoring a large number of pages with a defined content model, such as product pages. You could find yourself working on each one manually, when a CMS can often generate product pages automatically based on a feed from an API.
Another major thing that’s rarely considered when designing web pages with a page builder is the process of migrating content from your current website – in whatever CMS it’s built– to a later version of your CMS or a different one altogether. Our experience tells us that whatever system you’re currently using, there will be a time when a rebuild or redesign will make it necessary to migrate away from your current system.
Page builders store the content data, style and structure in the same place in a database, making it extremely difficult if you change your branding and want to update the style your content is presented in. The only way you can transfer this content data to a new system is to also bring over the layout and styling code, which will not fit into the new system easily.
At Proctors we have solutions that offer the best of both worlds.
With Webflow, our designers can build attractive websites with a low code/no code approach, but with a designer’s eye. They can also create content structures so that they can import content from other systems easily.
The main benefit of building a site with Drupal is that you can use the page builder functionality to create landing pages, campaigns and even homepages, but you can also take advantage of the fact the architecture allows easy content structure planning and is REST API-ready straight out of the box, so your content migration is achievable.
This approach also has the added benefit of allowing you to transfer your content data to other channels and devices. Your content can be pushed to native apps on mobile devices, kiosks and other websites, and presented in a local format on these sites.
There are benefits to creating content with page builders and creating content in a structure. Being able to take advantage of both in a single application is what you should be aiming for.
As an enterprise-level Webflow partner and an experienced Drupal agency, P+S can help you decide on the best solution for your project. Just email [email protected] and find out how we can help you.
The Enterprise Sessions is a new content series led by Prof. Michele Barbour Associate Pro Vice-Chancellor: Enterprise and Innovation at the University of Bristol.
The series has been created to inspire entrepreneurs and help them to realise impact from their ideas. Michele interviews founders, researchers and academics from different disciplines and career stages who’ve been part of the University’s Enterprise ecosystem. Each episode is a treasure trove of information covering a range of topics from funding, licensing and IP, consultancy, contract research and business incubation.
Guests include Konstantina Psoma, Professor Wuge Briscoe, Professor Roberta Guerrina and Dr Tom Carter.
Bristol now tops the list of UK universities for the return on investment achieved by spinouts and is ranked in the top 3 for equity investment.
Prof. Michele Barbour said: “The University of Bristol has an impressive track record of enterprise and innovation and we’re keen to share that knowledge within our community as well as with a wider audience. The Enterprise Sessions is a new content series that brings to life the personal stories of spinout Founders and how our enterprise ecosystem has them.
Firehaus took our idea and created a branded content series, introducing the broadcast-style interview approach, as well as the name and look and feel. The approach has allowed me to develop rich conversations with our interviewees and showcase their experience of our ecosystem which will be of huge benefit for anyone involved in research, innovation and enterprise.”
Nick Barthram, Strategy Partner at Firehaus said: “Firehaus has worked with a range of organisations in the Research, Innovation and Enterprise space, including UKRI, Made Smarter Innovation and The University of Bristol. Consequently, we’ve developed a clear understanding and methodology to ignite opportunities at the intersection of academia and industry”.
Strategy, Concept and Art Direction: Firehaus
Film Production: JonesMillbank
See more images here
Top floor, corner of St Nicholas St and Clare St above Four Wise Monkeys – BS1 1YH
Minimum 6 month contract
Hey! What? and Duchess Media are looking for freelancers or small start ups to come share our recently expanded creative office space with us. We have 4 more desks available in our bright and spacious second room that includes its own kitchenette and a shared meeting room space.
We are a fun, creative and social group and are looking for people who will fit into the environment we have created.
Rent includes:
• Desk
• Internet
• Electricity
• Showers
• Cleaning
You will need to provide your own chair.
Anyone interested in coming to have a look please get in contact here or call Hamish on 07866 915 863.
With a name like Koko you’d expect these guys to be a bit nuts about coconuts, but the love they have for this plant goes way beyond their name.
A family-owned company that takes great care of their coconuts, growing them the way nature intended and packing them within hours of being picked – always by human hands – to guarantee, freshness, ripeness, and the highest quality.
With a range of delicious milk alternatives already in the market, Koko wanted to offer something more to their growing audience… a vitamin enriched coconut milk which contains enhanced nutritional benefits for both physical and emotional well-being.
Having worked together on previous Koko products, Episode Two were asked to bring this exciting new product to life.
“We wanted the packaging design to really champion the unique ‘natural goodness’ proposition” says Creative Director Mark Stubbington “and help elevate the Koko brand credentials.”
“While it was also important to stay true to the core range look and feel” adds Creative Strategist Rikki Payne.
And the result? Bursting with 11 vitamins and minerals, Koko Life! helps support the immune system, brighten the mind and look after skin – don’t you feel happy just looking at it?
“This was a tricky brief. We needed our new product to fit with the existing Koko range, but demonstrate the additional nutritional benefits and energy delivered by a product fortified with vitamins. The outcome speaks for itself, with a striking visual identity that perfectly balances the Koko brand with an elevated lifestyle proposition.” Heather Lewis. Senior Marketing Manager