Design

The brochure bites back

Helen Royds

Denman 75th Anniversary Brochure Spread 1

Denman 75th Anniversary Brochure Spread 2

Denman 75th Anniversary Brochures

With so much communication now designed for digital channels, the printed brochure seems like a forgotten art. But this year brochures seem to be bouncing back. We’ve already created several, for different clients and there’s more being briefed in.

Sometimes you can’t beat the engagement of a nice tactile piece of print. Just the smell of quality ink on paper feels good. And nothing feels more special than this brochure we’ve created for Denman International. Designed by Helen Royds, it marks Denman’s 75th Anniversary, telling the story of the brand. Helen has designed it in the style of a fashion magazine, with luxury stock and special finishes including gold foiling and metallic inks.

At Milestone, we think a lot of comms deserve a better life than as a PDF download. But, if you are going to print something today, it needs to work harder than it did in the past to justify its physical existence. Every aspect including layout, copy, imagery, paper, finishing and size needs careful consideration to deliver something you can’t put down.

Judging by the positive reaction to this Denman brochure it seems the brochure could be about to enjoy a renaissance as a marketing tool.

James Bond in Action…

All you Bond fans out there will be eagerly anticipating the much hyped opening of Skyfall this Friday. What you may not know is Hasbro produced a collectors’ range of James Bond Action Men in the late 90s – with packaging designed by Milestone. Feast your eyes on this retro range. In a bid for authenticity we got the original film poster artists from each movie to illustrate the packs. And all genuine movie prop details were shot at the Bond archives. The finishing touch was an actual frame from a genuine Bond movie reel in each pack. They don’t make them like they used to…

Liimited Edition James Bond Action Man Packs

James Bond Action Man Pack inside

RAC get off to a great start at Goodwood

As a key sponsor of this year’s Goodwood Festival of Speed RAC wanted to maximise awareness and attract new members during the event. We helped put together a full promotion including programme advertising, branded car park stands and press area, crowd stoppers and a prize draw.

We also created a 30 second video to show on the giant screens; it features an RAC Patrol as he races around the Goodwood track. Directed by Milestone’s Peter Wilkinson, it was actually filmed on a day when scores of vehicles were using the course as a service road. Patience and careful editing means you never see the other vehicles we had to share the track with. The final edit was delivered to the client 36 hours after we arrived on location.

2012 RAC Report on Motoring

This year’s RAC Report on Motoring goes live today. There are 30 million drivers in the UK today – the Report, based on the views of over 1,000, shows their attitudes to the cars they drive, the road network, transport policy and the behaviour of other drivers.

Our design for this year’s Report includes many striking infographics showcasing the headline statistics. Each chapter features our own photography which captures the everyday driving stories, incidents, issues and characters on British roads.

Download your copy…

RAC Report on Motoring

The Joy of Stats

Information design is a major trend in graphics today. But take a look at the work of Florence Nightingale in 1855. She was not just the lady of the lamp but the mother of modern infographics. After the Crimean War she presented her findings about ‘Mortality within the British Army’ to Parliament, devising illustrative graphical charts to tell the story. It helped bring about revolutionary changes to medical health. Her story and others was featured in a great programme on TV this week, presented by Professor Hans Roslin called ‘The Joy of Stats’.

Florence Nightingale Pie Chart

Just My Type

Just My Type by Simon GarfieldThis morning, I received my regular e-shot from Design Taxi. The first article lead me to  Upside Down, Left To Right: A Letterpress Film – a short film by Danny Cooke documenting the dying art of letterpress. It really struck a chord with me, as I am currently reading Simon Garfield’s book about fonts called ‘Just My Type’. The book is a fascinating journey through the history of type, full of wonderful insights and stories about fonts and their designers.

Both the book and the film have served to remind me of my love of type. In the days when I used to be ‘hands on’ with the design and artwork process, type was my thing. I would be the font of all knowledge when it came to typefaces (excuse the pun).

I still love type, of course, after all my chickens are named after fonts. My current flock are Helvetica, Futura, Perpetua and Verdana – all classics in their own way. And now, thanks to ‘Just My Type’ I know a bit more about them, and their designers, than I did before.

Strength in numbers…

This week on our blog I thought I’d share a few thoughts on a new buzz word in marketing – the ‘Infographic’. On display is one we created for RAC. It’s a summary of stats from their award winning Report on Motoring done as a ‘Charticle’. Making data come alive like this is right on trend at the moment. It’s not just about pretty pictures either. Cool infographics make great sticky web content, attract Google searches and they encourage the sharing of factoids through social media. What would make a great infographic about your industry, market or product range?

For more inspiration in this field take a look at work of David McCandless and the original master Edward R Tufte.

RAC ROM 2011 web infographic

3 Cs of branding – a remedy for new year branding resolutions…

3cs

Last year at a presentation I was giving on brands and branding a lady asked me what I considered to be the three most important characteristics of strong brand. I can’t remember exactly what I said at the time, but I can remember that my answer probably involved four factors rather than three.

The start of a new year is a classic time for organisations to take a fresh look at their brands and branding – for a quick health check, light refresh or perhaps the full rebrand workout.

If you are embarking on this process and looking for some simple critique criteria, these basic pointers may be a good place to start. So here they are, rationalised down to three essentials. And in a classic 3 C marketing format.

The three Cs of branding:

Credibility

/ Is it relevant to the values and goals of your company?
/ Is it relevant to target audience?
/ Does it give instant reassurance and trust?
/ Is it in step with today’s world?
/ Does it encourage an emotional connection as well as a rational one?

Consistency

/ Is it executed to a high standard across all applications?
/ Do your people understand your brand and its importance?
/ Is it easily recognisable – look and feel/tone of voice/behaviour?

Competitive

/ Does it stand out?
/ Does it support your USPs?
/ Does it add value?