We love creating brands. To create an identity from a completely blank canvas is an intimidating but wonderful challenge - and we've just done three.
First up was the FIA (Fitness Industry Association), the industry body of Britain's gyms. The organisation has been going through tremendous change, and instead of just representing gyms, the FIA is engaging with the government's national agenda to get Britain healthy.
I'm sure they won't mind if I say the old logo - check it out 'before' and 'after' - had well and truly exceeded its sell-by date.
What the FIA briefed us to do was create something that represented the national fitness initiative, and was far more modern and engaging and vibrant.
Percival designer Bob Heavey (somehow nicknamed 'French Bob', when he's as Irish as the River Liffey, but that's another story!) developed a cast of minimal but jaunty characters - a graphic representation of Britain exercising - that together form the new logo. A powerful colour palette completed the total makeover. As with everything the agency does, the Brand was then taken into all offline and online channels, including a totally new website:
http://www.fia.org.uk
Here below is their new look. Reaction inside and outside the FIA has been fantastic - and there is much planned for the brand in 2008.
Next up was a brand new company created by our old friends at Ascot Underwriting.
I've worked with Ascot - a leading insurer in Lloyd's of London - since 2003, during which time they've become a major international force.They insure a mind-boggling list of areas, ranging from the jewellery at the Oscars, to the Emirates airline fleet, to Manhattan skyscrapers.
In '03, our first job (I was CD at Electric at the time) was to come up with a completely new corporate identity, including of course a new logo. Martin Reith, Ascot's highly entrepreneurial and charismatic CEO, had lined the walls of his City offices with vibrant, kaleidoscipic modern art, and so we came up with a logo featuring a full spectrum of colour that represented both the dynamism of the company and the love of art. The strapline 'Thinking outside the Box' carried a whole extra level of meaning, as 'The Box' at Lloyd's is the main trading floor for all UK insurance!
The logo and the brand character have now been made an intrinsic part of the way Ascot do business, right down to the choice of vibrantly coloured pens that adorn their Boardroom notepads.
In Summer 2007, Ascot decided to start a new company, Ascot Renewco. The start-up underwrites insurance for sustainable energy, from wind farms to biofuels, so the brand had to reflect green values. For us, the challenge was that it also had to embrace a link to the original Ascot ID. Green AND multicoloured - an interesting design task!
Rob Heavey again rose to the occasion, creating a windmill-inspired graphic, with one multicoloured arm representing the Ascot provenance. And of course, we had to create a new website too, and this has just gone live at
http://www.ascotrenewco.comYou can see the new logo in all its glory right here. Like all our recent websites, this site sits on a powerful but user-friendly content management system, so that our clients can themselves manage and enhance all key content - drastically reducing long-term web development costs.
On top of the work for the newco, Ascot then asked us to replace their old site - developed by
Kim Gerard and I at Electric - with a brand new site that reflected their scale and international stature. We liked the old site with its engaging Flash animations, but the client - and the very web itself - had moved on.
The new site remains true to the original brand, but has far more functional content about the company, and a more focused and strategic use of flash. Here it is at
http://ascotuw.com
So we finish the year with two new brand identities and three new websites. But let's not forgot our own ID and web: the Percival brand was designed by the dear departed Kim Gerard, now back in Oz after five years working with us. Our new logo is both pinky and perky, and I love it. What a great parting shot from The Kimbo. (Except she still works with us - the joy of communications in the digital age.)
So a busy end to the year - and the right time to say thank you to some amazing clients for believing in our brand new company. I hope, I really do, we've already proved that advertising, design and digital can live together. (Well maybe they have the occasional tiff, but hey, that's families! Merry Christmas.)
Next up was a brand new company created by our old friends at Ascot Underwriting.
