Prescient is pleased to announce the arrival of its newest team member. Debra Crush joins as Associate Director from McDonald Baily, where she specialised in consumer research in the retail & FMCG sectors.

Having begun her research career in 1993, Debra’s vast experience spans a wide range of sectors,  fitting in perfectly with Prescient’s long established and varied client base.

Managing Director, Andrew Sawkins, says “We are delighted that Debra has joined us. Her specialist knowledge enhances our experienced team further. She has already fitted in very well and has certainly hit the ground running.”

]]> http://www.loewygroup.com/index.php/2010/03/new-associate-director-joins-prescient/feed/ http://www.loewygroup.com/index.php/2010/02/the-team-creates-new-identity-for-parkinsons-charity/ http://www.loewygroup.com/index.php/2010/02/the-team-creates-new-identity-for-parkinsons-charity/#comments Thu, 25 Feb 2010 16:40:42 +0000 lucymann http://www.loewygroup.com/?p=596

The Team announced today that it has created a new brand for the Parkinson’s Disease Society. From April, the charity will be known as Parkinson’s UK.

Together with Loewy stablemate Prescient, The Team  researched audiences’ perceptions, created a comprehensive brand strategy, produced the charity’s new name and strapline and designed its new logo and visual identity.

The logo is made up of the Parkinson’s UK name and a strapline designed to sum up its personality: ‘Change attitudes. Find a cure. Join us.’ They are shown together on a three-degree angle to illustrate that the charity is moving onwards and upwards.

The wording is made up of the ‘Parkinson’s UK stencil’ - a font designed specifically for the charity to show its active nature. The charity’s main colour is cyan. The only other colours it uses are black and white. The visual identity has been designed to reflect the charity’s brand values: it is short, simple, bold, bright and human.

Another main element of the charity’s new brand is the use of photography of people with Parkinson’s to show that the people for whom it works are at the forefront of its mission. People with Parkinson’s are pictured holding up placards of personal messages such as ‘Together we can beat it’; ‘We’re here to help’; ‘Life goes on’ and ‘A cure cannot wait’.

The Parkinson’s Disease Society employed The Team to create a new brand identity because it felt the public, GPs and other health professionals did not know enough about Parkinson’s or about what the organisation does. It wanted a brand that clarified its vision - to find a cure and improve the lives of everyone affected by Parkinson’s.

Prescient interviewed and held focus groups with the charity’s different audiences and found that everyone explained the society in a different way. People said the name was old-fashioned and the visual identity was conservative and inconsistent.

The research also showed public understanding of Parkinson’s was also not as good as it could be. The disease was commonly associated with elderly people and there was little awareness of many of the different symptoms, other than ’shaking’.

The brand will support the charity’s five-year strategy, which includes raising more than £110m before 2015 to help raise awareness, fund research and find a cure for Parkinson’s.

Dan Dufour, a consultant and charity specialist at The Team, said: “The new brand has been designed to be something that people can be part of - it shows an active, passionate and determined charity, driven by people coming together.

“This wasn’t just a visual identity and logo - it has helped the charity define its vision, mission and core values to influence the way the organisation behaves and conducts its business.

“It was crucial to involve supporters and people with Parkinson’s in developing the new identity because it is their brand - their involvement in every step of the process has made this project incredibly rewarding and unique.”

Steve Ford, chief executive of the Parkinson’s Disease Society, said: “I am really excited by our new identity - Parkinson’s UK. It highlights our commitment to change attitudes to Parkinson’s, fund cutting-edge research to find a cure and inspire more people to support us.

“One of our strengths is our people - our enthusiastic supporters and committed staff. We wanted Parkinson’s UK to be a movement - something everyone could be involved in. The new brand will give people affected by Parkinson’s a stronger voice and make sure that everyone know that because we are here, no one has to face Parkinson’s alone.”

The Holmes report today named Speed Best UK Consultancy to Work For. This fantastic endorsement comes a month before the consultancy’s first birthday. Here’s what the Holmes Report had to say:

One of Speed’s predecessor firms, Rainier PR, won our Best U.K. Consultancy to Work For Award in 2005 and 2006 and managing directors Stephen Waddington and Steve Earl have clearly brought their magic touch to Speed, which beat out more than 40 firms to be named number one in the U.K. this year.

The firm’s pursuit of workplace excellence begins with its recruitment process, which makes use of a mixture of digital (Twitter, LinkedIn and the blogosphere) and traditional recruitment methods to find people who fit the culture. The firm offers a structured mentoring programme, with all new employees paired with a company director, and a training programme that draws on the broad expertise of parent company Loewy Group, with the company CEO providing personal one-on-one coaching as well as larger group training on anything from review processes to line management. Employees also enjoy a high degree of autonomy when it comes to achieving their client and professional development objectives, and are trusted to do so whether working at home or in the office. The firm is open about all management and financial decisions, and conducts a bi-annual staff Satisfaction Survey to solicit feedback, sharing findings with employees.

“Since re-launching as Speed in March, we have come such as long way and achieved so much, without any of the negative issues that I imagine might face merging companies,” says one respondents. Others share that enthusiasm: “Speed has launched with a passion and it is a strong and growing agency. It has developed a good work ethic and has a genuinely good set of employees who bring a range of skills to the workplace.” The bottom line: “I feel we have a real identity, common objectives and a hard working but relaxed environment in which to work to achieve our goals.”

Seymourpowell has created a new pack design for the UK’s leading non-applicator tampon brand, Lil-lets having secured the brief following the successful redesign of the Lil-lets’ compact applicator range.

Lil-lets has long been the UK market leader in the non-applicator tampon category, with 78.6% market share* and more than 2.6m users**. Offering a widthways-expanding tampon, Lil-lets is proven to prevent leaks more effectively than other tampons which mainly expand lengthways.

Seymourpowell has created a contemporary design for the brand leader, which reinforces its positioning with women as the non-applicator tampon of choice.  The new look imbues a confident and feminine approach for the target market while also giving the non-applicator packaging a distinctly separate identity from that of the compact applicator range. In addition, Lil-lets quantitative research (2009) amongst 257 Lil-lets non-applicator users shows that the newly designed packs are now 20% quicker to find on shelf than the current lilac design.

Neil Hirst, creative director at Seymourpowell commented, “The new design for Lil-lets non-applicator tampons is feminine and modern but also acknowledges that women wish for an element of discretion to be respected within this category. To achieve this whilst creating a design that has shelf impact has been challenging but we are confident that it will bring new users into the brand and reinforce its leadership position.”

Jackie Roberts Lil-lets senior brand manager added, “The contemporary styling of our new packaging gives the non-applicator range a strong identity and clearly differentiates it from our compact applicator tampons. It challenges the category norm and as women spend so little time at the feminine hygiene fixture we are confident that our new packaging will work hard for the brand at point of purchase.”

* IRI HBA Outlets value data 52 w/e 31 October 09
** TGI data 52 w/e March 09

Originally a self-generated project, Seymourpowell’s Aircruise is the concept design for a hotel in the sky, with low passenger numbers and huge internal spaces offering room for living, dining and relaxing, as well as scope for dramatic and inspirational public spaces. The initial design proposes a bar/lounge zone, four duplex apartments, a penthouse and five smaller apartments.

The concept subsequently captured the imagination of Korean giant Samsung Construction and Trading (C&T). Driven by its interest in new materials for building, Samsung C&T appointed Seymourpowell to refine the idea and produce a detailed computer animation of the proposed experience to illustrate this visionary approach to the future.

Seymourpowell’s Aircruise concept presents an alternative take on the future, suggesting ‘slow is the new fast’. Nick Talbot, design director at Seymourpowell explains, “The Aircruise concept questions whether the future of luxury travel should be based around space-constrained, resource hungry, and all too often stressful airline travel. A more serene transport experience will appeal to people looking for a more reflective journey, where the experience of travel itself is more important than getting from A to B quickly.”

On Aircruise, it is the very abundance of time and space that defines the luxury experience. In a world where speed is an almost universal obsession, the idea of making a leisurely journey in comfort is a welcome contrast. Talbot explains, “The physics of the airship requires a gigantic volume of lifting gas, yet simultaneously demands a relatively limited amount of weight. This allows for a potentially large amount of space with relatively few people onboard – a luxury for any traveller.” Talbot added, “It’s a world cruise not limited to the ocean, offering instead the dream-like quality and absolute freedom of flight. Passengers can choose to dine thousands of feet above a city, or take in the view whilst moving through the air over the ocean or a national landmark.”

Lifted by hydrogen and powered by solar energy, the Aircruise concept also has obvious environmental benefits. Seung Min Kim, design director at Samsung C&T commented, “This was a dream concept project for us, helping to realise a future of sustainable buildings combined with innovative and luxury lifestyle. In an age when environmental impact is a key consideration for architecture, we are keen to extend this vision of the future by searching for solutions that can be realised by 2015 – the year that many futurologists foresee as the turning point for the future.”

Although only a conceptual proposal, the transportation design team at Seymourpowell developed a detailed and achievable technical specification for the craft.

Since 1995 Tower Hamlets Summer University has provided young people in London with free courses and activities to give them the experience, skills and self-belief they need to make the most of their lives. Courses are as diverse as ‘How to DJ’, ‘Intro to Arabic Language’, ‘Thai Cooking’ and ‘Intro to Strategic Marketing’.

For the past 14 years Tower Hamlets Summer University have worked tirelessly to improve the conditions and future of young people living in London. Dizzee Rascal attended a Tower Hamlets Summer Uni music production course when he was 14, which he says was the catalyst for his current huge success. He is now a patron for the University.

In 2009, Williams Murray Hamm was asked by Summer University to develop a differentiated and ownable brand identity that would be unique enough to be protected and trademarked in order to franchise the model across London and beyond.

Summer Uni is not like normal academic institutions. Fundamentally unconventional and unacademic, it is about innovative learning for extraordinary people. The brief to Williams Murray Hamm was to bring the dynamism and vigour of the brand’s personality to life through design.

The name ‘Futureversity’ was adopted, moving away from the more generic ‘Summer University’. The new identity is derived from the idea of fly posting and runs the strapline ‘Where Things Can Happen’. It expresses the offer in a way that positions Futureversity as education without the establishment for the Facebook generation.

WMH created the brand identity, communication materials, guidelines, and launch animation.

Radius, the Loewy-owned catalogue and advertising production facility, has designed and produced the latest brochure for Mikimoto, the Japanese luxury pearl specialists.

The brochure features 13 of Mikimoto’s most prestigious jewellery collections, ranging from limited edition pieces with prices on application to some of the brand’s bestselling jewellery designs. It is aimed at luxury goods customers, and will be distributed in late November throughout the UK, Europe and the Middle East.

Radius has worked with Mikimoto for over six years, creating and producing brochures, advertising and event invitations. This gives Radius the necessary expertise to photograph and retouch the pearls in a way that showcases their specific beauty and lustre in the best possible way.

The new brochure has been designed with a contemporary, minimalist feel as a pristine white folder with silver foil logo and tied with a blue ribbon. The folder opens to reveal each piece of jewellery displayed on a separate 210mm x 210mm card.

In addition to the new Mikimoto brochure, Radius also created the pearl specialists’ latest advertising campaign, which features the new Limited Edition Mikimoto Debutante Necklace; the campaign is currently running in Tatler and Country Life.

All of the photography for the brochure and advertising campaign was conducted at Radius’ in-house photographic studio under the direction of Jason Read, Radius’ creative director. Photography was done by Andy Parkington, with post-production work handled by Jeremy Whitehead, Radius’ head of retouch.

Jason says, “It was a pleasure working with Mikimoto on this brochure, as they understand perfectly the simplicity of design required to best showcase their product. This allowed our creative team to craft a truly beautiful, timeless piece of work.”

Emma Clarke, head of PR & marketing at Mikimoto, adds, “Having worked with Radius before, we were confident they knew how to highlight the best features of our collections. This brochure successfully presents each piece of jewellery in a beautifully simple and elegant manner that leaves a lasting impression.”

Creative communications consultancy The Team has created a brand identity for newly-merged affordable housing provider Affinity Sutton. The organisation was formed from the merger of William Sutton, Broomleigh and Downland housing associations and launches its new identity this week.

The Team was tasked with designing a brand that would communicate the diversity of Affinity Sutton’s work as well as appeal to a diverse range of audiences – from MPs and regulators to staff and residents, including hard-to-reach groups. Central to the new identity is the Affinity Sutton sphere – which is also the organisation’s logo – a unique graphic made up of soft-tone navy blue, light blue, yellow and green colours that will provide a consistent identity for the entire group.

With more than 54,000 homes, Affinity Sutton is one of the biggest providers of affordable housing in England, working with 120 local authorities from Plymouth to Newcastle. Its one-hundred-year history is complex with mergers, restructures, name changes, and multiple brands. The Team therefore had a lot to consider in creating a unified brand to cement the organisation’s standing as a business for social purpose and one of the largest independent providers of affordable housing in the UK.

Each of the former brands had their own identities and cultures, therefore The Team had to overcome existing emotional attachments and combine all of their individual strengths into a single solution. It unravelled the organisation’s complex brand architecture and merged the four sub-brands into a single Affinity Sutton identity. The Team then created a striking visual identity to demonstrate the organisation’s new brand personality of being warm, genuine, fresh and experienced.

To celebrate the launch of its new identity, Affinity Sutton has pledged to plough more than £2m each year into its neighbourhoods, with the aim to raise a further £10m in the next three years from external sources.

Viv Wilcock, managing director at The Team, said: “We wanted to create a striking visual identity that would demonstrate Affinity Sutton’s values. The challenge was to overcome existing emotional attachments to each of the former brands’ identities and cultures, instead combining their strengths into a single, unified whole.”

Keith Exford, chief executive of Affinity Sutton, said: “We’re delighted with the new identity The Team has designed for us, which communicates the diversity of our organisation and the fact that we exist to help people put down roots.

“In these tough times we believe there has never been a better time to invest in our communities and by operating as one business instead of four we will be able to improve services and maximise opportunities for our residents. Our community investment programme is just one way that we are supporting our communities locally and creating opportunities to help them thrive.”

Williams Murray Hamm has designed the bottle graphics for Absolut Flavor Of The Tropics, a new limited edition that will be launched exclusively in Duty Free/Travel Retail globally for a 6 month period. The product offers the travellers a new exotic vodka flavour that is not available in stores back home. Williams Murray Hamm, a leading packaging design agency in the UK, was tasked with putting an ‘Absolut twist’ on tropical fruit.

From Florida and the Caribbean to Hawaii and the Seychelles, exotic fruits thrive in the humid weather of the sun-drenched tropics. Williams Murray Hamm’s design expresses the fruit through strikingly bright thermal images of the world map. It offers a brand new look for Absolut that captures this new exotic flavour and offers consumer the perfect souvenir from their intrepid journey.

“Absolut Tropics represents the first time we have been able to launch a brand new, innovative flavour exclusively to travelling consumers, people who are always on the lookout for something new and thrilling. For a leading edge, creative brand such as ABSOLUT, it’s crucial that we work with creative partners that can think laterally when answering a brief. The solution from Williams Murray Hamm lived up to our expectations and delivers something fresh and unexpected”.

Lena Dåderman, Project Manager, Product Innovation Absolut

Leading Global innovation & design company Seymourpowell has created new packaging for the EMEA range of Visine eye drops by Johnson & Johnson Consumer Europe, a division of Cilag GmbH International.

Visine is a well known brand sold in most of the markets across Europe and Africa. Johnson & Johnson Consumer Europe, a division of Cilag GmbH International, wanted to modernise and clarify hierarchy and on pack communication as it is sold through pharmacy only. At the same time, they took the opportunity to reduce overall manufacturing costs by making the packs trilingual. Some core brand equities from the packaging were required to remain the same, thus challenging Seymourpowell to push the design to work harder in order to achieve all the requirements and also increase number of languages on pack.

Seymourpowell created a strong brand look and feel that was consistent across the range.  Colour coding, the large Visine eye imagery and clear pack navigation ensures the pack feels consumer friendly whilst maintaining its medical credentials.

Lenka Vychytova, Franchise Manager for Visine added, “Seymourpowell created a strong and modern brand look and feel that communicates successfully the brand equity and the varied product platforms.”