Author: James Bray

Helping Estonia’s largest brands navigate out of the pandemic

In the midst of the COVID 19 crises, Estonia’s Tallink | Silja Line asked us to refresh their cruise and fast ferries design systems based on the repositioning work completed by our friends at Hensley Partners. We created two clearly defined design frameworks for their cruise and fast ferry fast brand communications respectively.

Due to their historic biases and the cost of repainting ships, the two cruise names Tallink and Silja Line continue to be used while we worked on aligning their design systems for all communications. We then created identity guidelines to cover everything from outdoor advertising to onboard screens and menus. We performed a similar task for the fast ferry business Tallink Shuttle and finally created a set of retail guidelines to cover the entire business.

Simplifying and aligning the communications for both brands has avoided unnecessary costs, and the clearly defined Tallink Shuttle brand has helped the business emerge from the shadow of the pandemic.

Cruises:

Fast Ferries:

Cruises and Fast Ferries Guidelines:

Retail Guidelines:

Investing in London’s future workspaces

Marketing Communication — Property

The London Portfolio

The London Portfolio from Riverside Capital, introduces a range of properties to potential investors. All developments are designed as post-pandemic workspaces and to the highest environmental specification, incorporating roof terraces and natural air flow as well as flexible hybrid work areas. We created a photo montage as the lead piece of the visual identity and produced a film and brochure – printed in two continents – that sets out the offer to potential investors.

William Wates Memorial Trust

William Wates Memorial Trust was set up to celebrate William’s life through supporting organisations that help the most disadvantaged young people to fulfil their potential. 2020 and the Covid crises brought huge challenges to the charities supported by the Trust as well as their main fund-raising activities.

We were asked to design their 2020 annual review to reflect these challenges. Borrowing Aristotle’s quote – “We cannot direct the wind, but we can adjust the sails” the report sets out a collection of inspiring case studies from the charities supported by the Trust – stories of tenacity and generosity of the human spirit. We hope William would be proud.

Covid-19 graphics that inform

At times of crises, information graphics can be used to powerful effect. The four projects we have been involved with all use graphic design to cut-through the noise and re-assure the viewer. ‘Death by numbers’ (above) is a graphic we created, looking back on 2020 and comparing deaths from Covid with other annual causes.

HCA Healthcare (below) run London’s leading private hospitals. For most of lockdown their facilities became part of the NHS with equipment supplied to the Nightingale Hospital London. The challenge they faced coming out of lockdown was to encourage people back into treatment centres – many with more life-threatening conditions than Covid-19. We designed a safety campaign, to re-assure patients that HCA facilities are among the safest in the world that has been rolled out across their London treatment centres.

He!p? (below) is a typographic social media post we designed to illustrate a positive message, a lovely idea that we simply passed on.

Defeated (below) is a project to dispel fear around the world in the wake of the pandemic. Creative Conscience teamed up with Nicole Yershon to launch a brief for creative students asking for ideas on a positive campaign based around Covid-19.

The winning idea was by recent graduate Megan Williams, who studied creative advertising at Leeds University and focuses on the number of recoveries based on live data from Johns Hopkins University. As part of the Creative Conscience team we collaborated with Voodoo, Broadsign and Orb, the campaign was successfully launched in Ireland and will go out worldwide on available digital advertising screens.

Dominion

Repositioning a boutique financial business to compete against corporate giants

branding — finance

Dominion

Ten years after we helped relaunch privately owned financial services business Dominion, they invited us back to re-position the firm to appeal to a new global corporate client base. As a small minot now swimming with the private equity backed giants in the corporate world, we re-defined Dominion with their long-term Mittlestand philosophy as the people who are able to go the extra mile for their clients: Dominion. Do more.

We then tailored this message to the two audience groups. Building on the black & white design system we created a decade earlier, we introduced two support colours to help private and corporate clients navigate to the relevant services. We also created a ‘Dominion in 60 seconds’ animation to help re-define the business.

The refreshed branding has helped to re-energise Dominion as they open several new offices around the globe.

G9 Ark launches at the UN Climate Action Summit

Environmental

G9 Ark

Launched at September’s UN Climate Action Summit, G9 Ark seeks to reverse global warming by restoring 500 million hectares of our planets’ ecosystem.

G9 Ark is working alongside the UN to create a global project to coordinate the efforts of private capital, companies and citizens seeking to protect and preserve our planet as part of the UN Decade of Ecosystem Regeneration.

Funded by Ark Rewards, customers will be incentivised to choose products and brands that care about the environment through earning carbon offset points.

We have worked with the G9 Ark team to create the brand identity for this ambitious project:

We wanted an endorsement that in time will become as familiar as the Fairtrade logo as it proliferates across everything from coffee shops to eco-friendly clothing.
– Stephen Fern, G9 Ark Chairman

The G9 Ark social network is due to launch in January 2020.

L&Co declares a climate emergency

As a keen supporter of sustainable, environmental and socially valuable causes, and a member of the B Corporation® community, we declare a climate emergency.

We are aligned with Extinction Rebellion’s view that this involves three key elements:

Tell the truth: we acknowledge this is an emergency and we will treat it as one.
Act now: take radical steps to halt biodiversity loss and reduce greenhouse gas emissions to net-zero by 2030.
Work together: we are stronger working with others to create new solutions.

We acknowledge the scientific facts behind this existential crisis and aim to be bold in our ambitions to embrace new practices and business models that offer solutions to the climate breakdown.

We pledge to become a net carbon neutral business by 2025 or sooner. We will work with our partners, clients, friends and wider community to drive wider economic change and create new solutions together to urgently reduce carbon emissions.

Download our full climate emergency declaration

Assessing the effectiveness of one of Dubai’s most valuable brands

Communications

du

Working closely with our friends at Hensley Partners, we recently completed the fourth brand identity audit for one of Dubai’s two leading mobile network providers – du. The objective was to assess how effectively the du design system is being implemented.

We analysed almost 2,500 assets from digital applications such as the website and social media posts to physical stores, advertising campaigns and corporate communications. Each piece was assessed against the brand identity guidelines to give a binary value for elements such as the use of the logo, imagery, colour, typography and written content.

We then prepared a report that we discussed with the relevant internal stakeholders and the agencies responsible. Based on this we created our final presentation and report which gave both a percentage value to the assessment as well as a list of observations and recommendations.

The outcome gives du a clear dashboard to enable them to focus their energies on areas of improvement to ensure their brand remains one of their most valuable assets.

Helping to create impact for Creative Conscience

DECEMBER 2018

Our work with Creative Conscience culminated this year in the design of the impact report, a 40–page document the charity publishes detailing its achievements over the past 12 months.

Working in collaboration with CEO Chrissy Levett with input from some of the Creative Conscience ‘graduates’ we created the document to highlight the past year’s achievements with the help our bold hand-stenciled type and Chrissy’s hand-written commentary. The report also highlights six ‘impact projects’ that Creative Conscience has supported over the year.

The impact report has been printed by our partners at Darwin Press using a variety of old leftover paper stocks, and last year’s poster as a dust-jacket.

Polishing a new look for Shine Fostering

january 2019

Every once in a while a project comes along that puts all our other work in perspective – this small group of inspiring professionals dedicate themselves to recruiting foster carers for displaced children. They work tirelessly to match children and young people who are in desperate need of a family life with careers who can provide a home and support. The name says it all, and the creative output of some of the children and young people provided the backdrop for our simple logo.

TalTech University

Inventing the future for Tallinn Technological University

branding – education

TalTech University

To celebrate 100 years since it was founded, Tallinn Technological University (Tallinna Tehnikaülikooli) asked us to review and refresh their brand identity to take them into their second century. Despite their distinguished record for innovation including: early computer research, the development of Skype technology, and the code behind E-Estonia – the university has struggled to build a reputation beyond its national borders.

A fresh brand strategy was created by our friends at Hensley Partners, positioned around the idea of leading Estonia and the world into a sustainable digital future. Working alongside the Rector, it was agreed to shorten the name to TalTech, to resonate internationally as well as with the younger generation. We decided to place the bold new name at the centre of our designs, creating a two line logotype that sits over or is filled with imagery.

We enhanced the historic cherry red with a bolder colour palette and created a design framework that balances flexibility with consistency to enable the local agencies and inhouse designers to implement the new identity across a myriad of applications. The new brand identity was launched on 17^th September and has drawn much favourable comment from the University’s community and Estonian press.

Bringing AXA Healthcare to life through photography

September 2018

In order to support the recent refresh of the AXA brand identity, we were asked by AXA PPP Healthcare to create a library of images with specific relevance to their range of healthcare products. The challenge was to balance the overall style set by the new AXA style guides with subject matter relevant to healthcare – some areas of which can be quite sensitive in terms of subject matter. We helped define the subject matter, wrote the guidelines and sourced a set of images to form part of the AXA PPP Healthcare library.

Extraordinary medicine

august 2018

London Bridge Hospital is one of the city’s leading private medical centres and an international destination for a range of specialist medical services. They asked us to design their primary piece of printed marketing collateral to sit prominently above their various specialist brochures. The new piece had to appeal to both patients and medical professionals, giving an overall flavour of the hospital as well as a more detailed medical perspective.

We decided on an oversized magazine format to allow space for specialist areas such as cancer care and stem cell transplants, as well as cater for the luxury of single image spreads. Working alongside photographer Mark Mercer, we were privileged enough to be invited to shoot a major heart operation as well as being given access to patients and staff throughout the hospital.

Transatlantic collaboration

May 2018

Collaboration is in our DNA, it’s one of our values and what the ‘& Co’ bit of our name stands for. So when our friends at MBLM in New York asked us to help them on a project we jumped at the chance. Working on a new brand identity for a recently merged Anglo-American business, we were able to provide a European flavour to add to the design mix. The design team, lead by Claude Salzberger in the US and located in both London and New York, were able to share ideas and visuals through various applications, inspiring, surprising and challenging one another as we progressed. The results so far have enabled us to co-create a brand identity that we believe will be more successful than either of the two studios could have created independently.
Watch this space.

Developing long term brands

June 2018

At L&Co we develop strong, long term relationships with many of our clients. We don’t just create a brand and move on, we continue to guide clients to maintain and evolve their brands. Although guidelines are a vital part of the mix and tether the brand identity, as markets change so brands have to evolve to maintain their edge. We have worked with Riverside Capital for over seven years, during which time we have produced a range of digital and printed collateral. Our latest piece is a low-run brochure containing everything from marketing prose to technical investment speak and accompanying info-graphic, illustrations and photography.

Placer

Bringing democracy to student work placements

branding — tech

Placer

The idea behind Placer is to democratise work experience to ensure a more diverse range of students have access to these vital opportunities. Using the latest matchmaking technology, through employer dashboards and student screens, Placer connects employers offering quality opportunities with students. As Tinder does for dating – the Placer mobile app allows students to swipe left or right in search of their perfect work experience match. With input from a small group of potential candidates we created the name and then developed the brand identity based on a location pin placed into relevant imagery. We worked alongside the technology team to create a coherent messages and style across the range of digital applications, designing the explainer animation and creating social media content along the way.

PPP Taking Care

Helping AXA PPP reach an older demographic

Branding — Healthcare

PPP Taking Care

AXA PPP asked us to create a brand identity for their newly formed business PPP Taking Care. The new setup sells a range of products and services including alarm pendants aimed at older people to enable them to remain living independently. We wanted to celebrate age by putting black and white portraits at the heart of the new identity, so brought in Karsten Thormaehlen – known for his portraits of centenarians – to photograph our over 75 year old subjects. Take a look behind the scenes of the photoshoot.

The new logo uses hands as a motif to suggest how PPP Taking Care helps those who need a little extra support. The secondary read of a fingerprint implies the easy touch-of-a-button nature of the services.

Supporting an impact project for Made in Hackney

November 2017

Made In Hackney is an award winning community kitchen and cookery school. Since launching in 2012 they have helped over 6,000 Londoners gain vital food skills, and they are continuing to grow. In November they launched their latest crowd funding campaign, with the aim of raising £45,000 to help build a new kitchen and cookery school. In turn, this could help 10,000 more people gain skills to lead healthier happier lives.

We’re proud to have supported Made In Hackney’s crowd funding campaign through our partnership with Creative Conscience, by designing a wonderful reward for their backers – an interactive, festive recipe book written by plant-based chef Anton Petrov. Well done to our intern Medeea Lascar for helping to bring the interactive, festive recipe book to life.

The Made In Hackney crowdfunding campaign was highly successful, blowing their £45,000 target out of the water and raising a total of £76,693.

Creative Conscience

Designing to encourage students to use their creative skills for social good

L&Co + Creative Conscience

Creative Conscience

We continue to work collaboratively with Creative Conscience, a global movement promoting socially valuable, human centered design and creativity. Through their student awards scheme, events and impact projects, they enable and inspire people to use their creative talents to make a positive impact on the world around them. It’s something we’re really proud to be part of.

Recently, we’ve been working with winning students and graduates from Creative Conscience to create a new campaign for the 2018 awards. Taking inspiration from the tone of voice and techniques used to make protest posters and street art, we moved away from our computers to create custom type, icons and background styles, which were then implemented across their digital platforms.

We support them out of the office too, often attending events, talks and workshops to spread the cause.

Trailight

Shining a light on accountability within financial organisations

branding — fintech

Trailight

Five years after we created the name and visual identity for Trailight, the financial compliance software business invited us back to refresh their communications. Since our initial engagement the business has enjoyed impressive success signing up some of the largest financial institutions in the world to help them tackle sweeping new accountability regimes. Continuing the idea of shining a light into dark corners we commissioned Josh Patterson to create a series of engaging illustrations to convey how Trailight software simplifies the growing complexity of compliance.

Unsaid Communications

Finding a voice: Creating a framework to help tell stories

Branding — humanitarian

Unsaid Communications

Unsaid Communications work with people to tell their stories through a range of skills from photography, film and layout to sound and words.

Founded by Swedish humanitarian Mats Lignell, Unsaid is driven by the belief that everyone has an equal right to a voice – helping people tell the untold and say the unsaid. L&Co came up with the name, and created a simple design framework to help tell a coherent story around this collection of evocative and engaging imagery.

Riverside Capital

Turning a few heads with a new identity for Riverside Capital

branding – property

Riverside Capital

Riverside Capital are obsessed with property, they understand it outside and in, working with UK and international clients to invest in the UK property market. Their passion for high quality and detail enabled us to create a clean simple visual identity, that combines elegant typography with Ben Rice’s specially commissioned photography of people and buildings: contrasting cityscapes with architectural close-ups helps to reflect both their broad knowledge and attention to detail. We started with the website and extended the new designs into the tactile world of printed media, using foil blocking and textured stocks where appropriate. The final touch was to turn people’s heads with a simple logo and strap-line.

Riverside Capital, View magazine illustration

The Marvellous Meat Company

Our latest venture design project – The Marvellous Meat Co.

branding — food & drink

The Marvellous Meat Company

Every few years we like to take a punt on a great idea, and do what we call venture design. It means we form a true partnership with our client, share the risk and hopefully the reward. Behind The Marvellous Meat Company is a simple idea – an online farm shop selling delicious grass fed Sussex beef, prepared on-site by our own master butcher then dry hung for 28 days and delivered direct to the consumer.

To emphasise the provenance we adopted a British flavour to the name and design, then commissioned photography of the cattle in their native Sussex farmland. We designed everything from the delivery boxes to promotional cards, as well as the online shop itself.

The Marvellous Meat Co - work in progress

Icelolly

Refreshing new look for holiday price comparison site Icelolly

branding — consumer

Icelolly

With nearly a million unique users every month, Icelolly, the holiday price comparison site is going for a bold expansion plan. Working with such an evocative name made it easy and was the basis for our design language which uses bold overlapping colours and masked photography to suggest the broad range of available holidays. Icelolly loved the design so much they asked us to create an advertising campaign to help build greater awareness.