Statistically great design

We have an impressive 15+ year history with the CIPR, and have been involved in many aspects of the company, from the branding for their annual awards and the first ever PR centric trade show, to the promotion of their services and day-to-day brand guardianship.

Their State Of The Profession document is an annual discussion on the changes within PR over the last year, and what this means for the many practitioners – both members of the CIPR and non-members, and is the talk of the PR town as you can see.

We were tasked with taking the report and adding the distinctive CIPR branding, which offers clean, strong layouts with burst of blue and the forward slash, signifying the forward thinking nature of the organisation.

We also took the core statistics and transformed them into works of infographic art, engaging the public in the more contrasting or influential data that the survey presented. Icons are a growing aspect of the CIPR brand, so these are used heavily in the infographics, maintaining the cyan colour palette to create a synergy between the different graphics.

The report has been published online and has been promoted using a single page of infographics across Twitter and the blogosphere.

Infographics are something we’re seeing as a real trend at the moment (there’s an exhibition on at the British Library http://www.bl.uk/whatson/exhibitions/beautiful-science/index.html for anyone who’s a bit of a data nut!), and proves that the traditional chart is no longer the only way to communicate your findings.

What many people don’t realise is that an infographic is simply a creative representation of information, and could use iconography, imagery and colour to visualise data in a way that grabs the attention of readers. They can come in all sorts of forms; from the artistic maps of paths most commonly travelled in the big apple to this slightly more data focussed look at the NFL.

Round up, round up!

Letter Impressed 

This week Katie paid a visit to the Fedrigoni Imaginative Papers Studio for a talk on the history of printing, and a very rousing game of letterpress scrabble (for Katie maintains holding the top score for sometime). The Triple Word Score event was kicked off with a talk by Brooke Palmieri, book historian extraordinaire, who took the group through the history of printing. From the project that bankrupted the “Father of Printing” to the Broadside Ballads (Brooke used the story of a Whale, a strange and miraculous fish, washed up in Ipswich!) that made the printers their real money during that time, Katie left the event feeling much wiser on the whole subject. Although sadly did not win the Scrabble set we had our hearts set on…

Installation of the moment(um)

The latest interactive installation has arrived at the Barbican, the United Visual Artists (UVA) have launched Momentum in the Barbican's unique space of the Curve. Random International’s Rain Room from earlier in 2013 is a hard act to follow, but if anyone can it’s UVA, who have worked with Massive Attack in the past and have created installations across the world.

Legography

This month we stumbled across the delightful Legography by photographer Andrew Whyte, in which he documents the day-to-day activities of his Lego sidekick. It’s a lovely bit of lighthearted fun next time you have a lunchbreak to spare!

Capturing the commute

In celebration of the Tube’s 150th birthday, photographer Brendan Doherty has captured the London Underground commuters, snapping 150 commuters across 150 Tube stations. The exhibition location is set to be confirmed by Camden Collective, however a sneak peak can be seen here. We can confirm that none of us look that photo-ready (or cheerful) on our commute into the office!

Social Secrets

There's a new kid on the Social Media block and this one's all about secrecy (named secret.ly, naturally). While Facebook insists on real names (or at least tries to) this network is the complete opposite - everyone's anonymous. Of course this tends to encourage rather salacious posts - some truthful, many probably completely made up. Whether this becomes a new force in anonymous gossip and whistle-blowing or just another vehicle for trolls and cyber-bullying has yet to be seen. Read more about it here.

Good enough to eat

Who knew a Mondrian piece could look (and be) good enough too eat. No, we’re not a few Pollocks short of a picnic, the Art Fund has launched a new fundraising initiative aimed at art-lovers and keen-bakers to help raise money for UK galleries and museums. Our client Samworth Brothers (one of the UK’s leading chilled food manufactures) would be a dab hand at this…

Blazing through the night

We all know the roads of Central London can be a dangerous beast, from buses and cabbies to pedestrians that wander out aimlessly! However, a shining ray of protective light has come in the form of Brighton graduate Emily Brooke, who has produced the Blaze bike light, which beams the image of a bike onto the road about 5-6 metres ahead of you. Emily started the project a few years ago, gaining funding on Kickstarter and it’s now out there holding its own.

Tea and Cat
Katie has been eagerly awaiting the opening of this little gem, and the day is finally here. Lady Dinah's Cat Emporium is London's first ever cat cafe and is open as of the 1st of March. You can get a cup of tea, gluten free cake and a side of tabby cat to pet. 

New depths of design

Here at tothepoint we’re not afraid to offer our opinion, so when Rockpool originally came to us to work on the design of a folder, we offered up our challenges not only to the brief but the brand itself.

With such an impressive history (founders include one of the City’s first “superwomen”, Nicola Horlick) and two arms to the business; Rockpool Investments and Rockpool Network, we could see great potential for the identity and the brand. With an office move imminent, the team at Rockpool decided to seize the opportunity to undergo our proposed brand refresh.

We put forward a budget to look at a series of concepts to help enhance and build the brand. However, if none of these were liked or used no fees would be charged. This approach (in a non-group tender situation) created an opportunity for a bigger project for us, and a no risk undertaking for our new client.

Our first concern was the logo and its legibility. Tints of grey, intended to mimic foil blocking, were over complicating the logo and hindering legibility. At the same time the quirky little device used to reflect water on the 'O' was too subtle at small sizes.

Once the issues were identified it was time to set to work on their solutions. The ripple in the ‘O’ was something the client and we were keen to maintain, by simplifying the device we were able to make it work better at smaller sizes. The letter ‘O’ was evolved to become an icon in itself, representing the water element of the brand, and the indepth research they undertake to find investment opportunities.

Rockpool are so named due to their ability to find undiscovered investment opportunities (less so because of memories of youthful summers spent rockpooling in the hope of finding crabs…), but we liked the analogy and proposed 'finding the opportunity' as their new strapline. This integrates the new 'O' symbol, which is also used with other key words like 'NETWORK'.

Rockpool have now settled into their new office, so the new identity is being rolled out across stationery, the folder (we didn’t forget about the original brief!) and other materials. We’re working on a series of symbols, for both areas of the business, to add to their toolkit, which will help build the unique and striking visual language that will help Rockpool stand out in their crowded marketplace.

Our main goal is always to produce something our clients are going to love (isn’t that everyone’s goal?), but what sets us apart is our willingness to challenge something if we can see a more effective solution for their brand, and a better way to allow our clients to take ownership of it. Our 20+ years of experience is what stands us in good stead when we do challenge a brief, but we like to think of it as a partnership approach.

Elizabeth Orbell , Marketing Director at Rockpool said “tothepoint developed a simple but effective new design style for us. Our unique and contemporary identity takes Rockpool’s branding beyond being just a logo and, importantly, reflects our position in the marketplace.”