Hey!!! Congrats go out to James and Maria and baby Immy for today Maria gave birth to baby Isobel at 7.31am. A healthy little/big 9lb 2oz.
More late nights await Jimbob… and not through work. Enjoy…
And 24 years ago… a little baby Gavin (We Love’s Tech Lead) was born on Christams day… So big Happy B’days to Gav as well.
Every designer has been through the process of cutting and sticking hundreds of images from design, architecture and lifestyle magazines to a piece of flimsy card, which you then prop up against your wall and stare at continuously hoping to ‘be’ inspired, in order to help create that perfect design?
It is an integral part of the design process when R&Ding a new project, helping you to understand the parameters of a given brief and to learn boundaries of the creative direction as well as involving the client in the whole creative development of their product, which in turn creates early buy in… a good thing.
Well, I spent about three years making moodboards at Uni (thats a lot of moodboards) for each and every project and became very adapt at the whole process… infact it is rather a quick and involving job… However and after reading a recent post online it made me laugh when it suggested that some agencies are using a library of pre-made moodboards to whip out in front of clients (multiple clients - same moodboards) and charging each and every time… ever heard the term ‘money for old rope’… rather cheeky I think.
Some clients find them confusing because as you’re trying to sell them the idea, showing them brightly coloured shapes and images, they’re often looking at the boards in a non-creative way and the outcome is they often see them as a design idea, not a starting point for inspiration! However, some clients find them reassuring and the idea of grabbing a set of scissors themselves and joining in, may help them understand and appreciate what their brand is actually trying to say.
So, keep going with the moodboards… BUT be sure to use them in the right way. Don’t see them as a cash cow… Don’t abuse them… and most importantly don’t hang onto them for dear life… Be flexible in your approach to enable you to best service your clients and their needs.
Cheers, Dan
Yep. Time for a rant…
My last rant was over the unjust treatment of Lewis in the F1… and the favoured treatment of a team in red… although I am not quite over that 
its a case of something bigger is starting to really get my goat…
…something a bit more serious and a bit more of a touch point in everyones life. Now, I admit I am no expert on the subject of global economics… but boy can I see injustice when it rears its ugly head.
The ‘Bonus Culture’ of the city boys and girls who have thrown our economy into a downward spiral of panic and mistrust through years of short term vision and greed… and still expect to get paid vast amounts of bonus for being complete idiots and failures.
It has just cost the US tax payer 760 billion to bail out a floundering banking system over the other side of the pond… and will probably be about 100 billion + over here. OK, intervention may be needed to stabilise the banking system and get the buggers lending to each other again. Liquidity is the word being bandied around… But do I want to own shares (through the government, as a tax payer) in a company that still rewards numpties for loosing shit loads of money… No, I bloody don’t.
They have had it too good for too long. They own enough property and cars… and I see no value in buying them another bloody rolex. So why can’t the government (major share owner) say… actually guys you screwed up… no bonus this year. Turn it around… build long term substainable growth possibilities… and we will see about a bonus next year.. eh boys?
Now you would argue that to keep the best you have to pay the best. True enough… makes perfect sense… But I do not and will not ever pay a bonus to any staff member if the constantly screw up. Let along say to people who have plummeted the world into global recession by handing out 10% of the tax payers money… 10 % (70 Billion US Dollars for Wall Street monkeys) just in time for xmas. Nice!
And another thing…
Hedge funds should be banished. De-stabling’s a company when they are going through a tough time it the equivalent of being kicked in the nuts. You wouldn’t do it to someone on the street… so why in business.. there has to be a better way. Every company goes through periods of uncertainty. Its support they need. Not vultures.
Shoot the vultures. Stop the greed. Have some ethics and morality about you… Have a bit of backbone. If you got a big bonus then give it back… Whatever… Just stop beings so bloody grabby.
Mark
This absolutely cracked me up… encompassing everything (and every key word) that is important in todays high flying marketeers vocab and modern designers focus. Ya!
What is even funnier is that some people’s comments on the piece (and blog)… they can’t even see that Creative Review are taking the piss… I cry in disbelief for these people…
Intro to blog and graphic here…
“Creative Review® unveils its new brand identity which will advance our positioning across media platforms.
Following a universal brand audit instigated in the wake of an immersion expedition led by a cohort of leading brand ideators, we engaged in a thoroughgoing knowledge accumulation program to facilitate blue-sky thinking and empower Creative Review® in the vanguard of world class best practice in thought-leadership. The following brand muscles were established: innovative, dynamic, square-shaped.
The compelling brand truth uncovered has been articulated in this brand statement: “Creative Review®: Leading ideation infonauts in a media neutral world”.”
After reading an article in Creative Review this week on the true value of original artwork, I started thinking where the value lies in todays world of digital…
Now, I’m not sure how many of you insist on working up visuals and roughs before jumping straight onto a mac, but for me it’s an important part of the process (and one that shouldn’t be forgotten or disregarded due to time or budget pressures).
At university our lecturers used to insist on seeing a bulk of sketches and ideas before being presented with the final solution. I sometimes found this tough, seeing as my best ideas came straight away as a spark of inspiration (and the pub was calling). But in the end it really helped with the whole creative process and often led to more interesting thoughts, better solutions and, in the end saved time, as I could generate lots of ideas faster than on a mac and then be in a better place to judge the value of an idea before committing to artwork…
Not only can these sketches help achieve a better solution, but for John Pasche they recently made him £50,000 when he sold his original artwork for the Rolling Stones logo to the V&A Museum in London this year. I smile to myself as I imagine plenty of over excited old school designers as they start to dig out their original sketches and blow the cobwebs off their pasted-up portfolios.
Now, I know mine might only be a few years old, but I think I’ve got some scribbles from about 18 years ago so I’m off to grab a ladder and head up in the loft . . . must dash ! Moral of the story… get pen to paper, brainstorm those ideas and treasure those original sketches (especially in todays climate), because one day, you never know . . .
Thanks for reading,
Dandy
Let The Start-Ups Begin…
Amidst the plethora of news that we’ve been hearing from all industries about the economy heading towards the ‘END TIMES’, we hear rumblings that there are winners in the midst - Some rightly (cost effective Design Agencies) and some wrongly (greedy Spivs and Speculators). Money never disappears… it just gets redistributed… and historically (recession wise) we see small start-ups in the design industry hitting the headlines for all the right reasons.
Why…
Well during these last 10 years of ‘continued growth’ and ‘good times’ we have seen some great agencies get fatter, bigger, clumsier and less attractive when it comes to ROI. Overheads become too large, rentals are too high and the leases too long. Staff have become expectant of high salaries and have become too comfortable within their role…
This is where the start-up wins out. During these hard times… Excellent creatives look for an alternative. They look to use their initiative, business savvy and offer an alternate solution to toughening economies. If we look back to the last squeeze, the creative agencies that grew from great ideas were the like of De-Construct, Moot and Glue. As Nietzsche said, the cream always rises to the top, and these fellas have done very very well.
And this is where We Love intends to win out. Injecting a little love back in the industry, remembering why we got involved with design in the first place, and bringing to the table (at prices that are accessible in these tightening times) the experience gained from working at the likes of IMG Media, AKQA, MediaCatalyst and Think! on big and beautiful brands such as Sony Ericsson, Yamaha, Sony, UPC, Mercedes (among many others) with much finer targeted solutions in the offering.
The days of ’scatter gun’ advertising (TV, Radio, Outdoor) may not be over… but they do NOT command the sort of respect they once did… and clients are looking for design agencies that can provide better integrated campaign solutions… where one agency can take away their worries regarding creative consistency and project management. Small agencies can respond faster to changing trends and, offer a more personal experience to the client and at the end of the day (we are all measurable) be a much better value to the client on a pound for pound spend.
Now, We Love does not think the recession for the digital / creative industry will be as bad as last time. But we do think that agencies will need to reassess how they do business and how the client defines good value. A posh office is one thing… but we think the days of wastefulness are gone for a good few years yet. So no more jollies in the South of France for a while.
So, heres to the small man, heres to change, heres to the wise businessman.
Mark
You might have noticed recently that the quality of posts on the blog has taken a dive. Now that I’m back from my summer holiday you will see a dramatic increase in quality and value again.
Well I had a great time in America and Canada, seeing polar bears (!), seeing Spamalot on Broadway (which was brilliant), tundra-buggying and the keeping track on the U.S. Presidential Race™. (I truly believe that they should change constitution so they can elect Bush Jnr just one more time… He truly is a great President and deserve another term).
There were some great sights and everyone should go to New York at least once, but lots of things to help prop up the American / Chinese economy 
Now I’m back and raring to go on all things geeky. I should probably do some exercise too, as they really do eat alot over there - and I am now as fat as a burger eating Elvis…
Gav
The reason for this post was to help shine a light through the marketing fug of buzzwords and industry mumbo jumbo surrounding brand. We’ve recently joined our local Chamber of Commerce and I wanted to make it more relevant, more accessible to a market that assumes it to be the domain of only the larger corporations, or quite often hears it as some kind of generic background whine generated by design agency sales spiel.
Quite bizarrely, as I sat down to write this, I received a very nice email from Andy Barrington, Group Head at Saatchi & Saatchi. He loved the idea behind our company and the sentiment of our website, and wondered if we’d encountered the Lovemarks work of Kevin Roberts (worldwide CEO of Saatchi & Saatchi). It’s basically a theory behind what happens when Brand takes the next step up the evolutionary ladder, when it evolves into something more intimate… more all consuming…
However tempting as that sounds, I won’t get side tracked with it in this post, as I’d really like to cover it more fully another time. But it was worth noting in as much as many of the values, purpose and reasoning that We Love assign to brand cross over very nicely with the ideology behind Lovemarks. And no this probably isn’t a coincidence. The concept of Lovemarks has been developing for a few years now and has no doubt pervaded the consciousness of most design and marketing professionals at some level or another. Apparently in my case, subconsciously ; )
For starters it’s not your logo. It’s not your nice blue colour scheme. And it’s not even your brochures, website and spanky new business cards. At it’s base level, brand is what your market believes you represent. From your values to your dreams. In it’s simplest form brand is the promise you make to your market. The expectation you create within their mind…
It’s then up to you to deliver this promise through all relevant channels and customer touchpoints - from your pricepoints, your telephone manner, your brochures, website and sales team; from the sign above your shop to the wallpaper you have in your office, all the way though to your supply chain, your R&D, how efficient you are, the quality of your work and service levels you provide.