We’re just back from the install of our Design & Democracy exhibition for the Scottish Parliament. The exhibition features graduate work from Scotland’s four art schools. It opens this Friday so be sure to check it out if you’re in the capital.
Stand are proud to unveil the brand new Glasgow School of Art prospectus - but don’t call it a prospectus! Completely redesigned for 2012/13 to communicate the art school’s offering in a magazine style format featuring great articles supported by striking typography and photography.
Scotland’s fizzy sleeping giant, Solripe is back. Stand have developed great new packaging for the range that includes 2 litre, 500ml and 330ml PET formats. Expect to see the range looking fabulous on shelf at store near VERY soon.
We’ve just redesigned the packaging for Deveron Spring, 100% Scottish Water! Our roving onsite reporter up in Macduff has just sent us shots of the first bottles flying down the line at the Sangs Bottling Plant! Keep an eye out for them appearing in the shops soon!
Stand recently completed the brand identity design for Grampian Fasteners - a leading supplier to the global oil and gas industry. Stand also applied the design throughout packaging templates as well as a fully-realised trade show design with custom water-bottles to give away - keeping people connected.
Following a four-way pitch, Stand were delighted to be awarded the brand design brief for the creation of the new brand marque for the Royal Conservatoire of Scotland (formerly Royal Scottish Academy of Music and Drama). The name change was borne out of a requirement from the organisation to reflect the full disciplines the academy now offer.
The brief was to create a marque that would:
• Link to the concept of different strands making up the whole
• Capture the idea of movement and energy
• Keep traditional focus/heritage with a modern edge reflecting the uniqueness of the organisation.
Stand set out to create a marque that captured the variety of courses on offer at the Conservatoire. We started by trying to find a constant - a visual link between the disciplines. We found this link in the visual language of multi-track sequencers. Software such as Logic, Final Cut Pro or GarageBand use multiple lanes of information to capture performances. We immediately caught onto the notion of channels (bass, drums, vocals, video, scripts and scenes) representing the various department disciplines - which all come together to form the overall performance - the Conservatoire.
The final marque is a vertical representation of these multi-track lanes, forming the letters R, C and S. This is intentionally discreet. The grid also represents Glasgow - the Conservatoire’s home. Customised serif typography was chosen to balance and soften the geometric nature of the graphic and this sans/serif interplay is applied throughout the brand literature.
As the brand design developed, stakeholders found meaning in different elements of the vertical blocks - each representing a different discipline of the Conservatoire. We believe that the identity means something different to each individual.
Wow. Where have the past 6 months gone? Infact, where did the last year go? Needless to say that we’ve been extremely busy at Stand working on lots of exciting new projects for our lovely clients. Our website and blog have been badly neglected so we’re going to try and find the time to fix this before the end of the year. We can’t wait to let you see what we’ve been upto.
Hot off the press! We recently completed an exhibition design for Summerlee Industrial Museum in Coatbridge. It’s called Going Underground - The Coal Revolution and it opens on Friday. I’m just back from the install this morning and it’s shaping up very nicely. Be sure to get along and check it out.
We are proud to reveal our innovative packaging design for Glenfiddich’s limited edition ‘Snow Phoenix’ - a unique Single Malt Scotch Whisky borne out of the collapse of warehouse roofs at The Glenfiddich Distillery.Follow a period of heavy snow in January 2010, four warehouse roofs at The Glenfiddich Distillery in Dufftown buckled under the weight of the snow. In wintery conditions and temperatures of -19˚C, distillery staff swung into action – working round the clock to clear the snow. Inspired to overcome this adversity, a range of rescued casks were married by the team at Glenfiddich to create the unique expression, Snow Phoenix.Stand was briefed by the Innovations Team at William Grant & Sons to design bottle labels and an outer pack that reflected the uniqueness of this one of a kind product. We reflected the drama of the event through use of photography, colour, typography and innovative tin packaging. The outcome has been successful beyond both our own, and our client’s expectations.Commenting on the final design, Katrina Wateridge, Innovations Manager for William Grant & Sons said:“We are delighted with Stand’s interpretation of Snow Phoenix. Their design truly encapsulates the historic event at the distillery and the reaction so far has been unprecedented. Snow Phoenix is already in high demand the world over”.
Starbucks is a brand that tweaks my somethings, it means something to me.
First view of the new id left me a bit non-plussed and actually pretty disappointed, BUT - (thinking about it for a couple of minutes) actually I think it makes a whole load of sense - simplified and bolder - siren becomes hero - it was a bit recessive before. Green is the colour of Starbucks - black has gone - probably means that they can save some money on print and give them a wee CSR angle. New ID feels like it’s coming early seventies America, which is obviously where Starbucks is from, so it’s got authenticity, fresh new modernity and stand-out - I’d wear the t-shirt. Only downside is that I’m not sure that losing the word ‘Starbucks’ makes a lot of sense (losing coffee does), I’d like to see how it rolls out across all point’s of connection - LIKE how does it work on outlet fascia and more importantly, how does it work in its expanding grocery portfolio?
Look forward to seeing more.
News just in…Our redesign of (what was previously Prospect Magazine, now) Urban Realm won Best Magazine Design (Business & Professional) and Scottish Magazine of the Year at last night’s PPA Scotland Magazine Awards.
More images and a bit of background on the redesign to follow. Watch this space.
We’re looking for an ambitious Account Manager to join our team here at Stand.
With a minimum of two years’ agency experience you’ll already have a good grounding in how an agency works, the key processes used, how to manage projects and work with clients to deliver great results.
You may be a super-keen, talented Account Executive looking for your next move up the career ladder; we’re not fussed about job titles. Talent, passion and a willingness to learn is what counts.
If you want to find out more about this opportunity then drop us a line, saying in no more than 100 words what you could bring to the role.
The email address is studio[at]stand-united[dot]co[dot]uk
I’ve just watched this fascinating talk from the lovely John Grant at this year’s PSFK conference. In it, he discusses a more interesting, and frankly plausible, explanation for how innovation really comes about.
It’s simple when you think about it: innovation comes about from looking at what might seem like an ugly, difficult or ‘unworthy’ issue from a different perspective.
He cites examples as varied as eBay, the Grameen Bank (the micro-credit institution founded in Bangladesh in the 1970s), The Discovery Channel, The Big Issue and IKEA as ways of illustrating the value of asking ‘what’s neglected?’ when looking for innovation. Taking McKinsey’s latest list of tech-enabled trends as an amusing starting point, John Grant explores a more interesting and more human approach to innovation which starts at the bottom of the pyramid with something ugly and neglected not, as might be expected, at the pinnacle with the question ‘what’s next?’
The points he makes particularly resonated with me because of a really interesting project that we’ve been working on with NESTA, (the National Endowment for Science, Technology and the Arts), the independent body with a mission to make the UK more innovative. Through a two-year pilot programme called Age Unlimited Scotland, NESTA wants to work with people in their 50s and 60s in Scotland who have the spark of a great idea to improve their community. This alternative approach to social entrepreneurship takes the value of the life experience people aged 50+ have gained and marries it with the need to address the implications of an ageing population.
So, if you know anyone over 50 who could put their skills to use in order to help their community then let them know about Age Unlimited Scotland.
Tut, tut. Naughty Stand haven’t been very good at updating our blog recently. Lots of exciting news to fill you in on: some new people, some new clients and some lovely new work. Just busy trying to get it all finished before we share it with the world. Watch this space, soon, promise.
After a three-way pitch, Stand won the project to create and apply a new brand identity for Columba 1400.
Columba 1400’s purpose is simple; to help young people from tough realities realise that they already have the inner greatness and confidence to transform their own lives.
Columba 1400 has been established for ten years, working from its headquarters in Staffin, Skye, and has recently added a second centre in a truly inspirational setting at Ardoch, Loch Lomond. They offer programmes for children and adults from the corporate world, sometimes working alongside to benefit each other.
Stand were present at the opening, along with the charities patron HRH The Princess Royaland a wealth of trustees, sponsors, supporters and graduates from the programs.
The new identity looked fantastic flying in the wind, and we look forward to rolling it outacross their website and other corporate materials in the coming months.
We thought this was a great, interactive way of engaging music lovers in a rock bar. The concept is from Almap/BBDO in Brazil for Billboard Magazine. The Flickr collection can be seen here:
Billboard Magazine video instalation from Marcos Kotlhar on Vimeo.
Why do Japanese DJs just make everything look instantly appealing?This engaging piece of film is to promote Nike’s new Free Run+ shoe which claims to be so flexible that it’s as close you can get to barefoot running.I’m off to Achilles Heel tomorrow to invest in a new pair of running trainers before the Women’s 10k next week. I’ll see what they say about these bad boys.Oh, and I love how they had to put this caveat on the endframe:
Spotted here by our in-house Japanophile, Mr Paul Lambert, check out the dedication of these Lady Gaga fans en route to her gig in Tokyo. You gotta hand it to them, they know how to dress up for an occasion don’t they?God, I miss Tokyo, and feeling so plain and boring every day.
…whilst taking a stroll outside on this fine sunny day, we stumbled across this peculiar and mysterious place called Vestiges Park, an outdoor exhibition full of surprises, and worth a visit!
Our new designer Colin celebrated his first (31st) birthday since starting at Stand.Following Stand tradition we all helped him eat cake, and wrote mildly humorouscomments in his card…Happy Birthday Colin!
