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If you are thinking of moving offices or simply want to improve your existing environment, you’ll be surprised what positive effects expressing your brand values and making your visual identity visible to staff and visitors can have on morale, working efficiencies and reputation.

Having captured the personality of a brand with a corporate logo and identity, many people forget that you can (and should) express that brand through the tactile, three-dimensional elements in the workplace – we call it ‘brand environments’. This month we thought we’d turn things inside out and show off a couple of projects we’ve been working for Redstone plc and Natures Way Food plus a peek at others we’ve had great pleasure being involved with.

By working with architects, site managers, manufactures and agents, we ensure that your brand essence is integrated into the working environment creating a memorable sensory experience. This usually starts with entrances, receptions areas and in some cases complete office interiors. From manifestations with vinyl graphics on glass reception/meeting rooms (Redstone); wall graphics/signage and reception areas for factories (Natures Way Foods); complete design and fit-out of offices for (BCP), including bespoke design of call centre desking and just about everything else!

To prove we practice what we preach here’s how our studio looks

It’s been lovely to see the resurgence of paper craft in design, particularly in the commercial, advertising, television and editorial fields of late. Often incorporated with digital design elements and even film, paper craft has been positively embraced as a bona fide aesthetic for modern design.

Offering a tactile nature, with a realism and quality not easily attainable through 3D rendering, this movement is far from going back to basics, with highly intricate, painstaking and beautiful work bringing the element of craft firmly back into the industry where it belongs. Techniques like embossing and laser cutting have also been employed to add to the texture of works. From giant paper sculptures to smaller scale work, paper (as well as other materials like wood and metal) as a medium is proving to be a versatile and growing trend.

With so much of out time spent at the screen, we have begun to crave the real and handmade, yet still demand it delivered to us in a way that suits our digital world.

MTV ident and AOL brand extension by Julien Vallée. Image via JVallee

Paper window dressing at Tiffanys, London. Image via The Window Display Blog

Probably the chap that ignited the interest in paper craft to the mainstream, paper artist Rob Ryan’s work has gone from unique pieces of art to products and books you can now buy on the high street. Images via Mister Rob

I particularly like the editorial work from Benja Harney and Daniel Carlsten. Images via their respective websites

We’ve even recently created a festive email message for Natures Way Foods ourselves by taking their brand symbol and creating a paper wreath.

And we can’t wait to wield our scissors at the next relevant project that comes along!

Being someone who is probably a little more more obsessed with typography than most a couple of great HTML5 sites have appeared recently that have caused just a little friendly competition in the studio.

This kerning game is not only infuriatingly addictive but a great demonstration of what’s now possible in HTML5 using the latest web browsers such as Chrome, Firefox, Safari and also multitouch devices such as tablets and smart phones.

Instructions
Your mission is simple: achieve pleasant and readable text by distributing the space between letters. Typographers call this activity kerning. Your solution will be compared to typographer’s solution, and you will be given a score depending on how close you nailed it. Good luck!

The studio best score is 95% so do let us know if anyones beats it as you’re obviously a typographic genius.

As well as the kerning game there is another challenge based around the shape and form of characters where you have to complete the letter shapes concerned. Again, wonderfully addictive and provides a real insight into how type foundries and type designers really have such an amazing eye for detail to craft the multitude of typefaces that designers are able to use in their work.

VGroup were approached by an energetic business start up, who wanted a professional brand identity and website for their new venture. TransWorldCom are an independent voice, data, mobile and IT company with a wealth of experience, but they recognised the importance of a strong brand to help give them an edge in a highly competitive market.

It was agreed that our client should use the acronym TWC as the top level brand name, with TransWorldCom underpinning it and making up the website domain name www.transworldcom.com

The logotype emerged as a bold and confident rendering of the characters in a customised font with the introduction of a circular, fluid symbol juxtaposed with the ‘T’. The primary palette was selected to be a dark purple complimented by a fresh and vibrant warm yellow. As intended the overall feel of the identity is progressive and technology led.

It was important that TWC’s 4 core products and services (voice, data, mobile and IT) were promoted as the focus of the identity and the website; It was decided that each would have it’s own ‘mini identity’ so we designed a set of graphic icons which emulated the structured yet fluid style of the logo.

The four symbols are unified on the homepage of the site, and used alone, in an abstract way on their respective dedicated pages within the site.

The website was developed using Couch CMS, which has a simple end user interface. It is also flexible enough that when scoping the site we realised that there were items such a blog and the social media links that the client required in the future – but at this stage can be hidden by checking a box until the company are ready to use them fully.

www.transworldcom.com

What they say:

“We chose VGroup after the careful consideration and review of a significant number of branding and design agencies. Being so involved with technology we needed to choose the right partner in this field and VGroup immediately stood out as being highly competent, honest, professional and knowledgeable in its field. Despite looking at other leading agencies they were always the ones we wanted to work with.

This decision has been vindicated throughout the various stages of the project as they have been a pleasure to work with. They have communicated and advised us well taking on board any comments we made; delivering a fantastic, class leading and exciting website. Thank you to all at VGroup involved in the project for TransWorldCom (TWC).”

To mark the 10th Anniversary of Investance, a global management consulting firm dedicated to the financial services industry, VGroup has created a new logo, visual identity and website as part of a new brand communications strategy to raise awareness of their specialist capabilities. With over 70 clients in 10 countries and 300 employees in France, North America, The Netherlands, Hong Kong, Singapore, India and the UK, Investance now has an exciting brand platform from which to drive its phenomenal growth.

With revenues increasing at an average of 45% year-on-year and faced with an increasingly competitive environment for consulting services, competition for talented people and the need to increase their visibility in key markets, Investance recognised the need to improve their brand communications.

With an understanding that business branding is built around perceptions in the minds of audiences, a review was undertaken of Investance’s brand values, core proposition, messaging and tagline before agreeing the direction for the identity and communications. Clarity and emphasise was brought to their range and quality of services, so clients could achieve significant improvements in business performance.

One of the challenges was that the Investance brand assets were only relatively recently introduced and therefore they were looking for evolution, not revolution of the brand identity. Their new logo, vibrant colour palette, dynamic and bespoke illustrations now creates a visual identity that is confident and evokes leadership. A forward thinking identity that makes Investance stand out from its competitors with its fresh, modern hand drawn typeface, their new symbol becomes a guiding light, a beacon, defining Investance as a forward thinking company that provides direction and help for clients.

As part of this process The Investance Institute, the research, training and business events arm of the Investance Group, was also rebranded. The Institute was established in 2002 to act as a think tank to help clients predict and prepare for change and to provide a platform for the dynamic sharing of knowledge through publications, training courses and seminars.

The rebrand was applied to every aspect of marketing communications from stationery, literature and white papers, to Word and PPT templates, promotional items, signage and a comprehensive set of illustrations.

One of the most important requirements was a complete overhaul of their website. We helped review the site architecture, functionality and specification of the dual language site. The result is a stunning new website with full CMS capabilities, allowing the marketing team to update content and publish documents and news: http://www.investance.com

The new brand was launched to Investance employees at their head office in Paris, where specially personalised hand-outs were presented to staff along with some fun promotional items.

“We are absolutely delighted with the results. The work that VGroup did to take our ideas and push them to the next level were fantastic. They went beyond the brief and made suggestions for how we could try different things with real impact. We know this is just the beginning of a new era in brand communications for Investance but with the help of the team at VGroup until now and in the future I am confident we will achieve our objectives”.

Simon Drury
Global Head of Marketing, Investance

Founded in 2005, LOC Consulting (LOC) is a management consultancy firm which specialises in implementing complex business change and technology projects for the private and public sectors. In the past three years sales have grown 77% a year and 2010 turnover was £10m. In 2010 LOC were awarded 40th place in the Sunday Times Fast Track top 100, the only management consultancy firm to be listed.

Their brand and website design have remained static for the past four years and they felt that as the company was growing now was the time to rebrand and enhance their image and marketing communications. Following a four way pitch in March 2011, VGroup was awarded the contract to rebrand LOC and to roll-out the new brand across all their communications.

Three months later, we’re pleased to say the project has been a great success and as Elinor Fentem, Managing Consultant comments..

“Massive thanks to you and all at VGroup for your excellent work on this. I can see it [the website] in Antwerp and it looks great :) Everyone at LOC is very excited about our brand refresh and the website really is the central platform to launch this to the wider world & is definitely now a platform we can be very proud of and represents LOC perfectly… I for one love it – it is fresh, dynamic yet professional and is certainly light years away from what we had.”

Well, what they did have certainly didn’t reflect an organisation that had achieved such dynamic growth with proven capabilities. Their brief was to:

• reinvigorate their current image to keep the LOC brand fresh but without losing any of the key attributes or differentiators
• fortify the brand and ensure consistency across all marketing lines
• forge a more recognisable master brand with all components aligned
• have a brand which allowed for future evolution
• gain greater control of their website to enable frequent editorial updates to be made as and when required by resources within LOC
• ensure that the brand refresh did not conflict/constrain future web changes/updates

OLD LOGO

NEW LOGO

SUB-BRANDS

As we keep saying, “a brand is not simply a logo”. We looked at all aspects of their business culture and positioning – with the aim of capturing their personality and differentiators to ensure the business presented itself in a way that would attract and inspire clients, partners, employees and suppliers. We challenged LOC’s strapline “Unlocking your business potential” and simplified it to “Unlocking Business Potential”.

LOC has successfully delivered a range of programmes and projects with passion, integrity, innovation and flair, and throughout this growth they have retained the original vision and value set of the firm. Their new brand re-affirms their commitment to their clients and values and it reflects what makes them unique. It is also a consistent reminder as to who they are and what they do – both visually and culturally

The alignment of their brand identity across print and digital media was an essential requirement of the project and as an integrated agency, something we are set up to deliver . From stationery and flyers to presentations and website, we created a dynamic and fresh visual identity using cross-media typography, an inspiring colour palette and distinctive, photographic imagery. Here’s how it all came together:

WEBSITE // locconsulting.co.uk

FOLDER // FRONT

FOLDER // OPEN

FLYERS // SERVICES

FLYERS // PRODUCTS

We are now finalising their Brand Style Guide which will provide guidelines to help their employees and suppliers manage the design and production of their branded communications in the future.

If you run a professional services business, VGroup have specialist expertise and understanding of B2B branding and design, so give us a call on 020 7734 8855 to discuss what makes you special and how we can help communicate that most effectively to your audiences.

www.locconsulting.co.uk

It all started with a mouse mat.

Since CNC, our lovely new client, was first established they have been sending out mouse mat calendars annually to their customers and suppliers. A simple bit of merchandise, but apt for an IT company and one that stays on their clients’ desks all year round. If their clients don’t receive a mouse mat in January they call to ask for one!

After 15 years in the business, CNC has evolved, alongside offering day-to-day IT support they focus on creating bespoke IT infrastructure solutions for their clients, designed to aid and grow their customer’s businesses. Now mature and progressive, CNC wanted a more dynamic look to reflect their core values and the increasing success of the company.

So in December, with the mouse mat send looming, a new year, an expectant audience, it was time to begin the rebrand. The first thing to feature on our to-do list, the mouse mat would announce the new identity.

CNC had a very clear strategy about the direction in which they wanted the business to progress. They are technologically advanced and also committed to listening and reacting accordingly to their customers’ requirements. Our task was to distill these aims into clear propositions for potential customers. There was no existing strapline but the longhand for CNC—Computer and Network Consultants—featured on the brochure. We started with the keywords as we saw them: dynamic, proactive, process, accountable, inspired. Ultimately we felt there had to be a strapline. It is impossible to encapsulate all that they do in one line but we certainly could convey their ethos. “Inspired Business Technology” is what CNC are all about.

The existing brand had done well for CNC to this point, but lacked the punch and standout that CNC now wanted. The logo comprised of a cyan square, an abstract marque and a light, lower case cnc within the square. The three elements jostled for prominence and the lower case cnc felt weak. There was however, equity in the logo and although CNC were not averse to a complete change, we felt there was an argument to evolve the elements that had mileage.

We were drawn to the cyan square. It had structure, and was the most noticeable thing about CNC’s existing brand, so we felt that the evolved logo should include reference to that shape and colour. When we explored the typography we noticed that CNC looked stronger and more confident in uppercase. We have set it in a customised version of Gotham; a classic, sans serif font which is clean, contemporary and has a bigger company feel.

We’ve transformed the flat cyan square into a three-dimensional cube adding a white cube within it to represent IT infrastructure, which is at the heart of many modern businesses. The structural feel of the marque reinforces the solidity of CNC, but also nods towards their progressive approach. With a mind to production costs and consistency, we designed the logo to be printable in only two colours but with creative use of tints it has the feel of more colours.

Taking elements of the logo, we created a sculptural and abstract graphic device as part of the brand identity. We call it the ‘Infrastructure Device’. Although it is actually more than one graphic, there can be infinite variations on the theme. We use this throughout the printed collateral and website, and have plans to use the device to create signage and branding within the CNC office for example. This fluid branding device reflects the adaptable nature of the way CNC works. On printed items we added a metallic silver to the palette, this fits well with the forward thinking technology and adds a ‘special’ quality.

The previous branding featured stark, austere photos of the office and abstract shots of cabling. We immediately saw the need for adding personality to their collateral. We commissioned a photographer and art directed the shoot at CNC’s offices. The images produced portray not only the collaborative, approachable nature of their staff, but also their professionalism.

In the updated typographic style, bold headers are juxtaposed with a modern, very legible serif font. The messages are confident, yet the body copy is informative and plain speaking. The complexities of IT made easy to digest by the customer.

Again, the website reflects a fresh, clear approach to ordering of information. All the information visitors immediately want is available on the home page, and further detail can be accessed without leaving the page by panels which slide open to reveal more information. We created concise messaging written in a straightforward way, avoiding jargon and waffle, which reflects the approach and personality of CNC.

The site is controlled by a CMS, allowing CNC to control the information, and to easily keep it up to date with the fast moving technology they work with. They now have a blog section, in which they publish their ideas and insights, helping to keep their customers up to date, and proving their expertise to new or potential customers.

So CNC start the new year with a new brand, which we hope you’ll agree is befitting of the company they have become and positions them to achieve their strategic business goals in the future.

Natures Way Foods (NWF) is one of the most innovative and advanced fresh produce companies in the UK. They asked VGroup to devise a new recruitment campaign to attract over 200 people to work within their fast growing organisation. Our ‘fresh start’ concept is all about stand out and simplicity. Using the yellow circle from their logo it communicates instantly and captures the spirit and hope offered in a career move to NWF. The concept has been applied to a feast of deliverables

Our brief from NWFs (one of Britain’s Top Employers 2010) was to create a “big idea” that would stand out at recruitment fairs and advertising. As people are very much at the core of NWF’s internal business commitments it was fundamental that the messaging and imagery used was fun, clear, concise and personal, with some of the deliverables using quotes from existing staff.

Instead of relying on library shots for the imagery and to further demonstrate their pride in their people, we photographed several of their staff in uniform to show visually how you could be part of the team. Keeping the rest of the design clean and simple, the people shots were made the prominent feature and used boldly on exhibition POS for recruitment fairs and assessment days. The design was also applied to hand-out leaflets, advertising and banner ads.

As part of the recruitment campaign and to further help attract potential new employees, we will be co-ordinating the production of a corporate video to be shot on location to capture the personality of the company and hear from the people that matter.

At the beginning of 2009 we re-branded Archer Hoblin, a very successful London based construction company. Since then we have delivered five websites for their growing specialist divisions and recently have updated these with some of the new projects they have completed or are in progress.

It has been great to see the new brand in use on site. From flying high on a huge crane over the development…

…to providing a large scale advertising wrapper for the construction site.

We have just launched the new website for Fox & Rose, an online luxury lingerie retailer specialising in hand picked collections from predominantly British designers. With the brand and packaging wrapped up, the website was obviously the crucial platform for Fox & Rose to launch the brand to the public.

But this site isn’t just a pretty face, it also has some rather powerful functions too. Firstly, to make product finding easier and more interesting, users can shop by item, size, designer or even by personality (Fox – playful, teasing, spirited, seductive or Rose – elegant, beautiful, delicate, intriguing.)

As lingerie can be quite difficult to display we decided the most effective way to show the product off would be to photograph the items in a number of ways. The items were first shot on a light box to highlight the detail of the pieces. We then captured video footage of the model walking as well as static shots of the model from different angles, enabling the user to see the product and materials to full effect. There is also a zoom function, allowing the intricate details and materials of the items to be seen close up.

The site is supported with an informative blog and member’s club which really highlights the passion Fox and Rose have for fashion-led lingerie. A Designer Spotlight section also provides further information on each designer, the collections and why they had been picked for inclusion, emphasising exclusivity.

The Fox and Rose website offers a one page checkout, with dynamic sections, allowing you to amend and check details easily without irritating back and forward buttons or loss of information!

Once you have ordered your items, they are delivered, wrapped in bespoke tissue paper and sealed inside a gorgeous gift box, finished with gross grain ribbon. Packaging as beautiful as the exquisite lingerie inside.

We are really pleased with the result and already the site is getting some excellent media coverage:

‘I thought you’d like to hear some feedback from the Telegraph’s fashion editor who spoke today about Fox & Rose; “It’s absolutely exquisite. One of the nicest retail websites I’ve seen in a long time and the best presentation of lingerie I’ve ever seen on a site. Amazing. Congratulations on a wonderful job.” I wanted to pass this on to you, and to say thanks to you all at VGroup for a great job done on our branding and website.’ Amanda, Director Fox & Rose

You can read more about the creation of the brand here or to see the website for yourself visit www.foxandrose.com.