D&AD Blog

Behind The Magic: Bringing Print and Digital Together with QuarkXPress 8

We are pleased to present a story this week about how Gravity London use an exciting brief to learn a thing or two about merging disciplines. Seamlessly coordinating print and  digital teams to demonstrate the creative functionality of   QuarkXPress 8. The more we learn, the better our ideas can become. Thanks very much to Valentina Moressa at Quark for sharing this great case study with the tutors and students of our University Network.

Behind The Magic

Paul Anderson is the creative director at Gravity London, one of London's hippest agencies, working across TV, press, outdoor, radio, DM, ambient, experiential and the world of digital, with clients the likes of Investec, Toyota and Adecco.

At Gravity’s, like in most agencies, the creative department is split between press and digital. Paul, however, is fully aware that “there’s not going to be one or the other anymore in the world.  It’s just not really feasible.  So anything that can help the crossover of those two disciplines has got to be a great thing.”

When Gravity was approached by Quark to come up with the creative idea for a new campaign to showcase QuarkXPress 8’s Flash functionalities, the teams got together for a brainstorm and found that there was “something special about that functionality and the sort of creative tool box that it gave you. With QuarkXPress 8 you can make a transition from print to interactive in a nice easy way in an environment that you know and love”.

The big idea? “Perform magic with Flash in QuarkXPress 8”.

Paul admits: “It is effectively magic, that’s how we see it.  It’s like a little magician’s toolbox of tricks. And in the process we’ve actually learned to perform a little bit of magic ourselves  “

Gravity’s print and web team worked closely to create and craft the initial idea through to the writing, development and building of the end product: a microsite with Flash functionality, a digital advertising campaign and 100s of Flash resources that QuarkXPress users can download for free. All of this- designed and built with QuarkXPress 8.
 

Gravity also produced a series of ‘Behind the Magic’ videos to give an insight into the design challenges they faced and how they used QuarkXPress 8 to overcome them. They were using QuarkXPress 8 to combine Web design and interactive functionality in one application and found themselves simply having several ‘Eureka!' moments and realising how easy it is to create Flash resources.

Gravity’s art director, Tom West, on the creative journey with QuarkXPress 8: “As an art director, it’s very important to understand that the nature of the advertising business and the creative idea is actually moving a lot more online and a lot more interactive.  So you need to have an understanding of what is going on and the interactive side. I think the more you know, the more you learn, the better your ideas can become.”

Go Digital Or Die?

As D&AD and Hyper Island announce our partnership bringing the Hyper Island Master Class to the UK, we investigate the skills gaps that the digital revolution has precipitated.

Most people feel a bit behind when it comes to that thing termed ‘digital’. Even hardened professionals admit that keeping up with the pace of change can be impossible. So how can agencies ensure they leverage the opportunities that digital media offer them?

There is a widely acknowledged dearth of graduates with the right skill sets and competition to recruit is fierce. A fact demonstrated by the high placement success rate of educational institutions like Hyper Island, who specialise in this area. So training existing staff is key as well.

Harry Fowler at Cogs Agency recruits talent with a strong digital bias to creative agencies. He thinks that training is essential if the industry is to avoid the same small number of skilled people being headhunted around the industry. The talent pipeline needs to be kept active and one way to do that is to retrain existing staff. ‘A crossover of skills is needed between traditional and digital agencies’, says Harry, ‘Digital agencies need the strong brand understanding and conceptual approach of traditional creatives. Traditional agencies need people who understand the process-led production of digital work.’

One agency that has taken the bull by the horns is Wieden & Kennedy London. The whole agency participated in the Hyper Island Master Class. ‘Whether we like it or not, we are all ‘digital’ now’, says Sam Brookes, Managing Director of Platform, W&K’s innovation unit. ‘We all live in that world, and we all need to be able to navigate it to a certain degree’. A sentiment echoed by Harry who points out that ‘The rules have changed and so have consumers, those that fail to skill themselves up will be redundant.’

Sounds scary, but many see it as an opportunity. Sam Brookes says, ‘One of the important things about the Master Class was that it didn’t make us feel inadequate. In fact the training affirmed that we were already fantastic storytellers and it simply gave us opportunities to do more of that, more of what we do best.’ The pay-off has been visible across the whole organisation. ‘We now have a much better idea how to act as an agency in this new landscape’ says Sam.

Here at D&AD we were keen to work with Hyper Island given their track record; they have placed graduates in almost every large agency in London and delivered their Master Classes to professionals around the world. Their learning philosophy has great resonance with our own approach to training, using experience-based learning as a foundation. ‘It is fantastic that D&AD are working with Hyper Island to bring this training to the UK’ says Harry, ‘Everyone should want and need this’. If you are interested in the Hyper Island Master Classes read further or email workout@dandad.co.uk.

Window On Design

What would you do if you had to design a shop window?  Last year, Tom Carey and his team won second prize at the Student Awards challenge to create an installation for Hamley's shop window on London’s Regent Street.

They came up with the idea of creating an interactive summer environment in the front of Hamleys shop window. Children colour in a butterfly template, which is scanned and made into a digital version of their design. Their butterfly comes to life and flies around the window display, which they can interact with using motion sensor technology. Their design can then be turned into a kite that they can take along to a butterfly festival at the end of the summer.

The story doesn’t end there, though, as Tom needed to find himself a job – and in the middle of what we all know is the ‘worst recession since 1993.’ He maxed out his overdraft by turning down part time work as a shelf-stacker to get experience on four work placements. 'Once I graduated, it really helped having made lots of contacts and having industry experience'. Today he’s 6 months into a job at interdisciplinary brand design consultancy, A+B Studio.    

'Tom stood out the moment he walked in - not only because of his untameable hair-do but his scatter-gun approach to design. On second glance we realised that each piece of work (whether it was jewellery, books, installations and even a multi-functional-festival jackets) was incredibly thought out, thought provoking and beautifully designed. Most importantly - Tom was a person we really liked to spend time with,’ said Benji Wiedemann, Creative Director.

Tom’s journey to A+B Studio has 3 main features

He took a targeted approach; ‘While doing placements I was looking for small up-and-coming companies that might be looking to take someone on. I wanted to jump in at the deep end and get stuck in.

He wasn’t afraid to ask for help: ‘While on placement at hat-trick, I asked pretty much everyone to have a look at my portfolio and asked them about other companies that I might not have heard of. One of the designers mentioned A+B Studio, who I emailed straight away.

And, as ever in life, he had a bit of good luck: ‘A+B Studio were about to move to a bigger place and were looking for someone – I was in the right place at the right time.'

Tom's worked on plenty of different projects since he got started, including the titles for BBC series, Hairy Bikers.  Watch the title sequence here:

Here's Tom working on the shoot:

 

Create your way to a job

This time last year, Kingston University graduates Tom Wrigglesworth and Matt Robinson were spending a lot of time in the company of printers.

With the D&AD Student Awards deadline looming, they had hit on an idea to promote HP Workstations’ ability to bring to life ‘anything the creative mind can conceive’.

‘Our tutors always taught us to come up with a great idea, then work out the right channels to use,’ said Tom.  They made a film that turned the otherwise mundane experience of everyday printing into a brilliantly choreographed audiovisual orchestra. They spent days holed up in a studio coaxing a stack of printers to perform.

The team ended up with a double win – second prize at the Student Awards and Best New Blood – racked up thousands of views on YouTube with their film, and even ended up on the BBC News. Most important though, they got themselves jobs and while their D&AD wins helped to open doors, it was still up to them to step on through.

‘We had been exhibiting at New Blood for a couple of days and although people from the industry had visited our stand, we felt a bit nervous about approaching anyone,’ said Matt.  ‘We knew that time was running out though, so when we saw Mark Waites from Mother walk past, we decided to go for it.’

Tom hit play on their Student Awards film and Matt flagged down Waites to have a look at their work.  They went for it after that, and approached as many people they could to introduce themselves and show off their work.  ‘We probably spoke to about 20-30 people by the end of the exhibition,’ said Tom. ‘If someone was having a look, we’d catch their eye and tell them the story behind our projects.’  Eventually, they’d just walk up to people and introduce themselves, ‘because you never know who you’re going to meet’.

In the coming weeks, Matt & Tom followed up with everyone they met at New Blood.  They picked up a bit of freelance animation work along the way, and met with production companies, advertising agencies and design studios. 

In September, they got in contact with Mother and were offered them a work placement starting in December – all thanks to grabbing that opportunity at New Blood. Mother Creative Stuart Outhwaite also recommended the team get in touch with Work Club in the meantime as the agency had placements starting that month.

 ...and they’ve been there ever since. Tom & Matt landed a placement at Work Club and spent 3 months working on all kinds of pitches. ‘It’s been great to be involved in project from the beginning,’ said Matt. In December, the agency offered to extend the placement and the team was presented with a choice – stay at Work Club or take up the earlier offer from Mother.

‘We thought about it long and hard,’ said Tom.  ‘We’d really enjoyed our time at Work Club and felt part of the team, but we knew that Mother would also be a great experience’ In the end, they decided to stay on at Work Club to continue with the projects that they had been involved with. They contacted Stu at Mother to explain the reason behind their choice, ‘Stuart was really supportive of our decision’ said Matt. 

 Just last week, the team were offered permanent jobs at Work Club.

 So now that the job hunt is officially over, what advice to they have for this year’s graduates?

 Keep an open mind – ‘We met with so many different people across advertising, design and production that we got a good understanding of what our options were.’

Create your own opportunities – ‘We didn’t win first prize at the Student Awards, and I think that just made us work harder.’

D&AD Student Awards deadline is this Friday, 19 March

New Blood 2010

As part of the Free Range season, this year's New Blood exhibition is being held between Thursday 24 June and Monday 28 June at the Truman Brewery. We are programming a festival of fringe events around its location in Shoreditch and the theme of these events will centre on networking.

Exhibitors and guests at New Blood 2009

If you would like to exhibit at New Blood this year, your course needs to register as a member of D&AD's University Network and then apply for stands. Please contact either laura.woodroffe@dandad.co.uk or rhiannon.james@dandad.co.uk for more information and an application form. All stands need to be booked by the end of this month.

If you would like to get more of a feel for the event, please have a look at this Video of New Blood

One of last year's graduates wrote about their experience exhibiting at New Blood. Please see below link for tips and things they wish they'd known before!

http://aspire2enquire.typepad.com/aspire_to_enquire/2009/07/dad-new-blood-2009.html

D&AD and Doritos King of Ads

We have partnered up with Doritos in order to help promote the latest King of Ads competition. It’s their latest crowd-sourcing initiative, which looks at crowning an innovative, original and entertaining commercial as, you guessed it right, the King of Ads. Or as they put it ‘We’re all about getting it started. Sharing. Good times. Having a laugh. Irreverence. Think big, bold, flavours that are packed with crunch.’ So all of that needs to be packed into a 29 second long TV commercial which will be so different and cool that you’d want to watch it over and over again.

 

We are promoting the competition amongst you, our very talented and idea-driven friends. Everyone who is aged over 18 and lives in the UK and the Republic of Ireland is eligible to enter – and what would a competition be without a few incentives? The prize fund is a (very!) respectable £200,000.

What’s more, D&AD is offering students a second bite of the cherry as they can ALSO enter their work as part of the D&AD Student Awards 2010. For those of you living outside of the UK and Ireland and still in study the brief is open to you as are all the other ones. 

In order to help you get started we have 50 USB sticks which contain more information about the competition, the background and some tips and tricks. Email studentawards@dandad.co.uk with your name and address and subject 'Doritos King of Ads' – first come, first serve! And good luck to all of you!

“Not better, just different” - The battle to enforce brand guidelines

This week we have Franki Goodwin from BAFTA award winning Franki&Jonny discussing brand guidelines within film.

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A large portion of my client base is made up by the UK film industry. An industry that has produced some of the biggest entertainment brands in the world (Harry Potter, Lord of the Rings, James Bond etc) but that is also notoriously bad at creating consistent brands within its independent titles. Film has the opposite communication problems to most sectors (who are good at building brands but lack content for them) it has lots of great content but regularly fails to create a consistent brand from inception to release without the rigour of a studio/broadcast channel that creates all its assets from one source.

To challenge this behaviour, last year we set about introducing some traditional corporate discipline to an independent title by creating a set of brand guidelines for it. An attempt to bring together the disparate elements of a movie - titles, trailer, poster, website etc, all created by different companies over the course of a year. We created a simple, useable, set of creative elements and principles that could be applied across all media. This is pretty unusual in this area (the first and last set of film guidelines I ever saw were in the Saul Bass exhibition at the Design Museum!) and we saw it as a bit of an experiment.

I won’t go into details (client bashing is a spurious pastime indulged in by far too many designers) but as we are 5 weeks from release and looking at our third inception of The Title Treatment (currently Poster, Website and Film all have different typographic styles) regardless of some minor victories in consistency I think it’s fair to say it has not been as effective as we’d hoped!

This consistency problem appears not to be about the lack of guidelines, as I had previously assumed, but a lack of commitment to them. Whilst everyone signed off on them, did they really sign up to them? Did they understand the commitment they were making? “For richer, for poorer, for better or worse.. even if I get really really bored.”

I guess the inconvenient truth is that good, consistent corporate branding principles ARE a bit boring. Working with the same logo and the same colours over and over again is kind of tedious. Having the discipline and confidence to not get tired and therefore doubtful of the choices you have made and be seduced into change is really hard. Something that feels ‘better’ and worth undermining the existing visual style for most probably isn’t better, it’s just different, but for that reason feels more exciting. It's an interesting lesson to learn - even if your client paid you to make the rules doesn’t mean they wont ask you to break them, regardless of the bigger picture.

I think this tradition will continue whilst independent movies are sold as short-term products with a the focus on cinema releases country by country. But as the international territories break down and the independent market benefits from single, global digital release strategies with much longer lead times, the need for a more carefully and consistently branded indies will become more clear and discipline will prevail.

Until then I think we have to cherish the design gems that come out of the chaos. We only have to look at this year's Oscar contenders (Movie Marketing) to compare the consistency of Avatar with the mixed bags of Hurt Locker and Precious. But we can equally question whether more original (or dare I say 'better') work would have come out of the Avatar franchise with a free reign in each territory as much as we can how much 'bigger' Hurt Locker/Precious could have felt with more consistent branding. Independent film is an interesting un-branded anomaly in these globalised times.

See you at ADFEST

We're working with ADFEST to host the 2010 ADFEST+D&AD Academy in Thailand next month. The partnership will give creatives (aged under 30) in the Asia Pacific region the unprecedented opportunity to start working on their career 'toolkit'.  

Participants can explore some of the issues behind developing their own creative career, encouraged by inspirational talks from three advertising greats, Sir John Hegarty, Worldwide Creative Director at BBH and Past D&AD President, Paul Brazier, D&AD President and ECD at AMV.BBDO and Akira Kagami, Executive Officer & Global ECD, Dentsu, Inc.  The session will also include a series of practical exercises to help participants start building their own path to career development.

A maximum of 30 delegates can attend each session. Enrollment is open on a first-come-first-served basis to all registered delegates who are aged under 30. The enrollment fee is 1,000 Baht per person.

We plan to stay busy while out there, so Tim and Paul will each present a Seminar as well:

 

'Keeping a 250-year-old brand alive'

Friday, 19 March, 14.40-15.15

Arguably Ireland's most famous liquid export, Guinness is even more famous for its iconic advertising.  Paul - a veteran of almost 2 decades at AMV.BBDO - will tell the story of the brand's ongoing creative evolution.  From its poster campaigns of the 1940s, its television commercials of the 90s and naughties to its digital reinvention last year with the launch of 'Bring it to Life'.

 

'It's the End of the World as we know it... and I feel fine'
Saturday, 20 March, 14:30-15:15

There’s never been a better time to think about what exactly we’re going to rebuild. The same thing we had before, only bigger, or an agency model that is fresher, more sustainable and lot more fun?

Tim will argue for breathtaking - even alarming - changes in our technological future, offer some speculations about the consequences for marketers, and talk about the characteristics of the agencies we should now be building to service them.

Magazine Design and the Modern Man

Jeremy Leslie is director of magCulture, member of the D&AD Executive Committee and a passionate advocate of editorial design.  Busy, then!  He's agreed to share a few insights into his latest project, the redesign of men's magazine, FHM, which relaunched in the UK this month.

1. Can you describe the process of editorial design - are there unique challenges to the discipline? 

The basics of editorial design will be familiar to any graphic designer. Typography, grids, use of imagery and spatial composition all figure. But there are also a number of less familiar specialist skills involved.

First of all, you are one of a team of people with specialist creative skills. As designer you are responsible for every visual aspect of the magazine, but alongside you the editor has an identical level of responsibility for the choice of story and tone of writing. Then there’s the picture editor who will share with you responsibility for photography. You have to work as a team, taking on board each other’s views. I believe the roles of editor and designer are merging – the best magazines employ people who comprehend both content and its presentation.

A critical issue often overlooked by designers without editorial experience is that a magazine isn’t a series of single pieces but needs to hold together as a whole. The balance of text and image and any page can vary enormously.  The running order and variation from page to page needs not only be carefully considered but also open to change as the issue comes together. During production the whole magazine is in a permanent state of flux, and only when the final page is completed does that flux end and the flat plan become secure.

Harder still is the way that creating pace through the pages means sometimes a story will be designed and illustrated in a particular way to appear different to what precedes and follows that story, rather than designed purely in the best way for that individual story.

2. How do you start tackling a project for a well-established brand like FHM?

The first things to do were to get to know the magazine, talk to the editor, pull some tear sheets together from other magazines, then agree the right direction – agree a brief.

FHM is a long-standing brand that has lost its way in recent years. This made it a relatively simple brief. In its heyday it was one of the most influential men’s magazines, but it had lost sight of its audience. There was a strong magazine trying to fight its way through the wrong design – it was confusing to the reader, the content and look didn’t match. The FHM reader wants simple things presented without being over-designed. The design had to be invisible, which is harder to achieve than it sounds. Design-wise it had to look strong but unremarkable.

 

The various regular sections needed clearer, separate, identities. The whole thing needed a more masculine tone, meaning new fonts and a return to red and black as central colours. In most respects it was exciting working with such a longstanding and successful newsstand brand, but in one specific way it was disappointing. I’ve always felt the FHM logo was weak, so I proposed a revision to that but the publishers didn’t feel confident changing such a key asset.

3. The FHM redesign launched the same week as Apple's new iPad was unveiled.  Where do you think the future of the lad's mag and mainstream mag publishing generally lies?

If I had a simple answer to that I’d be a very rich man.

Magazine publishing is experiencing a collective depression at the moment caused by several factors, one of which is the presence of online competition. But the Internet is not the only reason for this depression. It’s easy to forget the massive boom the magazines industry has experienced over recent decades. Like other sectors, magazine publishing couldn’t continue to grow at the rate it was going. It’s been too easy to see a successful magazine, rip it off, and watch the money pour in from advertisers. A downturn was inevitable, and here it is: US publishers have just experienced a 9% drop in newsstand sales. Shocking from a business perspective but from a creative standpoint there have been too many similar magazines chasing the same reader. It’s time for a shake out, and the fact it’s happening is cause for long term optimism; a return to quality over quantity.

I’d separate reactions to the iPad in similar fashion. From a business perspective it’s the Holy Grail, a new way to publish content without the cost of paper, print and physical distribution. Whether or not the big publishers can build a successful business model with it remains to be seen – Apple will be taking a cut.

But from a creative point of view, the prospect of the iPad is very exciting. There have been plenty of attempts at merging magazine and digital content and presentation with little success. At last, perhaps, the iPad will make this possible. There’s a generation out there for whom the iPod Touch allows seamless access to digital content, be it music, games, news or utilities. The combination of image and text we are used to experiencing in magazines is ideally suited to this environment.

I rely on the Internet hour to hour, but as well as the open interaction it allows me I’d also like a more immersive, mediated digital content experience that is less open-ended than a website and provides the ongoing relationship I experience with magazines.

The future will be a mix of both. Printed magazines will continue to exist alongside digital magazines of some sort, whether its the iPad that proves the catalyst or not.

To specialise or not to specialise......

Thanks to Steve Price for this week's University Network article. Steve is founder of Plan-B Studio and writer of the www.designweak.com blog. We are pleased to invite him to contribute again to the University Network blog, posing a question about whether your students should be specialising or looking to do a bit of everything. It is something often discussed but how should graduates be advised on this matter and what are your experiences? We'd like to hear!

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Do you consider yourself an Interactive Designer? was a question I was asked recently. My response was ‘No. I’m an art director and designer.’ Arrogant git, maybe. But I’ve always seen my skill as a designer as my specialism because I firmly believe in two things 1) constantly challenge yourself and b) variety is the spice of life.

Ten years after graduating from an MA at Central Saint Martins and working for myself, I still constantly ponder whether my own portfolio is too broad. Am I a jack of all trades instead of a specialist, and if so is this a good or a bad thing?

This is not uncommon. I’ve spoke to two other designers about this recently who have both shared exactly the same sentiments, but equally question whether they have a clear message. So what if you find yourself in the same position, do you specialise or become a jack-of-all-trades or, to put it better, an ‘all-rounder’?

I protested at the time but the first two years of my BA was spent doing lots of life drawing, months spent hand-rendering pages and pages of 8.4pt/12.6pt Times New Roman. Why? Because for the first two years we were banned from using computers. When we started our third and final year on BA it was suggested that we choose an area of design to focus our work on; print, editorial, identity, advertising, etc. I refused and argued on the grounds that briefing ninetysix design students with three, usually quite dull, briefs was pointless. Plus, there’s only so many of ways you can ‘polish a turd’, not ninety-six. Plus, if a design degree is your time to carve your own path, why follow a huge crowd? You need to ask your own questions, and try, try and try again. As Sir Ken Robinson said, ‘If you’re not prepared to fail, how will you ever create anything original?’

In the build up to the millennium Steve designed a range of new cans celebrating advances in technology, exploration, communication and Pepsi.

Think about it – there is your final degree show, perhaps the chance to show at New Designers, or even the D&AD’s New Blood. How are you going to set yourself apart from the thousands of other design graduates?

‘The problem I feel with this kind of event is the sheer volume of design graduates who exhibit. Thousands upon thousands of ‘us’, all in University themed cubicles, stand in line, waiting to be spotted.’ Dave Cuvelot, recent graduate and exhibitor at New Blood.

I remember walking in to Islington’s Business Centre to set up was like walking in to a clone factory.
Thousands of very similar hopefuls adorning their four square foot of space in order to try and grab someone, anyone’s attention. It was, to put it mildly, fucking depressing.

I worried whether I’d fucked-up royally in my determination to try and experiment. But as I walked around I noticed similar briefs with similar executions appearing from different Universities/colleges. The Paul Smith one, the editorial one, the iSTD one… I didn’t worry for long.

Re-Union was a magazine that Steve produced, co-ordinated and designed himself in the final four weeks of university, focusing on new talent in design, fashion, music and writing

So to specialise or not to specialise? There is no right or wrong answer. If you choose to specialise or not doesn’t matter; that’s the point. It is how you communicate your strengths, your passions, your interests to the people that are going to pay you to work with/for them. In my professional career, as in my university route, I’ve experimented, tried new medias to work with and collaborated with lots of talented individuals. I’ve made mistakes, I learned lessons, but I have never, ever been bored.

Glenn Tutssel (Executive Creative Director at Brand Union) recently put forward a very interesting idea... ‘Our three-year specialist degree courses needs to become a three-year foundation course, allowing students to flourish, experimenting and making mistakes, to find new avenues of creativity.’ Glenn Tutssel, ‘Creative Weaving’, DW Creative Survey, Nov 2009

Special Note: I have recently realised that the very thing I try to improve for clients is the one thing my own message and web site has been lacking; clear communication. Needless to say I am currently redesigning everything about Plan-B Studio! E-V-E-R-YTHING.