Week 5: Competitive context | Selecting, building project experience, competitiveness, case studies
By the end of this week you should be able to:
- Research competing agencies, studios or practitioners who have created work in a similar field to your selected project brief.
- Distill your research and evaluate the strengths and weaknesses of four competing projects in a similar field to your selected project brief.
- Communicate and deliver a 200 word evaluation for each of the four competing projects, which summarises their strengths and weaknesses.
Lecture Introduction
This is the fifth lecture and the first for ‘Industry Set’, which is the second project brief in the ‘Applications and Interactions’ module. This week we introduce the new creative practitioner case study interview series, which offers insight into identifying, developing, project managing and delivering industry projects.
This week the creative practitioners answer the question:
– How do you research and identify new industry projects or opportunities that you would like to participate in?
FELD
FELD focussed on becoming a multi-disciplined studio to keep the interest in their work, focussing on one thing will become boring.
The most natural way to go for projects is to look for ones which fit your personal preference, the other way is to purposely look for work which is unfamiliar to them. To take a detour and focus on new things brings them more fun, reading and learning, which can lead to better results.
Doing the same thing all the time makes it too familiar and too easy and therefore uninteresting.
Accept & Proceed
They want to ‘design for good’, and to work with good people. They want to discover, as an agency, what can they to to help situations.
A large variety of work has meant they needed more specialist teams: project managers, strategists, etc., to look at the bigger picture in a project.
They’re looking for projects with companies who take a responsible attitude to environmental issues such as climate change of responsible impact.
They still do self initiated projects so they can explore work and issues which they’re passionate about and use the work to attract live projects which fit.
Research is done in-house by everyone involved in a job, not just by specific departments. Project developers lead the team, but anyone involved can go out and do their own research to bring in.
Dumbar
They are part of a global agency network, their department focusses on branding, visual identity and motion design.
They describe themselves as lucky because they don’t need to actively look for new work, their reputation brings the work to them.
Edenspiekermann
Stijn van de Ven
Usually projects come in themselves rather than the studio going out looking for them.
He found it hard to go after work in specific sectors but the studio is better at defining itself now which has brought better results, producing new things based on what they already know builds up into more.
He also finds research hard to do, the approach here is to see how people respond to a proposal, this brings insights on how to improve or redefine areas of a project.
Luke Veerman
The company started purely in graphic design but now works as a broader design agency. Their approach is to say they ‘solve business problems using design’ – quite a broad approach.
For new opportunities they find a problem which interests them otherwise the necessary enthusiasm to fulfil the project won’t be there. Work also has to match the skills they have. If they’re presented with a job which doesn’t match, they have the choice to say no.
Work comes from retained clients or referrals, another way are introductions as people change jobs from a client company to another new one. They now find that more and more of the work is coming in from their focussed sectors because as they become more knowledgable new clients come to them. Their experience puts them ahead of the competition.
Reflection:
I can see two themes: One is to go all-out for new projects which need new skills, lots of learning and development. The other is to progress using the skills you already have but steering things much more slowly into different fields.
I can relate to both, sticking to what you know is a safer option but if you stick to it absolutely, then it certainly does become monotonous. Unfortunately, at my level, winning work outside of one’s safe-zone has to be sought, and seeking that new work is in itself outside the zone!
Michael Bierut
How to think like a designer.
Notes:
His first experience of graphic design – his father pointed out the forklift truck hidden in the Clark logo: ‘that’s what I want to do…’ he didn’t realise what it was, only that he wanted to do it. My similar-ish event; I’d started art school in Blackburn, not really knowing what graphic design meant. Three of us were given the brief to come up with the poster for the college Xmas carol poster – it was terrible. Then the lecturer, John, moved things around, placing them either side of an imaginary vertical line – lightbulb moment…
The examples from Pentagram show results from clients with a different state of mind, from letting them just get on with it, to complete trust in what should be done, to not liking the result and having to re-think. All the projects are taken a step beyond just fulfilling the brief for the client, they all develop into an all-encompassing identity.
Nuts.com
A fun project – a good example of a simple idea with no real restrictions from the client. The characters, the paint brushed alphabet, the outcome looks like they had a great time working on it.
Saks Fifth Avenue
Vague brief, ‘make our logo look timeless and fashionable’ (we want it to be the same but different). A more serious project due to the client’s expectations, a great example of trust between client & designer.
Bierut took their old logo from the archives, redrew the script to update the style then went a step further a cut it into 64 squares. The modern element to the logo is in these ‘moments’. Technology played a role by generating random patterns from the shapes to create more graphics.
Museum of Art and Design (MAD)
The three letter acronym (TLA) for the museum was MAD, client happy with the TLA but designers, you can’t call a place Mad…
They suggested A+D to get away from the acronym convinced it was the right thing to do, so came up with an identity based on the museum building. The architects incorporated a continuous glass line all around the building which Pentagram focussed on, producing a logo from a continuous line but the client says no. After more attempts to sway the client they are staying with what they want: MAD. Pentagram have a rethink and go along with MAD, making the acronym the feature of the new identity: New York is MAD, etc.
Saint John the Divine
Another great example of new -vs- old, the client was persuaded to use a gothic typeface to fit with their cathedral but to have fun with it to bring it to fit into modern society – very light-hearted approach, even poking fun at themselves.
Marian Bantjes & Jessica Hische
Becoming (and staying) successful
Notes:
“Work with the people around you”
“You can’t do it if you don’t want to do it”
“Inspiration is a moment of surprise and comes from anywhere”
Week 5: Workshop Challenge
The Challenge
- Choose one of the four preselected ‘Industry Set’ project briefs that you would like to develop and deliver over the next eight weeks.
- Research and discover three creative studios, agencies or practitioners who have created competing projects in a similar field to your chosen brief.
- Write a 200 word synopsis for each of the three competing projects, to evaluate their strengths and weaknesses.
Engage with all four project briefs before making your selection. It is important to read and reflect on all the projects before making your final decision.
Choosing a brief:
Brief 1: Creative Conscience
At first glance this brief didn’t appeal to me. Being male + northern means/meant that genuine stresses aren’t really spoken about, and I usually tend to switch off when mental health issues around work are mentioned, either from thoughts of having enough of my own things to deal with already, or a disinterest in hearing how stressed someone was getting about how much they needed to do to get ready in time for their holiday…
Brief 3: Live Collaboration
I don’t have anyone to collaborate with and wouldn’t be able to find one in time – as simple as that.
Brief 2: D&AD New Blood Awards – Adidas
At first glance the appeal of the two brands involved: D&AD and Adidas is a selling point but on reading and reflecting on the brief it started to sound as a flag-waving exercise for Adidas, championing sport as life-changing rather than championing Adidas would have more appeal.
Brief 4: Research and Development – Science Museum
This brief sounded the most promising leading up to the start of week five. With the opportunities for motion design, interface design and the logic-based development it’s likely to need, this one sounded the most exciting of the four briefs.
Chosen Brief: Creative Conscience
On looking closer and having read through all four of the briefs rather than choosing what i’d expected myself to I’ve seen this one as the most interesting. It feels to me like the brief which I would learn the most from: “Negative experiences happen in all of our lives: difficulties with work or finances, the breakdown of a relationship, overwhelming family responsibilities, or a significant life setback for example. Mental health issues can affect anyone.”
We’ve all got similar enough these stresses as these but what about the knock-on effect to those who are there to help us through ours, who helps them through theirs?
So, my thought are about focusing on the state of our emergency services; the Police, Fire and Ambulance – there seems more in the news and TV documentaries about the mental health issues they face.
Not only dealing with their own home life, their working day stresses are crime scenes, accidents and rescues, etc., their stresses come from many other directions than ours. How does a controller cope with choosing which call to send a unit to first: to help the 80yr old who’s been on the floor overnight or to the scene of a teenager threatening to jump off a multi-storey?
In addition, there are more and more incidents of abuse or attacks from the public they’re trying to help.
“Creative Conscience is a global movement that improves the communities we live and work in, helping to transform the wider world. We promote socially valuable, human centred design that enables and inspires people to change their lives and the lives of those around them for the better.
“Negative experiences happen in all of our lives: difficulties with work or finances, the breakdown of a relationship, overwhelming family responsibilities, or a significant setback for example. Mental health issues can affect anyone.
“There are many ways we can cope with mental illness: establishing and maintaining relationships, discussing our issues and taking action when possible, however there are stigmas surrounding mental health that we unfortunately need to tackle.”
Competitive Context
Who are the most established or innovative creative practitioners working in the field of your chosen project brief? What are their strengths and weaknesses? What do you admire about their work? What lessons can you learn from their final outcome and their ability to engage with (or failure to engage with) the target audience?
Case study – Builtbyrobots: Oscar Kilo, 2017
Builtbyrobots looks to be a small studio somewhere in Lancashire. Their website, though showing some nice work, doesn’t give much away.
They produced the OscarKilo project back in 2017, so far the only emergency service-specific project on mental health I’ve been able to find. The name comes from the phonetic alphabet used by the emergency services for clarity in their communication, oscar kilo being the phonetic names for O & K.
In their words: “Oscar Kilo is a project aimed at improving the wellbeing of employees within the public services. Oscar Kilo has been initially funded by Public Health England and was created and designed to host the Blue Light Wellbeing Framework and bring together those who are responsible for wellbeing. It is a place to share learning and best practice from across emergency and blue light services so organisations can invest the very best into the wellbeing of their staff.”
The website case study only shows a logo and website so it’s not clear how far this project was developed into more of a ‘campaign’ on the subject of mental health within the emergency service.
Like the military, the emergency services are proud of their ranks and insignia and the logo looks to represent a medal, the ‘O’ for the medallion and the arm and leg of the letter ‘K’ representing the ribbon. The logo is nice and simple with bold shapes which would work well in single colour, as well as its aesthetics it carries meaning and looks easy to use.
The website is clear and works well, I can see their reasoning for the simple site and menu due to the public sector not always being very up to date with their technology, an overactive website is likely to rely on technology or software beyond some of the hardware available.
At the time of posting to the Builtbyrobots website we’re told that this, in its first phase, is primarily for the police force, followed in the future by rollouts for the fire and ambulance services. However I can’t find details of any further progressions of the project. I’m wondering if that’s due to lack of funding or success.
Case study – MQ, Channel 4 and Pablo London: Dare to Swear
This campaign for MQ, UK’s first major mental health research charity, in collaboration with & Channel4, is aimed at the mental health of young people.
The campaign is looking to challenge the perceptions around mental illness; from a simple awareness and understanding right through to finding new ways of solving the problems.
As well as the striking visuals, the use of celebrity endorsements by actors, athletes and radio and TV presenters, engages younger generations by association as visiting their website to join in and create their own swearing selfie.
“Our profanity-themed proposition of ‘we swear to take on mental illness if you swear to help’ came from the utter frustration and shock that you feel after finding out three children in every class room will have a diagnosable mental illness and yet we’re not investing enough finding out why,” explained Pablo executive creative director, Tim Snape.
The debut TV ad was broadcast during ‘The Undateables’ on Channel 4 to reach a wide audience. Other mediums such as outdoor, press and online activity were also created.
The visuals are simple and striking which match the message they’re putting across and a lot of the elements within the campaign are ideal for attracting their audience: the celebrity endorsement, the swearing, the selfie. The selfie adds some interaction from the audience, at the end of the process you are encouraged to share your selfie on social media, promoting things further as the network of friends all take part in making their own. It brings an element of fun to the project too, making it more memorable and more engaging.
Case study – Ogilvy & Mather and Time to Change: Be in Your Mate’s Corner
This is a five year campaign which started in 2017 between Ogilvy & Mather and the Time to Change charity. The main aim is to change the way mental health is seen and spoken about across the UK.
“We want to show that being in your friend’s corner doesn’t have to be difficult or awkward,” explained Jo Loughran, director of operations at Time to Change. “Breaking the cycle of men feeling unable to reach out has never been more urgent. We need to help men realise they can make a real difference, even change someone’s life.”
Project research showed that there’s still a gap between the attitudes of men and women talking about mental wellbeing, this campaign urges men to see how their attitudes and behaviour towards mental health issues can influence others, saying that being in your mate’s ‘corner’ can be enough to help and make a difference.
The outline message from this campaign is relevant to the one I’ll be working on for the emergency services in that it encourages camaraderie between friends or colleagues, even though this campaign is aimed solely towards men, the sentiment can be the same.
The ad (embedded above) includes some sense of humour, I’ve found this to be the case in most of the high-end campaigns during my research. It fits in with exchanges I’ve seen between friends in the forces or the emergency services, regardless of gender.
Items promoting the campaign range from TV ads, social media and pub beer mats aimed to reach men in places that they feel comfortable.
Notes & things…
Which might be useful in the coming weeks.
Area 23 is a full-service healthcare agency that has dismantled barriers that stand in the way of true innovation. Our “What if” way of working goes beyond agency sloganism and provides a real framework to do breakthrough creative. Just ask any one of the 425 entrepreneurial, passionate, curious and fun people that work here.
A Veterans For Peace UK Film challenging the British Army’s policy of recruiting 16 year olds into the most dangerous army jobs. More details at battlefieldcasualties.co.uk
Director: Price James
Writer: Darren Cullen
Based on Original Artwork by Darren Cullen
To coincide with the 70th anniversary of the NHS, our new campaign focuses on the retention and recruitment of the next generation of nurses.
The campaign line, ‘We Are The NHS’, is designed to be a rousing call to arms. A line written to encapsulate the pride so many of us in Britain feel about the organisation.
After leaving the Armed Forces, veterans may physically be ‘at home’ but psychologically trapped in the past, reliving their trauma on the battlefield through flashbacks, nightmares and constant anxiety. Combat Stress brings veterans all the way home by providing world-leading specialist treatment and support to enable them to overcome mental health issues.
These sounds were recorded by Ben during combat operations in Afghanistan.
He is now putting them to good use, by bringing awareness to those who do not understand what it is like for those still hearing these sounds in their head.
https://www.forces.net/feature/these-are-my-sounds-combat-audio-getting-people-talking-mental-health
How many teachers does it take to change a lightbulb?
Starting point – system down?
One in four emergency services workers has thought about ending their lives
An online poll has found more than one in four (27 per cent) people had contemplated taking their own lives due to stress and poor mental health while working for the emergency services, while nearly two thirds (63 per cent) had contemplated leaving their job or voluntary role because of stress or poor mental health. [mind.org.uk, 2016]
Mind’s Blue Light Programme
Our emergency services save lives every day. Managing their mental health matters. Our research shows blue light teams will always need support with their mental health, because of the pressures they face in their roles. Access our targeted support for staff, volunteers and employers across ambulance, fire, police, and search and rescue teams here. [mind.org.uk]
Mind’s new campaign wants to improve mental health of A&E staff
The Taking Care of You campaign is aimed at those working in emergency departments and looks to change the hospital working culture of achievement and performance coming before self-care. [Design Week, 2018)
https://oscarkilo.org.uk/
https://builtbyrobots.co.uk/Oscar-Kilo
https://www.designcouncil.org.uk/news-opinion/better-design-ae
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/action-man
PTSD was the most commonly reported mental health outcome, with a prevalence rate of 11%—that’s just over one in ten ambulance staff reporting symptoms of post-traumatic distress
https://www.magonlinelibrary.com/doi/pdfplus/10.12968/jpar.2019.11.1.6
https://www.thecalmzone.net/
https://www.spellingmistakescostlives.com/
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/jack-davison-of-a-feather-new-york-times-magazine-080216
https://www.ibmgrit.org
The number of paramedics signed off work with depression or stress increased by more than 40% last year, according to figures from The Nine.
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-scotland-47413467
Difficult to find examples of three similar projects specifically for the 999s – instead, looking for same brief/different sector, ie. military PTSD?
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/caricom-magazine-issue-two-publication-220519
https://www.itsnicethat.com/articles/samuel-napper-the-wait-photography-180718
Levels of mental health problems among UK emergency ambulance workers
https://emj.bmj.com/content/21/2/235
Mental health sick leave rises for emergency workers
https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-england-49910746?intlink_from_url=https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/topics/cym3qj6mvnmt/ptsd&link_location=live-reporting-story
