SUMMARY

A brand system that feeds off and feeds into Social.

FINDING THE INSPIRATION

Sometimes the spark required to start is discovered in the least likely of places.

Lauren Gaballo, a junior designer had done some work for one of our other clients that had been binned off. It was one of those projects that hadn’t made it through and was languishing on her desktop. In just one of those visuals I saw the seed of an approach that could work for Stories Well Told. I saw potential. Potential in a creative approach and also potential in the person who had created it and their ability to help me create something unusual and potent.

Ultimately, the finished work looked completely different, but it made me realise that Lauren was the right person to work with. It also sparked a thought about how we could communicate the theme and approach the brand in an unusual way.

COMMUNICATING THE THEME

With this brand, communicating the purpose of the event wasn’t the main priority; I wanted to create intrigue. I wanted to allude to the theme without spelling it out.

The best brands don’t spell out what they do; McDonalds doesn’t have a (delicious) burger in their logo. Nike doesn’t suggest you Just Go For a Run In Our Trainers. Being obvious isn’t interesting.

'Interesting' would be found if we formed lateral thoughts in the audience's minds. I developed a set of principles that would help us get to this...

— Combine new and old to form unlikely relationships
— Use imagery that sparks a recollection in the audience mind of stories once told
— Be consistent but not the same
— Consider every last moment

These principles proved to be the foundation of the work.

AN UNUSUAL APPROACH TO BRANDING

Creating a ‘logo’ was never on the agenda.

Given the multitude of applications that we were planning, I felt that a brand system could serve us better. A system would give us consistency without everything needing to be the same.

A system can comprise of imagery, typography, colours palettes, patterns, tonality, animation styles.

We chose all of the above. It is an ambitious way to construct a brand, but, if controlled and managed in the right way, it can produce incredibly interesting results. More interesting than the usual logo lockup and corporate guidelines.

IT'S ALL IN THE APPLICATION

The success of a brand comes down to its application. At every moment, we have the opportunity to reinforce the brand purpose and build the experience.

Every last detail was thought through. Some would call it OCD... I call it attention to detail. From the initial invite, to the name badges and giveaways through to the social content and everything in between. No name badge was left unbranded, no table was left uncovered. Every moment mattered.

DIGITAL FIRST (OBVIOUSLY)

It’s a digital conference, so the site needed to be a bit special. Content was minimal, as again it was more about creating intrigue and getting people to register.

I wanted us to incorporate a few modern techniques in the build, and of course it needed to be responsive. We used animation and a one page approach to tell the story of the event as the user scrolled down.

FOR SOCIAL SAKE

I always had one eye on the final application of the brand; our social content. It was to be built around a simple idea - tell the story of the day through our social channels.

The system should allow us to create multiple pieces of content without monotony and still retain the brand essence. When the event was over, we should have a broad suite of material that all hangs together and reinforces the original brand principles.

This was the final goal. This brand was built for social. Made whilst at McCann.