THE BLOG

25
May

16 Personalities

16 Personalities
Are you a commander, an executive or an advocate? Not a question we regularly ask ourselves but one that we were questioning this month. In an effort to get to know one another and ourselves better we all took part in the Myers-Brigg’s questionnaire and got up close and personal with our personality strengths and weaknesses.

It all started with 16 Personalities — which is a great website for breaking down your personality type and puts it into layman’s terms. Be warned though, it is incredibly fascinating and has become seriously addictive, all my friends and family have now taken the test even with all their protests.

Eager to find out more we invited Christine Penman into the studio to explain more about our personality types and focus on how we can work as a team even more effectively – not your usual Friday morning breakfast meeting! Starting off with a simple task to show how everyone thinks differently, we all closed our eyes and Christine said the word “horse” and then we opened our eyes and shared what we thought of. One saw a black stallion, another saw a horse in Spain and of course, thanks to my other half, I saw a horse in Hawick. Next, we broke down each personality aspect and learnt about what it means to be an introvert or extrovert, use intuition or sensing, are thinking or feelings led and whether you use judging or perceiving when tackling work. The most stand out difference is between being thinking or feelings led. In a task, we were split into our two groups and asked to write about how we deal with conflict when we are directly involved or not directly involved. For the feelings led group, we found that we tend to avoid conflict and can feel quite blind-sided by it. Whereas for the thinking led group, all the emotion is taken out of it and they like to get to the point and “explain to them 3 times why they are wrong.” All jokes aside, the full morning was great and we really did learn a lot about ourselves and each other. Being able to understand each other’s personality types and what each person brings to the team was very interesting and should enable us to work more efficiently as a team.

The aftermath — having access to all this valuable information, we wanted to find a way of communicating this quickly and effectively with each other so Nicola got her design on and came up with cheat sheets for everyone. These cheat sheets take pride of place in our studio and outline our personality stats, our ‘devine’ skills and how we activate these skills in a simple but incredibly effective profile design. They have been a talking point among us and clients, giving them a quick insight into the team and all our quirks.

WARNING: ENTERING THE LOFT MAY INVOLVE TAKING PART IN A PERSONALITY TEST

Check out the test>>>

Laura

25
May

SOCEX 2017

SOCEX2017

Sometimes we can’t help but do a little self-promotion and the production of the third SOCEX Brochure is one that we are pretty damn proud of.

The Serious and Organised Crime Exchange is an annual meet-up of the nation’s top law enforcement chiefs to discuss the issues of the day. Previous speakers at the conference in Chesire includes the previous Home Secretary – The Rt Hon Theresa May MP.

Well, this is the loft’s third year at developing the conference brochure after the design of the initial branding in 2015 and we believe this one is an absolute cracker.

Previous brochures were incredibly well-received but didn’t stray visually too far from the conference branding, this year the team really got brought the conference theme ‘Organised Crime, The Harm & Impact on Communities’ to life.

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Keep an eye out for a full case study but key features include the wonderfully haunting hooded man looking over a British Council Estate in a composition reminiscent of Salvador Dali’s painting of ‘The Crucifixion,’ the use of a mosaic pattern bringing the other conference themes to life within the visual style of the SOCEX theme and finally the introduction of key themes as backdrops to each of the speakers of the day.

SOCEXbIn terms of concept and execution, a huge step forward from previous efforts, and a testament to the huge amount of work put in by the team. They really did sweat every single detail.
Already looking forward to finding out the themes for the 2018 event.

Benedetto

 

25
May

Hot Desks Available

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Creative work, family photo, laptop, coffee, books, plant, pens, pencils, tablet and of course your new creative family! At the loft, we have the perfect space for creatives to come and make their own.

If you are fed up working from home and want to join us in our amazing South Block studio – fire us a line at hotdesk@theloft.co or call us on 0141 354 1595.

25
May

By Design Grant

By-Design-Grant

This one’s been around a while and one we’ve already helped a few people with…

The ‘By Design Grant’ by Scottish Enterprise can contribute between £2000-5000 to help businesses fund creative projects. Some of the things the grant covers includes the design of branding, packaging and websites for new products. There is also assistance for existing products & services.

All things we know a thing or two about – hint, hint 🙂

Want to find out more, don’t take our word for it – Check out the link >>>

As always, there are conditions but who wouldn’t want the opportunity to find out more.

Give us a shout if there is anything we can do to help?

The loft team

25
May

The Class of 2017

At the loft we are always excited to work with talented designers and we are absolutely delighted to welcome some new people to our team. For the rundown on the class of 2017, see below… (keep an eye out for some cool new titles :-))

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REISS MCLEOD
Designer & Director of Client Happiness
Gentle Giant! Our very own rock-star who marries a giant intellect with the most easy-going nature known to man. Simply brilliant at what he does — Reiss is a great conceptual thinker and wonderful team player. One who eats ideas for breakfast and masters all that he surveys. There is nothing that Reiss doesn’t do and do very well.

 

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BENEDETTO BORDONE
Founder & Designer
Mr Action! The leader of the team who likes to makes things happen and happen in a big, bold and fast way. ‘Action!’ is his war cry. Benedetto is never happier when pushing things to the absolute limit. This tornado of energy is a designer, sales-guy, make-shift copywriter and hyperactive coffee-maker – all in one. A born entrepreneur too.

 

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NICOLA ROBERTS
Designer & Director of Studio Ops
Practical Dreamer! The anchor of the team, studio and company. A person who combines thought with action, creativity with rules, chaos with order. Our Nicola harnesses a perfectly combustible mix of purpose, depth and passion with a childlike imagination that runs truly wild for outstanding results. Expect the unexpected…

 

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MAREK BROL
Designer & Director of Design & Productivity Hacks
Soulman! The artist of the group and a man who fuses intensity, control and imagination to incredible effect. Relentlessly thoughtful, creative and driven. Our Marek is the man who will go to the ends of the earth to find the true meaning of something. In Marek’s eyes, there is no problem that can’t be conquered. A designer with purpose, a designer with vision but most of all – a designer with soul.

 

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LAURA CAMPBELL
Designer & Director of Noise
Miss Noisey! The team’s very own socialite and one who masters every situation she finds herself. Laura is the lady for every occasion. She has a formidable array of skills as a creative, diplomat, agony aunt, blogger, Tweeter, art-director, team player and our own favourite – noisemaker. A more perfect dinner companion, you will be hard-pressed to find.