This week, we are celebrating some of the company’s #MagicMoments tied up in grainy phone pics that we’ve collected over the years. Today’s pic is ‘Persistence Pays, LOFT Walls, Creative Process and PETEX….’

We couldn’t really do one of these look backs without sharing a good old-fashioned smartphone pic of a ‘LOFT Wall.’ Over the years, the loft walls have became a bit of a legend in their own rights. At a time when more and more things are being created, shared and looked at on computers – the loft is one of the few companies that still pins thoughts, ideas and hand-drawn sketches on its wall. It allows us to take a step back, have proper discussions, see what’s working and what can be built on. They have became such a cornerstone to the loft process that, by the most part, clients have given up with formal sit-down presentations in exchange for standing up with a coffee in their hand and having a much more dynamic conversation about the direction of their project. It is one of the things we look forward to returning too the most when Covid restrictions are finally behind us.

One project that took this ‘wall-process’ to its limits was the creating of an advert (and visual identity) for Petroleum Experts. PETEX creates software for the oil and gas sector and are one of the country’s top companies – commercially, creatively and culturally. We were incredibly fortunate to be the first creative agency that they had given an opportunity to work with. Which was a tremendous honour. Unfortunately, although their software was genius, we just couldn’t get our heads around it. One of the reason’s for hiring an agency is that they help you to better communicate an idea, a message or information. We had 2-3 pretty disappointing concept presentations at their offices in Edinburgh and were really struggling. We were probably on the verge of being fired, for Petex, who had always created their own communications, we were probably going to be just another failed experiment. We knew we had one last change to get it right so we gave it absolutely everything for one last push. Over the next few days, we absolutely tested the limits of the loft creative process, our walls and our own design abilities. We must have started with around 15 potential concepts and with a small team – brainstormed-sketched-discussed-refined-sketched again over a 2 day period – each time honing ideas and concepts into final solutions. Our walls had never seen such abuse.

In the end, we finished with about 6 credible concepts which were each hand-sketched and shown as an advert mock-up, each of which I thought were just outstanding, some of the best work we had ever did and would surely, surely answer what we were being asked by Petroleum Experts. More than that, I would be happy regardless of the outcome.

There genuinely is a strange feeling of ‘equanimity’ when you have left it all out on the field, given your all and that was how I had felt. That evening, I happened to be at the same dinner as the PETEX Founder Hamid Guedroudj, ironically the Entrepreneurial Exchange Awards Doo which had so opened my eyes only two years previous and he was the current holder (at that time) of the biggest award ‘Entrepreneur Of The Year.’ I seen him, shaked his hand and asked if he had seen what we had sent through just a few hours back…  He gave me a big smile and said ‘James had said we had sent some ideas through, we may just be able to use them.’

A truly magical moment. Persistence Really Does Pay…

Benedetto

Benedetto is an enthusiastic creative and business person.

‘Design with soul’ may be the company tag-line, but to Benedetto, it is also a way of life. He believes that creative and commercial enterprise is about purity of thought, honesty of construction and boldness of execution.

He believes in bringing out the true essence of human endeavour and considers his job of articulating the great work of people and companies an absolute privilege.

His journey has taken him from a career in car design through to his current role as the Founder and Creative Director of the loft, a branding consultancy in Glasgow.

He is honoured to manage a great team, work with great clients and have a lot of fun mixing with so many great people in business.

We did eventually go onto work with Petroleum Experts, you can check out the project (including the 6 ads we previewed with the magazine mock-ups) >>> 

Check out Petroleum Experts, an extraordinary company >>>