Tag: creative process

20
Feb

Persistence Pays – LOFT Walls, Creative Process and PETEX…

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 >>> 

 

04
Mar

In Celebration of Great Mood Boards

At the loft, if there’s a part of the creative process we truly believe in, it’s the creation of mood-boards. We love mood-boards because they take us to a different place mentally, they give them an almost infinite source of creative ideas and they also help to guide in the process further down the line.

This week we were having a chat about mood-boards in the studio and stumbled across a few crackers..

Both were for car-design projects and both are absolutely brilliant.

Industrial-Mood-Board

The ‘INDUSTRIAL’ board by Kevin Roy shows old abandoned factories and warehouses as the main inspiration. What’s so brilliant about this board is the way the images aren’t just industrial but have been treated in an industrial way too. Mainly black and white with flashes of colour, some of them are horribly low-quality and the line-tracing is rough too but all that adds to the desired emotion being chased by the designer. Ken goes further by experimenting with typefaces that are similar in style too as well as inserting the bold ‘YELLOW and BLACK’ striped caution signs. Finally, the acid-feel of the album cover on the top-right of the page completes an outstanding board.

Art-Deco-Moodboard-720x405-2

The ‘ART-DECO’ board by Nick Turner (https://bit.ly/2MgJN6l) is equally as impressive. We have a beautiful exploration of shapes, patterns and rich colours which are all key to the ‘ART-DECO’ look. We have subtle nods to Futurism and Art Nouveau in there as well but what’s really lovely is the subtle vector lines over the top of the entire board.

Both are amazing mood-boards and what makes them so good is that they completely describe the themes they are covering in the purest, most expressive and honest way possible.

For us, inspiration is vital to any creative action, it’s what makes it all worthwhile. If a mood-board’s job is to inspire, then both of these would give any designer of any type the richest source of inspiration to get going.

Bravo!

Benedetto

BB

Benedetto is an ideas-driven Creative Entrepreneur. He is on a mission to unleash the power of creativity to create a better world – for people, business and society. He is the founder of the loft, a design and branding house which operates worldwide helping companies bring their brands to life in the most imaginative and effective ways possible. A real man on a mission. Benedetto likes to make things happen fast and in a big way.

21
Aug

The F-Word

‘A company that pushes the limits of Creativity, Quality and Service.’

These are the latest words we have picked to differentiate the loft from all the others in the tightly packed, multi-faceted and incredibly competitive, creative sector which we operate.

Just to break it down a bit…

We want creative concepts that stir the soul to get us pumped about what we are doing.

We know that quality is a non-negotiable

Finally, excellent service is the foundation to any successful business.

At the loft – we are absolutely obsessed about all three.

How do we achieve the optimal mix?
The secret lies in the F-Word and no not the one you are thinking off.
While some may be terrified of it and others do their best to completely avoid it.

At the loft, we wholeheartedly embrace the F-word.

Failure.

We are comfortable in its presence, we use it as an opportunity to learn and we treat it as rocket fuel to break down those creative brick walls we face on a daily basis.

For us, it is the first step to success.

Fail Fast, Fail Often, Fail your way to Success.

Its something you will hear a lot of in our studio, alongside the example of a rocket which is almost permanently of course as it fails its way to the moon.

A love of failure might seem counterproductive but the biggest problem most creatives face is the enormity of the initial brief.

It can be so overwhelming that procrastination reigns supreme – ‘lighter/ darker, coloured/ monotone, in-line/ staggered…’

Endless analysis is followed by very little action. People build such large walls in their own minds that they are stunted into in-action. So much so, that the scale of even the first task overwhelms them.

At the loft, we just don’t have time for that.

We want to reign supreme in not one but three different areas – who has time for procrastination?

We believe action is key – work fast, smaller actions, quick decisions, minimise guess work, face uncomfortable truths, de-risk the concepts. Each of these behaviours help us to get through a massive workload – we get through more in a day than some would get through in a week.

Oh and it leaves plenty of time for barbecues, parties, drinks and the other fun stuff we regularly enjoy.

What’s more and this is the best bit, working faster and with greater intensity may seem like harder work but actually the opposite is true.
Its energising.

Guesswork is tiring, procrastination robs us of momentum and playing it safe is the surest way to completely lose interest.

Whether it is the ‘Lean Start-Up’ philosophy, the E-Spark philosophy or the Silicone Valley philosophy – it is one that we wholeheartedly believe in and use every single day.

Want to start succeeding, time to start failing.

Benedetto

BB

Benedetto is an ideas-driven Creative Entrepreneur. He is on a mission to unleash the power of creativity to create a better world – for people, business and society.

He is the founder of the loft, a design and branding house which operates worldwide helping companies bring their brands to life in the most imaginative and effective ways possible.

The loft serves companies in every sector and is quite simply the best in the business at creating brands that capture the imagination.

In addition to his role with the loft, Benedetto is an avid supporter of young people into enterprise. Having been supported by organisations such as PSYBT and currently by E-Spark, he does all he can to support young entrepreneurs. He provides assistance to organisations such as Bridge2Business, Young Enterprise Scotland and acts as a mentor for young business owners with Entrepreneurial Scotland.

His support to the next generation doesn’t end there, Benedetto is a big supporter of MCR Pathways, an organisation which helps disadvantaged children secure better futures through mentoring. Alongside his team at the loft, he provides creative support to the organisation as well as specialist work experiences for the students in the studio.

A real man on a mission. Benedetto likes to make things happen and happen fast and in a big way. He always wants things done yesterday and is relentlessly driven in his quest to make tomorrow better than today for his company, the people he serves and the wider community.